the sound of michael brown

I've been on this Michael Brown kick lately: the first Left Banke album, the single "Desiree," and the two Stories albums on Kama Sutra, and the sole album by The Beckies. Three groups, each with a different lead singer, each marked by the distinctive sensibility of a songwriter/auteur who is one of those vanished purveyors of '60s and '70s pop.They tried to slap the 'baroque-rock' label on 'Walk Away Renee' (written when Brown was 15); of course it didn't stick. But that lilting string intro sticks in the brain: it didn't sound like anything else on the radio, not even like the hit singles ("As Tears Go By," "Yesterday") that used string-sections for ornamentation. This was something haunting and evasive.The Left Banke's first album, to me, ranks close to the '60s pop classics that it beat to the ornate punch, like "Forever Changes" and "Odessey and Oracle." Songs like "Pretty Ballerina," "She May Call You Up Tonight," "Lazy Day," "Evening Gown," all are minature masterpieces.You should also try to find the two Stories albums, and investigate such Michael Brown-Ian Lloyd songs as "I'm Coming Home," "Please, Please," and "Darling" (forget "Brother Louie," the only big Stories hit: Brown wasn't involved in that, and the song wasn't even on the first pressing of "About Us"). "The Beckies," on Sire (1976), doesn't rise to Left Banke/Stories levels, but it's definitely worth a listen.