Oh Sugar
The name of Lynsey De Paul came up in the comments of the "Roll Away The Stone" post below (though she only did the "oh will do!" voice on the album version of it, which wasn't the original recording as I said) which got me digging out some dusty old mp3s I keep in a shoebox in the back of the computer and pondering her for the first time in donkeys years, probably ever actually.
My first memory of Miss De Paul was seeing her on TOTP in 1973 singing her mopey ballad "Won't Somebody Dance With Me?" which ended with Tony Blackburn saying "may I have the pleasure of this dance?" to her (fellow Radio One DJ Ed Stewart did it on the actual record). After that she mostly seemed to appear on Light Entertainment shows like The Two Ronnies and David Nixon, on the cover of Woman's Own, writing the theme music for a sitcom and entering the Eurovision Song Contest so I always thought of her as a middle of the road, Radio 2 sort of artist, not quite Shirley Bassey but not exactly Suzi Quatro either. But listening to her early records I wonder if she could have had a more interesting career. The 1972 singles "Sugar Me" and "Getting A Drag" are both terrific piano-stomping pop songs with subversive edges (the former a not-so-subtle eupehmism for something filthy and the latter about having a transvestite boyfriend) and the airy ballad "Ivory Tower" sounds like early Kate Bush. In fact all these make it hard not to think she wasn't an influence on our Kate.
Download: Sugar Me - Lynsey De Paul (mp3)
Download: Getting A Drag - Lynsey De Paul (mp3)
Download: Ivory Tower - Lynsey De Paul (mp3)
I was never one for waif-like blondes so Lynsey wasn't really my type (though James Coburn, Sean Connery, Ringo Starr, George Best and Dudley Moore all thought she was right up their alley) and that beauty spot of hers was very distracting. She always merged in my mind with actress Anouska Hempel, another wispy blonde who I also imagined wearing big floppy hats and silk scarves while hanging out with the bohemian beautiful people down the Portobello Road. Still, I must admit she does look rather fetching (and Biba-esque) in this video for "Sugar Me"
4 Comments:
Aah Lynsey.
Always came across as a bit too posh and twee and Tory for a northern lad. We were more mushy peas and rough and ready .. in a poor man's Stephanie de Sykes kinda way.
Hard to believe the lovely Lynsey was hit by a bus in her teens!?
(Perhaps trying to escape the clutches of Barry Blue on Hampstead Heath?)
Eurovision entry Rock Bottom was aptly named, but I did like her compo 'Storm In a Teacup'.
Thanks again for the memories Lee.
Nice video: thanks for posting. I'd never heard anything by Lynsey de Paul apart from Rock Bottom and perhaps one or two others. Looking at this video, I can't help wondering whether Alison Goldfrapp borrows something of her image from Lynsey de Paul? ;-)
Great, thanks for these Lee. I've been on the lookout for Sugar Me - on the iTunes site there's a couple of remixes of it which seem to work quite well so you're right - there could have been something there...
I was watching Later with Jools the other night and someone new (to me at least) was Little Boots (www.littlebootsmusic.co.uk). I think through her you could draw a line from our Lynsey and taking in Kate Bush, Goldfrapp and the lovely Noosha from Fox amongst others!
Phil
Awesome discovery. Thanks Lee!
Post a Comment
<< Home