Book Review: Joe Boyd

Title: ‘White Bicycles – Making music in the 1960s’
By: Joe Boyd
Publisher: Serpent’s Tail (2005)

Joe Boyd is a well known figure in the UK music business. As well as founding Hannibal Records he has worked, and produced material, with bands and artists such as: Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention and Nick Drake. This book is a rollercoaster ride through the 1960s that Boyd remembers and it is full of charming anecdotes and tales from what was a very exciting time in the evolution of popular music.

The book starts with the writer’s adventures in the ‘Deep South’ of the US and of meeting Muddy Waters. Bob Dylan and Joan Baez (‘folk’s royal couple’) are mentioned and Big Bill Broonzy, Lonnie Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Brownie McGhee& Sonny Terry, Reverend Gary Davis and Sister Rosetta Tharpe are just some of the Blues musicians named in passing. It is clear that Boyd was present at a time of change as far as music was concerned. This exciting era is brought to life in this 272 page tome.

Omnipresent in music, down the decades, were drugs and Joe Boyd makes no attempt to conceal his use of them. But unlike many he “never got too stoned”. This honesty to the reader is typical of the book and there is some great analysis on the various individuals that came together to make the Folk/Psychedelic/Rock scene in both the US and the UK in those exciting times, the 1960s.

During 1965 Boyd was in the UK and tells us of the English traditional folk revival. The Watersons, Martin Carthy, Luke Kelly, Maddy Prior and Anne Briggs were just a few of the many folk singers/musicians he encounters. Boyd also visited Scotland and we are made known of his discovery of Mike Heron and Robin Williamson who would later go on to form The Incredible String Band. JB became their manager and was to produce several of the band’s albums.

As far as Jazz goes, Boyd writes of working with the likes of Sonny Rollins, Max Roach, Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto and Freddie Hubbard among others. JB also tells us of his experiences of working with the avant garde Jazzers, Albert and Don Ayler and their sad decline into addiction and mental illness.

When he was in London, in 1966, Boyd helped found the psychedelic rock club UFO. Pink Floyd, the Soft Machine and others played this club. UFO became quite popular with hippies and for those who “just wanted to get high and laid and listen to great music.” But by 1967 the club had rolled its last joint and closed, leaving JB to concentrate on other business.

In 1968 Boyd met Chris Blackwell, of Island Records, for the first time and the reader is given an insight into the background of the millionaire Jamaican born Jew. Island Records is 50 years old in 2009 and JB has had a strong role in its evolution over the years and the American has produced a number of albums for the label. He even had a clause in his contract with Island that Nick Drake’s material for the label was never to be deleted.

Nick Drake was a young English singer-songwriter and Boyd recalls his strength and weakness’s. JB describes Drake as having “…the accent and the offhand mannerisms, but somehow missed out on the confidence.” Drake’s hyper-sensitivity becomes gradually more obvious and Boyd writes about the gifted artist in a caring manner. I can only guess, through reading ‘White Bicycles’, that Drake may have had fragile mental health. Sadly he mustn’t have got the help he needed and this, it is probable, led to his premature death, aged only 26, in 1974.

Some of the most moving words Boyd writes in this book are to do with Nick Drake and he quote’s from one of Drake’s songs, ‘Day Is Done’:

When the game’s been fought
You speed the ball across the court
Lost much sooner than you would have thought
Now the game’s been fought.

When the party’s through
Seems so very sad for you
Didn’t do the things you meant to do
Now there’s no time to start anew
Now the party’s through.

When the day is done
Down to earth then sinks the sun
Along with everything that was lost and won
When the day is done.
Many other stars and lesser known acts are featured in this book. South African musician Chris McGregor is mentioned and Boyd tells us of the South African artists and their lamentable inability to succeed in the UK. Boyd’s involvement with Fairport Convention and also with the Incredible String Band is well documented here and his flirtation with L.Ron Hubbard’s Church of Scientology is explained to us.

This book is enjoyable and is written in a way that draws you in. The style of writing is almost like a benign pal whispering a tale into your ear. Even though I was never around in the 1960s, I feel that Joe Boyd has brought me there. He has a lot to tell and ‘White Bicycles’ brings a time long gone to life. Like plugging in a stereo this is an electric, easy to read manuscript for music fans and also for those who lived through that age. Indispensible. Thank you Mr Boyd!
© Ian Callagy 2009