BADFINGER: MAGIC CHRISTIAN MUSIC (1970)
1) Come
And Get It; 2) Crimson Ship; 3) Dear Angie; 4) Fisherman; 5) Midnight Sun; 6) Beautiful
And Blue; 7) Rock Of All Ages; 8) Carry On Till Tomorrow; 9) I'm In Love; 10) Walk
Out In The Rain; 11) Angelique; 12) Knocking Down Our Home; 13) Give It A Try;
14) Maybe Tomorrow; 15*) Storm In A Teacup; 16*) Arthur.
A bizarre title. This is pretty good music,
here on Badfinger's debut album, but it could hardly be called «magic», and
it's certainly not very Christian, either. So perhaps it is really the
soundtrack to The Magic Christian, an
eccentric black comedy from 1969 featuring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr? Not
really, since only three songs out of fourteen were actually used in the movie:
ʽCarry On Till Tomorrowʼ, ʽRock Of All Agesʼ, and ʽCome And Get Itʼ — all three
songs produced by Paul McCartney, and the latter one actually written by
McCartney, and, as the now-available demo version on the Beatles' Anthology 3 clearly shows, recorded
following McCartney's original arrangement and instructions to a tee.
Of the remaining 11 songs, 7 were taken by
Apple Records directly off the poorly promoted LP Maybe Tomorrow, which Badfinger released in 1969 when they were
still going around as The Iveys; and only 4 were newly written by the band
members. Still, the results are not really as chaotic as they could seem — in
the early years at least, Badfinger had a pretty steady style of pop
songwriting, and as for production values, there is relatively small difference
here between the styles of Paul McCartney or Tony Visconti, who produced the
early Iveys material: maybe because both of them were still relatively
inexperienced in the tricky art of production, and for the most part, let the
dogs run free wherever they wanted to.
Anyway, it is best to forget about any phantom
«soundtrack» connections (there actually was an entirely different, much more
obscure «proper» soundtrack to The Magic
Christian) and just treat this as a standard debut album, especially since
it's a very good debut album. Guitarist Pete Ham and guitar / bass player Tom
Evans emerge as chief songwriters (although early member and bass player Ron
Griffiths' sole contribution, ʽDear Angieʼ, is among the catchiest tunes here
as well), and they already try their hands at different varieties of the pop
sound.
ʽCome And Get Itʼ, typically of any
McCartney-colored song of the era, became a big hit for the boys, although Paul
had a very good reason for not leaving the tune for himself — it very clearly
sounds underwritten and unfinished, and he probably just could not find the
proper way to turn it into something truly Beatles-worthy, so he just decided
to leave it at a «Badfinger-worthy» stage. It's basically just one verse and a
«semi-chorus» (you sort of expect a second half after the "...will you
walk away from a fool and his money?" line, but it never comes), repeated
several times — with a melodic hook strong enough to trigger a mild attack of
beatlemania and guarantee sales, but not strong enough to bring a sense of
completion to the song, so that I cannot even state that ʽCome And Get Itʼ is
the best song on the record.
Although, granted, it is pretty hard to single
out any highlights. Both Ham and Evans were sympathetic, innocent, romantic
boys with a deep love for «pop beauty» and a good understanding of rock'n'roll,
even if they were always much too «clean» and «pretty» to be able to rock out
along with the best of 'em. There is exactly one bona fide «rock'n'roll» number
on the album — ʽRock Of All Agesʼ, which sounds almost exactly like classic Slade, right down to the throat-bursting
vocals (the likes of which are usually expected to come from Scotland), and it
kicks plenty of ass, but its barroom boogie atmosphere feels quite out of place
on the album (although, as an undercover admirer of the barroom boogie
atmosphere, boy am I glad it's there!). Every other track where you hear heavy
distorted riffage — ʽMidnight Sunʼ and ʽGive It A Tryʼ, in particular — is in
the «power-pop» vein: although Badfinger did not necessarily pioneer the
synthesis of Britpoppy hooks with heavy guitar sound, it is also true that
ʽMidnight Sunʼ, almost gloating over
that synthesis, sounds like nothing else from 1970, when most people were
concerned about making an ultimate choice between the «hard» and «soft» camps.
On the other hand, without displaying any
aversion towards distorted guitars, Badfinger's preferred means of expression
is still a folkish vibe, best served with a mild touch of psychedelia, as on
ʽBeautiful And Blueʼ, the album's finest, most delicate ballad, built on a
complex contrast between at least three different guitar tones (one
hard-rocking, one psychedelic, one country-rockish) and a strings arrangement
on top. Songs like these derail the stereotype of Badfinger as «Beatles-lite»
(as well as it could be supported by the likes of ʽCome And Get Itʼ) — unlike
the Beatles, Badfinger were never as experimental and unpredictable in the
studio, but their arrangements, even though always sticking to time-approved
instruments, could be equally complex and variegated if they really wanted to.
At the other end of the anything-but-monotonous
spectrum is ʽCarry On Till Tomorrowʼ, starting out nice, quiet, acoustic,
lightly sprayed with high-pitched harmonies, but eventually building up towards
a set of orchestral crescendos and powerful electric solos that almost presage
the emergence of ʽStairway To Heavenʼ (except that Badfinger, at this point at
least, preferred to stay on the optimistic side and not share the burden of all
the griefs and sorrows of humanity).
And in between these mini-epic, homebrewn-grand
highlights, we get pretty ditties a-plenty — unless the concept of a «pop song»
as such annoys you, ʽDear Angieʼ, ʽI'm In Loveʼ, and ʽGive It A Tryʼ are all
charming little catchy trifles, and the boys' slightly parodic attempt at
writing something in the musical genre (ʽKnocking Down Our Homeʼ) is a bit
kitschy, but works due to their «angelic» harmonization.
In short, do not be fooled by the title of the
album or its patchy reputation: assembled as it is from several various
sources, it already shows all the strengths of Badfinger, even though some of
the craft still remained to be perfected, and some extra seriousness and depth
still had to be attained. It simply happened to become very quickly
overshadowed by No Dice, seen as the
«proper» debut for the band — a little unjust, I'd say, considering that there
is not a single genuine misstep on Magic
Christian. So we will decisively disregard the gesture on the album sleeve
and raise our thumbs
up instead.
Check "Magic Christian Music" (MP3) on Amazon
Midnight Sun sounds like nothing else in 1970? Please compare Deep Purple's Why didn't Rosemary. The difference is that the first is planted on optimistic pop and the latter on slightly gloomy blues, but both songs refuse tho chose between soft and hard. In DP's case it's mainly thanks to Rod Evans of course. Even entering Ian Gillan and Roger Glover did not immediately force a decision. Try the flopped single Hallelujah.
ReplyDeleteAlso remember Rainbow's Black Sheep of the Family, the reason Blackmore left DP.
Midnight Sun still is a nice song indeed; I only dispute it's uniqueness.
"building up towards ...."
Eh no. Carry On is just structured along the stereotypal lines of verse, chorus plus instrumental sections. The two short guitar solo's serve to contrast, they are not the climax of a build-up. That idea stems from Deep Purple's Child in Time of course. The first one, as far as I know, to use folk as the start of a crescendo might very well be Lead Belly in the song Gallows Pole. One of the lamest and most boring attempts stems from Bob Dylan, Seven Curses.
Again Carry On is still a very nice song.
Based on the few songs I have heard Badfinger deserves your praise indeed. As Jeremy Nicholas (who?) wrote about your compatriots AS Arensky and SE Bortkiewicz (talk about obscurity and oblivion): "Does the only music we appreciate have to be by the great composers who overturned systems, struck out for the unknown and challenged their muse? One hopes not. There must always be a place for those who reflect so elegantly and expertly on what has gone before, rather than shake us by the ears and grab us (sometimes screaming) into the future."
Thát's why Badfinger deserves the thumbs up, as long as they pull this off. There is no need for a forced quest for originality.
Deep Purple fetish detected.
DeleteNothing against "Why Didn't Rosemary", but it's a blues-rocker that only slightly departs from the likes of 'I'm A Man', and it's in a completely different style (and there's nothing "soft" about it). Deep Purple is a fine band, but power-pop pioneers they were anything but.
Oh yeah, I foster that fetish since I listened to Made in Japan for the first time 35 years ago. Btw, I do have a little something against Why didn't Rosemary, but that's not relevant here. Neither is it relevant that it's a different style; thát's something I already mentioned in my third sentence. I didn't argue that DP pioneered power-pop. But there is more between hardrock and softrock I postulate.
DeleteI guess we have rather different notions of what "hard" and "soft" mean, something I already noticed when reading your reviews of Aerosmith. For now it suffices that for someone who was in hardrock since 1975 Badfinger definitely belongs to the soft camp, even when they play a riff or a solo. Same for Aerosmith.
For an old-fashioned hardrocker you are a bit misleading on this point, though I have learned to recognize it. High Tide, they were rocking hard on their debut. Thanks for that one.
Aerosmith are normally regarded as either hard rock or arena rock. It's actually a hard call, same as with Queen. The most sensible thing to say is maybe that they stand on the line between "hard" and "soft".
DeletePlease read: from the perspective of an old-fashioned hardrocker .....
ReplyDeleteI'm waiting to see whether you will have a review of Straight Up this time around :)
ReplyDeleteGeorge, thanks for this review. I'd spent years thinking this was a substandard Badfinger album, based on some old review I'd read, but yours inspired me to find "Magic Christian Music" and listen to it. And it's every bit as good as you say—a very worthy addition to the Badfinger catalog. So thanks for keeping up this blog and writing so indefatigably about music!
ReplyDelete