The Greatest songs of the 1960s that no one has ever heard
From One of David Bowie’s 25 Favorite LPs — Haunting and Edgy Folk Rock From Tucker Zimmerman
Tucker Zimmerman — “The Roadrunner”/Tucker Zimmerman — “Blue Goose”
From one of David Bowie’s 25 favorite albums,* an LP full of “atmospheric, haunting and edgy folk-rock”. (Joe Marchese) Marchese quipped that “[w]hen David Bowie placed Tucker Zimmerman’s 1969 album Ten Songs by Tucker Zimmerman on a list of his 25 favorite albums . . . readers . . . could have been forgiven for wondering, ‘Who is Tucker Zimmerman?’”
Ben Forrest elaborates on the album and Bowie:
[The album has a] unique sound, which blended folk revival with blues rock, as well as an unnerving vocal performance that did not sound dissimilar to the kind of thing Nick Cave would later employ. The album’s quality is due, in part, to the production of Tony Visconti, a notable colleague of Bowie’s. “Tucker, an American, was one of the first artists to be produced by my friend and co-producer Tony Visconti, also an American after they found each other in London,” Bowie explained. Of Zimmerman, Bowie joked, “The guy’s way too qualified for folk, in my opinion. Degrees in theory and composition, studying under composer Henry Onderdonk, Fulbright scholarship, and he wants to be Dylan.” While it is true that folk music tends to favour lyricism and vocal performance over complicated technical musicianship, there have been a few notable exceptions to that rule, Zimmerman being one of them. As Bowie asserted, “A waste of an incendiary talent? Not in my opinion. I always found this album of stern, angry compositions enthralling, and often wondered what ever happened to him.”
Richie Unterberger had a more dour view: “[I]t’s rather awkward folk-rock that’s reminiscent of some similarly tentative efforts by New York folkies of the mid-’60s to get into a more contemporary, mildly electrified bag. . . . [H]is songs, though wordy and ambitious, aren’t all that articulate, falling into inchoate rage in ‘Children of Fear.’”
Marchese tells us of the album:
Zimmerman came to Britain from America in 1968 with a degree in music theory and composition under his belt as well as a songwriting credit on a Butterfield Blues Band album. Gigging throughout Europe under various names, he attracted the attention of EMI’s Regal Zonophone imprint. . . . [which] paired him with Visconti . . . and the pair recorded a reported 80 demos. A single was initially released, “The Red Wind,” featuring Zimmerman supported by future Beach Boy Ricky Fataar on drums, Visconti on bass and Rick Wakeman, later of Yes, on organ and piano. Though the single didn’t make waves, the label proceeded with an album. Wakeman and Visconti joined another impressive cast of musicians including drummer Aynsley Dunbar and guitarist/sitar player Shawn Phillips for Ten Songs.
Last.FM tells us of Zimmerman:
Tucker Zimmerman was born [in] San Francisco California. . . . [He] studied music for two years at San Francisco City College. Theory and history. . . . He also played trombone in various jazz ensembles and big bands in the city. . . . He received an AA (Associate of Arts) degree from San Francisco City College. From 1961 to 1966 he attended San Francisco State College . . . [and] received at BA (Bachelor of Arts) in Music in 1964 and an MA (Master of Arts) in Theory and Composition in 1966. Private lessons in composition with Henry Onderdonk. . . . In 1966 he received a Fulbright Scholarship to study composition in Rome . . . . During this time he began to perform his solo songs in various folkclubs in Rome. In 1968 he left the academic world and moved to London where he began to seriously pursue his songwriting and singing. He lived in England for two years, first in London and then in Oxford, playing gigs under assumed names, posing as a Canadian, since he was not granted a work permit. He also worked in various recording studios as an arranger and musician. In 1969 he recorded his first album . . . .
Zimmerman: “While living in England I wrote 150 songs, but I couldn’t get a single artist in London to sing one. My album had come out in December of 1968 . . . and was going absolutely nowhere. I learned later that the record company had signed me simply to keep me out of action for three years. They put me in their deep freeze so that I wouldn’t offer any competition to the other (British) singer/songwriters they were promoting. I wasn’t able to record again until 1971 when my contract with them expired.”
Tucker Zimmerman — “The Roadrunner”
This stunning and mournful song muses about “[t]he roadrunner [who] runs across the barren ground” — “Beneath the desert trees are jagged rocks No sound of the water in the stillness does he touch The stone yields no path for the root” Wile E. Coyote might have had more success here.
Tucker Zimmerman — “Blue Goose”
This song has an unstoppable groove (created by mere voice and guitar) but tells the unstoppable blue goose that “Migration will get you nowhere fast You haven’t been before as an invited welcome guest.”
* The top 25 (out of Bowie’s collection of 2,500 vinyl LPs) are:
The Last Poets — The Last Poets
Shipbuilding — Robert Wyatt
The Fabulous Little Richard — Little Richard
Music for 18 Musicians — Steve Reich
The Velvet Underground & Nico — The Velvet Underground
Tupelo Blues — John Lee Hooker
Blues, Rags and Hollers — Koerner, Ray and Glover
The Apollo Theatre Presents: In Person! The James Brown Show — James Brown
Forces of Victory — Linton Kwesi Johnson
The Red Flower of Tachai Blossoms Everywhere: Music Played on National Instruments — Various Artists
Banana Moon — Daevid Allen
Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris — Cast Album
The Electrosoniks: Electronic Music — Tom Dissevelt
The 5000 Spirits of the Layers of the Onion — The Incredible String Band
Ten Songs by Tucker Zimmerman — Tucker Zimmerman
Four Last Songs (Strauss) — Gundula Janowitz
The Ascension — Glenn Branca
The Madcap Laughs — Syd Barrett
Black Angels — George Crumb
Funky Kingston — Toots & The Maytals
Delusion of the Fury — Harry Partch
Oh Yeah — Charles Mingus
Le Sacre du Printemps — Igor Stravinsky
The Fugs — The Fugs
The Glory of the Human Voice — Florence Foster Jenkins
See my website at bracefortheobscure60srock.com.
