I Can't Let go - Evie Sands

Badfinger - Without You

The Saddest Song Of All Time.

The music industry can be a very cruel business. It can actually kill people. Even writing one song can have tragic consequences. A Facebook friend of mine yesterday shared a video of Nilsson singing Without You. Everybody knows that song, it sold millions of copies all over the world in 1971 and Mariah Carey repeated this success in 1994. The combined sales of these two versions make it one of the most successful songs ever written. I wonder though how many people know the sad story behind its creation? Hearing the song yesterday made me look on Youtube for the original version by Badfinger. When Nilsson first heard the original song he thought it was The Beatles singing it and I agree, it has a very Beatles sound and the singer Pete Ham in the video reminds me a bit of John Lennon’s son Julian. It is definitely my favourite version of the song. I have shared the video above if you want to hear it.

Badfinger were originally called The Iveys and were formed in Swansea, Wales in 1961. Eventually the line-up became Pete Ham, Tom Evans, Mike Gibbins & Joey Molland. They didn’t have a great deal of success as The Iveys, but in 1968 their fortunes changed when they were spotted by Mal Evans who worked for The Beatles and they became the first group to be signed to The Beatles new Apple label. Their name was changed, and they immediately had worldwide success with such hits as Come And Get It, No Matter What, Day After Day & Baby Blue. Their music also featured in the film The Magic Christian.

Pete Ham & Tom Evans.

Without You was written by Pete Ham & Tom Evans as a track on their album No Dice in 1971. One fateful night Pete Ham had arranged to go out with his wife Bev but Tom Evans said he had an idea for a song. Bev said that was ok, she would go on her own and he should go to the studio, but he could tell she was disappointed. In the song this became ‘Well, I can't forget this evening, and your face when you were leaving, But I guess that's just the way the story goes, You always smile, but in your eyes your sorrow shows’. Tom Evans was also having problems with his relationship with his future wife Marianne. He confided to a friend that he was worried that she would leave him and said he couldn’t live without her. This statement evolved into the chorus of the song. Neither of the writers realised the potential of the song to become a power ballad when recorded by Nilsson & Carey and dozens of other singers.

Pete Ham.

Pete Ham tragically took his own life in 1975 after suffering with depression. This was largely caused by the band being scammed by their manager called Stan Polley who disappeared with all the bands money and left them penniless. Pete had just bought a large house that he now couldn’t pay for and his wife was pregnant. In the suicide note he wrote ‘Stan Polley is a soulless bastard’. You hear people like Van Morrison complaining about the big-time operators in the music business, but I don’t think any band could have been ripped off as badly as Badfinger. Tom Evans never got over the death of his friend and he too committed suicide in 1983 possibly caused by a long running dispute with other band members over royalties for Without You. The song had become a curse. Neither of the two writers of the song lived to hear the multi-million selling version by Mariah Carey. They could have been still alive today having a happy retirement living off the royalties of just that one song, but it never happened. That is why Without You must be a contender for being the saddest song ever written.

Heart Food by Judee Sill.

After the hot weather of the past few days the sky is now grey and rainy. Not to worry, the rain will be good for the garden. I am staying in this afternoon and listening to music. I haven’t written a blog since last Thursday, so I thought I’d tell you what I have been doing. On Friday I had a visitor who called at mid-day, I opened a bottle of wine and then the day descended into an alcoholic haze which is quite rare for me these days.  I resolved to stay off the booze for a few days after that. Sunday was a really nice day apart from hearing on the news about the atrocities in Sri Lanka. I sat outside in my chair all day and read The Remains Of The Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. I had been meaning to read it for ages and I’m glad that I finally did because it is brilliant. It is about the unrequited love between a butler called Stevens and a house-keeper called Miss Kenton. The author uses the fact that the protagonist is a butler as a metaphor for looking at the whole of society because we are all butlers in a way, when you think about it. Ken Kesey used a similar device when he set One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest in a mental hospital in order to show that the powers that be in society do not like an individual thinking for himself in case he rebels. Anyway, there is a lot of humour in the book as well as pathos and I urge you to read it if you haven’t already done so.

I didn’t go out on Monday either, I didn’t see another living soul all day which suited me fine. I pottered around in the garden with just my robin and blackbird for company and planted a few things such as impatiens, fuchsias, lupins, and osteospurmum (That sounds like a disease, but it is a plant). I watched the final of University Challenge on the telly and retired early on Monday night. Tuesday, I went into Bath again. I bought myself some nice new boots in Clarks on Milsom Street. I will need them for Glastonbury which is only about 70 days away now. Then I had another look in Topping & Company and treated myself to a signed first edition by John Cooper Clarke called The Luckiest Guy Alive. Johnnie Clarke is more than a poet, he is a comedian as well. I met him once, it was at Glastonbury 1982, it’s great that he seems to have had a renaissance in popularity in recent years. I think that might be due to a lot of the younger generation discovering him when he was added to the GCSE syllabus in schools. I started to read the book on the train on the way home and chortled quietly to myself all the way to Westbury.

Today, the postman knocked on my door and handed me a package. It contained a cd called Heart Food by Judee Sill. I am on my first listen at the moment. It is a Japanese import which I didn’t realise when I ordered it, so the booklet of sleeve notes is mainly in Japanese. I remember seeing Judee Sill on The Old Grey Whistle Test in the 1970’s and thinking that she wasn’t a very nice person. She was complaining about being sick of being the support act to rock bands. You shouldn’t judge a person by one statement though. When I ordered the album I thought I would add a review to my never-ending list of obscure female singers. What I have heard so far I like, it sounds quite sophisticated and will probably take a few listens to get into. It was released in 1973 on the Asylum label. I like the opening track There’s A Rugged Road. On some tracks such as The Vigilante there are some touches that remind me a little of The Byrds in the Gram Parsons era. As I say though I haven’t heard it enough to give a valid judgement. I think it turned out to be her last album and she sadly died in 1979. I have put a video of one track called The Pearl below if you want to hear it. It’s stopped raining now. I can’t think of anything else to say. See you later.

Judee Sill.

Haiku by John Cooper Clarke.

Judee Sill - The Pearl