He Used To Wear Fedoras

I can’t remember the exact moment when I first heard Slapp Happy, although I do know that it was during my last years of high school. That instant when ‘Casablanca Moon’ started up hasn’t burnt itself indelibly into my memory like the time I found Can’s “Ege Bamyasi” in the local record store (it’s incandescent still). But, if I close my eyes and start thinking of that lead-in violin phrase, the whole stream of the song comes back to me as offbeat and enticing as it always has been.

Read my other page on them to get the full story (sort of). Suffice it to say that the combination of Dagmar's voice with the peculiar tunes of Blegvad and Moore still manage to make my heart race and my head lift off it's moorings. Unfortunately, lots of people just don't get it at all or, worse still, are put off by thinking that Daggie is going to sing with the same stridency she used in her later Henry Cow work. But I just keep bringing them up to whomever I meet to see how they fare - those that enjoy them have always become close friends.

mp3: Jumpin' Jonah

This is a bonus track on the recent CD re-issue of their 1st album "Sort Of". Backed by Faust (the drum sound! the synth sound!) and with a chugging boogie style fuzzed up guitar, it's hardly like anything else on the album but it's great fun none-the-less.

mp3: The Drum

From the 1st version of their second album, once again recorded in Wumme with members of Faust and finally released as "Acnalbasac Noom" by ReR in the early 80s. I think this recording is almost perfect - more 70s rock guitar and a swaying backbeat with Dagmar almost above it all.

mp3: A Little Something

The best love song ever written from the 2nd version of their 2nd album, released by Virgin in the mid 70s. The anonymous session musos on this track suit the style impeccably and the combination of jews harp and violin solo at the end is simply magical.

mp3: In The SickBay

The only song Dagmar wrote for the band! It's children's memories, minor key piano and subtle horn arrangements match the rest of "Desperate Straights" to a T. [In fact, did Dagmar ever write too much by herself? In the HC and AB stuff, melodies and lyrics were always composed by someone else and I think that's true for the post AB recordings too. Then she did the Kurt Weil interpretations. Her last album, with Marie Goyette, - 'A Scientific Dream...' is probably the only example of her own work. If so it's a shame because Sickbay is truely lovely.

mp3: War

The lead in track to "In Praise Of Learning" and, really, the only Slapp Happy thing about this Henry Cow album. Dagmar's voice has trilled R's and a gutteral tone she hadn't used before but would continue to use for the rest of her stay in HC and the Art Bears. The 1st band I was in tried to perform this song but it turned out a rabid mess - that time signature was beyond us completely.

Go to ReR Megacorp for most of your Slapp Happy needs (Acnalbasac, remastered Desp. Str) and Voiceprint for 'Sort Of', not sure if the Virgin 2-for-1 is still available.