Skip to main content

Bob Lind

Bob Lind was an American singer song writer who briefly appeared on the scene in 1966 and in certain limited respects sounded like a precursor to Don Mc Lean. 

He had the ability to write very interesting pop tunes with poetic - and sometimes - baffling lyrics. 

The best of these were often to be found on the B sides of his singles e.g. "Cheryl's Goin' Home", "Truly Julies's Blues" and "We May Have Touched". 

Another outstanding song and performance is "Spilling Over" (where his voice does indeed sound like Don McLean!) 

 However it is "Elusive Butterfly" for which he will always be known. This is simply a wonderful song - and still one of my favourites - with a truly magical lyric of poetic reverie. This for me perfectly "encapsulates" the truly fleeting nature of romantic love. 

Sadly for Bob his own encounter with fame was to resemble the elusive butterfly of his song as he quickly became consigned to that unenviable group of "one-hit wonders". 

I must confess that I did go out and buy his follow-up single in 1966 for its B side. The A side "Remember the Rain" seemed like an upbeat reworking of the previous hit (and not particularly notable). 

However at the time I liked its B side "Truly Julie's Blues" even more than "Elusive Butterfly". Though I still like this track very much, on listening now I cannot honestly say that it exercises quite the same appeal. 

Again there is a connection with Don McLean in that one of his songs "Crossroads" subsequently was to replace for me in a more satisfying manner the sentiments initially evoked by the earlier song. 

It may be said that Bob Lind does not deserve to be remembered as a true great (though admittedly producing a few great moments). 

Some of his material - though always interesting - does come across as a bit lightweight with the songs sounding too similar. 

However on second thoughts this assessment is maybe too harsh. For example "Spilling Over" is a truly wonderful song (though almost completely unknown) representing perhaps the most convincing of all Bob's performances. 

So he certainly deserves a much higher place in the pantheon of pop music than his current largely forgotten position.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bert Jansch

In the early 70's I spent part of the summer doing some construction work with a motley group in a rehab centre in south Dublin. As the weather was good we lunched outdoors in the middle of the day. A record player was found and an album that I had never heard before was played which I found captivating. One song in particular "Needle of Death" really impacted with me in a way that only a handful of tracks have ever done. Music has the wonderful capacity to resonate - at least occasionally - in a profoundly meaningful manner. And this certainly was one such occasion! I remember looking at the album sleeve and mistakenly leaving with the impression that it was by Bert Yance. And on several occasions over the years, I tried without success to learn more about this artist. Then some 25 years or so later, I spotted a notice outside the College where I work in Dublin promoting an upcoming performance by Bert Jansch nearby in Whelans. In that moment I realised the true id
Post a Comment
Read more

Ray Charles

I cannot say that I was ever a great fan of Ray Charles though I could appreciate that he was very talented. I do remember however that one of the early singles that I purchased was his biggest hit "I Can't Stop Loving You". Those early single purchases were momentous occasions back then providing welcome relief from school routine. I recall the HMV label on which it was released in Ireland with its pale blue colour. In those days one would inevitably flip over the other side to see if it contained some hidden treasure. (It generally didn't)! However I can still hear the closing refrain "Born to lose, and now I'm losing you". As is well known the peak of Ray Charles' popularity came in the early 60's when - unusual for a black performer - he recorded two albums devoted to Country and Western material. "I Cant' Stop Loving You" was a single taken off the first album. However my own particular favourite was "Take Thes
Post a Comment
Read more

The Beatles

I saw the Beatles second film “Help” recently which proved a nostalgic experience (having seen it originally at the time of its release in 1965). The plot seemed even more ridiculous than it did the 1st time around. However what rescued the whole thing for me were the superb songs like “Help”, “You’re Going to Lose that Girl”, “Ticket to Ride” and George’s “I Need You”. They sounded better than ever which possibly is due to the fact that the film has since been remastered. Indeed their entire catalogue has just been remastered with simultaneous releases of the Box Set and all the individual albums (including other single, B side and EP tracks). Now in the first week of release no less than 11 of these are included in the UK Top 40 (40 years or more after the original recordings). For me, no other band even came close to the Beatles both in the quality and range of the output. Though occasional single tracks by other groups such as The Rolling Stones, Procul Harum, The Moody Blues and
Post a Comment
Read more