26/02/2011

Hampstead Way


12 miles or so from Kew Gardens is Hampstead, not far at all geographically from two of the locations of previous columns – Finchley Central and Willesden/Cricklewood – but very far away in other ways. Houses there have sold for £50m but it has also long been associated with the literary, the cosmopolitan and the bohemian and presents itself as an urban village where film stars and musicians can find a home from home. Donovan, in one of his songs about London, Hampstead Incident, painted a rather mystical picture of the district: “Standing by the Everyman, digging the rigging on my sail, rain fell to sounds of harpsichords, to the spell of fairy tale. The heath was hung in magic mists, enchanted dripping glades”. (The Heath referred to is Hampstead Heath. The Everyman is an art house cinema ,once a theatre, and supposedly one of the oldest in the world. One Saturday years ago, a mist of intellectualism descended round me as I crossed the border into Hampstead from the Willesden direction and I found myself in the Everyman watching the Fellini film La Strada. In Italian.). There was also a curious British film from 1968, Les Bicyclettes de Belsize, which despite its title was a dream-like summery piece of whimsy shot round Hampstead village, with Englebert Humperdink scoring a hit with the title song. The clip below shows the opening credits panning over a scene across Hampstead.

At the same time as Mary Hopkin was singing of Kew Gardens, across London Linda Lewis wrote and sang Hampstead Way, released on her 1971 album Say No More. A British artist who has never really achieved the commercial success that her vocal and song writing talents suggest, Linda Lewis has some obvious parallels with Minnie Riperton. Before her solo work she was part of a psychedelic soul band, Ferris Wheel, that was not dissimilar to Rotary Connection. She has a 5-octave vocal range and ability to sing in the whistle register, a range hinted at in her first hit in 1973, the self-penned Rock-a -Doodle-Doo . And over her career she has blended a range of genres—pop, rock, soul, folk, funk – that make categorisation difficult.

At the time of this record, however, a better comparison was perhaps more with the singer-songwriters of the time like Joni Mitchell or Cat Stevens. This is one of her early songs and not one of her best but, unlike Kew Gardens, Hampstead Way is very much of its time. The song is apparently about a house she lived in at Hampstead Way – a road running north of Hampstead Heath – that was a kind of artistic/hippy commune: probably better situated at that time in Hampstead than her own home stomping ground of West Ham in East London. Rightly or wrongly, my mind’s eye imagines a house with a large kitchen (possibly the Funky Kitchen that is another track on the same album) where there is brown rice, aduki beans and hash cakes and a garden with a patch of herbs irregularly tended. On the record player would be an album by Captain Beefheart or the Staple Singers or maybe Fotheringay. Down the road on Parliament Hill, Pete Brown and his Battered Ornaments and the Edgar Broughton Band would be doing a free concert.

The music, too, is of an era, with just bass and guitars providing a pastoral and bucolic mood, with intermittent bursts of guitar virtuosity ( judging from the album credits these are by Chris Spedding, formerly of the Battered Ornaments and later popping up as a Womble on Remember You’re a Womble).It also ends rather pleasingly with something not that common in pop music: a burst of whistling that naturally fits the mood of sunny vibes. As shown here, whistling can work. Another effective instance was on Goldfrapp’s Felt Mountain album, on the title track and on Lovely Head, though there was a slightly sinister undertone to both of these. However, often whistling on records is either for comic effect (Always Look On the Bright Side of Life); as a musical shorthand to indicate a jolly mood,(Don’t Worry, Be Happy) ,rather in the way that milkmen in old British films are always whistling ; or sounds like the singer has temporarily forgotten the words (Jealous Guy). The story also goes with Dock of the Bay that when Otis Redding went to record it, the last verse hadn’t been written: hence the whistling outro.

To my knowledge, there have only been two hit records that had whistling all the way through: The Happy Whistler (surely a  tautology) by Don Robertson in 1956 and the 1967 record I was Kaiser Bill’s Batman. This tune had been recorded by the Mike Sammes Singers under the name of Whistling Jack Smith but when it became an unexpected hit - possibly because people found it easy to whistle to – someone had to be found to promote it on the road. For some reason, that task was given to Billy Moeller, brother of Tommy Moeller of Unit 4 +2 (Concrete and Clay) and roadie for the group. So one week he was lugging amps and drums, the next he was touring the world dressed up in Carnaby Street gear and miming to someone else’s whistling, as in the clip below.


I have not been to Hampstead that often and, because those times have been in the summer I always think of it as sunny, which suits Linda Lewis’s voice and music. There is an odd thing, however, when comparing this song to Kew Gardens from the same year. Kew Gardens could have been describing a little potential romance 100 years or more ago but it also seems very appropriate to wandering round Kew Gardens today. However, I would not imagine that any of the world in which Hampstead Way was set would be visible  today if you walked down the road. The street and buildings are there and the views would be much the same as 40 years ago, I guess, but the rest might as well be from 500 years ago. Maybe this says something about how the past can be recast or erased to suit the present. Or maybe ‘Everything’s OK now, Hampstead Way’ was always a state of mind more than anything : somewhere where it is always sunny and someone is whistling in the garden. If so, then perhaps after all Hampstead Way does escape its moorings in the London of 1971 as much as Kew Gardens has.

43 comments:

  1. Geoff! I LOVE Linda Lewis, she is just amazing - truly great. Her recordings from the 1970s are some of the best from that whole decade, and you are so right to compare her to the likes of Minnie Riperton.

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  2. She has a great voice! And it seems like she is doing something a little like India Arie (jazz, folk, funk, blues), and yet predates her by a few decades! Thanks for this great column Geoff!

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  3. This is a pretty cool series of recollections, in case you haven't read this article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1194291/Singer-Linda-Lewis-The-night-I-asked-boyfriend-Do-mind-I-sleep-Cat-Stevens.html

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  4. I love her cover of Mary Love's You Turned My Bitter Into Sweet.

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  5. She also sang with she Herbie Goins and the Nightimers I think......

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  6. I think she shared that house with Robert Wyatt and Jeff Dexter.... and Marc Bolan, Cat Stevens, David Bowie, Rod Stewart and Elton John dropped by....:)

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  7. I went to the Greek island of Lesbos a few years ago and was in a bar called Molly's, run by two Englishmen with a great taste in music. When I requested something by Linda Lewis, co-owner Paul said he once worked as her backing singer! We played the entire greatest hits album and sang along to every track. Even nicer than my memories of Rock-a-Doodle-Doo as a 12 year-old!

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  8. You know when you're asked "what was the first single you ever bought?", I have the embarrassment of answering "Rockadoodle doo" by Linda Lewis!:)

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  9. Geoff!!! I just got back to Birmingham after seeing Linda Lewis LAST NIGHT (Friday) at the Stevenage Leisure Centre. It was part of the Three Degrees' tour (she is the opening act). You should try to catch her on the tour - she was really good.

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  10. I think she shows even more range than Minnie ever showed, she's able to sing in a lower range.......

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  11. I think Rockadoodle doo is a pretty cool record as the first single ever bought! For anyone who hasnt heard it, this is it
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gSDRkeyEKg

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  12. I do like your blog. And I love Hampstead Heath; its quiet grassy slopes and lively pockets of trees; signs and sounds of the seasons as they come and go; glittering ponds alive with the chatter of ducks, swans and moorhens...

    Here is me reading a poem about it:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1z_NiNpRQw

    Thank you.

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  13. I think Hampstead is an odd fluke of London. I sometimes walk through it marvelling at the diners chowing on sushi and Italian food on pavement cafes, looking at the quaint hand painted signs of the employment agencies and the solicitors offices, and the overpowering, opulent Victorian houses. Hampstead in terms of atmosphere and style looks as if it should be a small town with a rich history in Surrey, not an area in Zone 2 of London. Anyway, whenever I walk up its numerous hilly, quiet side streets, I'm forced to remember the fact that many years ago as a child I used to have a computer game called "Hampstead", which was an adventure game whereby you had to climb the social ladder and impress the right people enough in order to be able to settle down there and not be seen as a fraud. I think I managed to attain Richmond status by cunningly wearing an old school tie that wasn't mine and passing off a metal bracket that I found on an industrial estate in East London as a piece of art, but Hampstead eluded me. It always will, quite honestly.

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  14. There's also Microdisney's "Singer's Hampstead Home", a blatant sneerathon at the expense of Boy George and his wealthy wasteful ways.

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  15. I think The Stranglers "Five Minutes" is about Hampstead - including the proximity of the place to rougher estates, its chorus of "Five Minutes and you're almost dead" is about of the varied social landscape of London.

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  16. Geoff - I LOVE THIS DESCRIPTION! And I want this to be a true scene!!

    Rightly or wrongly, my mind’s eye imagines a house with a large kitchen (possibly the Funky Kitchen that is another track on the same album) where there is brown rice, aduki beans and hash cakes and a garden with a patch of herbs irregularly tended. On the record player would be an album by Captain Beefheart or the Staple Singers or maybe Fotheringay. Down the road on Parliament Hill, Pete Brown and his Battered Ornaments and the Edgar Broughton Band would be doing a free concert.

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  17. Geoff, this is the best history and analysis of whistling I've ever read. And I am now totally convinced that "As shown here, whistling can work." Genius!

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  18. Geoff, you are so right about the whistling milkman! I feel like so many old filmsincludes a whistling milkman in it at some point. Probably the union which represented milkmen also represented whoever’s role it is in telly and movie world to decide which extras to use.... If you think about it, it would make sense. Long hours of filming dictates lots of tea breaks, so why not have a whistling milkman on hand to keep your milk stocks filled?:)

    Anyway, France has onion sellers on bikes (don’t they?) and we’ve got our milkmen.

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  19. They even delivered in September 1940.... during the Blitz........: http://www.corbisimages.com/images/67/8980D161-6A97-47EE-AEA6-0CD0FCB14F6B/HU007389.jpg

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  20. Ha ha, this is funny and great if it's true! I love these tidbits from your column, and often borrow them for chats/lunches/dinner parties - they are great conversations! "The story also goes with Dock of the Bay that when Otis Redding went to record it, the last verse hadn’t been written: hence the whistling outro"

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  21. And don't forget Dave Evans' instrumental "Whistling Milkman" - here is me performing it:)

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  22. I loved this image of 1971 London - it is such a rich era in the imagination of London I think. But I hadn't grasped this image before. More often 1971 London is the one of that film "The Bank Job". You know, decent criminals, bent coppers, topless barmaids and sinister Whitehall toffs.

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  23. Geoff, I agree that this a really refreshing vision of Hampstead. I associate it with a past era, but definitely more the 1950s or something - something gentrified, the teashops, tiny stores, etc, based on the vestiges of that era that seem to dominate Hampstead Village - http://hampsteadrentals.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/hampstead-village1.jpg

    Fascinating to imagine/remember Hippie Hampstead!

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  24. there are still hippies in hampstead, here we are on the heath a few years ago -

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/71644549@N00/739223495
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/nevermore/740086808/in/set-72157600685927140/
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/71644549@N00/739219505

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  25. Hampstead always reminds me of Hebden Bridge (where I used to live) - bohemian, little shops, funky. I have been trying to think of songs about Hebden Bridge in case you have been here and wanted to write about it, but I haven't thought of any yet!!

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  26. My sister lives in Hebden Bridge so I have been there several times! No, I dont know any songs about either though.
    I hadnt heard of the computer game called Hampstead before. I found this reference to it
    http://www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk/server.php?show=conObject.7611

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  27. Yes! That's it, Geoff - I can't believe you found it! It's a very very strange game. :)

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  28. yes that is me on the album. we recorded it at Trident Studios in March '71. I was knocked out with her voice and songs and everything, and I used to go round to their houses before sessions and work it all out. A couple of times I more or less arranged the whole thing. And the guitar comes out quite well. I put things like bass guitar on afterwards, things like that. They more or less left me pretty free to do my own interpretations of what should happen. but yes also I was Wellington. a womble. we did release four albums though. but i have done stuff since then, you know. the hit record 'Motorbikin' came after the start of the Wombles (in '75). Then my albums Guitar Graffiti in /79 and just a few years ago It's Now or Never in 2007. And I have been touring with The War of the Worlds over the past few years. But people always remember the Wombles most of all. there's never a way to get away from Wimbledon Common and hairy suits now.

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  29. HILARIOUS! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQQ5sEOhbjQ

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  30. I agree that the Goldfrapp whistling is slightly sinister - and it's really interesting! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-qov7Ctmkc

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  31. Yes, I remember Motorbikin'! The guitar sound on this track is wonderful. You dont remember who did the whistling, by any chance?!

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  32. I love the Everyman cinema - it's the best cinema in the world. Here's a snapshot for anyone who has ever been there and is feeling nostalgic (like me): http://www.flickr.com/photos/eden_photography/3734799346/sizes/z/

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  33. I have been reading your blog for a while now, since you began it. I never expected I would feature in it! Thank you for mentioning Les Bicyclettes De Belsize! For anyone else interested, here it a longer clip: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xagh7g_les-bicyclettes-de-belsize_shortfilms,

    The plot is that a young man falls in love with me after crashing into a sign, as he cycles around Hampstead. I don't remember filming anywhere near Belsize Park so I am not sure why it named that! I remember though that we were supposed to be conveying that Hampstead was the best place in the world - THE PLACE TO BE - at this moment in time.

    I also remember that it was somewhat inspired by Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg). And I remember being tremendously impressed with that opening sequence across the roof-tops.

    Anyway, thanks for mentioning the film. Anyone who wants to see it in full, it is available on DVD with another film about London from that era: http://www.amazon.co.uk/London-Nobody-Knows-Bicyclettes-Belsize/dp/B000Z63ZNS

    Judy

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  34. It was the drummer on that album, Terry Cox, who did the whistling. he was always whistling.

    Linda did backing vocals on my album Only Lick I Know, too. She was a great collaborator.

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  35. Thanks for that information!

    Thanks, too, for the Bicyclettes de Belsize clip. I have seen the London Nobody Knows film -a fascinating piece of archive history. I must get the other one now.

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  36. It was actually quite hard to mime whistling whilst dancing. Or to mime whistling at all. But yeah, basically it is now embarrassing that I was whistle syncing. They didn't give me any rehearsals though for that performance you linked to. Just told me to go and stand there and mime. I had to make up the dancing myself.

    The song was originally called Too Much Birdseed, which I didn't really understand.

    But after that I did have a new group called Bill and Buster. With David Meikle of the Unit 4+2. We had some hits in Europe. Here is one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeLla6uVbtc

    Bill Moeller

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  37. I don't think anyone linked to it yet, so here is the Donovan song Geoff mentioned - which is just beautiful; amazing lyrics.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8JVq7q3Izo

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  38. I hadn't heard of The Ferris Wheel, but went to find their stuff - and I really like it! Here's one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZpfG6Ff7eI

    Very cool!

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  39. Thanks for the Bill and Buster song. You are right-I think it is harder to mime to whistling than singing!

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  40. Another clip from the film that gives a flavour of Hampstead of the late 60's
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PyTIKRv6V4&feature=related

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  41. Thanks Geoff. I don't have a DVD or video player, so it is nice to see more clips of the film.

    Judy

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  42. Here's the final bit, with a rather lovely ending

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCK6Mie2Ibw&feature=related

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  43. Thank you Geoff., I love the bit where the little boy says "cor!" And the little girl with glasses feels pretty.

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