WAKEMAN & COUSINS
''HUMMINGBIRD''
2002
43:41
******************
1 The young pretender 05:50 (Dave Cousins, Rick Wakeman)
2 Hummingbird 03:41 (Dave Cousins, Rick Wakeman)
3 So shall our love die 03:36 (Dave Cousins)
4 Steppes 01:23 (Rick Wakeman)
5 October to May 03:26 (Dave Cousins)
6 Ice maiden 00:42 (Rick Wakeman)
7 Higher Germanie 04:35 (Traditional)
8 Stone cold is the woman's heart 04:32 (Dave Cousins)
9 Crie du coeur 01:26 (Rick Wakeman)
10 All in vain 03:50 (Dave Cousins, Rick Wakeman)
11 Can you believe 04:44 (Dave Cousins, Craig Leon, Cassell Webb)
12 Via Bencini 02:12 (Rick Wakeman)
13 Forever ocean blue 03:38 (Dave Cousins)
*******************
Rick Wakeman – keyboards
Dave Cousins – vocals, acoustic guitar, dulcimer, banjo
Ric Sanders – violin
Mac McGann – tipple
Chas Cronk – bass guitar
Tony Fernandez – drums
********************
REVIEW/AMG
Jimmy James
Rick Wakeman and Dave Cousins played together in the Strawbs in the early '70s, and they reunited for this 2002 release, with support from a few other musicians (most notably violinist Ric Sanders). Cousins tends to be the more dominant personality here inasmuch as he takes all the vocals and handles more of the songwriting. In addition, some songs that appeared on previous Strawbs and Dave Cousins solo records are revisited, such as "October to May" and "Stone Cold Is the Woman's Heart." It's not just a Dave Cousins album that happens to have Wakeman on keyboards, however, as Wakeman co-wrote some of the songs with Cousins, as well as being solely responsible for the composition of a few instrumental interludes. The combination of Cousins' folky, sometimes narrative-like songs and Wakeman's classical-influenced keyboard work is unusual. But there's a bit of a faded weariness to both the material and its execution -- more so even than on other, better Cousins/Strawbs records, where battle-fatigued weariness is a frequent quality. Wakeman's more effective on piano than synthesizer, and the more modern instrumentation doesn't gel as comfortably with folk-rock-based songs such as these.
********************
BIOGRAPHY/AMG/RICK WAKEMAN
Bruce Eder
Born in Perivale, Middlesex, England, Rick Wakeman's interest in music manifested itself very early, and from the age of seven on he studied classical piano. At the age of 14, he joined a local band, Atlantic Blues, the same year he left school to enroll in the Royal College of Music. He had his eye on a career as a concert pianist, but Wakeman was dismissed from the college after it became clear that he preferred playing in clubs to studying technique.
Fragile
By his late teens, he was an established session man, playing on records by such diverse acts as Black Sabbath, Brotherhood of Man, and Edison Lighthouse. At the end of the '60s, his name also began appearing on the credits of albums by such artists as Al Stewart and David Bowie, and one set of sessions with a folk-rock band called the Strawbs led to his joining the group in 1970. After two albums with the Strawbs, Wakeman joined Yes, a post-psychedelic hard rock band that had attracted considerable attention with their first three albums. Wakeman played a key role in the final shape of the group's fourth record, Fragile, creating a fierce, swirling sound on an array of electric and acoustic pianos, synthesizers, and Mellotrons. Fragile was a hit, driven by the chart success of the single "Roundabout," and Wakeman was suddenly elevated to star status.
Close to the Edge
Yes' next album, Close to the Edge, expanded his audience and his appeal, for his instruments were heard almost continually on the record. During the making of Close to the Edge in 1972, Wakeman also recorded his first solo album, an instrumental work entitled The Six Wives of Henry VIII, which consisted of his musical interpretations of the lives and personalities of the said six royal spouses. Released early in 1973 on A&M Records, it performed respectably on the charts. Public reception of Yes' 1974 album, Tales From Topographic Oceans, was mixed, and the critics were merciless in their attacks upon the record. Wakeman exited the group before the album's supporting tour. His new solo album, Journey to the Center of the Earth, adapted from the writings of Jules Verne and featuring a rock band, narrator (David Hemmings), and full orchestral and choral accompaniment, was released to tremendous public response in both America and England, where it topped the charts. In 1975, his next album, The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, was given a grand-scale premiere at Wembley's Empire Pool, although it also cost Wakeman a fortune to stage the event on ice. During this same period, Wakeman began working on film scores with the music for Ken Russell's Lisztomania, which was a modest hit.
Criminal Record
In 1977, Wakeman returned to Yes, with which he has continued recording and touring. His solo career continued on A&M into the end of the '70s, with Criminal Record and Rhapsodies, which were modestly successful. Wakeman's biggest media splash during this period, however, came through his alleged role in getting the Sex Pistols dropped by A&M Records soon after being signed. None of this bothered his fans, which rapidly expanded to encompass those he picked up through his work with lyricist Tim Rice on a musical adaptation of George Orwell's 1984, and his burgeoning film work, which included the music to movies about the 1976 Winter Olympics and the 1982 soccer World Cup competition. Additionally, he became a regular on Britain's Channel 4. Wakeman's audience and reputation survived the 1980s better than almost any progressive rock star of his era, as he continued releasing albums on his own label. He also remained associated with Yes into the '90s.
********************
BIOGRAPHY/AMG/DAVE COUSINS
Bruce Eder
Dave Cousins is one of the most distinctive and enduring talents to come out of the mid to late 1960s British folk-rock boom -- indeed, along with Richard Thompson, he might be the shining alumnus within the field. Cousins is best known as the leader/founder of the Strawbs, the folk-turned-folk-rock turned progressive rock band that has been his major creative outlet -- with a few notable breaks -- since the mid-'60s. Born David Joseph Hindson in Hounslow, England, Cousins grew up in a middle class home in an area known in more recent years as the Thames Delta. He and a friend from Thames Valley Senior School, Tony Hooper, shared an interest in music. Both were captivated at a young age by the skiffle boom spearheaded by Lonnie Donegan and the Vipers Skiffle Group, but unlike most other fans of those artists, who moved on to a full embrace of American rock & roll, Cousins (and Hooper) resonated more to the folk-influenced side of skiffle music. In his later teens, Cousins was more closely attuned to the work of Martin Carthy and groups such as the Young Tradition, than to the Beatles et al. His devotion to American sounds was focused on the likes of Leadbelly and Elizabeth Cotten, and Ramblin' Jack Elliot (whom he got to see perform in those years); and most important among his early influences were Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, whose music he first discovered through a live recording from the Newport Folk Festival. Cousins had already taken up the banjo, in addition to the guitar, and he got good enough, listening to and emulating Scruggs' style, that he was soon recognized as one of the most skilled young banjo players in England.
His other major influence was Bob Dylan, who was starting to build a following in England in 1964, and with whom he shared many common influences and sources of inspiration. Cousins was aware that, in commercial terms, his own expressive but raspy voice was "unconventional" (to put it politely), in much the same way that Dylan's singing was regarded. He was also fascinated by the American's composing technique and approach to words, though he never did try to truly imitate that style, so much as use it as a benchmark to aim for, in terms the reach of his own songwriting. Meanwhile, he and Hooper were earning something like a living as a duo, performing in clubs and appearing on the radio, and Cousins worked sessions as a banjo player with young up-and-coming performers such as Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell. The Strawberry Hill Boys, with Cousins and Hooper as the core members, came into existence in the mid-'60s as a bluegrass group, and evolved into the Strawbs -- with Cousins as lead singer and principal composer, they evolved from a bluegrass band into a folk outfit (with Sandy Denny fronting them for a time), into an electric folk band, and then a folk-rock group, and finally into a progressive rock group with a strong folk element, kick-starting Rick Wakeman's career in the process.
The one constant was Cousins, whose voice and songwriting have usually been at the center of the group's sound. His work fairly resounds with both rebellion and antiquity, as though he were writing protest songs of the 18th or 19th centuries. Haunting melodies abound, carried by his raspy and sincere voice. Like his one-time idol Dylan, who found a niche for his style of vocalizing, Cousins has created songs and music that allow his singing to sound compelling, even beautiful at times in all of its unconventionality. Those who like his singing absolutely adore it, swearing by his expressiveness; those who don't may never understand the music's appeal. Luckily, there have been enough of the former group to give Cousins and the Strawbs significant record sales on both sides of the Atlantic and places as far away as Japan (where his solo albums were reissued on CD early on, far sooner than they were in England).
Two Weeks Last Summer
His first solo foray, Two Weeks Last Summer was released in 1972, and came about at a curious time for the Strawbs. As leader, Cousins had been the dominant voice in the group for five years, and since Denny's brief stay with the group, virtually all of the songwriting -- apart from the occasional Tony Hooper piece -- had been his. But the addition to the lineup in 1970 of bassist John Ford and drummer Richard Hudson brought two additional songwriter/singers into the fold. Cousins' first solo album was a result of the excess of material that he had written, in these new circumstances, which he chose to debut in a harder rock setting outside the context of the group, in the company of Deep Purple's Roger Glover, Jon Hiseman of Colosseum, and Miller Anderson, then of the Keef Hartley Band; as well as Tony Hooper's successor in the Strawbs, Dave Lambert. Cousins' next solo album, Old School Songs arrived in 1980, showcasing the music of his new collaborator, virtuoso guitarist Brian Willoughby, who would also become a member of the group. Fourteen years later came Bridge, and 13 years after that came Boy in the Sailor Suit in 2006, with Secret Paths following in 2008, and Duochrome, with violinist Ian Cutler, appearing that same year. The year 2008 also saw the first-ever official U.S. releases of Cousins' early solo albums on CD. He also continues to tour with the Strawbs on a regular basis. Since the early '90s, Cousins has also been active in radio, and operates a record label of his own, Witchwood Records.
********************
WEBSITE RW
********************
WEBSITE DC
********************
TO THE TOP
********************
''HUMMINGBIRD''
2002
43:41
******************
1 The young pretender 05:50 (Dave Cousins, Rick Wakeman)
2 Hummingbird 03:41 (Dave Cousins, Rick Wakeman)
3 So shall our love die 03:36 (Dave Cousins)
4 Steppes 01:23 (Rick Wakeman)
5 October to May 03:26 (Dave Cousins)
6 Ice maiden 00:42 (Rick Wakeman)
7 Higher Germanie 04:35 (Traditional)
8 Stone cold is the woman's heart 04:32 (Dave Cousins)
9 Crie du coeur 01:26 (Rick Wakeman)
10 All in vain 03:50 (Dave Cousins, Rick Wakeman)
11 Can you believe 04:44 (Dave Cousins, Craig Leon, Cassell Webb)
12 Via Bencini 02:12 (Rick Wakeman)
13 Forever ocean blue 03:38 (Dave Cousins)
*******************
Rick Wakeman – keyboards
Dave Cousins – vocals, acoustic guitar, dulcimer, banjo
Ric Sanders – violin
Mac McGann – tipple
Chas Cronk – bass guitar
Tony Fernandez – drums
********************
REVIEW/AMG
Jimmy James
Rick Wakeman and Dave Cousins played together in the Strawbs in the early '70s, and they reunited for this 2002 release, with support from a few other musicians (most notably violinist Ric Sanders). Cousins tends to be the more dominant personality here inasmuch as he takes all the vocals and handles more of the songwriting. In addition, some songs that appeared on previous Strawbs and Dave Cousins solo records are revisited, such as "October to May" and "Stone Cold Is the Woman's Heart." It's not just a Dave Cousins album that happens to have Wakeman on keyboards, however, as Wakeman co-wrote some of the songs with Cousins, as well as being solely responsible for the composition of a few instrumental interludes. The combination of Cousins' folky, sometimes narrative-like songs and Wakeman's classical-influenced keyboard work is unusual. But there's a bit of a faded weariness to both the material and its execution -- more so even than on other, better Cousins/Strawbs records, where battle-fatigued weariness is a frequent quality. Wakeman's more effective on piano than synthesizer, and the more modern instrumentation doesn't gel as comfortably with folk-rock-based songs such as these.
********************
BIOGRAPHY/AMG/RICK WAKEMAN
Bruce Eder
Born in Perivale, Middlesex, England, Rick Wakeman's interest in music manifested itself very early, and from the age of seven on he studied classical piano. At the age of 14, he joined a local band, Atlantic Blues, the same year he left school to enroll in the Royal College of Music. He had his eye on a career as a concert pianist, but Wakeman was dismissed from the college after it became clear that he preferred playing in clubs to studying technique.
Fragile
By his late teens, he was an established session man, playing on records by such diverse acts as Black Sabbath, Brotherhood of Man, and Edison Lighthouse. At the end of the '60s, his name also began appearing on the credits of albums by such artists as Al Stewart and David Bowie, and one set of sessions with a folk-rock band called the Strawbs led to his joining the group in 1970. After two albums with the Strawbs, Wakeman joined Yes, a post-psychedelic hard rock band that had attracted considerable attention with their first three albums. Wakeman played a key role in the final shape of the group's fourth record, Fragile, creating a fierce, swirling sound on an array of electric and acoustic pianos, synthesizers, and Mellotrons. Fragile was a hit, driven by the chart success of the single "Roundabout," and Wakeman was suddenly elevated to star status.
Close to the Edge
Yes' next album, Close to the Edge, expanded his audience and his appeal, for his instruments were heard almost continually on the record. During the making of Close to the Edge in 1972, Wakeman also recorded his first solo album, an instrumental work entitled The Six Wives of Henry VIII, which consisted of his musical interpretations of the lives and personalities of the said six royal spouses. Released early in 1973 on A&M Records, it performed respectably on the charts. Public reception of Yes' 1974 album, Tales From Topographic Oceans, was mixed, and the critics were merciless in their attacks upon the record. Wakeman exited the group before the album's supporting tour. His new solo album, Journey to the Center of the Earth, adapted from the writings of Jules Verne and featuring a rock band, narrator (David Hemmings), and full orchestral and choral accompaniment, was released to tremendous public response in both America and England, where it topped the charts. In 1975, his next album, The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, was given a grand-scale premiere at Wembley's Empire Pool, although it also cost Wakeman a fortune to stage the event on ice. During this same period, Wakeman began working on film scores with the music for Ken Russell's Lisztomania, which was a modest hit.
Criminal Record
In 1977, Wakeman returned to Yes, with which he has continued recording and touring. His solo career continued on A&M into the end of the '70s, with Criminal Record and Rhapsodies, which were modestly successful. Wakeman's biggest media splash during this period, however, came through his alleged role in getting the Sex Pistols dropped by A&M Records soon after being signed. None of this bothered his fans, which rapidly expanded to encompass those he picked up through his work with lyricist Tim Rice on a musical adaptation of George Orwell's 1984, and his burgeoning film work, which included the music to movies about the 1976 Winter Olympics and the 1982 soccer World Cup competition. Additionally, he became a regular on Britain's Channel 4. Wakeman's audience and reputation survived the 1980s better than almost any progressive rock star of his era, as he continued releasing albums on his own label. He also remained associated with Yes into the '90s.
********************
BIOGRAPHY/AMG/DAVE COUSINS
Bruce Eder
Dave Cousins is one of the most distinctive and enduring talents to come out of the mid to late 1960s British folk-rock boom -- indeed, along with Richard Thompson, he might be the shining alumnus within the field. Cousins is best known as the leader/founder of the Strawbs, the folk-turned-folk-rock turned progressive rock band that has been his major creative outlet -- with a few notable breaks -- since the mid-'60s. Born David Joseph Hindson in Hounslow, England, Cousins grew up in a middle class home in an area known in more recent years as the Thames Delta. He and a friend from Thames Valley Senior School, Tony Hooper, shared an interest in music. Both were captivated at a young age by the skiffle boom spearheaded by Lonnie Donegan and the Vipers Skiffle Group, but unlike most other fans of those artists, who moved on to a full embrace of American rock & roll, Cousins (and Hooper) resonated more to the folk-influenced side of skiffle music. In his later teens, Cousins was more closely attuned to the work of Martin Carthy and groups such as the Young Tradition, than to the Beatles et al. His devotion to American sounds was focused on the likes of Leadbelly and Elizabeth Cotten, and Ramblin' Jack Elliot (whom he got to see perform in those years); and most important among his early influences were Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, whose music he first discovered through a live recording from the Newport Folk Festival. Cousins had already taken up the banjo, in addition to the guitar, and he got good enough, listening to and emulating Scruggs' style, that he was soon recognized as one of the most skilled young banjo players in England.
His other major influence was Bob Dylan, who was starting to build a following in England in 1964, and with whom he shared many common influences and sources of inspiration. Cousins was aware that, in commercial terms, his own expressive but raspy voice was "unconventional" (to put it politely), in much the same way that Dylan's singing was regarded. He was also fascinated by the American's composing technique and approach to words, though he never did try to truly imitate that style, so much as use it as a benchmark to aim for, in terms the reach of his own songwriting. Meanwhile, he and Hooper were earning something like a living as a duo, performing in clubs and appearing on the radio, and Cousins worked sessions as a banjo player with young up-and-coming performers such as Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell. The Strawberry Hill Boys, with Cousins and Hooper as the core members, came into existence in the mid-'60s as a bluegrass group, and evolved into the Strawbs -- with Cousins as lead singer and principal composer, they evolved from a bluegrass band into a folk outfit (with Sandy Denny fronting them for a time), into an electric folk band, and then a folk-rock group, and finally into a progressive rock group with a strong folk element, kick-starting Rick Wakeman's career in the process.
The one constant was Cousins, whose voice and songwriting have usually been at the center of the group's sound. His work fairly resounds with both rebellion and antiquity, as though he were writing protest songs of the 18th or 19th centuries. Haunting melodies abound, carried by his raspy and sincere voice. Like his one-time idol Dylan, who found a niche for his style of vocalizing, Cousins has created songs and music that allow his singing to sound compelling, even beautiful at times in all of its unconventionality. Those who like his singing absolutely adore it, swearing by his expressiveness; those who don't may never understand the music's appeal. Luckily, there have been enough of the former group to give Cousins and the Strawbs significant record sales on both sides of the Atlantic and places as far away as Japan (where his solo albums were reissued on CD early on, far sooner than they were in England).
Two Weeks Last Summer
His first solo foray, Two Weeks Last Summer was released in 1972, and came about at a curious time for the Strawbs. As leader, Cousins had been the dominant voice in the group for five years, and since Denny's brief stay with the group, virtually all of the songwriting -- apart from the occasional Tony Hooper piece -- had been his. But the addition to the lineup in 1970 of bassist John Ford and drummer Richard Hudson brought two additional songwriter/singers into the fold. Cousins' first solo album was a result of the excess of material that he had written, in these new circumstances, which he chose to debut in a harder rock setting outside the context of the group, in the company of Deep Purple's Roger Glover, Jon Hiseman of Colosseum, and Miller Anderson, then of the Keef Hartley Band; as well as Tony Hooper's successor in the Strawbs, Dave Lambert. Cousins' next solo album, Old School Songs arrived in 1980, showcasing the music of his new collaborator, virtuoso guitarist Brian Willoughby, who would also become a member of the group. Fourteen years later came Bridge, and 13 years after that came Boy in the Sailor Suit in 2006, with Secret Paths following in 2008, and Duochrome, with violinist Ian Cutler, appearing that same year. The year 2008 also saw the first-ever official U.S. releases of Cousins' early solo albums on CD. He also continues to tour with the Strawbs on a regular basis. Since the early '90s, Cousins has also been active in radio, and operates a record label of his own, Witchwood Records.
********************
WEBSITE RW
********************
WEBSITE DC
********************
TO THE TOP
********************
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