I was a bit harsh.. They know the song, they played it. They did nothing with it that wasn't already done. When it came out I was expecting more. How do you compete with Robert Wyatt?
What other covers of "Memories" do you know of ?
RW is one of my favorite musicians. I have all of his solo albums and numerous albums he guests on. You're right, it's hard to compete with him.
The upside is Hugh got paid, I liked Hugh Hopper, did a recording with him and Alan Gowen in the early 80s. A peak experience.
Alan Gowen (RIP) died at a very young age from Leukemia in 1981. The Gigamesh albums are wonderful; same with his contributions to National Health. I have the albums "Two Rainbows Daily", "Soft Heap", and "Rogue Element" too. Also, "Before A Word Is Said" with Phil Miller, Richard Sinclair, and Trevor Tomkins. Were you involved in any of these projects ? That must have been cool !
Robert
On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 3:43 PM, Robert
<rmrmax@yahoo.com> wrote:
I didn't mean to infer that the original recording of this song was done by Soft Machine; it's their version that I associate the song with.
To the best of my knowledge, I believe it was actually 1st recorded by The Wilde Flowers, the predecessor group to Soft Machine and Caravan which included several members of both line ups of these subsequent groups.
Robert
Gino, thanks for pointing out to us that Whitney Houston sang "Memories"; I never knew that.
I didn't follow Whitney Houston, but I always loved Soft Machine.
Respectfully, I don't think Material's version with WH is all that bad. "Memories" is such a great song, it's hard to ruin it.
So below is Material's cover and the original Soft Machine single.
BTW, RIP Mr. Hugh Hopper...
Robert
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3CZPNT9GSs
Sarah Vaughn she was not. What she did was fashion, showbiz, not music. Music is incidental to people in her situation. Confluential to selling shit.
She sang Hugh Hopper's "Memories" with Material and they had the nerve to put it out as a 12"
--
"All music is folk music; I ain't never heard no horse sing a song."
Louis Armstrong
Gino Wong Birgelo
BSComm, BSEE, CG, CSEC
Audio Production, Logistics, Analog Synthesizers, Sound Design