04/09/2010

In Brooklyn


First-time visitors to New York take with them ideas of what they will find there. There are the well-known landmarks, of course, but many of the areas of the city will have some associations for the newcomer from virtue of movie, TV, song or book. Manhattan, Harlem, Greenwich Village all have an immediate picture in the mind - even Queens, if you watched Cagney and Lacey. Brooklyn, however, at least to the British visitor, doesn’t carry so many prior expectations of what to expect. There’s awareness of the Brooklyn Bridge, perhaps the Brooklyn Dodgers, some notion of the Brooklyn accent based on My Cousin Vinnie or The Goodfellas. There are plenty of songs about the place-from Neil Diamond to the Beastie Boys to Mos Def to Salem al Fakir- but somehow a clear picture seems illusory before you actually see it for yourself

The song here, In Brooklyn by Al Stewart, is a perspective very much from British eyes and is also something now of a period piece in the way of Sunny Goodge Street - it came out in 1969 and you can almost smell the patchouli. Al Stewart is perhaps best known for his hit Year of the Cat but at the time of this song he was on the same club/college circuit as Roy Harper, with a style not unlike Donovan’s. His work was not to everyone’s taste and could range from the somewhat twee to the slightly bombastic, with later songs tackling Nostradamus, the French Revolution and the German invasion of Russia in WW2. His earlier albums were more introspective, foreshadowing the singer-songwriter beloved of bed-sitter land in the early seventies. In Brooklyn comes from his second album, Love Chronicles, on which he was backed by Jimmy Page and most of Fairport Convention, including Richard Thompson, in a jangly folk-rock style and features a number of personal and contemplative stories in a confessional song manner.

The title song, Love Chronicles, an 18 minute auto-biographical epic chronicling every sexual crush and encounter from ‘ Stephanie in the kindergarten arithmetic class’ onwards, gained some notoriety from supposedly being the first mainstream record to use the f-word (though Dylan’s Rain Day Women 12 &35 reputedly contains it if you listen hard enough) and then print it on the record cover. Hearing some of the lyrics now does, unfortunately, bring to mind Tony Blair’s reminiscences of him and Cherie in his Memoirs. However, it was quite brave. Singing his accounts of being a successful Lothario across Europe and America - along with a song called You Should Have Listened to Al- round the provincial college circuit was, frankly, asking for a punch on the nose.

Where Stewart excelled was in detailing a descriptive story in 3 or 4 minutes and In Brooklyn - the account of an encounter with a girl from Pittsburgh during his first trip to New York- is such a song. It paints a picture that was very much of its time at the tail end of the sixties. The girl with the harmonicas was probably called Moon Child, had long hair and a copy of the I-Ching and was a bit loopy. Though living in Brooklyn, New York to her was between Fourth Street and Nine (Greenwich Village) The whole feel of it is reminiscent of Hair or Stoned Soul Picnic and it also reminds me of Simon & Garfunkel’s America for some reason. Maybe it is because characters in both songs started their journey in Pittsburgh; or maybe it is that the relationships in both songs seemed doomed and are set against an era coming to an end. (As a bit of trivia here, Al Stewart shared lodgings with Paul Simon when he was in England in the mid-sixties).

What gives the description of Brooklyn-with the smell of the hamburger stand in the rain, the pawnbrokers and the winos begging money - an added dimension here is the vocal delivery. Al Stewart was actually born in Scotland before moving to the English south coast but on In Brooklyn he sounds like Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys, impeccably English-‘mine was cold anyway and just grand’ - and an outsider looking in, which oddly enough makes it all the more accessible and believable. With that accent, the long hair and the afghan coat, no wonder he turned the head of a wannabe hippy from Pittsburgh.

I, too, got to Brooklyn on my first trip to New York, on the Brooklyn loop of the bus tour and some 40 years behind Al Stewart. It wasn’t enough yet to write a little narrative like this song but I did get to see the Brooklyn Bridge and to stand looking at the panorama of the lights illuminating the city against the night sky. And I was definitely in Brooklyn.

Link to song

37 comments:

  1. Hey Geoff! I'm from LA and am a fan of the LA Dodgers. Who began as the Brooklyn dodgers, as you mention. Some people I know are so hardcore they don't even acknowledge the current name of the Dodgers, still thinking of them as the Brooklyn Dodgers. People take Brooklyn very seriously!

    You pick intriguing places to write about - Manchester, Brooklyn, Cuba, Abergavenny! Glad I discovered the column!!

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  2. I actually think there are more songs about Brooklyn than Manhatten, which is very strange - and I agree with you Geoff that as a NYC borough it summons fewer (movie) images than Queens or Manhatten or the Bronx even. I wonder why this is! Maybe it's BECAUSE of the visual image vacuum that music images can flood in, filling the void?

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  3. I'm not sure I agree with the idea that there are loads of Brooklyn songs, I could only thing of Peter Criss's 1994 solo record "Blue Moon Over Brooklyn".

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  4. I enjoyed the column! I imagine it was hard to find songs about Brooklyn that aren't rap/hip hop - like these:
    Jay-Z – Brooklyn’s Finest (feat. Notorious B.I.G.)
    MC Lyte – Kickin’ 4 Brooklyn
    Mos Def – Brooklyn

    Geoff - any reason you haven't written about rap yet? I bet there are some hip hop fans, me included, who'd love to hear your take on a song or two......

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  5. Geoff mentioned the Beastie Boys so I went in search of what he was talking about - it's "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" for anyone interested.

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  6. I totally agree with Tiffanye (and Geoff) that there are a lot of Brooklyn songs! Don't forget

    The Black Keys – Brooklyn Bound .
    3rd Bass – Brooklyn Queens

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  7. Great column Geoff! Brooklyn's my favourite part of NYC, I lived there for over a decade. Here are a few more songs about it (for when you write the book and have a nice long appendix listing all the songs about cities)!!

    * Brooklyn Z00-Ol' Dirty Bastard
    * Brooklyn-Fabolous
    * Hello Brooklyn-Beastie Boys
    * Hello Brooklyn-Jay-Z
    * Brooklyn We Go Hard-Jay-Z feat. Santogold
    * We Fly High-Brooklyn Remix-Jay-Z
    * Bucktown-Smif-n-Wessun
    * Lighter's Up-Lil Kim
    * Brooklyn Anthem-Foxy Brown

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  8. Loved the column and hadn't known about this song! Here's my two cents for the Brooklyn masterlist!:
    Brooklyn (Will You Love Me Forever? Will You Kill Me Now?) - Creaky Boards

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  9. Wonderful column Geoff - I love Stewart's intimate folk style. I think you'd love Past, Present & Future, which was Stewart’s fifth album. The original idea was that each song would represent a decade from the 20th century. It's like a travel album / historical album - totally unique. Here's one song from it:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa89bt0GZvQ&

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  10. Thanks for the link Laura.
    I think you are right, Desiree, that a lot of songs about Brooklyn are hip hop. I suppose I chose this one, even if it is dated now, because it was by an obvious outsider looking in-a British person on their first trip to New York.

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  11. Yes, I loved that approach, Geoff - it's a great angle to write from (the same one as the singer/songwriter). And refreshing too to realize that not all Brooklyn songs are hip hop!

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  12. So great to read something about Al Stewart apart from the usual "Year Of The Cat" stuff - thanks Geoff!

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  13. Great column Geoff. I highly recommend his "Live Radio Concert Album" from 1978. It is a fantastic recording, made during the 'Time Passages' North American tour - at the studios of radio station WKQX in Chicago for their 'live studio jam' programme.

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  14. Year of the Cat is such a classic record, though, Vince. I remember first hearing it as a teenager and it was the first of many Al Stewart albums that I bought. I have seen Al a number of times in concert, he's mainly a solo acoustic artist live, occasionally appearing with Dave Nachmanoff and other talented guitarists, and once in a while, the incredibly talented Peter White.

    I recommend that you see Al live if you get a chance, Geoff. Between songs he tells stories and makes observations on life. It's a very entertaining show.

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  15. I love his album Zero She Flies. It was his third LP, released in 1970, the year I got my first record player, and also the year of the first time I saw him in concert, in January at Crewe Hall, Sheffield, supported by thr Third Ear Band, who were the reason for my being there.

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  16. I'm sure you know them Geoff, but "Down in the Cellar" is great. "A Beach Full of Shells" and "Sparks of Ancient Light" are in the same class. True man of music he is.

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  17. I can't think of a bad album from Al. All his songs have merit. The guy's a genius.

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  18. He played at Glastonbury this year-40 years after his appearance at the first one in 1970. However, I think he is probably more well known in the USA these days than in Britain.

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  19. I totally agree about Zero She Flies being mindblowing. It's so plaintive, with a folky feel, and although it contains relatively short songs, it is complex in its structure. It includes "Manuscript," which was Stewart's first venture into using historical themes, something that would become a trademark of Al's eclectic and diverse music on later albums where he deals with political, historical, and sociological issues, as well as normal standard rock radio favourites. Listen to his song, “Trains", from his "Famous Last Words" album, a song of sheer brilliance, which on the surface seems to be about the history of rail travel, but is, in fact a long narrative about the trains that carried refugees to concentration camps during the Holocaust. His great song, “Post World War Two Blues,” tells about the attitudes of people after WW 2, and refers to Louis Mountbatten and Jimi Hendrix. Definitely not your average song theme. Absolutely amazing lyrics, and typical of Al Stewart's eclectic songwriting. His song, “Flying Sorcery,” is the story of Amy Johnson, the brave English aviatrix who died in 1941 during WW2. Not all his songs are about war, though - I love "Night Train To Munich", "Song On The Radio", or "If It Doesn't Come Naturally, Leave It". Anyway, thanks for this brilliant posting Geoff!

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  20. Big Al Stewart fan here. I love how his songs can be humorous, melodic, rock orientated, and contain many more diverse themes and qualities too numerous to mention here. Al Stewart is one of the great "unfashionable" artists who has always "done his own thing", musically. The guy is a brilliant songwriter, and a lyrical genius. Thanks Geoff!

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  21. Geoff - just discovered your column. A cool story for you: on a recent flea market stop, I came across a near perfect copy of Al Stewart's 1976 classic The Year of the Cat. It's not a record I ever owned but something about it caught my attention. I'd like to say it was the cover art but I'm probably the least likely guy to be attracted to cats. I remember hearing the title track often on the Dr. Don Rose show on the Bay Area's KFRC 610 AM. I had no idea what any of the lyrics meant but I always thought there was something very cool about it in a jazzy pop tune kind of way. The rest of the album was more of an unknown to me, but I figured for one dollar, I couldn't go wrong.

    The great thing about albums is the ceremony that accompanies the first spin. It forces you to sit back and actually listen. As the needle drops and I hear that beautiful surface noise, I'm immediately swept into the wonderfully warm sound that ONLY vinyl can offer. And then there's the thorough study of the cover, the artwork, the lyrics and the liner notes - essential to the whole experience.

    As I listened to side A, I realized the whole record is filled with gems. I flipped to side B - another cool aspect of the album experience - and the ceremony continued onward to the crown jewel title track that closes out the album. It's so 70's retro cool but still relevant with that great piano intro and easy backing groove into that first lyric:

    On a morning from a Bogart movie
    In a country where they turned back time
    You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre
    contemplating a crime...

    Who even writes lyrics like that today? I found myself wanting to listen to the entire record again. When was the last time that happened to you? As it turns out, I am not the only one. This has become the 'go- to' record in our house because it gets everyone's attention. They stop and take notice. There's something about it that resonates and makes you want to hear it again. It got me thinking. This would make a perfect feature for boomitude and maybe Al Stewart would be willing to tell us his story.

    We tracked him down and set up an interview. I met up with him in New York and we hung out and talked for awhile. He's an interesting and talented man who generously shared the story of this amazing and lasting musical statement. Before I left, I told Al how I picked up the LP for a dollar and asked if he would sign the cover. He happily obliged and as he handed it back to me, he said in perfect Al Stewart style, "Now it's worth two dollars!"

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  22. I love the Al Stewart story about Yoko Ono. Stewart as a struggling musician was friendly with Yoko Ono. At one point she convinced him to invest 100 pounds in her new film. He did. Imagine his surprise when he found out he invested in a film titled No4, which showed people's naked rear ends in various settings. Needless to say, the film did not have financial success. Stewart, who I have witnessed first hand transform over time from someone who at first appeared a bit uncomfortable performing live to someone who is now extremely comfortable and engaging in concert, said that after Yoko hooked up with John Lennon, he wrote to her asking for his money back. A couple (or a few, I don't remember which) weeks later, Stewart gets a check in the mail for 100 pounds from John Lennon. Stewart continued on saying he didn't know whether to cash the check or frame it. Unfortunately, he needed to eat.

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  23. From the start Stewart was not only an excellent guitarist but he used only the best to play with him (and I read that he even bought his first guitar from future Police guitarist Andy Summers). For example, Jimmy Page (future Led Zeppelin) played on his first single, “The Elf”.

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  24. Yes, Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) is back playing guitar on Love Chronicles too, the album containing the Brooklyn song Geoff wrote about.

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  25. I became aware of Al Stewart's music in the early 70's when I heard the song “Roads to Moscow” played on WNEW-FM, an album-oriented rock station in New York. I immediately was drawn to the song. The song was eight minutes of excellent guitar work, good melodies, and interesting lyrics sung by a man with a voice with character, not someone who would make Simon Cowell smile.

    After hearing that song the first time, I rushed out to Record World in the old Massapequa Mall and bought Past, Present and Future, Stewart's album that contained “Roads to Moscow”. After listening to that album a couple of times, Stewart quickly became one of my favorites. One week later I rushed back to Record World and was disappointed that I could not find any other Al Stewart records under his tab in the shelves. But then I had a brilliant (at least brilliant for me) idea. I went to their import bin where I found four additional Al Stewart releases. I bought all four albums and after listening to them Stewart jumped to the top of my list of favorite music artists (for some reason I'm always making lists), dropping the Moody Blues to two and Uriah Heep to three.

    Interestingly, the same phenomenon that happened to me with Al Stewart's music happened to me again this century. After listening to the album Plans by Death Cab for Cutie, which contains the exceptional song “Soul Meets Body”, I ran out (well this time stayed in) and ordered their back catalog from Barsuk Records. Also, I went to Rider College (New Jersey) and the floor in my dorm (good old Poyda B) was known for top of the line stereos, constant music playing, and the discovery of new bands. I still have my JBL100 speakers from my old college days. During my freshman year my two major contributions to discovering new bands were Al Stewart and Renaissance. Later, WNEW-FM would play Stewart's “Roads to Moscow” back-to-back with Renaissance's “Mother Russia”. And I was in heaven when they toured together and I saw them first in New York City (Renaissance was the headliner) and later in Philadelphia (Al Stewart was the headliner – WMMR played a lot of Stewart's music).

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  26. Uriah Heep is not a name you hear much nowadays!
    I think the original Renaissance had Keith Relf from the Yardbirds and his sister Jane as singer-before the lineup that did the big hit Northern Lights

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  27. Al Stewart's latest release, Sparks of Ancient Light in 2008 comes highly recommended by me, in case you didn't hear it yet, Geoff. The songs here are interesting, catchy, and showcase excellent musicians. His lead guitarist on his studio albums continues to be Laurence Juber, however he usually tours with Dave Nachmanoff, who is a fine guitarist in his own right. Highlights from this album include: “Angry Bird” (love this song), “A Child's View of the Eisenhower Years”, “Lord Salisbury”, “Hanno the Navigator” and “Shah of Shahs”.

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  28. One of the most underrated albums of all time is Al Stewart's Last Days of the Century (1988), such a great rock album with excellent music, interesting lyrics and catchy tunes. One of the best songs that no one ever heard of is on this album. “Bad Reputation” is one of my favorite songs ever. To me, it has an 80's new wave feel to it. This album also includes fine songs such as “Last Days of the Century”, “Where Are They Now” (love the lyrics), “Fields of France”, “King of Portugal” (he even released a CD single for this song with a dance version – how 80's) and his tribute song to Josephine Baker, titled creatively “Josephine Baker”. The album also included backing vocals by Tori Amos and the return of Peter Wood.

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  29. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  30. Geoff! You wrote about Brooklyn - great!! My town immortalized!

    Now, I definitely think you should come back to Brooklyn next time you visit. Shoot me an email and I'll tour you around - lots of great music venues.

    Also, I want to echo the recommendation above by Laura of "Past, Present and Future." It marks Stewart as a “history-chronicling troubadour." In fact, he helped me get an “A” on a college history test. I quoted some of the lyrics from his song, “Roads to Moscow” in an essay. Other great songs on this album include, “Old Admirals” (another popular Stewart theme is the sea, this song combines the sea with history), “Terminal Eyes”, “Soho (Needless to Say)”, and of course “Nostradamus”, which was my first exposure to Nostradamus' prophesies.

    Ok, well, off to listen to Dylan’s Rain Day Women 12 &35, to try and hear the f-word.

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  31. I remember seeing Al Stewart after he released the album "Russians and Americans" overseas at a small club on Long Island that had very scarce audience. I felt like he was performing a concert just for me. After the concert I was overjoyed to learn that he had his album with him for sale from his overseas label since he hadn't gotten a label to release it in the U.S. yet. After purchasing the album I waited on line to get it signed by Al. To this day, that was the only time I ever wanted to, and asked someone for an autograph. I still have that album.

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  32. Al Stewart's fourth album Orange is one of my favorite Al Stewart albums. The musicians that played with Stewart on this album are a very impressive lot. They included future Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman, and the superb guitar player, Tim Renwick, who also worked with Pink Floyd, the Alan Parsons Project, David Bowie, Elton John, Eric Clapton, David Byron (had to get another mention of Uriah Heep; Byron was their lead singer), and more. This album goes from one of my favorite folk-rock songs of all time, “Songs Out of Clay” to the Rick Wakeman-led progressive rock song “News From Spain”, to the “pre-Harry Chapin, Harry-Chapin-ish” (based on lyrics) “Night of the 4th of May”.

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  33. I very much agree with your thoughts, Geoff, about it being reminiscent of Simon & Garfunkel’s America - for the very reasons you mention. I love how so many of the songs on your blog intertwine and refer back to one another, lots of connections between them all. It's so great.

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  34. Now we need a column about Queens and another about the Bronx to make things complete!:) (I doubt there are any about Staten Island so you're released from that duty Geoff!!)

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  35. Well, there 59th Bridge Street Song (Feelin Groovy) and isnt there a song called The Bronx is Beautiful this time of year? (possibly satirical?

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  36. However, I havent been to the Bronx or Queens-but I have been to Staten Island!

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  37. Yes, I think this is the song you mean - which I hadn't heard about but went to try and find just now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgR6zFkMXT8 - funny!

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