Richard Dawson (raucous experimental UK folk racket w/ intense picaresque realness vox)

Yeah they are pretty much the antithesis of academic albs (unless the Centre for Advanced Bill Harkelroad Studies has really taken off recently)

Hogwhistle?

OMG, it has been a long time since I listened to anything by Chenaux or Deep Dark United! Should dig some up. Has Dawson ever mentioned being aware of them?

For the record, the only Orcutt I've heard is 'A History Of Every One'. I will check out Harry Pussy. But yeah, IIRC that was an album of deconstructed standards and reminded me very much of Derek Bailey. I mean, I love and respect Bailey. He's a revolutionary and his ideas are incredible, but I listen to Dawson for very different reasons.

Respec' to Del

A gentleman and a scholar.

Not much of a singer though

Nobody's perfect.

Place naming has always incited ire in my heart I guess since I heard some Canucks try and do it "she blew like a Chinook down Yonge Street" or something

It's okay when Stomping Tom does it though, right?

we used to live there on vine st

feel like street names should be exempt bc there are so many repeats

Stompin' Tom does it just fine
Americans can get away with it usually but if you hear "Dayton, Ohio 1903" and get what I mean then good

I choose to take "Dayton, Ohio 1903" as a reference to first powered flight so that I can laugh at the narrator tbh

think I got that interpretation from a comment on songmeanings.com, though.

actually, I laugh with Randy at the person that asked Randy to write that type of song, i.e. "Sing a song of long ago"

listen not to belabor this orcutt stuff but listen to "judas iscariot" off the dawson album and not think of orcutt is pretty ridiculous imo

also i really do like this album good job richard dawson ilx poll season makes me combative for no good reason i'm glad this album exists and ppl are digging it

actually, I laugh with Randy at the person that asked Randy to write that type of song, i.e. "Sing a song of long ago"

Yes we're on the same page

"Robert Wyatt doing George Benson" is a wonderful observation.

yeah the first thing my wife compared "The Vile Stuff" to was Wyatt

An over-reliance on locations and names in lyrics is not to my taste. But: Dawson does it so much and so arrogantly I feel he's doing it deliberately to mock American songwriters who have interstates and national parks they'll namedrop without thinking about it. I mean, I think he's "taking the piss"

I think more specifically, the apocalyptic content of The Vile Stuff, wouldn't be as apparent if he didn't name all of the apostles [Thadeus, James and James Solicitors = James Son Of James, Miss Bartholemew…] so whether he's mocking or not, the list of names is kind of what the song's all about and it wouldn't work without them.

I dig this and I love the place-naming. His lyrics remind me of Nigel Blackwell although straining for a darkly surreal and wild poetic quality rather than Blackwell's comedy of the mundane.

amazing detail about the apostles - I totally missed that

well i'll be...

^

Listening to this record with a bit of a wobble on this morning, s'got me all over the place, am a mess

:)

think this might be my favourite music of the last few years. Nigel Blackwell gone art-folk makes sense as a comparison bit there's something more wide-eyed and Romantic about Dawson's outlook (not that Blackwell lacks these qualities entirely). I don't think Dawson would be overly given to snipe at things he disapproves of.

I like the press of accumulating, involuntary and unwelcome minutiae vs. and I don't care about these things
Why do they remain so clear while the faces of my loved ones disappear? That's life, kid, more and more: the memories you have vs. the ones you *should* have, even want to have. But there can be a liberation or release, relief, in submitting to that, in art, at least.

Although he doesn't sound relieved yet. Letting it spew, though.

The delivery and placement of that line is so great

Olllld karate trophies

just listening to The Ice-Breaker Baikal on the way home, magnificent

The theme of the apostles - and other religious matters - came up in an interview I carried out with Richard Dawson last week if anyone's interested.

god's work, doran

He knocked on the door and my brother answered. I was frightened so I hid behind the door. I peeped around and saw that he had come in a big old dragster car (we actually had a little dragster racing board game at the time). It was parked at the end of the drive and the engine was still growling. I remember I was really scared. The Easter Bunny understood this and leaned around the door to look squarely at me. He was very serious and not like a cartoon bunny. He was a very realistic looking rabbit, but human sized and wearing quite simple clothes. He looked at me and was very solemn. Then he slowly nodded and handed me a chocolate egg. I cannot stress how melancholy an air this giant rabbit had about him. Then he got back in his dragster and roared off.

brb going to create a sort of cultish wallchart with dawson, julian cope, cardiacs, oliver postgate, dylan thomas and some others until british pastoralia leaps forth connected as a sort of salvation

dawson on religion is as close to my own position as anyone i've read

he is beyond, a marvel

great great interview, thanks doran

cheers, i've 'pocketed' this for later reading.

Excellent interview, that.

yes, thanks

That's great.

Great interview. Fascinating that he works on the lyrics for so long. Apart from maybe Leonard Cohen, I don't think I've heard someone talk about working on a lyric to a single song in that way.

Fucking hell, that's an amazing interview.

just broke open a coconut and because of the cautionary tale on this album all I could think of was not to use a screwdriver under any circumstances

ftr I hit it with a big wrench and did not injure myself

Who's going to the Lexington tonight?

sold out by the time I found out - but hunting a spare ticket today & strongly tempted to go along and see if can get one there

Ruth Flecknell We did go on a ghost hunt at featherstone but the real spirit was definitely in that bottle and the trip to haltwhistle was in my car- a helicopter would have been much more well driven! It was definitely a weird experience for the adults as well as the youngsters we took. The genius is in the way you narrate the event and from the adult perspective looking back I can see how bizarre it was on so many levels for some of the children on the periphery of events. Good luck with your tour, I will catch your next one, the tickets were sold out this time before I woke up to how in vogue you are
Like · Reply · 1 · 10 February at 15:05

RICHARD DAWSON Mrs Flecknell - there will always be room for you at a gig, please remember this!
Like · Reply · 10 February at 15:15

Ruth Flecknell I will. Thanks richard. You deserve your success.
Like · Reply · 1 · 10 February at 15:16

the best person. 'Mrs Flecknell'!!!

didn't get a ticket for tonight :( and scarletmist is gone :(:(

thinking there's no great hardship sitting in a pub for a couple of hours and keeping an ear open for spares & returns.

maybe we might join you tbh

how big is the venue? slightly surprising he has such a following
city boys paying high three figures on the secondary no doubt