“Dawn” (1974) – Slapp Happy * Written by Anthony Moore and Peter Blegvad * LP: Slapp Happy * Label: Virgin
Although Slapp Happy were one-third American (Peter Blegvad, later to create the surreal Leviathan comic strip), another third German (Dagmar Krause), and the final third British (Anthony Moore), they took shape in Hamburg and had an independent krautrock sensibility. This means that it’s not clear, when listening to the trio’s first two albums, if they’re being facetious, earnest, or experimental, because they’re being all three. “Dawn” sounds like they’re riffing on the Grass Roots or Tom Jones’s “She’s a Lady” but with retreat bugle calls and elliptical words about someone, in fact, in retreat. It also includes two separate insertions of “Oh Come All Ye Faithful.”