Seb Palmer

* A rare original pressing, of the album as initially intended, sans front-cover text.

Having Canadian ancestry, and relatives that still live there, it’s perhaps not too surprising that I should, at some point, become aware of Gordon Lightfoot. What is surprising is how long this has taken.

Sit Down, Young Stranger (1970) became a big success for the already veteran performer, on account of containing his greatest hit to date. The album title has subsequently been changed to If you Could Read My Mind, on account of the massive popularity of this track.

Up until now, I was only dimly aware of ‘Gord’’. And vague un-tested assumptions had me bracketing him as dull mainstream country-tinged MOR. Will a closer listen change this view, I wonder?

Perhaps motivated by his fairly recent passing, in 2023, aged 84, and the comments on this by Canadian family (a cousin saying Lightfoot was ‘the soundtrack to my life’, for example), I’ve decided I ought to check him out.

And to that end I ordered a CD of his 1970 album, which is, as already mentioned, now retitled If You Could Read My Mind.

Like most – or at least many – folk, I’d guess, I discovered Richie Havens thanks to his Woodstock performance. Slated to appear fifth on the bill, he wound up opening the festival, due to other performers arriving late.

I’ve read that the whole show started three hours late. And I’ve also read, in several quotes from from Richie himself (now deceased), that he played a massively long set – he says three hours!? – due to the no-show of the aforementioned acts.

He alludes to the fact that the movie only features him performing two songs – which research suggests were Handsome Johnny and Freedom/Motherless Child – whilst he actually played many more. I can’t find a list suggestive of his three hour claim, but I did find one place listing these titles:

From The Prison
High Flyin’ Bird
I Can’t Make It Anymore
With A Little Help From My Friends
Handsome Johnny
Freedom/Motherless Child

Whatever the true contents and duration of his set were, his position on the bill, and inclusion in the movie, catapulted the coffee-house folkie-scenester to stardom. Just as it did for some other acts, notably Santana.

I recall my dad having misty-eyed reveries in respect of Havens in particular, back when I was a kid living at home, and I first saw the Woodstock movie. It had a pretty profound influence on me, back then.

Over the years I’ve occasionally dipped into Havens’ bag. But only ever very lightly and superficially. I feel the time has come to check him out a bit more thoroughly. Whether I actually will or not, remains to be seen. But the interest/desire is there.

Ironically it was kickstarted by the very recent discovery of Kathy Smith, and esp’ her second album, artfully titled 2, which was released on Havens’ own small independent record label, Stormy Forest.

Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, the label appears to still exist. At any rate, there’s a website of that name. Check it out here.

I seem to have had a cold, or ongoing allergic reaction, for the last three or four weeks. I’m sneezing all the time. And it’s fucking annoying! Indeed, it leaves me feeling, utterly washed out and drained. And I wonder, do I have an allergy to life?

I’m a member of a FB local history group. Someone posted a link to a national database of aerial photos. I checked out a few of March, to see if I could find our home.

Sadly I can’t work out how to download the full scale photo. So both images in this post are screenshots off my iPhone. Hardly ideal! At the top is the full photograph. And below is a zoom in on Creek Rd.

Rather confusingly these photos are upside down, in terms of North/South! I’m going to cross reference these images with Google Earth views, and see if I can pinpoint our place.

In the above pic, from Google Earth, north-south alignment is nearer to correct. I was able to find ours, thanks to it being end of terrace, and next door to a house with a different roof structure/pattern.

The tennis courts and some other recreational green spaces (middle right, on the above image), behind The Conservative Club – which abut our back garden – are in better condition in these old photographs than they are now.

The third, or lower section (actually the northernmost!), is quite a neat area in the black and white image, above. Now, however, it’s an overgrown scrubby wilderness. I wonder if it might be returned to a nicer state, for the benefit of those, like us, living around it?

I was trying to find photos of Ira Newborn from around the time of Police Squad. And, you know how the interweb is, I was soon reading about Cathy Smith’s part in the demise of Jon Belushi.

This in turn lead me to stumble upon ‘60s folksy hippie singer Kathy Smith. After releasing two albums on Richie Havens’ Stormy Forrest label, she appears to have sunk without trace.

Read more about her here.

The above-linked piece says she’s been more or less totally forgotten. But it appears that 2 has been released in CD in Korea and Japan.

A look at the musicians credited on 2 makes me want to get it: they include Jan Hammer (Mahavishnu, etc), drummer Bill LaVorgna (all sorts, inc. The Free Design), flautist Jeremy Steig, and percussionist Daniel Ben Zebulon (Stevie Wonder, Isaac Hayes, Richie Havens, etc).

Whilst out delivering today, I passed through Three Holes. A place whose name has always made me chuckle. But today, for the first time (at least as far as I’m aware), I spotted the village sign, as I drove through. It’s a bridge, with three arches; three holes… of course!

And then, later, I had a look at a church I’ve passed several times now, but never stopped to admire. St Mary The Virgin, Ryston. Just outside of Downham Market.

Whilst I was snapping away outside – roundabout when I took the above photo – a chap who lives opposite came out, and offered to open up the church for me, if I wanted… Of course! And thanks Fraser, you’re a gentleman.

Thanks to Fraser, I learned that the church had serious WWII connections… which always fascinates me.

Apparently all the former servicemen have now passed away, save one, an 104 year old former bomber!

Apparently there was a time when the priest or vicar (or whatever he was called… parson!?) lived up in the tower. Apparently accessed at the time by a rope ladder, not the metal ladder that’s there now. Mad, eh!?

I’ve been trying to gradually make our home look more attractive and at the same time less cluttered. It is quite a difficult balancing act. Putting up pictures, whilst not over cluttering the space visually.

There’s also a slight irony in the choice of images. I’m not a massive sci-fi, reader/fan. And most of these postcards are chosen purely on the aesthetics of the postcard book covers. And even then I was actually quite disappointed with the covers that Penguin chose for the set of postcards I bought. 80 or 90% of which I don’t like enough to want to use at all.

So I might reproduce some other book-covers, and frame and hang those? Stuff that better reflects my actual reading habits. Or that I like more on a purely aesthetic level. An example of the latter might be so-and-so’s cover for the 1970sBallantine Books paperback edition of The Worm Ouroboros.

I might describe this top row as a slightly psychedelic selection.

The lower or bottom row, meanwhile, is more in the ‘classic’ vein.

* Which I don’t own. This cover is from an edition for sale on Oxfam’s website. For £75!

I have read some of the old sci-fi classics, like Journey to the Centre of the Earth (this one several times, including on a honeymoon in Italy!), and The Time Machine. Not sure if I’ve read 20,000 Leagues under the Sea?

I binge-watched the entire Police Squad tonight. Only six episodes. The show was cancelled by dumbass execs.

Leslie Nielsen is sublimely ridiculous as straight-faced clown, detective lieutenant Sgt. Frank Drebin. Alan North is his boss, Capt. Hocken. Other regulars inc. police scientist Doc. Olson (Ed Williams), officers Norberg (Peter Lupus), and Al (‘Tiny Ron’ Taylor), and ‘word on the street’ guy, Johnny (William Duell).

Each episode has a pointless celebrity guest star, who expires during the credits. The humour is very broad, and both visual and verbal. It’s great fun.

The gags are often very formulaic. But the formulae are hugely enjoyable. Drebin is always crashing his beautiful and very long green car (a ‘73 Plymouth Continental?) into trash cans, bicycles, other cars, etc.

Whenever he gets word from his source in the street, shifty shoe shine Johnny, the next customer is a specialist of some sort, and Johnny always has the required ‘info’, be it gossip column advice or heart-surgery.

I believe the show only really works as well as it does because in Leslie Nielsen the Zucker Abrahams Zucker team found the perfect actor for their brand of humour. All the other actors are like lesser planets in orbit around the sun that is Nielsen’s gift for comedy.

It’s such a shame the Columbia TV dullards axed the show. As it’s a simple but effective premise; the TV ‘Cop Show’ being absolutely ripe for spoofing. And as slight as the ingredients may be, it could’ve run forever.

As a wee footnote… I love Frank’s wheels! Green is my favourite colour. I think the paint colour of his Plymouth is Amber Sherwood (metallic). Whatever it is, I adore it! I’d love to have a car like this! It’s pretty huge though. And left-hand drive, of course. And no doubt a real gas-guzzler. Oh well…

After work, and after the sojourn at the Sue Ryder Hospice, I spotted St Botolph’s, and nearby, Longthorpe Tower. The church was open. The tower wasn’t.

Strange church this. Feels like it’s been looked after. Possibly a bit too much? Very mixed bag, stained glass wise. some of which is blocked (e.g. below), so it isn’t illuminated by any light, natural or otherwise. Odd!

The above is the best of the stained glass windows. Very Pre-Raphaelite! Loved the flowers – lilies? – so zoomed in on ‘em:

Lots of varied sized windows. From the big to the cutely small.

Some of the stained glass windows are totally blocked, light-wise. Others just partially so. Such as the one above. At least enough light gets through you get an idea of it. And another close up, this time winged cherubic heads!

And from St. Botolph’s, to Longthorpe Tower…

This tower is apparently famed for some wall paintings it contains. Must go back and check it out when it’s open.