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On this page you will find recordings from throughout my career along with some reference photos along the way. The most recent recordings are at top.
"When I Was Young and Easy" (listen) (liner notes)
Recorded at Dave Leonard's Studio, 2005 "When I Was Young and Easy" is a quote from Fern Hill by Dylan Thomas, my favorite poet. The song is about my days at school and comes from a long way back. The only point of interest now is that when I first wrote it I used real names, fully intending to change them to fictional ones later. Of course I forgot and so now all my friends' real names are in the song; I apologize to Patrick (who joined the Jesuits), Paul (who ran free to the point of extinction) and Elizabeth (who really "ended up exactly as I feared.") "I had my fill of the silken curls of the wayward girls from the convent on the hill" refers to a girls' school on Harrow Hill called St Benedicts. The line is not true—I wish it was.
"The Contender" (Robinson) 2004 Recorded at Dave Leonard's Studio, Decatur 2005 Once upon a time, in my 'real life', I was a radio producer and presenter hosting phone-in shows. Any subject was up for discussion. One show was about the "dangers of boxing" but morphed into a story-swapping session by boxers about their glory days. One of them showed up at the radio station after the program ended. He had been a middleweight prize fighter and never quite made it. He was a very nice man, proud of his past—but a living example of what boxing can do to a man. When a country singer in Bristol (Kelvin Henderson) wanted me to write him a song I began this one. Then—for reasons too many to explain—I laid my guitar aside till 2004. When I picked it up again, the first thing I did was to finish this song. I tried to contact Kelvin but sadly he is very ill and will never be able to hear it.
"Follow the Drum" (Robinson) 1974 Recorded at Dave Leonard's Studio, 2005 "Follow the Drum" was covered a lot in the old days in the UK but now there's a new version of it in the USA thanks to Brent Reece (www.brentreece.com) on his latest CD. He does a great job, changing "roundabout" into "carousel" for an American audience. It's fun to hear an English song ‘countrified’. Brent has also recorded "Evenings This Way"—THANKS BRENT!
Recorded at Dave Leonard's Studio, 2005 I met Boston-based singer/songwriter Lisa Bastoni a couple of years ago at Eddie’s Attic and then again at the Red Light Café. I am a firm fan and you will be too after hearing her songs. She has a website (www.lisabastoni.com). Go visit and tell her what a great song "Ghosts" is.
Recorded at Dave Leonard's Studio, 2005 This is my favorite song (at the moment). Really it’s about how when a relationship ends you lose more than your partner but everything and everybody that goes along with him/her. I like it because I usually write too many words and this one has only 119. It’s the nearest thing I've written to a "Tin Pan Alley" song.
"Village Production of Hamlet" (Wooten) 1996 Recorded by Chris Barker, 1979 Written by my friend Miles Wooten, I performed "Hamlet" in a show devised by a bunch of us in the Greensleeves Theatre Company in 1996. We toured parts of Canada with a show made up of songs which were inspired by Shakespeare plays: you know the kind of thing: the opera Otello, musicals like West Side Story and Boys from Syracuse etc. and some comedy songs like this one.
"It Always Takes a Team" (Robinson) 1985 from The Crevice and Tauke Show, BBC Radio Northampton A song from the radio series The Crevice and Tauke Show. The idea behind “Team” was that I (Gerry Tauke) and Richard Lewis (Cyril Crevice) were an over-the-hill comedy double act looking back to a time when partnerships mattered. I love this kind of "Bing Crosby/Bob Hope" duet. Crevice and Tauke are long gone but I update this song from time to time and slip it into the current set.
Performed at the Colston Hall (Bristol's Carnegie Hall) in front of 2000 people. I wrote this old fashioned comic monologue for a local Bristol celebrity Pete Lawrence. The subject is Isambard Kingdom Brunel (inventor, engineer, visionary, businessman, railway builder, steamship builder, etc etc), Bristol’s greatest hero. The Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol (subject of the monologue) is truly one of the great wonders of the world.
Suite from the opera Brunel (Robinson) 1983 Performed by members of the Bristol Light Opera Society, the Cast of “A Man Our Of Time” and the Bristol Youth Symphony Orchestra The Brunel Opera was commissioned for some anniversary or the other. I can't remember. I just know it was a real thrill hearing a full orchestra and chorus belt out my songs. It was considered a hit due in no small part to the boundless energy of the producer Vicki Klein.
Written for and performed on Compass with Jenni Murray. The idea for one segment of the daily Compass radio show was this: I was given a subject by the producer on a Friday and by Monday I had to have a song prepared to sing at 9am—the start of the show. My song would be followed by a panel of ‘experts’ who discuss the subject in hand. The subject given to me this time was “the perils of home dressmaking” (“And remember: no longer than three minutes please!”). The guest that morning was a well-known Martha Stewart-type home-economist and journalist. She was not amused by the song. The Compass “write-a-song-to-order-and-remember: no-longer-than-three-minutes-please” experience gave rise to the catchphrase: “I don’t want it good, I want it Monday.” Pictured at left is Compass presenter Jenni Murray.
Written for and performed on Compass with Jenni Murray. This was commissioned to celebrate the Queen’s 25th Jubilee. The producer wanted a song (“And remember: no longer than three minutes please!”) to express how "ordinary people" were responding to the Queen’s Jubilee, so I wrote about a kid in a slum school who only sees the Queen from a distance.
"Cllr McCafferty" (Robinson) 1975 Commissioned for Bill Salisbury’s Saturday Morning Show on Radio Bristol and later performed on TV in the E for Environment show which starred Tony (“Baldrick”) Robinson—no relation! McCafferty is based on a real politician—but I can’t say who. Pick anyone.
"Benedict Christopher Thomas" (Robinson) 1974 Recorded by Louis Robinson at BBC’s Lime Grove Dubbing Studio The I-Am-Not-So-Young-Executive-Blues was written about my first boss (Mr. Nobbs). I worked for him in an insurance company in the City of London and to my astonishment the song later turned out to be about me! The BBC Lime Grove Studios where I recorded this version was the old Gaumont-British Pictures Studios where Hitchcock made his early movies. It was bulldozed in the 90s to make way for a housing development. British car fans can date the song from the reference to the Cortina XL—at the time Ford’s coolest model.
"Amanda" (Robinson) "Blagged" (Sarstedt) Recorded at BBC Broadcasting House 1972 "Take it Slow and Easy" (Fuller) Recorded live at Turville Heath Folk Club 1974 Recorded by Green Ginger My favorite folk club of all time was in a village called Turville in Buckinghamshire, England. The farmer—the late Len Harmon—converted his barn into an auditorium seating around 200 people. He booked top folk acts and was so successful that he had to hire policemen to control the large number of cars blocking up the muddy little lane that led to his farm. Len loved folk music and "show-biz" and shared his advice with us. He was like a Godfather to us. "Take it Slow and Easy" was recorded at one of those magic evenings at Turville. Thanks for everything, Len.
"Sweet Georgia Brown" (Bernie, Pinkard, Casey) 1971 Recorded by Green Ginger Recorded at a rehearsal one afternoon at John Finch's house. Green Ginger had just formed from bits of other bands and we were testing each other out. It was just a goofing off session—but not bad for a bunch of college kids I guess.
Written and performed by The Thymes Folk Group This photo of The Thymes is 75% accurate. Pictured above is actually Eugene O’Brien (banjo) who left for college a few months later. We were joined by a beautiful singer named Sheila Jaillet. The band broke up when Sheila married a handsome German called Hans and left to live in Europe. Where are you now, Sheila Jaillet?
Recorded by the Green Ginger Trio So there we were: three school kids, average age 15, heady with the success of an amateur Christmas concert at our school and deciding to save up our pocket money and make an LP. It cost us a total of $150. To our astonishment we pressed 99 copies and sold them all. We stopped at 99 copies because if we’d made 100 or more we’d have been liable for tax. PS: I began to shave the next year. |
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