07 December 2024

PAUL LAKE – Dear Mr. Fantasy/Child Of The Moon (2024, 7” Fruits de Mer Records)

RELEASE INFO:

Label: Fruits de Mer Records

Format: 7”, Lathe-Cut, 80 copies

Release Date: early December

Paul Lake is the other half of The Chemistry Set (the other half is Dave McLean) and this 7-inch release here is his first solo Single. The Single is extremely limited with just 80 lathe-cut copies being produced and of course, behind all these is Keith and his Fruits de Mer Records label. Let’s have a look at the some-kind-of-a-press-release (hehe…):

“Paul Lake – half of the pretty damn-wonderful Chemistry Set – releases his first solo single, a double ‘A’ sider, featuring Paul’s take on two classic songs – Traffic’s ‘Dear Mr’ Fantasy’ and The Stones’ ‘Child Of The Moon’.

What led Paul to release a solo single? I asked him…

“For a while I’d fancied going solo to record a couple of cover versions of songs that mean a lot to me personally, from back in my formative teenage years when I played and sang in bands before the creation of The Chemistry Set.

Although I’d been playing the guitar since the age of 7, it wasn’t until I attended sixth-form college in the mid ‘80s, that I began to seriously concentrate on playing lead guitar that soon became obsessional as I strove to develop and improve my ability as quickly as I could.

I listened over and over to cassettes copied from my vinyl, trying to work out solos from, among others, Hendrix, Cream, The Yardbirds, early Zeppelin…fixating on the period 1966 to 1969…the greatest years music ever presented to the world…in my humble opinion.

During this time I played and sang in a couple of bands with highly committed, young, like-minded musicians performing gigs in London and Kent at colleges, village halls, and eventually at venues like the Clarendon Hotel in Hammersmith.

One of the songs that I performed regularly back then was Traffic’s “Dear Mr Fantasy” with its overlong guitar solos that left plenty of room for experimentation (aka self-indulgence).Traffic produced some great songs and I’ve long admired the variety of instruments they used, so this was one song I had to record as it conjures extremely sentimental memories for me of playing in those youthful bands with very talented guys, some of whom, sadly, are no longer with us today.

The other song I recorded “Child Of The Moon”, originates from a time in my early teens when I went through a phase of collecting original Rolling Stones singles and albums with money gleaned from doing milk deliveries and paper rounds…and I discovered this gem on the B side of “Jumping Jack Flash”. I always thought it quite a curious song. While “Flash” sounds fresh, full of strutting confidence and has the air of ‘back to business’ after a year of drug busts and court cases, in contrast “Moon” somehow seems like a “Satanic Majesties” hangover, carrying the weary, persecuted transition from their flirtation with summer of love psychedelia to their back-to-basics 1968 acoustic classic “Beggars Banquet”. Nevertheless with its melody redolent of the The Beatles “Rain” and Brian Jones’ grinding Hammond sounds I was totally intrigued by the song and always fancied a crack at it.

My personal approach to recording cover versions is to accentuate the character of the original song but not try to replicate it, which I think is pointless.

On “Fantasy” I opted for a more folky approach at the start with open down-tuned 12 string acoustic and sitar licks but I also wanted a woodwind sound to pay homage to Chris Wood, so not knowing any flutists, I recruited my wife, Helen, who dug her old school recorder out of the loft to make her long-overdue recording debut. She played it so well that she even got to play the first solo!

On “Moon” I played the sitar and Hammond organ as a nod to the original but wanted to perform the song with more energy, perhaps a bit “Revolver-esque” and threw in some different solos that were not in the Stones version”…

“Dear Mr. Fantasy” starts in a wandering magical way with an acoustic guitar and a lovely trippy woodwind sound, this is a well-respected modernized version of the classic Traffic song, a Folkie dream-a-like approach but without losing (or getting away from) the “electric guitar” basic element of the original song. “Child Of The Moon” was the ‘B’ side of the “Jumping Jack Flash” single and Paul here performs a cool-as-fuck new reinterpretation, the Hammond organ shines while the Sitar makes a guest and very low-fi distinctive appearance! Well done Paul! Deeply inspired versions, surely starters for the younger generation and their 60s-era-exploring! TimeLord Michalis