Starry Eyed And Laughing a Riview
Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 12:13 am
I'm sitting here listening to a 34 year old record remastered onto CD. The group is called Starry Eyed And Laughing. And the CD, a compilation of the band’s two LP releases is called That Was Now, This Is Then. They were an English band that one commentator said was either ten years too late, or fifteen years too early, take your pick. And the reason why was their sound centered around the Rickenbacker model 360 12 string guitar of Tony Poole. Much of their sound comes right out of the Byrds playbook, and sometimes I imagine I can even catch a bit of something the reminds me of the Beatles. But this was no slavish copy band. Oh no, they had their own sound, for certain. And the irony is that it was a very American sound; with that close three-part harmony I associate with the West Coast of the U.S.; rather like Poco, or maybe Pure Prairie League, or perhaps something of America. Or something yet a bit different.
They wrote most of their own material, much of it penned by Poole and Ross McGeeney, who it seems were school pals, way back when. Starry Eyed And Laughing could jangle with the best of ‘em on “Chimes of Freedom” or rock out on such numbers as “Living In London” or “Keep It To Yourself.” And there is humor, too as on “Nobody Home.” Another favorite track is “One Foot On The Boat” which is a song about an attempted suicide. But what keeps the song from becoming morbid is the lighthearted melody, and the playful way Poole has with the words as when he sings
“I danced on a window ledge
To see if my legs could fly
I danced and danced and danced and danced
Until my legs shook hands with the sky…”
In the end all the attempts fail, and the singer decides that life is worth the living as when he sings
“I had one foot on the boat
And one foot on the bank
But the bank was soon too far to reach
And the boat sank.”
The CD can be ordered through the band’s website http://www.starryeyedandlaughing.com And audio clips including a partial sampling of their excellent cover of “Chimes of Freedom” can be heard on http://www.myspace.com/starryeyedlaughing Of course Bob Dylan fans will recognize right off that the band took its name from the first line of the last verse of "Chimes of Freedom."
JimK
They wrote most of their own material, much of it penned by Poole and Ross McGeeney, who it seems were school pals, way back when. Starry Eyed And Laughing could jangle with the best of ‘em on “Chimes of Freedom” or rock out on such numbers as “Living In London” or “Keep It To Yourself.” And there is humor, too as on “Nobody Home.” Another favorite track is “One Foot On The Boat” which is a song about an attempted suicide. But what keeps the song from becoming morbid is the lighthearted melody, and the playful way Poole has with the words as when he sings
“I danced on a window ledge
To see if my legs could fly
I danced and danced and danced and danced
Until my legs shook hands with the sky…”
In the end all the attempts fail, and the singer decides that life is worth the living as when he sings
“I had one foot on the boat
And one foot on the bank
But the bank was soon too far to reach
And the boat sank.”
The CD can be ordered through the band’s website http://www.starryeyedandlaughing.com And audio clips including a partial sampling of their excellent cover of “Chimes of Freedom” can be heard on http://www.myspace.com/starryeyedlaughing Of course Bob Dylan fans will recognize right off that the band took its name from the first line of the last verse of "Chimes of Freedom."
JimK