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April 29, 2005
Ark's business class only
Felt - Sunlight Bathed the Golden Glow
Lawrence Hayward = Felt. However, some might know him as the second most responsible party (behind Stuart Murdoch) in the initial formation of Belle & Sebastian. What happened was that Stuart went down to London to try to find Lawrence- couldn't find him- and so went back to Glasgow and decided to just form his own band. Here's what Stuart said about it back in the day (taken from the Jeepster press page): "I set myself a task to find Lawrence from Felt," Stuart begins. "He'd made wonderful music and it was the only music that would absorb me 100 per cent and I admired him for that. So I went to London, but I never managed to track him down. It's quite pathetic really, but have you ever felt at a total loose end and nothing's happening and you think someone has the answer or at least you'd like to pass the time of day with them? That's exactly how I felt."
The bass notes that start this song cannot be described as anything but 'graceful'. In fact, the whole of 'Sunlight Bathed the Golden Glow' is a study in how to write a song that is lithe, curvaceous, and pleasing. Hayward and Maurice Deebank kick up small, pink tornadoes of guitar notes in this song that spin down and Coriolide throughout. Lawrence harmonizes with a woman (or a group of women- it's hard to tell) whose voice gives his nonchalant delivery a hazy, soft corona. On the surface, this song is jubilant, sunny, etc., but there's something about it (the instrumentation particularly) that evokes hopeless, all-consuming nostalgia; not quite regret- just a mood of being trapped in remembrance of happy memories.
'Sunlight Bathed the Golden Glow' was originally part of the spectacular "Strange Idols Patterns and Other Short Stories" LP, but it's also on the Lawrence-compiled greatest hits album that just came out recently, "Stains on a Decade", which might be a better starting point (also features the excellent duet with Cocteau Twins' Liz Fraser, 'Primitve Painters').
Posted by matt at April 29, 2005 08:20 AM
Comments
cool thanks...great story btw
Posted by: craig at April 29, 2005 10:58 AM
Thanks Craig- glad you like it.
Posted by: Kevin at April 29, 2005 02:36 PM
Short observation about the Cherry Red Felt Re-issue Series "The strange idols pattern" CD version of "Sunlight Bathed..." its not the one I remember from the 80's and is being discussed here, this one has a different tempo, no female singers and another lyric in place of "the book of the dead" reference... I cannot place my hands on a original vinyl copy at the moment, but it was the first thing I wanted to hear when I unwrapped the CD reissue and I was a bit put out...was there an alternate version on single? I was thinking of the one discussed here and was wondering how
or where I could find the more memorable version...
Posted by: O.D. Jones at March 25, 2006 07:14 PM