Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind: Singles and Demos 1964-1967

Vashti Bunyan | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 13, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Dicristina Stair Builders
• ASIN: B000V1OUOA
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,216 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #34 in Music > Folk > British & Celtic Folk > British Folk

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The renewed interest in Vashti Bunyan continues, and has outpaced the attention she initially received in the mid-'60s and a pair of UK singles. Her 1970 album, Just Another Diamond Day, became a touchstone for the likes of Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom, and was reissued in 2000. Having left the music business, she returned with her second album in 2005, Lookaftering. This new set doubles her available output. The first disc of the set offers those rare Decca singles (including the title track, penned by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards). These make it clear that, while she's been labeled a folk singer, her writing was decidedly more diverse in its simplicity. Production and arrangement approaches aimed were infused with pop sensibilities, bringing those inclinations to the fore without bending the songs into inappropriate shapes. Intimate and captivating, the second disc is from a long forgotten tape, on which she performs a dozen songs solo, one after another, as a demo in 1964. --David Greenberger

Product Description

2007 two CD collection, a comprehensive look back at her early recordings from the period prior to her classic 1970 Just Another Diamond Day album. Some Things... attempts to both draw a line under the past and also to set the record straight regarding the disparity between how Bunyan viewed (and still views) herself and the way the public views her as an artist. This complete collection of Bunyan's 25 existing early recordings is a young London girl's series of beautiful love songs that resonate profoundly via an almost brutal efficiency and honesty. The melodies seem timelessly sweet and addictive, the vision at once delicate but somehow tough as granite. The first disc gathers together the early singles (two of which were unreleased) and a set of demos recorded between 1965 and 1967; the second comprises the entire, unaltered contents of a long-forgotten tape discovered at the last minute before mastering, containing a set of raw, pure, intimate recordings. Dicristina.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I love you now as you don't love me, February 23, 2008

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind: Singles and Demos 1964-1967 (Audio CD)

Vashti Bunyan's first and second albums were released, uh, thirty-five years apart. Meaning it could have been more than three decades before we heard from her again.

Fortunately such is not the case. "Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind: Singles and Demos 1964-1967" collects scattered odds and ends of Bunyan's early work, and you'd really never have known that it's from decades ago -- these two discs are full of timeless pop and pretty little folk songs.

It kicks off with the title track, a smooth and catchy concoction of strings, cymbals, guitar and brazen horn. The lyrics aren't exactly perky, though: "Why does the sky turn grey every night?/Sun rise again in time/Why do you think of the first love you had?/Some things just stick in your mind," Bunyan sings in a sweet, slightly off-kilter voice.

Afterwards, she murmurs through the soft tambourine folk of the "I Want To Be Alone" -- call it Garbo folk -- and the lo-fi acoustic ballad "Train Song." Then she glides effortlessly into a string of gentle folk melodies, flavoured with quirky instrumentals and bittersweet, haunting lyrics. And, of course, pioneering freak-folk like the gloriously offbeat "Coldest Night of The Year."

And the second disc is made up of taped 1964 demos -- lo-fi, stripped-down little guitar ballads with no musical ornamentation other than Bunyan's lovely voice. She recites the title, starts gently playing a little acoustic guitar, and singing in a hauntingly sad voice.

You can tell how rough these demos were: "Leave Me" starts with Bunyan reciting the title, followed by a man saying something incoherent to her. She says it more loudly, and chuckles self-consciously.

Admittedly, this release isn't perfect -- the aged tapes from the sixties have shown their age, and despite careful remastering they sometimes sound tinny or crackly. Not Bunyan's fault, though -- her voice and beautiful lyrics are absolutely stunning and heartbreaking, and her instrumentation definitely verifies that she is the Godmother of Freak-folk.

And even in the crackliest songs her little guitar shines out, playing wistful soft-edged melodies. In some of the earlier ones, it's festooned with other sounds -- sweeps of violin, xylophone, trumpets, countryish harmonica, a touch of sitar, cymbals, tambourine, and occasionally even some solid drums. But none of these detract from the sadness of her music, or the power that that one acoustic guitar gives her.

Her voice is the real highlight, though -- you can tell it hasn't been tinkered with even when the tapes were remastered, because she occasionally sounds slightly off-key. So her soft, fairylike voice has a sweetness and purity that most pop singers can't achieve with computer help -- and even more important, her vocals are saturated with a sense of longing, loneliness, and love.

But her lyrics are the absolute breaking point -- every one is a gorgeous, bittersweet little poem. They're evocative ("Train wheels beating, the wind in my eyes") and painfully emotional, full of faithless lovers, men who don't love you as you love them, and uncertainty. Even in the most cheerful of her songs ("I'd sit there in the sun of the things I like about you/I'd sing my songs and find out just what they mean to you") there's a sad edge.

The crackles and age of "Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind: Singles and Demos 1964-1967" can't hide the bittersweet purity of Vashti Bunyan's music. Broken hearts, lovers and sorrows -- absolutely stunning.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vashti-Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind, January 1, 2008

By 

Greg 'Stackhouse' Prevost (Upstate, NY) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind: Singles and Demos 1964-1967 (Audio CD)

FINALLY! Highly recommended collection of the mid-60's Vashti masterpieces-I had only heard the 45 that was officially out-the amazingly ULTRA Andrew Loog Oldham constructed/Jagger-Richard written (Mick did some percussion on this as well) Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind/flip...this collection has it all-including demos recently unearthed by Vashti and available to the world...Vashti is her own artist, so I don't want to make comparisons-but if I had to-and you're not familiar with her compostions-she has many parallels to Marianne Faithfull's Decca/London era and the early to mid-60's Francois Hardy...I HIGHLY recommend this-love her voice and style...great packaging also-like a mini-album...

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My current favorite CD, September 28, 2008

By 

Rick Tanney - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind: Singles and Demos 1964-1967 (Audio CD)

Despite the vintage of these recordings, Vashti Bunyan is a fresh voice. The "Train Song" is especially appealing, and was used recently in a TV commercial, which is where I first heard her sing. If you were a fan of folk rock in the 60's, you would probably put this CD on the same shelf as Simon and Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell, and Judy Collins.