Vashti Bunyan/Jackson C Frank

Great article, could've left the last bit for her diary though...

Ba Da Bing! has just announced a complete Frank boxset and new biography.

http://www.badabingrecords.com/jackson-c-frank-the-complete-recordings-track-listing/

!!!

Delayed, but I finally got said biography (having gotten the 3 CD set at the time). It's a hair choppy at points -- as with so many books these days, it really needed a stronger editorial once-over to prevent repetition and how some things are mentioned briefly and then only explained in full much later. But given Jim Abbott's role as the guy who essentially got him out of the weird hell he was in in NYC for a decade, and then his role as legal guardian in the final years of Frank's life, probably he's the only person who had both the connection to the subject as well as just enough distance in turn.

The role of Paul Simon in Frank's life as detailed in the book is truly headscratching at points. (As is Art Garfunkel's.)

How so on the Simon thing?

«Marlene» is a pretty tough listen knowing the backstory, which I never knew until just now

yeah beautiful but very painful

MAGNIFICENT song, it must be said

«My friends in the bars, hell they only see the scars
And they do not give a damn, they do not give a damn that I loved you
I don't know why, but once you've seen the sky
You think you know all birds are lovely»

John Hawkes does a cover of that in Martha Marcy May Marlene and I remember thinking "oh no, you should not be touching this song."

Liked that movie, including Hawkes’ playing and singing. But yeah, agree they could have dropped doing that one (can’t actually remember he played exactly that song).

secondhand copies of the abbott book, which is out of print, start at $85 ? fuck that

According to Wikipedia, Jackson C. Frank had two children with model Elaine Sedgwick. The son died and the daughter's name is Angeline. What's known of her? Are royalties passed to his daughter, is his estate now hers? Jackson's music has recently been covered by well-known acts (Chromatics, Daft Punk, TV Series This Is Us...). I'm just wondering if the awful luck of this great man can be somehow compensated by his daughter at least receiving what he never got during his lifetime.

Me and room service, baby.

Life of sin

I heard a really good podcast interview with Vashti about a month ago. Think it was C86.
Left me wondering if her son was the motorbike riding chainsaw juggler with cirque de soleil who needed to be replaced or deputised when a friend was in the Edinburgh festival office looking for a job. But not sure of timeline. Seems to be what he was doing at one point anyway.

if her son was the what?

a performing role in a Canadian visual circus he was in. He had apparently been an automotive mechanical whizz from a very early age. I think Vashti gave more of an indication that it might have been him which was a story I'd heard back at the time I was in Edinburgh prior tp coming to Ireland for the first time with a couple of people I knew there that summer. Think this other persoin came back to the crashpad and told us about this on the same day it had happened. Him looking for a way to make a couple of quid and maybe get into a show and turning down this role.

well when vashti is your mum, i suppose such things just... are.

I do love the Sanctuary set of Jackson C Frank recordings since it had later material included. First lp is pretty classic but I think the early 70s stuff may have been more desolate. NOt listened to it in a while but I think I found it pretty moving at the time I got the set.
But that first lp is pretty necessary if one hasn't heard it.

He dated Sandy Denny in the mid 60s and bits of North Star Grassman are about him, which I assume is already known