Jackie Leven
Some
biographical details from the Cooking Vinyl page
Jackie
Leven was born in Scotland in 1950.
Jackie
first made a serious impact upon the UK music scene in the late 70s with rock
band Doll By Doll, a hard-hitting classic two guitars, bass and drums outfit
that beguiled audiences when they weren't scaring the pants off them with a
rare on- stage intensity. The band made five superb albums of warped melodic
rock music.
Jackie
began recording as a solo artist in 1983 but this phase of a promising career
ended in savage circumstances when, in the same year, he was nearly murdered.
Speaking bravely of the painful incident he remembers only 'a powerful arm
coming around my neck'. His larynx, tool of his trade was almost destroyed. Jackie's
answer was to turn to heroin - the classic 'drug of despair', after which,
adding insult to injury, his girlfriend ran off with the Dalai Lama's
bodyguard!
Deciding
after a year of addiction that he 'wanted his life back', he released himself
from addiction via a method of his own making which utilised acupuncture,
psychic healing and reflexology. Jackie has fortunately bounced back investing
in several significant (and controversial) new ventures with his typical
charisma and energy. In 1995, he founded and created The CORE Trust - still the
UK's only fully holistic service for the healing of addictions and used
significantly by music show biz casualties.
Jackie
later became friends and colleagues with Robert Bly, author of the USA
best-seller 'Iron John' and the recognised originator of the Mytho-Poetic Men's Movement. This 'Men's Work' with its
most visible themes of warriorship, grief and shame,
has polarised opinion amongst UK/USA feminist thinkers, and has demanded of
Jackie a new role as spokesman for the work, giving talks/appearances
throughout the UK
Jackie
Leven has made seven albums, one of which was released in 1971. The other six
albums have been released on the Cooking Vinyl label at a good old fashioned rate of one a year for the last six years.
John
St. Field: Control (1971)
The Mystery Of Love Is Greater Than The Mystery Of
Death (1994)
Forbidden
Songs Of The Dying West (1995)
The
Argyll Cycle - Volume One (1996)
Fairytales For Hardmen (1997)
Night
Lilies (1998)
Defending
Ancient Springs (2000)
I
always used to listen to Kenny Everitt on the pirate
station Radio London and he used to play all the new singles as they came out.
"Ticket To Ride", "Substitute",
"Carrie Anne" and that was an excellent way to hear new music.
Later,
Peter Langley helped me discover Melody Maker and Rolling Stone and I started
reading reviews. For the next thirty years I took risks in my music buying by reading
reviews and learning whose opinions I trusted. Richard Williams, Bud Scoppa, Allan Jones and Gavin Martin were always worth
reading. Bud Scoppa's review of the first Jackson
Browne album in Rolling Stone remains the best review of any album I have ever
read. It went on about "Jamaica Say You Will" for five out of the six
columns describing it's beauty and depth of feeling.
It then stated that every other track on the album was equally as good! I
bought it and he was right. The last I read about Bud Scoppa
he was working as Matthew Sweet's PR man. He did a jolly good job with "In
Reverse" which is unmitigated crap in my opinion.
Anyway,
thirty years after I stopped taking risks in my music buying by listening
to new music, Martin Oliver showed me "Uncut", a magazine I had never
heard of, but which included a free CD every month. Although Q and MOJO
occasionally produced a free CD, a new CD every month full of interesting new
releases was a revelation and it has much to answer for. I can now take risks
by listening and somehow it doesn't seem that much of a risk!
In
the last year, based solely on what I have heard on these Uncut CDs I have
bought albums by Peter Bruntell, Neal Casal, Shack, Wheat, Giant Sand, Lambchop,
Josh Rouse, Warren Zevon and Jackie Leven.
So
in the March 2000 issue, which I bought in February, there was a song called
"Fell On Hard Times" by Neal Casal which is precisely the sort of singer/songwriter good
time music that I find irresistible and a song called A
Single Father by someone called Jackie Leven. I wasn't really sure
what the song was about but those first lines "If we should meet in
Glasgow by chance on a rainy day, let's sit and drink in a damn good bar till
evening comes out to play" struck a chord with me. The melody was haunting
and the voice was rich, deep and sad. The arrangement was brilliant. As a long
time Van Morrison fan this seemed to me to be good stuff and music that I could
appreciate.
I
bought the album that this song came from: "Defending Ancient
Springs".
I
couldn't work out if I liked it or not! This sounds crazy - there's no logic to
liking music - does it sound good or not? I think I loved the melodies, the
voice and the arrangements although I found some of it rather overblown. And
yet it was only last year that I re-purchased those pretentious Moody Blues
albums I had sold in the early 1970s ("In Search Of
A Lost Chord" and "On The Threshold Of A Dream") and I loved the
pomposity of those albums.
I
recorded the album on a C60 and put it in the car. There are 10 tracks on the
album so there was an obvious Side One and Side Two. Side One
became a familiar and welcome companion to me in the difficult month that
followed. In fact the journey that I made when I drove up to see my Mother for
the last time before she died was accompanied by side one of this album which I
played repeatedly as I came across a road closure on the M23 North just after
Gatwick and as I detoured around Gatwick and then drove cross-country towards
East Grinstead - a 50 minute journey taking nearly two hours. I just kept
pressing rewind after "The Working Man's Love Song" (track
five) so that I could go back to track one - a bizarrely faithful recording of
"You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling"
That
clip from "The Working Man's Love Song is fascinating to me. Did he decide
to sing it like that before the recording was made or did he just develop his
art at the actual time of recording? It reminds me very much of Van Morrison on
"Lonely Avenue" This is what I want to read
about in interviews - the detail of the actual process of recording the works
of art that I spend so much time listening to. What did Tim
Buckley say - "The trick of writing is to make it sound like it's
all happening for the first time. It took a long time to write that album
(Happy/Sad), and then to teach the people in the band, so it really was a
labour of love, the way it should be. I really loved doing that album." By
the way Roo hates Jackie Leven's music so much so that she told me she prefers Tim
Buckley!
Anyway,
back to Defending Ancient Springs. Tracks three and four are remarkable. Little
sound clips here will not do them justice. You should listen to the whole
tracks and my ISP doesn't give unlimited space whereby I can upload an infinite
amount of stuff to my website.
Track
three is called "Paris Blues" and the words are "Think
I'll move to Paris/Give my pain a parting shot/Maybe meet a French girl/Maybe
not. I travelled through the snowstorm/On a one horse
lonesome sleigh/The snow was like a razor/Cut my mind away. I hear a wasted
violin/playing in a dark café/It says your journey's over/it's time to sail
away." These are great lyrics to a song - defying true understanding but
indicating a real depth of feeling. Most importantly the words sound good. The
backing music is sparse and with hints of the industrial noises that Jackie
Leven likes to populate his work with. And then, and then…..at the end of the
track is some beautiful spoken poetry "And when the day arrives for the
last leaving of all and the ship that never returns to port is ready to go you'll
find me on board, light, with few belongings, almost naked, like the children
of the sea" Well in the month that both my parents died this plucked a few
heartstrings.
Track
four is the title track "Defending Ancient Springs" and it
starts with ninety seconds of men at work/industrial noise/whatever you want to
call it. Then drums and bass before a loud guitar chord and more evocative
lyrics "And I miss the boys/And I miss the dreams
they said/And I miss the men/And I miss the hopes that bled." What is this
song about? In the notes Jackie Leven thanks the "great English poet
Kathleen Raine for her living idea 'Defending Ancient
Springs' Kathleen says that she has spent her life defending ancient springs. I
would add that no matter where our life takes us, there comes a moment after
which we must return to the water from whence we first sprang, however this is
imagined, there to be found - defending ancient springs." The lyrics
continue "And who am I/I ran away to sing….Now I'm back/Defending ancient
springs" Well of course in my current state of mind this is about
homecoming and belonging and family and where you grew up but I'm sure it means
other things to you. More spoken poetry at the end: " I am not I/I am this
one walking beside me/Whom I do not see/Whom at times I manage to visit/And
whom at other times I forget/Who remains calm and silent while I talk/And
forgives gently when I hurt/Who walks where I am not/Who will remain standing
when I die." When you're vulnerable every work of art which has been borne
of strong feelings has a particular resonance.
One
of the things I like about Jackie Leven's lyrics is the references he makes to
clichés. "And who am I/I ran away to sing" - not "I ran
away to sea." Or "I travelled through the snowstorm/On a one horse lonesome sleigh" - not "a
one horse open sleigh"
The
journey continues. I have subsequently bought "Night Lilies" and
"Fairytales for Hard Men" both of which
have some outstanding moments. Watch ths space!
For
much more detail visit The Jackie Leven site