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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
One of Britain's most original ensembles of progressive-rock in the 1970s
was Slapp Happy. Founded by keyboardist Anthony Moore to accompany his German
wife Dagmar Krause's soulful melodies, Slapp Happy debuted with
Sort Of (Polydor, 1972).
Notable in the original line-up was American guitarist
Peter Blegvad, who was in Britain
to complete his studies. The rhythm section was borrowed from German friends
Faust. They reached their zenith with the superb
Acnalbasac Noom (Polydor, 1973), a collection of surreal and
Kurt Weill-inspired expressionist cabaret ditties:
Casablanca Moon (vaguely reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin's music),
Me And Paravati (a singalong that evoked both girl-groups and Aretha Franklin, and Kate Bush ante-litteram),
Michelangelo (a catchy, heavily cadenced refrain a` la Petula Clark
that extends into a blues-rock jam),
Half Way There (a swinging nostalgic Broadway-style number).
Krause sounds like the typical ye-ye girl of the Sixties, and the rhythm
section sounds like the average kids of the "piper".
Then the band merged with
Henry Cow. The combined line-up came up with two
summaries of the vocabulary of progressive-rock:
Desperate Straights (Virgin, 1975) and
In Praise Of Learning (Virgin, 1975).
At the end of that experience, and after re-arranging some of their songs on
Slapp Happy (Virgin, 1974), the members of Slapp Happy started their solo
careers.
Peter Blegvad was the one who fully betrayed the original spirit of Slapp Happy.
First, he collaborated with John Greaves on
Kew Rone (Europa, 1976 - Virgin, 1977), a collection of linguistic
nonsenses (sung by Lisa Herman) enhanced with an impressive ensemble of rock
and jazz musicians (Andrew Cyrille, Michael Mantler, Carla Bley, etc).
The music is as witty as the "lyrics".
With The Naked Shakespeare (Virgin, 1983) Blegvad endorsed
XTC's neo-pop programme
(The Naked Shakespeare, You Can't Miss It,
Powers In The Air, Lonely Too,
How Beautiful You Are).
After a second endeavour in that style, Knights Like This (Virgin, 1985),
that contains Meet The Rain and Special Delivery
but is marred by overproduction,
Blegvad moved to New York and enrolled in the
Golden Palominos.
He proved his gift as a pensive and tender songwriter on two humbler
and more tuneful collections:
Downtime (Recommended, 1988), crafted by Chris Cutler and containing
Not Weak Enough,
and King Strut (Silvertone, 1990), that exploited
his favorite line-up of John Greaves and Chris Cutler and
mitigated the pop vision of his first album with quick references to Bob Dylan
(Meantime, Shift And The Comb, King Strut).
Blegvad's tunes rely quite a bit on the lyrics (influenced by the poetry of
Surrealism), and this has its pros and its cons.
Blegvad also collaborated with John Greaves, who had released
Accident (Europa, 1982), probably his masterpiece and not all too
different from Blegvad's own collections,
Parrot Fashions (Europa, 1984)
and Longhouse (Warner, 1988), and the
two eventually formed Lodge, that released
Smell Of A Friend (Antilles, 1988).
Greves will later record
La Petite Bouteille De Linge (La Lichere, 1991),
Greaves Cunningham (Eva, 1991), a collaboration with David Cunningham,
Songs (Resurgence, 1995), that collects new and old compositions,
The Caretaker (Resurgence, 2001).
Blegvad and Greaves released another collaboration,
Unearthed (Sub Rosa, 1995), where Greaves sets to music a collection of
Blegvad fiction.
Blegvad's next solo albums,
Just Woke Up (ReR, 1995), with Bee Dream and another parade of
surrealistic/Dylan-esque dreams,
and Hangman's Hill (ReR, 1998), were both
created with help from John Greaves and Chris Cutler
(The Marvellous In The Everyday, Man Overboard),
and still display Blegvad's characteristic charm, originality and vagueness.
Moore, Blegvad and Krause reformed Slapp Happy to record
Ca Va (V2, 1998).
Orpheus The Lowdown (Ape House, 2004),
recorded between 1990 and 2003,
was a highly intellectual
collaboration between Peter Blegvad
and Andy Partridge of XTC. However, the music
sounded mostly sketchy and incomplete.
The same pair followed it up with
Gonwards (2012).
The 17-song
Go Figure (ReR, 2017), the first solo album after a long hiatus,
featured John Greaves (bass and piano), Chris Cutler (drums), Bob Drake (guitar and vocals), Karen Mantler (organ, vocals, glockenspiel and harmonica) and Mark Lockett (tambuta and cymbal).
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