The Vashti Variations
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Artist:
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Album:Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind (Singles And Demos 1964 To 1967)
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With all the latter-day love (and acknowledgement of influence) lavished on English dream-folk singer-songwriter Vashti Bunyan by the likes of Joanna Newsom and Devendra Barnhart, how did she bypass my attention for so long?Maybe it’s the miniscule output: A few low-impact U.K. singles from the late ‘60s; one now-lionized but then-commercially ignored 1970 album (Just Another Diamond Day, produced by Joe Boyd, renowned for his work with Nick Drake and Fairport Convention); and, after a long rural retreat to raise a family away from the frenzy of the music business, a nominal comeback album (Lookaftering) in 2005. I did notice her uncommon name here and there. It could’ve been because she was a known confederate of psychedelic folkie Donovan and the airy-fairy Incredible String Band. More likely, it was because, like Nico of Velvet Underground fame, she was an early client of the Rolling Stones’ manager Andrew Loog Oldham. And, like Nico, her earliest record release was a 45 on Oldham’s Immediate label. But Vashti’s 1965 single "Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind" was not your garden-variety debut. It was written by the Stones’ Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, presumably as a favor to the man directing their careers. Although I was familiar with the Stones' version of the song, a minor number that surfaced on their odds-and-ends compilation Metamorphosis, I hadn’t heard the Vashti take until getting access to the just-issued album Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind - Singles and Demos 1964 to 1967.
As the title says, this new collection gathers together the angelic-voiced Vashti’s handful of early singles and demos (many of the latter previously unreleased), 25 tracks in total. Three of the cuts were bonus selections on the 2000 CD reissue of Just Another Diamond Day, which I recently heard for the first time.Although the heavily-orchestrated “Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind” has a generic Mod, swingin’ London sound that smacks of boiler-plate Brit-pop hitmaking of the era, the B-side “I Want to Be Alone” is much closer to the hippie-dippy, rustic psychedelic-folk sound that would characterize Just Another Diamond Day - and more endearing. It follows that “I Want to Be Alone,” a gentle ode to solitude, is her own composition. What’s interesting, considering the Nico parallels, is how much it reminds me of the Velvet Underground’s ballads “I’ll Be Your Mirror” and “Sunday Morning.”Her second single “Train Song” - a yearning tune about soon-to-be-reunited lovers - is included. It sounds very much like something Joan Baez would have been comfortable covering, as does “Love Song,” which also echoes Joni Mitchell’s sweet and tender music of the era. The unassailably lovely “Winter is Blue” - which was performed by Vashti as part of Oldham’s feature-length pop-music promo film “Let’s All Make Love in London” - has a bit of that faux-Renaissance vibe that the Stones’ went for on “Lady Jane” and “Sitting on a Fence,” and it is a genuine confection to be savored. There are some choice demos here, especially the delicate “Wishwanderer,” the dark, hallucinogenic-yet-whimsical “17 Pink Sugar Elephants,” and the almost-jaunty “Don’t Believe.” And the second half of the collection is comprised of Vashti’s first studio demo session from 1964 in its entirety, a lo-fi affair complete with her stating the titles of songs before singing and accompanying herself on guitar.Much of this has the sort of half-naïve, half-melancholy air of Just Another Diamond Day - including the occasional sing-song nursery-rhyme flavor. Imagine if Beatrix Potter had mistakenly picked and eaten the wrong mushrooms after a blithe tramp in the woods, and in her subsequent delirium, had decided to write a few folk songs.As on Vashti's venerated first album, the breathy mix of innocence and deep feeling that characterizes many songs on Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind (whether bare-bones or fully produced) is refreshing in this cynical world of ours - and soothing like a musical somatic. Some of us might weary of 25 tracks’ worth – including alternate versions of three songs. Still, one can find beauty, joy, sadness and comfort in her music. And those who adore Just Another Diamond Day and are hungry for more will be thrilled at this excavation of rarities.Here’s Vashti singing “Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind,” penned by Mick and Keith:And here’s a vintage TV clip of Vashti performing “I Want to Be Alone”:
As the title says, this new collection gathers together the angelic-voiced Vashti’s handful of early singles and demos (many of the latter previously unreleased), 25 tracks in total. Three of the cuts were bonus selections on the 2000 CD reissue of Just Another Diamond Day, which I recently heard for the first time.Although the heavily-orchestrated “Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind” has a generic Mod, swingin’ London sound that smacks of boiler-plate Brit-pop hitmaking of the era, the B-side “I Want to Be Alone” is much closer to the hippie-dippy, rustic psychedelic-folk sound that would characterize Just Another Diamond Day - and more endearing. It follows that “I Want to Be Alone,” a gentle ode to solitude, is her own composition. What’s interesting, considering the Nico parallels, is how much it reminds me of the Velvet Underground’s ballads “I’ll Be Your Mirror” and “Sunday Morning.”Her second single “Train Song” - a yearning tune about soon-to-be-reunited lovers - is included. It sounds very much like something Joan Baez would have been comfortable covering, as does “Love Song,” which also echoes Joni Mitchell’s sweet and tender music of the era. The unassailably lovely “Winter is Blue” - which was performed by Vashti as part of Oldham’s feature-length pop-music promo film “Let’s All Make Love in London” - has a bit of that faux-Renaissance vibe that the Stones’ went for on “Lady Jane” and “Sitting on a Fence,” and it is a genuine confection to be savored. There are some choice demos here, especially the delicate “Wishwanderer,” the dark, hallucinogenic-yet-whimsical “17 Pink Sugar Elephants,” and the almost-jaunty “Don’t Believe.” And the second half of the collection is comprised of Vashti’s first studio demo session from 1964 in its entirety, a lo-fi affair complete with her stating the titles of songs before singing and accompanying herself on guitar.Much of this has the sort of half-naïve, half-melancholy air of Just Another Diamond Day - including the occasional sing-song nursery-rhyme flavor. Imagine if Beatrix Potter had mistakenly picked and eaten the wrong mushrooms after a blithe tramp in the woods, and in her subsequent delirium, had decided to write a few folk songs.As on Vashti's venerated first album, the breathy mix of innocence and deep feeling that characterizes many songs on Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind (whether bare-bones or fully produced) is refreshing in this cynical world of ours - and soothing like a musical somatic. Some of us might weary of 25 tracks’ worth – including alternate versions of three songs. Still, one can find beauty, joy, sadness and comfort in her music. And those who adore Just Another Diamond Day and are hungry for more will be thrilled at this excavation of rarities.Here’s Vashti singing “Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind,” penned by Mick and Keith:And here’s a vintage TV clip of Vashti performing “I Want to Be Alone”:
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