INTERCONNECTS THREE…… Our musical journey continues.

Aug 012010

In part two of this musical journey Music Reviewer Chris Bennett started us on a musical journey to explore the history and surprising links between bands, albums, songs and musicians. With part three the journey continues…….

Track 9

So, what on earth is a Fever Tree then? Well, depending on which part of the world you’re in, it might be an Acacia, a Eucalyptus or a Pinckneya. Somewhat confusingly, depending on who you speak to, such a tree might either give you a fever or cure you of one!

Despite the fact that Fever Tree were a relatively obscure band from Texas with only one hit single to their name, it’s surprising how many possible connections there are that could move our journey on now. For example, some of the arrangements on their first album were done by Dave Angel, whose career masterpiece was ‘Forever Changes’ by Love, while much of the original material that Fever Tree recorded was written by Viv and Scott Holtzman, who had worked on the songs for the film Mary Poppins! Their albums also included cover versions of songs by Lennon and McCartney, Eddie Floyd, Wilson Pickett and Neil Young (there’s that name again!).

The penultimate (1969) studio album by Fever Tree was called ‘Creation’ and it featured a guest spot by the guitarist from a Texas band called The Moving Sidewalks. The Sidewalks were inspired by two acts they had opened for, the first of which was another Houston band, the 13th Floor Elevators and The Jimi Hendrix Experience whose influence is peppered all over their only album ‘Flash’ from 1968.

They had a hit with ‘99th Floor’, which is also featured on several compilation albums of garage and psychedelia music from the 60’s.

The guitarist in The Moving Sidewalks was Billy Gibbons, who made a rather larger impact on the music scene when he went on to form ZZ Top. Track Number 9 is a slow blues that moves a little away from most of the material on the first of their albums but it does look forward a little to some of the work that Gibbons was to do with ZZ Top (for example ‘Blue Jean Blues’ from the album ‘Fandango’)

‘You Don’t Know The Life’ – The Moving Sidewalks available on ‘Flash’ (Akarma Records AK117 for CD, AK117LP for heavy vinyl LP)

Track 10

Another of the bands that opened shows for Hendrix was Baby Grandmothers from Stockholm, who accompanied The Experience on their tour of Sweden in 1968. The Baby Grandmothers had their own guitar wizard in Kenny Håkansson whose playing was always based around improvisation and many of the tracks they recorded featured the exploration of themes around a central melodic idea.

They only ever released one single (in Finland on the Forward label) which is incredibly rare and highly sought after, but there is an album available that adds to that significantly with some of their live work recorded in a club in Stockholm called Club Filips. The band only existed for a year, and then with one member of Mecki Mark Men (another band from that Hendrix tour) and singer Hawkey Franzen, they played as the house band for the Swedish stage production of Hair. By 1971 they had become Mecki Mark Men (mk. II). They did a tour of the US and then disbanded with the original Baby Grandmothers forming a band called Kebnekajse.

‘Being Is More Than Life’ – Baby Grandmothers available on ‘Baby Grandmothers’

(Subliminal Sounds SUB-TILCD23 for CD and SUB)

I reckon we’ve dwelled around the nether regions of the garage/psychedelic scene for plenty long enough, so it’s time to hit the Hyperspace Button and see where we end up for the next track…………..