WIL MALONE

“Wil Malone”

When I was in high school and beginning my record-collecting career as a Beatles obsessive, my older brother would often stop by my bedroom door and look bemused while I played my Beatles bootlegs, the sound quality of which was often quite poor (and the performances were often sloppy and sometimes, not even The Beatles!). He would ask me why I would listen to such things and my defense was usually that the recordings were quite rare, which I suppose I thought imprinted upon me a patina of exclusivity, as though I was somehow brought into The Beatles’ inner circle. As I grew up a little I realized how silly and vain it is to value a record simply because it is obscure and I have generally resisted the appeal of claims that a given LP was “the holy grail” of any genre of pop or rock. Still, somehow or other, I did stumble upon one such frequently touted “holy grail”—the self-titled solo album by Wil Malone, which is our subject here.

Malone (born Wilson Malone) was a member of The Robb Storme Group, a mid-’60s British beat group that morphed into the legendary psych-pop band Orange Bicycle. If you are not familiar with their single “Hyacinth Threads,” stop reading now and You Tube it—you’ll be glad you did! Later on, Malone was a member of both Fickle Pickle and Bobak, Jons, Malone (aka Motherlight), both of whom released enjoyable psych-pop albums in 1970 (the former decidedly more pop; the latter decidedly more psych). All three bands were associated with Morgan Sound Studios in Northwest London and the membership of the bands was rather fluid and frequently overlapped. But sometime in the middle of all that flux, Malone managed to record the aforementioned solo album, a gentle folk pop album with baroque and psychedelic accents that was released on Fontana in 1970 as well.

The music on the album is a little like Donovan, but with a somewhat rougher, earthier voice and more classicism in the string and woodwind arrangements. The opener is “Catherine Wheel,” a song that is a fairly straight-ahead British folk tune with a lovely delicate chamber accompaniment augmenting the finger-picked acoustic guitar. “I Could Write a Book” is a little more adventurous, sounding like Nick Drake on a hallucinogenic walkabout. A piano break in the middle of the song uses the effect of rapidly speeding up the playback speed, only to return to the original folky arrangement. Trippy, indeed. “February Face” reminds me of the work of Barry Booth (the subject of a previous Lost Treasures post). Again, a chamber orchestra provides rich and detailed accompaniment. “Love in the Afternoon” begins with another tape effect, and while essentially retaining the baroque folk approach, also adds some absurdly echo-drenched vocals, to great effect. “Winter in Boston” incongruously uses a Latin groove and is a little reminiscent of Doug Ashdown’s similarly titled “Winter in America,” though Malone’s approach is significantly more upbeat. I’m always a sucker for songs named after girls, and “Suzy” is a fine addition to the repertoire: a gentle love song with quavering vocals that are earnest and affecting. “One More Flight to Parker” features another beautiful chamber orchestra arrangement—one that is most effective when the guitar suddenly drops out of the mix. It’s perhaps the strongest track on the album. “How About Then” breaks rank with the rest of the album, featuring piano as the central instrument rather than guitar and foregoing the strings and woodwinds entirely. It’s a strong ballad that is reminiscent of a slightly more accomplished and jazzier Epic Soundtracks. A solid closer.

The album was released but available for only a brief period of time before going out of print (some sources report that it was only on the market for two months and that only 200 copies were ever sold). Hence, the “holy grail” moniker. No single was released and Malone would never again record a pop record. He did go on to be a very much in-demand arranger, working with Black Sabbath, Peter Gabriel, and Corrine Bailey Rae, among literally dozens of others. His best known work, however, is undoubtedly the string arrangement on “Bitter Sweet Symphony” by The Verve. Beatle fans may note that he had a track on the soundtrack to All This and World War II, a great version of “You Never Give Me Your Money,” featuring very cool vocoder vocals in the bridge (he also did the orchestral arrangements for the other songs on the soundtrack).

Wil Malone has been reissued on CD and vinyl a few times over the last ten years or so. It is currently in print and readily available. To my knowledge, it is not available in the legit digital domain, though needledrops can be easily found on various file sharing sites. The original vinyl is impossible to find and often sells for thousands of dollars. If you love British baroque folk-pop and are curious about “holy grails,” this one is for you!

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Pop Pioneer and “Lost Treasures” writer, Peter Marston is the leader of long-running power pop band, Shplang, whose most recent album, “My Big Three Wheeler” has been described as “the Beatles meet Zappa in pop-psych Sumo match.”  Peter has a new project in 2015 under the name MARSTON.   Marston have a track on the latest “Power Pop Planet – Volume 5” compilation just out now and available at:  www.PopGeekHeavenStore.com.

CHECK OUT SHPLANG out at this link:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/shplang

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LINKS:

Home Page: http://www.wilmalone.com/

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wil_Malone

Blog Post: http://therockasteria.blogspot.com/2014/05/wil-malone-wil-malone-until-end-1970-uk.html

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