Comments on: The Cottage Industry Of Moments

By: wichita lineman

wichita lineman — Wed, 28 May 2008 07:41:43 +0000

Yes, Tin Tin’s greatest moment sits nicely alongside When You Are A King. There seems to be endless amounts of this stuff that hasn’t been compiled. I love Tony Burrows’ solo 45s Melanie Makes Me Smile and Every Little Move She Makes on Bell. And one gem that has been digitalised is the Tony Hazzard album just re-issued by Rev-Ola – it has spot-on versions of Listen To Me (The Hollies), Fox On The Run (Manfred Mann) etc. by this under rated writer.

It was a bit of a golden age and the perfect genre for Brit songwriting teams too: Cook/Greenaway, Macaulay/McLeod, Arnold/Martin/Morrow, Fletcher/Flett, Hammond/Hazelwood, and John Carter with a few collaborators (Alquist, Stephens, Lewis and Shakespeare (his missus). Denmark Street was the Brit Building.

I always think of this genre as ‘soft pop’ rather than ‘bubblegum’, maybe because the Kassenetz/Katz school of writing always seemed so cynical and short-term; the UK stuff generally seemed much more crafted.

By: ian

ian — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 21:38:28 +0000

Thank you, never thought I`d track down a discussion on a era i still rememebr with fondness. Anyone one remember `Tintin` and the lyrics “toast and marmalade for tea, sailing ships upon the sea….?”

Good times,

Ian.

By: son of haggart

son of haggart — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 23:20:16 +0000

Thanks for a thoughtful of summary of an era I leave though in my pre and early teens. I loved that White plain stuff even though I knew in my heart it couldn’t last

Tore your shirt again, fighting in the rain

With whats-his-name

Shoe-black on your face, you’re really a disgrace

Mummy smiles and all the while

Because she loves you

She will worry so

And if you’re good you know

That when you grow to be a king

Never do a thing

Four and twenty blackbirds sing along

Royal gifts they all will bring

When you are a king

By: Doctor Mod

Doctor Mod — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 02:27:10 +0000

I love it. Never was this neglected subgenre ever so well defined–and appreciated. Perhaps the sheer Britishness of it kept it from going over quite so well in the US, but I think it represented a finer form of pop than its US equivalent. The best songs (e.g., Edison Lighthouse’s “Rosemary,” The Flowerpot Men’s “Moment of Madness,” Jefferson’s “The Colour of My Love”) were beautifully crafted examples of pure pop, admirable in and of themselves.

They expressed a sense of youth and innocence without having to resort to the nursery, as most of their US analogues did. Then and now I find the idea of prepubescent children (Jackson 5, Osmond Brothers) expressing adult or even adolescent sentiments semi-obscene at worst and inane at best. The BritBubblegum voices were those of individuals of an appropriate age, and thus could address both teen audiences and young adult ones as well. I may be wrong, but somehow I think that this is what pop is supposed to do.