3 posts tagged “chris thompson”

Here's the further post on Chris Thompson, guitarist and singer with Night, that I alluded to a few days ago.  Some months ago, while reading Russian linguist George Starostin's record reviews on Only Solitaire (warning: do not start reading Only Solitaire unless you can afford to get sucked in for hours on end; Starostin is an unabashed fan of what would become codified as Album-Oriented Rock, and has written the most thoughtful, comprehensive, and engaging reviews of AOR albums that I have ever come across), something stirred a distant memory.  I was reading his page on Manfred Mann's Earth Band, and in his review of the 1979 album Angel Station (sung by Chris Thompson), he writes:

Another positive highlight is the weird, near-mystical ode 'Angels At My Gate', in this reviewer's humble opinion, one of the best songs in Manfred Mann's entire catalog. The AMG review had an interesting idea about how Peter Gabriel's 'Games Without Frontieres' might have been influenced by this composition, and hey well you know, they just might have something there; in any case, it's hardly any worse, and sports pretty much the same thrilling otherworldly atmosphere, with echoey ominous drums, misty vocals and heavenly synths somewhere high up in the sky. And the only thing that can keep that threatening chorus out of your head - '58, 56, 54, good angels at my door...' is the fact that you can easily mess up the numbers.

I dimly remember lying in bed late one night in eighth grade (1979) listening to the radio and hearing a weird song with descending numbers in the lyrics.  This was back in the heyday of rock radio, when WAVA would play a new album in its entirety every weeknight at 11:00.  Could this be the song that left an imprint on my mind nearly twenty-five years later after hearing it just once?  I've finally gotten a copy of Angel Station, and yes, that's the song!

The fact that I found the album cover so weird and unsettling probably helped burned the song into my memory.  The All-Music Guide review, which is reproduced on about a zillion other websites, makes mention of the "John Shaw-photographed album cover."  I can't track down this John Shaw, but I think it's fair to say he was influenced by Storm Thorgerson's work with Hignosis, who made "weird and unsettling" the order of the day for 70s rock album covers.  Thorgerson is still doing it, too, most recently for Muse and The Mars Volta, and his designs are just as weird and unsettling as ever.

Hey, this song would make a good mashup with Duran Duran's "The Chauffeur":

Maybe the universe really will give you what you want: just the other day I posted a song by Night and mentioned that I really wanted their song "Hot Summer Nights" but couldn't find it.  And voilá, my old record-selling partner Platters That Matter Records sends me an mp3 of it!  Here it is:

Incidentally, Mr. Platters now has his own blog on Vox, which I expect him to fill with long-forgotten gems from his vinyl vault.  He also reminded me of something I forgot to mention last time, which is that Night's keyboard player is frequent Rolling Stones keyboardist Nicky Hopkins.  I did mention last time that "Hot Summer Nights" is similar to "Gold" by John Stewart and Stevie Nicks, both thematically ("making it" in the rock music business) and musically (the same beat, almost the same descending melody in "Gold"'s electric piano riff and Night's "woo-ooh-ooh"s in the chorus).  But don't just take my word for it, listen "Gold" and compare:

"Gold" came out in 1979, and Night's song in 1980, but it was a version of a Walter Egan song from 1978.  I don't mean to imply any copying on anyone's part, I just wanted to point out the coincidences and say "isn't that cool?"  One thing I have always wondered since 1979 is who the heck is John Stewart?  If you've ever wondered that too, this page will tell you all you need to know.  But to sum it up: John Stewart is an old folkie and songwriter.  He joined the Kingston Trio in 1961, replacing founding member Dave Guard.  He briefly partnered with John Denver later in the 60s, when he wrote "Daydream Believer," which would become a hit for the Monkees.  He spent the 70s as a singer/songwriter (I think); "Gold" was by far his biggest success, from his album Bombs Away Dream Babies.  His own website says he has recorded over 40 solo albums!  And continues to do so.  Now that's persistence!

Another of my guilty pleasures is the horror fiction of R. Chetwynd-Hayes, "Britain's Prince of Chill."  He put out a huge amount of short horror fiction through the 70s and 80s, and I will qualify "horror fiction" by noting that his stories are just as scary as a carnival haunted house, and in the same way.  He actually could write a chilling tale, but he was obviously a humorous sort, and his humor took the edge off of most of his work.  Still, he made a living at it, and had two portmanteau movies made from his stories, From Beyond the Grave and The Monster Club.  A little Chetwynd-Hayes goes a long way, so it had been about a year since I last read him when I discovered a Chetwynd-Hayes fansite, Loughville.  That rekindled my interest and inspired me to get copies of the films, which I had never seen before.  Now here comes the music part: in The Monster Club, vampire Erasmus (Vincent Price) takes his latest victim, horror writer R. Chetwynd-Hayes (John Carradine) into the eponymous club, where he introduces tales of various "breeds" of monsters in between band performances.  The bands are a motley mix of new wave and AOR; but the band after the second story is... Night!  Yet another of my weaknesses is minor AOR hits from my teenage years, and Night's "Hot Summer Nights" is about as minor as they get.  I managed to get an mp3 of it during the Napster era, but I lost it (along with about 600 others) when I inadvertently let my MyPlay account lapse.  Damn and blast!  So I don't have it anymore, and I'm having trouble finding one (it's not very Googleable).  But now at least I have "The Stripper," with lead singer Stevie Vann Lange absolutely belting out the lyrics!  I couldn't tell from "Hot Summer Nights" what a powerhouse singer she is; Chris Thompson, the band's other singer (who was the lead singer on Manfred Mann's big hits of the 70s, e.g. "Blinded By the Light") is relegated to guitar and backing vocals on this track.  The movie clip is on YouTube, but it's not embeddable, so instead of just posting a link, here's an audio rip.  (But watch the YouTube clip to see the stripper take it all off--insert Cryptkeeper laughter here.)

Stevie has provided backing vocals on tons of other artists' records and concerts.  She's credited on Gang of Four's Songs of the Free, so that must be her singing the iconic "I Love a Man in Uniform" chorus.  Wow!  (And she got the last name Lange by marrying rock producer extraordinaire Mutt Lange!)  Now, back to Night: "Hot Summer Nights" was actually a cover; the song was written and originally recorded by Walter Egan on his 1978 album Not Shy.  Hey, whaddyaknow, here's Walter singing it on YouTube!

I think I prefer the Night version, if only for Stevie's vocals, but it's great to hear the song again anyway. (Coincidentally, the song is thematically similar to a song by another Stevie: "Gold" by Stevie Nicks and John Stewart.  It's musically similar too, for that matter.)  Walter Egan is best known for his bigger hit from Not Shy, "Magnet and Steel":

Oh my gosh, it's all connected, and if I don't stop now I may never stop, so that's it for now.  But Chris Thompson will figure in another post soon.