Talk Talk (RIP Mark Hollis)

from two separate interviews in 1994:

But unlike Gabriel, whose interest in exotic rhythms derived in large part from his own interest in the sound of other cultures, McLachlan doesn't spend her time listening to recordings of African and Asian music. Or much of anything else.

"I used to listen to Peter Gabriel," she says. "I don't listen to anybody now."

Why not? "I just don't hear anything I like" she says. "Haven't for years. Or else it's a I-like-it-but-now-I'm-over-it kind of thing. So I have my five or 10 CDs that I've had for five or 10 years -- the music that I've liked. I've got 'Thursday Afternoon' by Brian Eno, I've got 'Closing Time' by Tom Waits, 'Spirit of Eden' by Talk Talk, and those are the only CDs I've listened to for years. I keep going back to them, because they fulfill me."

What kinds of things can a songwriter do to be open and ready to write?

Well, for me on this new record, it was mainly secluding myself, being away from society and being away from everything. I locked myself up in a cabin in the mountains and stayed there for seven months. It was just an amazing time for me to really focus on a lot of stuff that had sort of been lurking behind the scenes in my brain, but never had the time to come out. Or it kept being put aside, because there were so many distractions. Also I think, I got incredibly in tune with the earth, with nature, like I hadn’t before. I couldn’t write a thing for three months. My brain was eating itself. It was terribly cold out and I couldn’t do anything creative. I was just frozen. Everything was churning around inside but nothing would come out. Then spring happened and everything totally opened up. I was blossoming as well.

Most of the songs were written then, between April and May. The place I got to in myself of feeling calm and peaceful and also for the first time in my life, feeling I’m happy now. Not “I would be happy if … “ There was always that going on with me. I finally got to a place where I was totally happy and peaceful and living in the present tense instead of in the future.

Did you go into that experience with any sort of agenda?

Well, in the process of not being able to write, I kept a journal, these sort of morning pages. I wrote three pages before I’d do anything else, just to try and clear my head. Most of it was totally banal like “Mmm, coffee smells good, I have nothing to say, I have nothing to say” (laughs) for 10 times. But sure enough, about midway through the second page, sometimes I’d really open up and all this stuff would come out. You know, you’re not really awake yet and you’re just sort of spewing whatever’s on the top of your head in free form. And there was no editing happening there at all, because no one was going to read this book. I could say whatever I wanted. I didn’t have to hide behind anything, and I think that really helped me. To be really open and honest with myself, that was good. I’m pretty good at deceiving myself or I’ve known myself to do that in the past (laughs).

Did you listen to music while you were there?

I listened to a lot of Tom Waits, and Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden, which is one of my favorites.

and from a Reddit AMA a few years ago:

level 1
Sisiwakanamaru
27 points
·
4 years ago
I have two questions:
What is your favorite song and album at the moment?
What is your favorite dessert?
Thank you.
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level 2
_SarahMcLachlan
67 points
·
4 years ago
My Desert Island CD, if that is what you're asking, would be Talk Talk Spirit of Eden.

Probably chocolate eclairs. It's got a bit of all the good things - pastries, fat cream, chocolate.

xp Austin The Missing Pieces is disappointing, a slightly different mix / edit of AtF (basically foregrounding a lot of the shimmer / haze elements to fill up the track, and a different harmonica fill), three unmodified album cuts, "Stump" which is a murky drum, bass and guitar jam, "5:09" which is little mix elements from "New Grass" reversed and looped and stuff, and then "Piano" which I don't quite understand - it's an attractive, spare improv (by the sounds of it) but Discogs says it's "from the Allinson-Brown AV-1 album" which lists John Cope as the composer and nary a TT member on the disc credits. So why is it on a TT disc? Phill Brown produced it?

I still wish I had picked them up as they were released at the time, with a very beautiful piece of art:

https://www.discogs.com/Talk-Talk-Laughing-Stock-CD-Collection/release/12463899

I remember seeing it somewhere in 1992 but I didn't have money to spare for it. So I'm very glad for the resultant comp, with the extra track for whatever reason.

To my shame I bought this last year, hadn't heard the B sides and I was curious. Set me back around $50 off eBay.

Excuse my conversation with myself here, but it turns out "John Cope" is a Hollis pseudonym and so it's him on "Piano".

Love that 5:09 is listed as 5:11 long.

And yes, John Cope is a Hollis alias. After some BBC sound recordist or something? The song of the same name is incredible.

I think someone who worked with Hitchcock?

Rather good tribute show from Huey Morgan on 6 Music today. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002syd

Anyone seen this yet????

I dunno if it's Paul Webb or TF Greene, I"m guessing the latter but it's lovely to hear.

https://soundcloud.com/user-947232876/eden-rehearsal-cassette

Guess the record wasn't quite as pieced together as we'd been led to believe...

Greene posted that SoundCloud link on Twitter earlier today

And I have to agree with Matthewk above that Missing Pieces isn't worth buying. Listening to my copy now. The only great unavailable track is Piano, a solo piano piece.

Good God, I've spent a beautiful evening with a bottle of red and "Laughing Stock" on headphones.

Simon Reynolds on Mark Hollis.

https://www.npr.org/2019/02/28/698650688/mark-hollis-and-talk-talks-brilliant-nuanced-stubborn-visions

I think Why Is It So Hard is a close relation of It’s My Life.

Man, some of the editing/mixing on Spirit of Eden is so incredible -- there's that moment in Rainbow where it goes from the sort of "verse" part into I guess what could be called a refrain, where there's this very quick and smooth transition from an almost screechy sound into what sounds almost like a building up church organ swell into a hammond organ and then suddenly everything drops out and it's just the piano, chills

Associated with this^^: there's a phenomenon I associate with Talk Talk - particularly the last two records and the solo Hollis - where I get a sort of anxiety that I can't remember the track names or the shape and depth of the music: a kind of sonic amnesia. It's not until the moment of listening that I find I can navigate the sonic field and the safety and familiarity returns. I wouldn't say it was just Talk Talk but it's certainly more pronounced with them. Dunno if it's age-related or indeed if it's even worthy of comment but it's definitely a thing.

I think it's worthy of comment, definitely; I feel like I experience the same thing. It's like you can't conceive of it unless you're in it.

Yeah, that's it. It's like a Borgesian puzzle or the uncanny spaces in House of Leaves.

I read that as House of Fraser and started to think that was a Talk Talk connection I'd not come across before.

there's a phenomenon I associate with Talk Talk - particularly the last two records and the solo Hollis - where I get a sort of anxiety that I can't remember the track names or the shape and depth of the music: a kind of sonic amnesia. It's not until the moment of listening that I find I can navigate the sonic field and the safety and familiarity returns

this is why laughing stock always sounds new to me, even though i've listened to it thousands of times

Here's a question for you: how do you interpret the title 'Laughing Stock'? why call it that?

Because it was the title of a Love song and he liked titling things after 60s favorites

Mirror Man, For What it’s Worth, Daily Planet...

ooh, i never thought of that!

It also feels deliberately inscrutable as a title but in an oddly throwaway fashion.

Have all the punning titles ever been brought together before?
Ones I can think of:
Mirror Man / Mirror Man (Beefheart) / Myrrhman (TT)
Candy / Candy Says (Velvets)
? / ? and the Mysterians
Dum Dum Girl / Dum Dum Boys (Iggy)
Does Caroline Know? / Caroline, No (Beach Boys)
I Don’t Believe In You / I Believe In You (Neil Young / TT)
Pictures of Bernadette / Pictures of Lily (Who)
For What It’s Worth / For What It’s Worth (Buff Springfield)
Desire / Desire (Dylan)
Laughing Stock / Laughing Stock (Love)
Renee / Runeii (TT)
Ascension Day / Ascension (Coltrane)
After The Flood / After The Flood (VdG Generator)
The Colour Of Spring / The Colour Of Spring (TT)
The Gift / The Gift (Velvets)
The Daily Planet / The Daily Planet (Love)

well let’s not forget that Talk Talk itself is a song by the Music Machine

Also possible that The Rainbow and New Grass are references to DH Lawrence and Albert Ayler respectively

Re: Music Machine - Doh! Yep slipped my mind!

Didn't know of the Ayler. Excellent - I'm sure there must be more!

Myrrhman / 1983... a merman I should turn be (Hendrix)

also obviously The Last Time / The Last Time (Rolling Stones)

Stuff in bold:

Anyone else notice the way Hollis references other songs? "Does Caroline Know" ("Caroline, No"), Laughing Stock and "The Daily Planet" (Love), "Inside Looking Out" and "It's My Life" (Animals), "Mirror Man" (Beefheart)... I know there are more.

― Andy, Friday, June 1, 2001 8:00 PM (seventeen years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's not until the moment of listening that I find I can navigate the sonic field and the safety and familiarity returns.

Feel exactly the same. Like I don't know what bits are in what song but I know precisely how the album goes when listening to it. I didn't feel anxious about it though, stuck me as part of their mesmerising character that my mind wouldn't act on them as analytically as it does other records.

"I don't know what bits are in what song but I know precisely how the album goes when listening to it."

^ That's a good description.

Co-sign this amnesiac feeling wrt Talk Talk and am fascinated at how common that seems to be.

https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/what-if-gilmour-had-given-the-division-bell-tapes-to-mark-hollis-for-the-endless-river-project.817595/

Posted, per Elvis T., by Tim Friese-Greene, it seems. Talk Talk, Spirit of Eden rehearsal:

https://soundcloud.com/user-947232876/eden-rehearsal-cassette

Truly a gift to hear that.

having never seen a TT cd in a charity shop before, today I found History Revisited for 50p.
had no idea it even existed which having looked it up I understand why now.
its not great (though I have yet to hear it all), but still for 50p ..
I often used to wonder what ever happened to dominic whoosey (aka neutron 9000)..

Made a mix in tribute to Mark Hollis, whose music was hugely formative for me:

https://musicophilia.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/folder-1.jpg?w=1024

Various - 'Elegy for Mark Hollis - A Life (1955-2019)'
1982-2000

01 [0:00:00] David Sylvian - "Brilliant Trees" ('Brilliant Trees' 1984)
02 [0:09:05] Rachel's - "Full On Night" ('Handrwiting' 1995)
03 [0:15:40] Neil Young - "Guitar Solo #4" ('Dead Man' 1996)
04 [0:19:45] The Durutti Columm - "Without Mercy (Stanzas IX-XII)" ('Without Mercy' 1984)
05 [0:26:45] The For Carnation - "Moonbeams" ('The For Carnation' 2000)
06 [0:36:05] Scott Walker - "Sleepwalkers Woman" ('Climate of Hunter' 1984)
07 [0:40:05] Robert Wyatt - "Maryan" ('Shleep' 1997)
08 [0:46:15] Paul Motian Trio - "India" ('It Should've Happened a Long Time Ago' 1985)
09 [0:53:35] Low - "Landlord" ('Songs For A Dead Pilot' 1997)
10 [1:00:15] The Comsat Angels - "Pictures" ('Fiction' 1982)
11 [1:04:40] Dif Juz - "Marooned" ('Extractions' 1985)
12 [1:08:35] Shelleyan Orphan - "Supernature on a Superhighway" ('Humroot' 1992)
13 [1:15:30] Danny Thompson - "Till Minne Av Jan" ('Whatever' 1987)
14 [1:20:15] Stina Nordenstam - "Dynamite" ('Dynamite' 1996)
15 [1:24:35] Haruomi Hosono - "Trembling #1" ('The Endless Talking' 1985)
16 [1:27:40] Dead Can Dance - "The Host of Seraphim" ('The Serpent's Egg' 1988)
17 [1:33:25] Yasuaki Shimizu - "Stir In This Way" ('Kakashi' 1982)
18 [1:35:35] Mick Karn - "Dreams of Reason" ('Dreams Of Reason Produce Monsters' 1986)
19 [1:39:15] Arthur Russell - "Not Checking Up" ('World of Echo' demo 1986)
20 [1:43:40] This Mortal Coil - "The Lacemaker" ('Blood' 1991)
21 [1:46:45] Peter Gabriel - "With This Love" ('Passion' 1989)
22 [1:50:05] The Blue Nile - "Regret" ('Tinseltown In the Rain' single 1984)
23 [1:53:30] Talk Talk - "It's Getting Late in the Evening" ('Life's What You Make It' single 1986)

[Total Time: 1:59:17]

Downloadable or streamable here: https://www.mixcloud.com/musicophilia/musicophilia-elegy-for-mark-hollis-a-life-1955-2019/

Sorry, wrong link--that's just the stream. Download here: https://musicophilia.wordpress.com/2019/03/27/elegy-for-mark-hollis/

thanks, Soundslike, like the look of that very nuch.

and also very much.

Looks great, Soundlike, thanks!!

Great work Soundslike, thanks for sharing!

Remembered that Danny Thompson played bass on both Five Leaves Left and Spirit of Eden (among many others), maybe my favorite two albums ever.

Also Solid Air!