Rick Wright, 1943–2008

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Rick Wright in 1971.

As has been noted nearly everywhere by now, Pink Floyd keyboardist Rick Wright went to the Great Gig in the Sky earlier this week, and I’m sure the inevitability of using the title of his most famous composition in this way wouldn’t have surprised him. I may as well note here that he was always credited as Rick on the albums following Piper at the Gates of Dawn, not Richard. I saw Pink Floyd perform The Wall in the cavernous bounds of Earl’s Court, London in August 1980 so I suppose I can claim to have seen him play, if watching a speck on a distant stage counts as seeing anyone. Wright’s falling out with the increasingly fractious Roger Waters saw him treated as a session musician by that point and while the show was impressively bombastic I can’t bear to hear that dreary and hysterical album any more. (Unless it’s Scissor Sisters covering Comfortably Numb.) Far better to remember Wright for his psychedelic songs such as Remember A Day from A Saucerful of Secrets.

Update: Thom reminds me that French musician Hector Zazou also died earlier this month.

Jake Shears likes Van Dyke Parks

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From ‘Music’s secret weapons‘ in today’s Guardian. Musicians pick “their special album: the one nobody else has heard of, the one to bring out when you want to amaze people” and trot out a host of uninspiring choices, most of which are hardly albums that no one has heard of. Tells you a lot about today’s current crop of musos. Anyway, Jake came to the rescue and he didn’t go for the obvious VDP pick of Discover America either. If you want to discover more about the brilliant Van Dyke Parks, visit his site.

Jake Shears
(No 1 in the albums and singles charts with Scissor Sisters)
Van Dyke Parks – Jump! (1984)
It’s his concept album inspired by the Uncle Remus tales from Song of the South. He’s a genius arranger, producer, singer, songwriter. He also worked on Brian Wilson’s Smile. Jump! is a truly timeless record. It came out in 1984 but sounds like it could have been made yesterday or 80 years ago.

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They are Scissor Sisters and so are you