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From The Desk Of John Wesley Harding: “In The Land Of Grey And Pink” By Caravan

The 25-year career of singer/songwriter John Wesley Harding has skyrocketed of late with the publication of no fewer than three critically acclaimed novels under his birth name, Wesley Stace. Equally amazing, the artist named for Bob Dylan’s misspelling of Texas gunfighter John Wesley Harden has just released the finest album of a career that’s seen him record at least 18 longplayers for labels ranging from high-profile majors to imprints so small the back catalog was stored in somebody’s garage between the cat box and the washing machine. Produced by old pal Scott McCaughey (Young Fresh Fellows) and fleshed out by no less than R.E.M.’s Peter Buck and the Decemberists, The Sound Of His Own Voice (Yep Roc) is a full-bore stunner with Wes (nobody calls him John) weaving his usual lyrical magic through knockout arrangements of extraordinary songs that revive the ghosts of the Kinks, David Lynch soundtrack guru Angelo Badalamenti and wall-of-sound maestro Phil Spector. For yet another career-topping milestone (gasp), JWH will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week for (yes it’s true) the second time. Read our brand new Q&A with him.

Harding: I went to school in Canterbury and there discovered Soft Machine and Robert Wyatt; Rock Bottom was a huge record for me and remains so. It took me much longer to get to Caravan and Hatfield & The North, but I now think that In The Land Of Grey And Pink is one of the truly great records from the Canterbury scene and, in fact, of all time.

There is nothing I don’t love about this record: Richard Sinclair’s burgundy voice (as Jonathan Coe once described it), Pye Hastings’ tight rhythm guitar, the epic “Nine Feet Underground” on side two, Jimmy Hastings’ flute, the goofy “Golf Girl” and the fantastic title track. For the 40th anniversary, the record was reissued on vinyl, 500 numbered copies, each disc in a different grey and pink swirl.

I even managed to see the 40th anniversary concert at Shepherd’s Bush Empire a couple of weeks ago, which luckily happened to fall during the week of my British tour. It was great, though Sinclair is no longer in the band and Pye sings his songs. Here are the lyrics to the title track, which could, more or less, have been written by Edward Lear:

“In the land of grey and pink where only boy-scouts stop to think
They’ll be coming back again, those nasty grumbly grimblies
And they’re climbing down your chimney, yes they’re trying to get in
Come to take your money – isn’t it a sin, they’re so thin ?
They’ve black buckets in the sky, don’t leave your dad in the rain
Cigarettes burn bright tonight, they’ll all get washed down the drain

So we’ll sail away for just one day to the land where the punk weed grows
Won’t need any money, just fingers and your toes
And when it’s dark our boat will park on a land of warm and green
Pick our fill of punk weed and smoke it till we bleed, that’s all we’ll need
While sailing back in morning light, we’ll wash our teeth in the sea
And when the day gets really bright, we’ll go to sea drinking tea

So we’ll sail away for just one day to the land where the punk weed grows
Won’t need any money, just fingers and your toes
And when it’s dark our boat will park on a land of warm and green
Pick our fill of punk weed and smoke it till we bleed, that’s all we’ll need
They’ve black buckets in the sky, don’t leave your dad in the rain
Cigarettes burn bright tonight, they’ll all get washed down the drain”

My top five Canterbury records:

1. Rock Bottom, Robert Wyatt
2. In The Land Of Grey And Pink, Caravan
3. The Rotter’s Club, Hatfield And The North
4. Volume Two, Soft Machine
5. Matching Mole, Matching Mole

And, bubbling under: Egg, Kevin Ayers, Gilgamesh, Delivery. (I didn’t manage to get into Gong yet, but that’s the great thing about getting older and not being dead. There’s still time. It’ll happen.)

Video after the jump.

One reply on “From The Desk Of John Wesley Harding: “In The Land Of Grey And Pink” By Caravan”

And what exaclty “grumbly grimblies” mean? Any relation to Pink Floyd’s Gnome: Grimble Grumble? ; D
In The Land of Grey and Pink is just fan(fun)tastic(taste)!

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