BRIAN ENO ![]()
Chris Spedding went on to play with Cream bassist Jack Bruce (including his first solo album in 1969, Songs for a Tailor) and former Manfred Mann singer Mike D’Abo, plus a host of others, from Elton John to John Cale to Brian Eno to Harry Nilsson (including one of his best known albums, Nilsson Schmilsson). In 1973, Andy Fraser, the former bass player for Free (“All Right Now”) brought Spedding in as the lead guitarist for his short-lived band Sharks. (November 2011) * * * Chimera recorded something like 20 songs (variously reported as being in 1968, 1969 and/or 1970) in an acid-folk style for a planned album that remained unreleased for decades, while picking up legendary status among psychedelic record collectors. Amazingly, only cassettes remain from the recording sessions, though the sound quality is not at all impaired; they were remastered beautifully by Denis Blackham, an industry legend who had previously mastered the music for the Evita and Cats musicals and also albums by Led Zeppelin, Madness, Eurythmics, and Brian Eno.
(November 2013) * * * Album sales by the Velvet Underground were low in spite of the prominent connection with legendary pop artist Andy Warhol at the top of his fame. Though officially their producer, Andy Warhol’s input was evidently minimal, although he insisted on their including ethereal vocalist Nico on three songs on their first album, The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967). Warhol also contributed artwork for some of the band’s album covers, such as the peelable banana on that album. Brian Eno – another highly experimental musician – is the source of the famous quotation about this album: While selling only 30,000 copies, “everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band.”
(December 2013)
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