A Raise of Eyebrows

Last updated

A Raise of Eyebrows
RonGeesinARaiseofEyebrows.jpg
Studio album by
Ron Geesin
ReleasedJune 1967
StudioHome studio, Notting Hill, London
Genre
Length34:45
Label Transatlantic
Producer Nathan Joseph
Ron Geesin chronology
A Raise of Eyebrows
(1967)		 Music from The Body
(1970)

A Raise of Eyebrows is the debut album by Scottish composer Ron Geesin, released in June 1967 by Transatlantic Records. Recorded in his home studio in Notting Hill, Geesin aimed to make a humorous album of social commentary that reflected his musical abilities. Considered a work of electronic and experimental music, the album exemplifies Geesin's tape manipulation of sounds and his skills on numerous instruments, including guitar, piano, banjo and devices atypical to music, and explores music, poetry, spoken word, satire, noise, and sound collages.

Contents

On release, Transatlantic's promotional campaign for the album emphasised Geesin's distinctiveness as a musician. The record was not a commercial success and divided listeners, but received critical attention for its stereo sound, eclecticism and Geesin's wide instrumental input. John Peel was an early supporter of the album, and it proved influential on Britain's progressive music scene, particularly Pink Floyd, with whom Geesin would later work. In 1996, A Raise of Eyebrows and Geesin's subsequent album As He Stands (1973) were re-released together by See for Miles Records.

Background and recording

After an upbringing in Scotland, Ron Geesin joined Crawley-based trad jazz band The Original Downtown Syncopators in the early 1960s as pianist. [1] [2] He later began playing banjo – an instrument he learned as a child [3] [4] – for the group, and soon performed solos during concerts on piano, banjo and then together on jug and piano, which audiences found amusing. [5] He moved with his future wife Frances [1] to London for its superior working propositions, finding a home on Elgin Crescent, Notting Hill. [6] [7] He later recalled: "I knew that if I didn't get into London before I left that band I was finished as a human being. Fortunately, through another chance, we got a flat in Notting Hill. I didn't know where Notting Hill was really, what it was. Turned out to be the centre of artistic endeavours". [5] Geesin became increasingly intrigued by the act of recording, [6] having been gifted his first tape recorder by Frances, [8] and left the band for a solo career in 1965. [6] The musician's grounding in jazz and love of absurdity and surrealism helped him develop as a solo artist. [5] [9]

Geesin's earliest solo work included an EP, Ron Geesin (1965), and pieces written for documentaries and television advertisements. [10] [11] He credited writing the music for a Trebor Glitter Mints advert with teaching him "how to get to musical unity in 30 seconds", [12] while he derived his sense of structure, timing, phasing and form from Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton. [5] He built a recording studio in the cramped confines of his basement flat, [7] [12] described as a "studio-cum-control room-cum-workshop", [13] where he became increasingly fascinated with manipulating sounds on his tape recorder, including via tape editing and looping, while unaware of other musicians' experiments in the same field. He later recalled: "Within months I was editing tape like you'd never seen... improvising the equipment, wiring things up in different ways and fiddling about to make interesting sounds." [5] Geesin's compositions became increasingly longer, and he began semi-improvising them in clubs, [12] particularly ones centred on jazz, where he surprised audiences with music that was by turns tonal and atonal with banjo solos and "piano bashing". [5]

His performances led to bookings in more open-minded folk clubs, where he befriended musicians John Renbourn and Ralph McTell, leading Geesin to approach Nathan Joseph's folk and blues label Transatlantic Records. [5] According to Geesin, he showed Joseph several demos, who replied, "We'll take a risk! Go and make some more stuff". [14] Using his home studio, having built up more equipment, [10] Geesin recorded his first album, A Raise of Eyebrows, for the label, [6] The musician would later say his loose aim for the record was "to make a collection of my contemporary capabilities, by whatever means." [14] He felt inspired to use the album as social commentary, feeling that "the time has come for real awareness of surroundings for myself and other human beings." [15] Geesin played every instrument and mixed the album in stereo. [15] Joseph acted as producer, while Adrian Harman provided vocals for "Freedom for Four Voices and Me". [16]

Composition

A Raise of Eyebrows features an idiosyncratic array of music and recitation described by Geesin as "notions and ideas bashed down", [7] including instrumentals, spoken word pieces, audio collages, [5] noise, poetry, [12] satire and vocal grunts, [13] with Geesin employing a sense of humour that has been compared to Ivor Cutler [17] and the "wackiness" of the Goons. [18] The album is considered difficult to pigeonhole, [13] [17] although writers have referred to it as a work of electronic [17] [19] and experimental music. [20] Colin Larkin refers to the record as an experimental sound collage that blends "unusual vocal and instrumental effects with synthesiser and banjo", [21] while Martin C. Strong considered it an eclectic album of avant-garde jazz. [10] [22] Geesin expressed an aversion to genre labels, [12] particularly experimental music, [5] but occasionally termed his work "1967 folk music", explaining: "I'm just trying to put over my observations of life and my life. If that's folk, that's what I'm trying to do." [12]

Ron Geesin (2020) Ron Geesin.jpg
Ron Geesin (2020)

The album profiles Geesin's splicing and collaging of sound (described by Michael Freefrix of Perfect Sound Forever as "surealistic-dadaistic composition"), [6] multitracking efforts, [12] and skills on guitar, 15-string contraguitar, banjo, piano and implements not usually used in music, such as milk bottles and an oil drum. [13] He solos on several of these instruments, as well as harmonica, harmonium and the Red Machine, a red-painted petrol can played with the mouth, [15] The album also sees the musician's keyboard and string skills put to "increasingly eccentric ends", [20] while a passage of ragtime banjo and guitar evokes his trad jazz roots. [12] His poetry ranges from Scottish nonsense verse to social topics, with Geesin wishing to express "social comment with a humorous slant". [12] According to Sarah Gregory of Shindig! , the album moves quickly from "Miligan-esque vocal nonsense to avant-garde improvisation." [5]

The opening title track, described by Geesin as one of his "surreal mini-dramas", [14] opens with smashing glass and laughter intended as an inside joke on a glass concert he attended. He explained: "The girl who was playing had all this marvellous glass, and didn't know what to do with it. This is a monument to her, to the avant garde who just crash without thinking about it." [12] The piece also features whistling sounds from a television and gargling from Geesin, [15] with Christopher Evans of AllMusic saying it resembles "a gaggle of gibbering loonies trapped in a bottle bank." [4] "Freedom for Four Voices and Me" features groaning and multi-tracked chanting from Geesin, [5] "It's All Very New, You Know" is an improvisation and "A Female!" is a spoken piece, while "The Eye That Nearly Saw" features tape manipulations. [14] "A World of Too Much Sound" features kazoo and jug, [5] while "Ha! Ha! But Reasonable" was described by Geesin as one of the album's "jazzy reflections". [14]

Release and reception

Named after what Geesin called a "euphemism for the reaction to complete uproar", [23] A Raise of Eyebrows was released by Transatlantic in June 1967, [24] becoming the first stereo release on what Evans described as a usually "rather staid" label. [4] Its release coincided with a parallel breakthrough, the success of Stephen Dwoskin's Geesin-scored films at the Knokke experimental film festival in Belgium. [8] The liner notes describe Geesin's recordings as "not like any other music" and refers to how audiences "don't know what to make of Ron Geesin", [5] [16] a point emphasised in print advertisements for the album. [25] The record was not a commercial success; [5] according to Evans, the album's inaccessible style proved that Geesin's music "might be a tough sell". [4] However, while the music baffled some listeners, it also attracted Geesin a dedicated fanbase. [13]

In his October 1967 review, Mick Farren of International Times wrote that the "success or failure" of A Raise of Eyebrows depended on enjoyment of Geesin's "Ivor Cutler type sense of humour", finding it to be inferior to the Mothers of Invention as an album of "extreme fringe pop" and derivative as "serious electronic music". However, he praised the stereophonic sound for how voices and instruments "move around the room in an amazing surrealist manner", describing it as likely the most inventive use of stereo since the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (May 1967). [17] Robin Denselow of The Observer Review described the album as a mixed media work that is superior to its "rather coy title", drawing attention to Geein's eclectic input and naming it "the most genuine and intelligent protest record to have been made in years", as well as "one of the funniest, one of the most technically brilliant and musically ingenious, and one of the most vicious". [12] Alan Twelftree of Peterborough Standard wrote that audiences "amused and worried" by Geesin's unusual live performances would receive the album in a similar way, writing that Geesin conjures up "even deeper fantasies" on the album than in concert. [26] Beat Instrumental praised Geesin for using his home studio for "some of the most revolutionary recording we've heard of", and wrote that although A Raise of Eyebrow is hard to describe, "the mere fact it was all recorded by Geesin in his studio and accepted by a leading company speaks for itself." [13]

Legacy and reappraisal

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [27]
The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [28]

A Raise of Eyebrows proved strongly influential on Britain's progressive music scene, particularly on Pink Floyd, who adapted several of Geesin's ideas for Ummagumma (1969), [21] especially on Roger Waters' composition "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict". [19] [20] After touring with folk musicians Ralph McTell and Roy Harper in 1969, Geesin worked with Pink Floyd on their album Atom Heart Mother (1970), [10] [21] and recorded a soundtrack album with Waters, Music from The Body (1970), [10] [22] having been introduced to director Roy Battersby through John Peel, [20] who became a fan and supporter of Geesin through A Raise of Eyebrows. [6] Peel's championing of Geesin also led to him featuring on the compilation John Peel Presents Top Gear (1969). [5] For his subsequent album As He Stands (1973), Geesin developed compositions that had originally appeared as prototypes on A Raise of Eyebrows. [14]

In 1996, See for Miles Records remastered A Raise of Eyebrows and As He Stands together as a single CD. Reviewing the release for French magazine Jukebox, Mick Richards wrote that the collectable albums greatly benefited from the remastering, finding Geesin to have fully exploited the era's studio effects, such as overdubs and tape loops, arguing his work to have been a continuation of the Beatles' innovations on Sgt. Pepper. [29] Joseph Morpurgo of Fact describes A Raise of Eyebrows as navigating "an enjoyable path between electronic tomfoolery, hippy-dippy songwriting and Goons-indebted wackiness", and recommended it to fans of Silver Apples' eponymous 1968 album. [18] Karl Dallas described it as "a remarkable album of electronic innovations" that is worth purchasing. [19] The Billboard Guide to Progressive Music recognises Geesin as a pioneer of avant-garde music and describes A Raise of Eyebrows as balancing "some of the most Dadaesque compositions in 20th-century music" with "some fairly insipid monologues which were intended as humor". [30]

Track listing

All tracks composed by Ron Geesin.

Side one

  1. "A Raise of Eyebrows" – 2:17
  2. "Freedom for Four Voices and Me" – 2:25
  3. "Psychedelia" – 1:06
  4. "Positives" – 2:13
  5. "It's All Very New, You Know" – 5:36
  6. "A Female!" – 0:21
  7. "Certainly Random" – 2:49

Side two

  1. "The Eye That Nearly Saw" – 4:29
  2. "Two Fifteen String Guitars for Nice People" – 2:28
  3. "From an Electric Train" – 3:22
  4. "A World of Too Much Sound" – 2:05
  5. "Another Female!" – 0:05
  6. "We're All Going to Liverpool" – 3:56
  7. "Ha! Ha! But Reasonable" – 3:26

Personnel

Adapted from the liner notes of A Raise of Eyebrows [16]

See also

Related Research Articles

Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an artistic statement, opting for a more experimental and conceptual outlook on music. Influences may be drawn from genres such as experimental music, avant-garde music, classical music, and jazz.

<i>Atom Heart Mother</i> 1970 studio album by Pink Floyd

Atom Heart Mother is the fifth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd. It was released by Harvest on 2 October 1970 in the UK, and by Capitol on 10 October 1970 in the US. It was recorded at EMI Studios in London, and was the band's first album to reach number 1 in the UK, while it reached number 55 in the US, eventually going gold there.

Transatlantic Records was a British independent record label. The company was established in 1961, primarily as an importer of American folk, blues and jazz records by many of the artists who influenced the burgeoning British folk and blues boom. Within a few years, the company had started recording British and Irish artists. The company's philosophy was intentionally eclectic.

"Echoes" is a song by the English rock band Pink Floyd, and the sixth and last track on their 1971 album Meddle. It is 23+1⁄2 minutes long and takes up the entire second side of the original LP. The track evolved from a variety of different musical themes and ideas, including instrumental passages and studio effects, resulting in the side-long piece. The music was written by the group, while Roger Waters' lyrics addressed themes of human communication and empathy, which he returned to in later work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norman Smith (record producer)</span> British record producer (1923–2008)

Norman Smith was an English musician, record producer and engineer. In the 1960s, he notably engineered all of the Beatles' EMI studio recordings up to the end of 1965 and produced three Pink Floyd albums including their first, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967). He later had a successful recording career as Hurricane Smith, achieving a transatlantic hit single with "Oh Babe, What Would You Say" in 1972.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Legendary Pink Dots</span> Anglo-Dutch rock band

The Legendary Pink Dots are an Anglo-Dutch rock band formed in London in August 1980. In 1984, the band moved to Amsterdam, playing with rotating musicians and having, as core members, singer/songwriter/keyboardist Edward Ka-Spel and keyboardist Phil Knight. In 2022, founding member and synthesist Philip Knight retired from touring, and Randall Frazier joined the band on synths, samples and electronics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Money (Pink Floyd song)</span> Song by Pink Floyd

"Money" is a song by English rock band Pink Floyd from their 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon. Written by Roger Waters, it opened side two of the original album. Released as a single, it became the band's first hit in the United States, reaching number 10 in Cash Box magazine and number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Boyd</span> American record producer and writer

Joe Boyd is an American record producer and writer. He formerly owned Hannibal Records. Boyd has worked on recordings of Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, Richard Thompson, Nick Drake, The Incredible String Band, R.E.M., Vashti Bunyan, John and Beverley Martyn, Maria Muldaur, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Billy Bragg, James Booker, 10,000 Maniacs, and Muzsikás. He was also one of the founders of the highly influential nightclub venue UFO.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ron Geesin</span> Scottish musician, composer and writer

Ronald Frederick Geesin is a Scottish musician, composer and writer known for his unusual creations and novel applications of sound, as well as for his collaborations with Pink Floyd and Roger Waters.

<i>Music from The Body</i> 1970 soundtrack album by Ron Geesin and Roger Waters

Music from The Body is the soundtrack album to Roy Battersby's 1970 documentary film The Body, about human biology, narrated by Vanessa Redgrave and Frank Finlay.

Psychedelic folk is a loosely defined form of psychedelia that originated in the 1960s. It retains the largely acoustic instrumentation of folk, but adds musical elements common to psychedelic music.

"Atom Heart Mother" is a six-part suite by the progressive rock band Pink Floyd, composed by all members of the band and Ron Geesin. It appeared on the Atom Heart Mother album in 1970, taking up the first side of the original vinyl record. At 23:44, it is Pink Floyd's longest uncut studio piece. Pink Floyd performed it live between 1970 and 1972, occasionally with a brass section and choir in 1970–71.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Furtado</span> Musical artist

Tony Furtado is an American singer-songwriter, banjoist, and guitarist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interstellar Overdrive</span> 1967 instrumental by Pink Floyd

"Interstellar Overdrive" is an instrumental composition written and performed by the English rock band Pink Floyd. The song was written in 1966 and is on their 1967 debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, clocking in at almost ten minutes in length. It features long sections of free-form instrumental improvisation reflective of the group's live performances.

"Grantchester Meadows" is the second track from the studio disc of the Pink Floyd album Ummagumma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Syd Barrett</span> English musician, co-founder of Pink Floyd (1946–2006)

Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett was an English singer, guitarist and songwriter who co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd in 1965. Barrett was the band's frontman and primary songwriter, known for his whimsical style of psychedelia, English-accented singing, and stream-of-consciousness writing style. As a guitarist, he was influential for his free-form playing and for employing effects such as dissonance, distortion, echo and feedback.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pink Floyd</span> English rock band

Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments, philosophical lyrics and elaborate live shows. They became a leading band of the progressive rock genre, cited by some as the greatest progressive rock band of all time.

"Embryo" is a song by Pink Floyd. It was regularly performed live in 1970–71, but never released on any regular Pink Floyd studio album.

The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream was a concert held in the Great Hall of the Alexandra Palace, London, on 29 April 1967. The fund-raising concert for the counterculture paper International Times was organised by Barry Miles, John "Hoppy" Hopkins, David Howson, Mike McInnerney and Jack Henry Moore. It was part-documented by Peter Whitehead in a film called Tonite Let's All Make Love in London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Wright (musician)</span> English keyboardist, co-founder of Pink Floyd (1943–2008)

Richard William Wright was an English musician who co-founded the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. He played keyboards and sang, appearing on almost every Pink Floyd album and performing on all their tours. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 as a member of Pink Floyd.

References

  1. 1 2 "Biography". Ron Geesin. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  2. ↑ "Geesin still energised from Atom Heart Mother". The Herald. 28 March 2014. Archived from the original on 23 November 2021. Retrieved 12 December 2021.
  3. ↑ Alastair. "Ron Geesin By Alastair". Neptune Pink Floyd. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Evans, Christopher. "AllMusic Biography by Christopher Evans". AllMusic. Retrieved 12 December 2021.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Gregory, Sarah (November 2021). "Change Careering". Shindig! (121): 56–61.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Freerix, Michael (August 2021). "Perfect Sound Forever: Ron Geesin". Perfect Sound Forever. Retrieved 12 December 2021.
  7. 1 2 3 Barnes, Mike (September 2003). "Ron Geesin". The Wire. Retrieved 12 December 2021.
  8. 1 2 Miller, Henry K. (24 April 2020). "Dwoskin Project Blog #16: The Notting Hill Set – Part I". Lux. Retrieved 12 December 2021.
  9. ↑ Rogers, Jude (23 November 2011). "Inhaling Radio Fumes: Ron Geesin Interviewed". The Quietus. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 Strong, Martin Charles (2002). The Great Scots Musicography The Complete Guide to Scotland's Music Makers. Edinburgh: Birlinn, Limited. p. 173. ISBN   9781841830414 . Retrieved 11 December 2021.
  11. ↑ Askew, Robin (24 April 2016). "Interview: Ron Geesin". Bristol 24/7. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Denselow, Robin (10 December 1967). "1967 sights on sound". The Observer Review.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "In the Studio: Giving the Facts Behind the Hits" (PDF). Beat Instrumental: 14–15. September 1968. Retrieved 31 December 2021.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Breznikar, Klemen (26 January 2016). "Ron Geesin interview". It's Psychedelic Baby! Magazine . Retrieved 12 December 2021.
  15. 1 2 3 4 "A fat lady gargling...". Mayfair. 2 (12). 1967.
  16. 1 2 3 A Raise of Eyebrows (liner). Ron Geesin. Transatlantic Records. 1967.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  17. 1 2 3 4 Farren, Mick (27 October 1967). "Sounds: Bluesbreaker Eyebrows". International Times: 7. Retrieved 31 December 2021.
  18. 1 2 Morpurgo, Joseph (29 May 2014). "The greatest electronic albums of the 1950s and 1960s". FACT Mag. Retrieved 12 December 2021.
  19. 1 2 3 Dallas, Karl (1994). Pink Floyd: Bricks in the Wall. New York: Shapolsky. p. 99. ISBN   9781561711321 . Retrieved 11 December 2021.
  20. 1 2 3 4 Manning, Toby (2006). The Rough Guide to Pink Floyd. London: Rough Guides. p. 59. ISBN   9781843535751 . Retrieved 11 December 2021.
  21. 1 2 3 Larkin, Colin (1995). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (2nd ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 1,617. ISBN   1561591769 . Retrieved 11 December 2021.
  22. 1 2 Strong, Martin Charles (2008). Lights, Camera, Sound Tracks. Edinburgh: Canongate. p. 621. ISBN   9781847670038 . Retrieved 11 December 2021.
  23. ↑ Geesin, Ron (2013). "Recording Pink Floyd's 'Atom Heart Mother'". The History Press. Retrieved 12 December 2021.
  24. ↑ "Ron Geesin feature". Record Collector (176): 129. April 1994.
  25. ↑ "Ron Geesin" (PDF). Melody Maker: 9. 21 October 1967. Retrieved 31 December 2021.
  26. ↑ Twelftree, Alan (5 April 1968). "Jazz & Folk Records". Peterborough Standard.
  27. ↑ "A Raise of Eyebrows - Ron Geesin". AllMusic. Retrieved 12 December 2021.
  28. ↑ Larkin, Colin (2004). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz. London: Virgin Books. pp. 327–328. ISBN   9781852271831 . Retrieved 11 December 2021.
  29. ↑ Richards, Mick (May 1996). "Ron Geesin". Jukebox.
  30. ↑ Smith, Bradley (1997). "Ron Geesin Funny Frown". The Billboard Guide to Progressive Music. New York: Billboard Books. p. 77. ISBN   9780823076659 . Retrieved 11 December 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.