Tuesday, November 15, 2005

That Was My Indian Summer


It's only with the benefit of hindsight that we realize that certain band names would prove virtually unsearchable on Google. Audience, a British art-rock band from the late 60s, probably added to their own obscurity by making a Spanish guitar and saxophone combo their defining characteristic. But "Indian Summer," a track included on a compilation LP produced by their record company, The Famous Charisma Label, deserves exposure. Apparently this was something of a hit in London in the early 70s, and it's clear why. After the folk-pastoral intro, the horn-powered pop chorus comes as a nice surprise. Those horns, by the way, sound lifted from the inimitable Roy Wood , founding member of The Move and Electric Light Orchestra. It's the British obsession with American rock and roll of the 1950s, threaded into fake-classical prog-rock, a combination that didn't really get off the ground here in the States. Me, I appreciate the lyrical wisdom of our forlorn narrator. One wife will make you happy/Two will make you dead.
Stay tuned for more nuggets culled from the compilation that contained this song. The Famous Charisma Label was evidently a fount of pasty prog-rock in the 70s. Fair warning: Genesis and Monty Python were on the roster...
P.S. Seeing as there are no Indians in England, it might seem inherently suspect for Brits to co-op a season native to the Americas. But they do have such a season in the U.K., and it's apparently called Old Wive's Summer. Seems more thematically fitting, no? Sing along now: That was my Old Wive's Sum-mer!...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is very good. You guys really are putting something better inside me. Please don't stop.

SWAK!