White Bicycles: Making Music In The 1960s (2007) - Plot & Excerpts
What happened was that i wrote a review of White Bicycles for my friend Raymond's English folk magazine called Stirrings. And then Joe Boyd himself read my review and wrote to the mag with a reply... how cool was that? So here's my review followed by Joe's reply.**Joe Boyd is a man it's hard not to resent. He's been tall, handsome and not obviously poor most of his life but, most particularly, during the 1960s, he developed an almost supernatural ability to be in the right place at the right time and then do the right thing while he was there. Like a countercultural Superman, he zap!s into Newport 1965 and arranges for Dylan to go electric with the members of a group Joe Boyd created; in 1966 kapoww! he's in London founding UFO, the white hot centre of the English underground, with John Hopkins; blamm! he's in Edinburgh discovering the ISB; shazam!! - he helps to create British folk rock with Fairport; kerrunch!!! he discovers Nick Drake and Vashti Bunyan. And so endlessly on. And now he writes about it all with effortless grace and humour. So here's a guy whose co-production of the brilliant album "Desertshore" by Nico in 1971 gets only a passing one-liner. It would be a great relief to find some kind of flaw in this paragon, but he was also blessed with perfect taste and produced most of my favourite albums. Too much, man. Too much. Ten things I didn't know before reading "White Bicycles" : 1. The Even Dozen Jug Band (1964) included Maria Muldaur, John Sebastian, Joshua Rifkin, Steve Katz, Stefan Grossman and David Grisman. Wow! 2. White people clap on the wrong beat. 3. In the 60s blues acts could tour successfully in Britain and Europe but no one was interested in the USA.. 4. Joe spent a fortnight in Brixton on a drugs possession charge (his time there sounds like an episode of Porridge) 5. Padstow, May Day 1965 was the high-water mark of the English traditional folk revival as 6. Around 9.30 on the night of 25 July 1965 was the moment 1960s youth exchanged idealism for hedonism as 7. The 1960s "peaked just before dawn on 1 July 1967 during a set by Tomorrow at the UFO Club in London" (Joe is nothing if not particular). 8. Michael Jackson's "Thriller" album on its own outsold the Beatles' entire catalogue 9. Joe and his pal Paul Rothchild put the Lovin' Spoonful together just like a folk-rock Monkees (a fact that's been airbrushed out of history) 10. Nick Drake was the greatest ever talent Joe produced. Now, this last statement is, like No. 8, not true, but Joe thinks it is. Note the following Boyd on Drake : there was something uniquely arresting in Nick’s composure. The music stayed within itself, not trying to attract the listener’s attention… His guitar technique was so clean it took a while to realise how complex it was… the heart of the music was mysteriously original.up close the power of his fingers was astonishing with each note ringing out loud… I had listened closely to Robin Williamson, John Martyn, Bert Jansch and John Renbourn. Half-struck strings and blurred hammerings-on were an accepted part of their sound; none could match Nick’s mastery of the instrument. After finishing one song he would retune the guitar and proceed to play something equally complex in a totally different chord shape.I had told him he was a genius and others had concurred.the sale of Witchseason included a provision that Nick’s lps must never be deleted, although I didn’t need at argue the point with Blackwell, he loved Nick too.It’s hard to disagree with Joe Boyd – he is the man after all – but imagining Nick Drake’s music to be in the same league as Richard Thompson or more especially Robin Williamson is just loopy. Modern advertisers, tv music finders and the younger generation seem to like Nick Drake a lot more than the Incredible String Band or RT but that don’t prove a thing except that “Time Has Told Me” is an awful lot more like elevator music than “The Mad Hatter’s Song” or “Genesis Hall”. Joe’s main band – the one he produced and managed longest in the 60s – was the Incredible String Band and he now seems to regard them with something approaching embarrassment. They get as many putdowns as Nick Drake gets praise, and since they were hugely greater talents one must ask why. It seems part of the answer is on page 186 : History has deemed the ISB terminally unhip, forever identified with an incense-drenched, tripped out folkinessAnd later, after they disastrously took up Scientology, soon the new compositions began to lose their wild melodic beauty… was this a natural decline after years of original output or was it Scientology? I resisted the thought that creativity might be linked to unhappiness or neurosis. Taking the first point, Joe seems not to have noticed the new psychedelic folk movement which has taken hold in the USA and consistently namechecks the ISB – for instance there’s Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, Animal Collective, Wolf Parade, Sufjan Stevens, the Espers and Six Organs or Admittance. For these people the ISB are the very quintessence of hip. The second point is also telling : the ISB disappointed Joe badly (whereas Nick Drake didn’t live long enough) - firstly by joining a grisly cult, then by becoming happier people after having joined! That wasn’t the script Joe had in mind for them at all. Joe includes some fantastically sweeping generalisations on such topics as why the English hate their own folk music, why there wasn’t so much of a generation gap in Britain as there was in the USA, and why so many great 60s artists made terrible records in the 70s (in one word, cocaine). It’s all wonderfully contentious and you may wish to learn a few of these to start off a lively debate in your local. This book is never boring.***Dear StirringsThanks for the review of White Bicycles and the words of praise. With so many plugs for my productions, I shouldn't complain about the odd brickbat here and there. But I would like to set the record straight on what seems like a some-what hurried reading by Paul Bryant. I never wrote, nor do I feel, that Nick Drake was the greatest talent I ever worked with. I do think he was as remarkable and wonderful a talent as Thompson or Williamson, however. Some people don't get him and Paul Bryant is clearly one of them, but let's not distort what I said in order tomake a point. And while I plead guilty to airing my disappointment with the later years of the ISB, I spent huge chunks of prose recounting how stunning andexciting the music of their early years was – and remains today I was delighted that they became happier people as Scientologists (for a bit), but I don't think you'll find many fans who will argue that their later songs were the equal of their earlier efforts. My complaint that their music is not considered hip is directed at the folk-averse, notat Mike and Robin. When I wrote the book – and still, today- such cloth-eared people far out-numbered the fans of Devandra Banhardt etc.When Thriller had completed a year or two at the top of the charts, a Billboard article pointed out that it had outsold the Beatle catalogue. Since then, of course, the cd revolution has pushed the Fab Four way in front, but my comment was about sales of records at the time of their release and about the way the business changed from the '60s to the '80s, and I stand by it. As to the English hating their own folk music, it's great that it doesn't clear as many rooms as it once did, but a journalist for a national newspaper began his piece about dancing with a Morris team the other day with the assumption that almost every reader would find such an endeavor ludicrous and embarrassingWhite Bicycles is a look at the Sixties very much through my eyes. My nailing of dates and sweeping statements were not intended to be taken as historical or sociological truths, but are the thoughts that went through my head at the time, or soon thereafter. If I run into Paul Bryant in a pub, I'll buy him a drink and we can have that 'lively debate'.Best regards,Joe Boyd
Joe Boyd is one of those behind the scenes guys that you can't help but be envious of. He worked with or met countless blues and jazz legends. He was the stage manager at Newport '65 and was in the middle of Dylan's infamous electric coup. He was involved in the early British psychedelic scene and helped launch the career of Pink Floyd. He discovered Nick Drake and Fairport Convention and the Incredible String Band and produced them all. And through it all he seems like a nice guy. So naturally, there are numerous fascinating stories in here of working with these people that made such incredible music. But I feel as if this book only scratches the surface of Boyd's experience. I don't need a minute-by-minute account of the making of "Liege and Lief" or anything, but it seems like he breezes through a lot of this stuff too quickly. I need more! Also, the chronology of the book seems somewhat confusing to me. He skips back and forth between different points in the 60's without much explanation. Grr. But overall this is a good quick read if you have any interest in the music of the late-60's and its effect on what came after, good and bad. Boyd's a really opinionated listener and I agree with a lot of what he says, especially the old analog recording vs. digital argument. And I got a kick out of his comment on how so many artists made bad records in the 70's and 80's due to cocaine and its creatively impotent powers. He also really got me to thinking about the struggle between older artists wanting to be up-to-date and their audiences wanting them to "keep it real". Maybe it's not so great idea to expect them to recreate their past since it doesn't feel genuine and heartfelt anymore and feels more like posing for an audience.This book covers an era that all happened before I was born. I like how he doesn't idealize the time period or ignore the many social problems that occurred. But in a way it still makes me wish I was there.
What do You think about White Bicycles: Making Music In The 1960s (2007)?
Richard Thompson sure had some doofy hair once. I wish this book were twice as long, maybe with some Syd and Nico dirt, maybe with photos of Linda Peters attempting to bang Nick Drake. Remarkable for its non-hysterical tone, its clear eye, its lack of score-settling, with the millionth retelling of the Newport-Dylan-electric scene possibly the first to mention details like the fact that Dylan already did an acoustic set the day before, or Mel Lyman following Dylan with a ten-minute harmonica solo. I also like his arguments on behalf of "Poor Boy." Boyd comes off as a question-answerer rather than a lemme-tell-you-one-more blowhard, which makes all the difference between a hangman's beautiful daughter and a hangman. .
—Rob
Though his name doesn't summon much brand recognition, Joe Boyd was at the center of any number of zeitgeists in the 1960's and 1970's, and is undoubtedly a man of great artistic taste: from tracking down forgotten old bluesmen to play house parties as a teenager, to stage managing Muddy Waters and Bob Dylan at the Newport Jazz/Folk Festivals, to hosting Pink Floyd at his UFO Club in the heart of Swinging Psychedelic London and producing their brilliant early singles, to discovering, managing and producing English folkies Nick Drake, Fairport Convention and the Incredible String Band. A great read for fans of said artists, and a wealth of anecdotal asides that are entertaining and informative without being overly sensational, and his insights into the process of listening to, obsessing over, and making music are revelatory. Although it's usually beside the point with these types of books, it's not badly written, either. Consider it the well-mannered, contemplative flipside to Andrew Loog Oldham's "Stoned."
—Marc Horton
Joe Boyd was a renowned producer in the '60s, right in the midst of the British Folk Revival, producing Fairport Convention, Incredible String Band, Sandy Denny, and most notoriously Nick Drake (who never scored a hit during his lifetime). He also co-founded the UFO club, the epicenter of Freaky London, where Pink Floyd and numerous others got their start. He also had a long and storied career in the Jazz and Blues worlds, helping organize the Newport Folk Festival where Dylan went electric, helped re-discover Rev. Gary Davis, and took that music overseas. Apart from his impressive career during an important musical era, the writing of this book is outstanding; conversational, lucid, moving. He tells personal anecdotes of many larger-than-life personalities. Also armed with his Producer's ears and experience, he sheds insight into the creative process and recording of many seminal albums. Hearing a first-hand, detailed account of Nick Drake performing 'Time Has Told Me' live with an orchestra, as well as the backstory of driving to some school friend of Nick's, to score the string arrangements, is worth its weight in plutonium. I cannot recommend this book enough, for anyone interested in late '60s music, production, or subcultural history.
—J Simpson
