Author: Kim Simpson

“Acceleration” (1982) – Bill Nelson * Written and produced by Bill Nelson * 45: “Acceleration” / “Hard Facts from the Fiction Department” (Cocteau) * UK LP (MiniAlbum): Chimera (Mercury)

British composer Bill Nelson’s expansive catalog, including his ’70s work with Be Bop Deluxe, now seems to overshadow his new wave credentials, his moment in the early ’80s when freshly-conceived American alternative rock stations like Los Angeles’s KROQ played him with regularity. The radio industry never categorized these stations as “new wave,” although it may as well have, and Nelson techno-pop tracks like “Flaming Desire,” “A Different Kind of Loving,” “Empire of the Senses,” and “Acceleration”—all of which appeared on his US Vistamix compilation—shimmered with new music authority and, even though they never charted in the US or UK, helped calibrate these outlets’ overall sound. After this, Nelson would follow the zigzag course of the musical experimentalist, but listening back to “Acceleration,” in particular, brings to mind the forward-motion giddiness of the new wave pop radio era. (New wavers like Nelson wore their Motown-mania on their sleeves. Listen, let sit, then see how “Acceleration” reminds you of the Temptations’ “The Way You Do the Things You Do.”)

“Canoeiro” (1959) – Dorival Caymmi * Written by Dorival Caymmi * LP: E Seu Violão * Label: Odeon

After the Brazilian singer-songwriter, actor and painter Dorival Caymmi died at 94 in 2008, the New York Times‘ Douglas Martin wrote of him as the man who “helped lay the foundations of bossa nova, [who] wrote Carmen Miranda’s first hit and gave legendary voice to the romance of the beaches, fishing villages and bathing beauties of his native Bahia.” He also refers to a quote from his colleage Ben Ratfliff, who called him second only to Antonio Carlos Jobim in “establishing a songbook” of “Brazilian identity.” Caymmi’s songs charm you with their humble simplicity. His “Canoeiro” (canoeist), for example, is a three-minute voice-and-guitar piece expressing an ocean of gratitude for a solitary fisherman’s craft.

“Naomi No Yume” (1970) – Hedva and David * Written by David Krivoshe, Tirza Atar, and Kazuko Katagiri * Japan 45: “Naomi No Yume” / “Ani Holem Al Naomi” * Label: RCA Victor

In 1970 Israeli duo Hedva Amrani and David Rosenthal entered their single “Ani Cholem Al Naomi” (“I Dream of Naomi”) in Tokyo’s Yamaha Song Festival and won first prize. They entered with a Japanese version, though, which subsequently sold close to a million copies. If you let this sticky song run through your mind long enough, it might morph into the Association’s “Along Comes Mary” or the Zombies’ “She’s Not There.”

“Dear Prudence” (1970) – The 5 Stairsteps and Cubie * Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney * 45: “O-o-h Child” / “Dear Prudence” * LP: Stairsteps * Produced by Stan Vincent * Label: Buddah

This rendition of the whimisical Beatles song appears as the B-side to the Chicago family group’s now classic “O-o-h Child.” With their spiraling chord patterns and lyrics evoking childhood, both sides of the 45 can still reach into hearts and minds with rare potency. “Dear Prudence,” which reached #66 in Billboard while the A-side reached #8, also hearkens back to its era’s “soul rock” genre experiments. The single credits the group as “The 5 Stairsteps & Cubie,” even though their album, released later in 1970, presented them as “Stairsteps.”

 

“Arrebol” (1972) – Congregación * Written by Antonio Smith * Chile LP: Congregación Viene… * Label: IRT

Congregación recorded their lone Chilean folk rock one year before the 1973 coup that placed the murderous dictator Augusto Pinochet in power. When you listen to this song in particular, you’re hearing the sunset of a lost era. The word “arrebol” is one of those beautiful words with no precise translation, referring to the glow of clouds at dusk. “What is the arrebol’s color?” asks the singer, a philosophical innocent surrounded by chirping birds. “Is the color even a color, or is it something else? Something from inside of you?” In retrospect, his arrebol’s reddish hue had more ominous implications. Antonio Smith was the name of Congregación’s driving force, and he escaped to Argentina in 1973, after which he apparently kept musically active. The Congregación viene (Congregation comes) album, though, is the only one he left behind for future treasure seekers.

Conjunto Michoacán – “La Hija de la Viuda” (1981) * Written by Hermenegildo Garcia Flores * 45: “Piquetes de Hormiga” / “La Hija de la Viuda” * LP: La Hija de la Viuda/Piquetes de Hormiga * Produced by Magdaleno Oliva M. * Label: Odeon

The conjunto music of Michoacán in western Mexico features the violin instead of the accordion, and the early eighties lineup of the aptly named Conjunto Michoacán is a good place to get familiar with that sound. Hermenegildo Garcia was the violinist, vocalist, and most active song contributor, which is why some of their albums are billed to “Conjunto Michoacán de Hermenegildo Garcia.” This was the incarnation that appeared in a peculiar 1981 film called La Jorobada (“the hunchback”), in which they performed “Piquetes de Horniga,” a song still familiar to many conjuntos today. This album’s lineup is perhaps the classic one (Garcia had left the still active group by 1990), although some would probably argue in favor of the pre-Garcia incarnation with Camerino Martinez. The link takes you to Garcia’s “La Hija de la Viuda” (“the daughter of the widow”) from 1981.

“After the Gold Rush” (1974) – Prelude * Written by Neil Young* Produced by Fritz Fryor * 45: “After the Gold Rush” / “Johnson Boy” * LP: After the Gold Rush * Label: Dawn (UK) / Island (US) * Charts: Billboard Hot 100 (#22); UK #21

British a cappella trio version of Neil Young’s curiously titled visionary song from 1970, which taps into the sparseness of the original, with its “Look at Mother Nature on the run in the 1970s” refrain, along with the marketable declaration that “I felt like getting high,” to memorable effect. (But wait a minute – they’re actually saying “in the 1917,” aren’t they?) Young’s song already rang with end-of-an-era poignancy, but Prelude, at a point in time when the dust had truly settled, transformed it into a proper postlude, regardless of their weird year switch.