Roots (Henry Cow, Kew. Rhone. Etc)
Following his ejection from Henry Cow in 1975, Blegvad had returned to New York to work in cartoons (most notably as a background scene artist for Peanuts ). Soon after this, he renewed his musical association with Henry Cow bass player John Greaves, and the pair linked up with singer/pianist Lisa Herman. The result was the Kew. Rhone. album, released on Island Records in 1977 and credited to John Greaves/Peter Blegvad/Lisa Herman. This was a dense and detailed song cycle with music by Greaves, lyrics by Blegvad and contributions by Woodstock jazz musicians Carla Bley, Andrew Cyrille and Michael Mantler. Described as “a brilliant amalgam of Slapp Happy's skewed pop sense, the collective improvisation approach of Henry Cow, the sly wit of the Canterbury prog rock scene, and (most fruitfully) Carla Bley's inimitably skewed progressive jazz”, Kew. Rhone. was very well received by critics and musicians alike. (Robert Wyatt reportedly bought two copies in case he wore out his original copy with enthusiastic replaying.) However, it was not followed up by an immediate sequel, although the participants stayed in touch.
Returning to England in 1982, Blegvad cut the albums The Naked Shakespeare and Knights Like These, both of which featured ex-64 Spoons guitarist Jakko Jakszyk. Greaves co-wrote three songs on The Naked Shakespeare and Blegvad returned the favour by writing lyrics for eight of the songs on Greaves’ Accidents album (also released in 1982).
However, Blegvad’s attempts at a British solo career suffered due to record company politics and the effects of 1980s production styles. Pushed by producers into an over-complex and technological sound, he himself favoured the sparser and rawer sound of his small live band which included his brother Kristoffer on guitar and backing vocals. Disillusioned, Peter Blegvad returned to New York in 1986 and began collaborating with The Golden Palominos, the art rock band led by ex-Pere Ubu drummer Anton Fier.
Read more about this topic: The Lodge (band)
Famous quotes containing the word roots:
“If the national security is involved, anything goes. There are no rules. There are people so lacking in roots about what is proper and what is improper that they don’t know there’s anything wrong in breaking into the headquarters of the opposition party.”
—Helen Gahagan Douglas (1900–1980)