tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post8462521510047945172..comments2023-09-06T02:38:57.320-07:00Comments on Music Sounds Better With Two: The Promise: Springwater: "I Will Return"Lenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04912525192415808946noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post-73505579310426991312012-08-04T02:40:25.791-07:002012-08-04T02:40:25.791-07:00The charts around the time were full of foreboding...The charts around the time were full of foreboding, not apocalyptic but very dark. The strings on Witch Queen of New Orleans are the most atonal and eerie, the Four Tops' Simple Game has a very optimistic lyric over a vast swirling Turner of a backdrop. Even Coz I Luv U is as tense as it is joyous, the vocal mixing desperation and threat.<br /><br />Something's about to change. <br /><br />The promo film for I Will Return is exactly how the adult world looked to me, aged 6 - slow, important, dark, foggy. 1972 was the first 'new year' I could grasp as a concept, and it felt so much lighter. <br /><br />That's a great call Lena - it's almost like the 60s are being exorcised from pop. Phil Cordell's lament had great foresight. <br /><br />I really regret not looking into Cordell's history a little earlier. It turned out he'd been living round the corner from me, and by any accounts was a generous, kind man, always helping local musicians in his home studio. He had no great ambitions beyond creating music, all on his own (he plays everything on I Will Return), but scored a German no.1 with Dan The Banjo Man which must have paid the rent for a while. <br /><br />Lena, given your mentions of The Troubles can I point you to Cordell's single Londonderry? Dense production, impenetrable lyric, I can't believe it doesn't relate in some way to The Troubles. It's pretty astonishing.wichita linemanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03858858584658438308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post-18960090503504829562012-08-03T15:55:06.672-07:002012-08-03T15:55:06.672-07:00Great call on it being a major 60s/70s cusp single...Great call on it being a major 60s/70s cusp single, and a prescient title. <br /><br />It's a major regret of mine that I never tried to seek out Phil Cordell a little earlier. By the time I did a bit of research, and discovered he'd been living round the corner, it was just a few months after he died.<br /><br />By any account I've read, he was like Joe Meek's gentle nephew, helpful to local musicians in his home studio, not especially ambitious. He did score a no.1 hit in Germany with Dan The Banjo Man, which must have paid the rent for a while. He also (and I imagine this might interest MSBWT given Lena's occasional comments on The Troubles) release a densely produced single called Londonderry with almost indecipherable lyrics.<br /><br />The video for I Will Return is exactly how 1971 felt to me, aged 6. Couldn't work out what was going on in the adult world, but it looked, and sounded, dark and important. '72 felt like someone switched the light on.wichita linemanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03858858584658438308noreply@blogger.com