Sitting on a Los Angeles hillside in 1967, trying to make sense of the world as it spun out of control before his eyes, Arthur Lee eventually came to a dazed conclusion, of sorts. “Life goes on here day after day,” he sang in “The Red Telephone”. “I don't know if I'm living or if I'm suppo...
IT’S HARVEST TIME!
Four more Mick Head songs in the spirit of The Magical World…
SHACK
Al’s Vacation
GHETTO 1991
A wonderful one-off single that could be described, just about credibly, as insouciant skiffle. Acoustic guitars and bongos figure prominently, while the unadorned production properly showcases Head’s craftsmanship for the first time. Track it down on the 2007 compilation, Time Machine.
SHACK
Mood Of The Morning
MARINA 1995
The jazzy snap of this Waterpistol highlight is a precursor of what was to come on The Magical World. What begins as an acoustic stroll, however, gradually becomes psychedelically intense, with John Head’s lead guitar line taking a wayward and inspired path through his brother’s song.
SHACK
The Captain’s Table
LONDON 1999
A logical enough attempt to manoeuvre Shack into the Britrock elite of the late ‘90s, HMS Fable is the most rumbustious Head album. Delicate moments remain, though, none greater than this baroque fever dream, very much in the vein of “Queen Matilda”.
MICHAEL HEAD & THE RED ELASTIC BAND
Lucinda Byre
VIOLETTE 2013
The gorgeous highlight of the “Artorius Revisited” EP. “The song starts in a café having some acid,” Head told Uncut in 2013. “It’s about getting to the end of Bold Street – if you can. Even if you’re not tripping, there’s no way you can, without bumping into people you’ve not seen for 10 years.”
