Sunshine through a prism (Suzanne) (LP 4021 - 4025)

Suzanne  Walk a Little Closer (Vinyl, Philips Records, 1971) ***  

Suzanne  Oh Suzanne (Vinyl, Philips Records, 1971) ***

Suzanne  Stand By Your Man (Vinyl, Philips Records, 1973) ****

Suzanne  Just Suzanne (Vinyl, Karussell Records, 1973) ****

Suzanne  Everything I Want To Do (Vinyl, Karussell Records, 1974) ****

Genre: NZ Music, pop 

Places I remember: Spellbound Wax Company, Vinyl Countdown, Little Red Bookshop.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Let It Be (Oh Suzanne)

Gear costume: It's Too Late  (Walk a Little Closer)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: Cat Stevens fans or Ladykillers fans who know the name Suzanne Lynch, may be unaware of her considerable career in the sixties (in The Chicks) or seventies (as Suzanne). She has been around since the dawn of time and always part of my musical history. The Chicks on C'Mon and Suzanne on The Loxene Golden Disc record with Sunshine Through a Prism are seminal moments.

Alphabetically, Suzanne comes before The Chicks in my countdown, so we start in 1971 with Suzanne's solo career away from her sister Judy.

She was busy in 1971 - three albums in total* - Walk a Little Closer is her second and Oh Suzanne her third. She is hit and miss over these two albums, thanks to a lack of control over the choice of material. The hits on Walk a Little Closer: It's Too Late (she suits Carole King, and Joni songs); and maybe surprisingly - I Don't Know How To Love Him. I'm not crazy over things like Husband Hunting though.

Maybe I'm doing them a disservice, but the backing musicians don't appear to be heavily invested throughout Walk a Little Closer. The brass and strings date this record and fix it in place as well (NZ was not a hot recording destination).

Things improve a lot on Oh Suzanne. Her vocals are recorded better, and the backings are more sympathetic. Let It Be is given a folky approach with some lovely strummed guitar, bass and judicious drums. Suzanne sings it well, doing justice to McCartney's best ever song (IMHO).

There are an inordinate number of budget compilations out there for a relatively few years and studio albums. I have three, and need to find two more.

Stand By Your Man and Just Suzanne are both from 1973, Everything I want To Do came a year later. All three come with el cheapo covers - which is fine - budget is budget. Karussell don't pretend to be anything other than completely mercenary in their approach to marketing.

Where do they all belong? Still looking for her other albums: *Suzanne (1971); Friends with You (1973); further compilations I Don't Know How to Love Him (1972), Sunshine Thru a Prism - The Best of Suzanne (1972), and her last studio album - Colour of Summer (2006). She is well deserving of a comprehensive career retrospective CD. Karussell? Are you listening?

Trick of the light (Wayne Roland Brown) (LP 127)

Wayne Roland Brown Trick Of The Light (Vinyl - RCA/ Mandrill Records, 1981) **

Genre: NZ and Australian pop/rock

Places I remember: Slow Boat Records (Wellington)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles/ Gear costume: This Close To Love




Active compensatory factors: Kind of appropriate that I bought this singer-songwriter's album in Wellington - his home town. I like bits of Wellington - the main few streets around Cuba Mall, Arty Bees and Unity bookshops, Slow Boat Records, the waterfront by Te Papa and the botanical garden is cool, but that's about it.

I'd dimly remembered the name and the cover of a previous album (left) but it was the back cover information that made me take a punt on this. 

I have a soft spot for Mandrill Records (a NZ label) and the backing musicians are world famous in NZ: Bruce Lynch; Frank Gibson Jnr; Stuart Pearce (Streettalk); Eddie Hansen (Ticket); Brian Smith (various jazz combos); Jacqui Fitzgerald; Suzanne Lynch (The Chicks); Glyn Tucker Jnr (producer to the stars).

So expectations were high, tempered by the fact it was released in 1981! It's always a punt with stuff from the eighties.

The musicianship is first class, but in the end, the slickness of the sound, the pleasant but not distinct enough voice, and the so so-ness of the songs make it a good sounding but ho-hum, meh, kind of record. 

Sorry Wayne, I really wanted to like the record but, you know - that's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.

Where do they all belong? Hmm - flip comment would be - back in 1981. I'll hang onto the record because it's part of Kiwi music history, and that supporting cast - ooee baby.