Thoughts on Thoughts on a Grey Day

[ThePenguin]

Originally Posted by aleuzzi

Chris was frustratingly reserved on her first two Mac records. She could clearly write and sing any number of songs but, for whatever reason, chose to contribute only two to each. And even then, she seemed content with being a side player. This is inexplicable to me since she clearly possessed (and possesses) the best voice among the Kirwan-McVie-Welch trumvirate. Why the band didn't exploit her talent more is beyond me. I'm imagining SHE was her own worst enemy and chose to remain under the proverbial radar.

I've always felt that she was sort of just in the mindset of, "I'm just married to the bass player; I'm kind of helping out in the band for awhile." I don't think she wanted to be hugely involved ....i doubt she had the confidence to view herself as a 'major player'. As you said, she seemed content w/ being a side player, sort of along for the ride...and maybe even John saw her this way as well. Mick seems to have been the one who truly realized that this girl could kick some musical *ss and always encouraged her to 'keep going, stay with it, you are good at this'.

-Lis

[DavidMn]

Does her family still get royalties?

[macfan 57]

Originally Posted by DavidMn

Does her family still get royalties?

Do you mean Mrs. Scarrott's family? I would assume they do. "Bare Trees" has sold over a million copies here in the U.S. I would think they would be entitled to something, just as if it had been a song.

[P90pup]

Originally Posted by David

Tom, you are the coolest guy -- bar none -- on the ledge.

perhaps not
never the less,
we bleed pretty much
the same....the LEDGE is
home

[Neb-Maat-Re]

Originally Posted by bretonbanquet

So whose idea was it to tape the batty old lady reading her poem, and who decided it would be a good idea to put it on "Bare Trees"?

Having heard and read about this, I expected something a little different. Yes, I knew it was an old local eccentric reading one of her poems, but I think I expected something more from the delivery - perhaps a little more flambouyant or even a bit Stanley Unwin-ish. Instead she seems to be almost embarassed herself and just rambles it off.

[aleuzzi]

Originally Posted by macfan 57

Do you mean Mrs. Scarrott's family? I would assume they do. "Bare Trees" has sold over a million copies here in the U.S. I would think they would be entitled to something, just as if it had been a song.

I had no idea Bare Trees sold that much. I knew it finally went "gold" around the time the White Album was a hit. But I didn't know it went on to sell twice that amount through the years. Wow.


Any other Pre-BN Mac albums eventually sell in the range of one million?

[macfan 57]

Originally Posted by aleuzzi

Any other Pre-BN Mac albums eventually sell in the range of one million?

Both Future Games & Mystery To Me have been certified gold.

[bretonbanquet]

Originally Posted by Neb-Maat-Re

I think I expected something more from the delivery - perhaps a little more flambouyant or even a bit Stanley Unwin-ish. Instead she seems to be almost embarassed herself and just rambles it off.

True, but I think it works better that it's obviously unrehearsed and off-the-cuff, I suppose she wasn't a performer of any sort. There's certainly nothing pretentious about it - possibly the only pretentious thing was putting it on the record... She was, I guess, born around 1900 and she was just an old English country lady who wrote poetry in her spare time. Someone maybe told Mick down the pub that there's this quaint old lady up the road who writes odd poems, and suddenly old Mrs Scarrot has this very tall, slightly unhinged gentleman knocking on her door wanting to tape her poems and put one on a record and sell it.

I'm guessing she had her friend around at the time (the guy you hear talking at the end) and they taped a poem or two and that was it. She almost certainly never understood that a million people would go out and buy it If she did she might have re-recited it more carefully.

[ThePenguin]

I dug up an old article from NME-- July 1, 1972--, and here's a bit referring to the poem:

Though with Mrs. Scarrot's poem, placed tactfully at the end of the set, and the words frequently referring to bare trees, it'd seem there was some connection between that and the title track. Even an attempt to provide some tangible theme. But that wasn't the case.


Christine: "We just asked her to write a little poem, because she writes some nice ones. And originally we were just going to print it on the back cover. But she taped it, and parts of it were," she paused, looking at John in hope of some sort of adjective, "so far out that we thought we'd put it on the end of the last song on the second side."


-Lis

[bretonbanquet]

Originally Posted by ThePenguin

I dug up an old article from NME-- July 1, 1972--, and here's a bit referring to the poem:

Though with Mrs. Scarrot's poem, placed tactfully at the end of the set, and the words frequently referring to bare trees, it'd seem there was some connection between that and the title track. Even an attempt to provide some tangible theme. But that wasn't the case.


Christine: "We just asked her to write a little poem, because she writes some nice ones. And originally we were just going to print it on the back cover. But she taped it, and parts of it were," she paused, looking at John in hope of some sort of adjective, "so far out that we thought we'd put it on the end of the last song on the second side."


-Lis

Thanks for that!

So maybe it wasn't all Mick's idea - sounds like quite a joint effort. I'm glad to hear that Christine was happy with it, I was wondering whether she'd thought it was daft or something. Cool.

[macfan 57]

Originally Posted by ThePenguin

I dug up an old article from NME-- July 1, 1972--, and here's a bit referring to the poem:

Though with Mrs. Scarrot's poem, placed tactfully at the end of the set, and the words frequently referring to bare trees, it'd seem there was some connection between that and the title track. Even an attempt to provide some tangible theme. But that wasn't the case.


Christine: "We just asked her to write a little poem, because she writes some nice ones. And originally we were just going to print it on the back cover. But she taped it, and parts of it were," she paused, looking at John in hope of some sort of adjective, "so far out that we thought we'd put it on the end of the last song on the second side."


-Lis

Thanks for the info. I'd never heard that before. Is there anything interesting in the rest of the article?

[ThePenguin]

Originally Posted by macfan 57

Thanks for the info. I'd never heard that before. Is there anything interesting in the rest of the article?

yeah, I get the hint, i stuck it in.

-Lis

[macfan 57]

Originally Posted by ThePenguin

yeah, I get the hint, i stuck it in.

-Lis

Thanks. I added a new one to yours too.

[DavidMn]

Originally Posted by macfan 57

Do you mean Mrs. Scarrott's family? I would assume they do. "Bare Trees" has sold over a million copies here in the U.S. I would think they would be entitled to something, just as if it had been a song.

Yeah, that's what I was wondering actually.