Tune Tag #27 with Nic Briscoe, Pt. 2: Jeff Buckley, Red Hot Chili Peppers, David Bowie, 10cc, Wax + One Historic 150-Year-Old Piano

Nic takes us inside an historic UK recording studio to reveal secrets (like, he used to play that piano!), and little-known factoids emerge!

Hey, Nic!

Tune Tag welcomes back

🅝🅘🅒 🅑🅡🅘🅢🅒🅞🅔🖋🎸🎵🎥🎙

for his second go-’round!

Independent Creator = Author. Cultural-Explorer. Recording-Artist. Cont@ct nicbriscoe@substack.com

Nic is the talented creator of two Substack publications: "The Song's the Thing!" and "Unleashed & Unlimited".

Enjoy and subscribe to both here: The Song’s the Thing! and Unleashed & Unlimited. Plus, click here for Nic’s audio/video recording of his “Let Go” on YouTube!

Nic’s Tune Tag #1:

🎵Tune Tag #3 with Nic Briscoe of "The Song's the Thing": Bowie, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Cher

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Nic’s song #1 sent to Brad: Jeff Buckley, “Last Goodbye,” 1994

Jeff Buckley’s guitarist, Michael Tighe, from the April 25, 2020 Musicradar.com: “The one that I really remember him playing most was ‘Last Goodbye’; he told me he wrote that when he was 17. It was very obvious to me that he was such a gifted singer, but I thought of him as my boy, my friend. There was this one night when he was playing at [Manhattan club] Sin-é, and he did ‘Hallelujah,’ and at that moment it really hit me that, you know, he was going to make history. But, that dude could have done anything; he could have gone into opera, or more classical-type stuff. But I definitely think it would be super-unconventional, because that was his thing: he just always wanted to push the boundaries and find ways to just let his voice be free, because he sang with such abandon. So I feel a lot of the times the songs that he wrote were just structures to let his voice fly around it. Because his voice was really the thing that generated his music more than anything.”

Nic’s rationale: This song fits into several important categories for me:

1. Songs I wish I could sing in the same key/register as the original artist.

2. Songs I wish I’d written (not for the money, but because it’s beyond awesome, otherworldly).

3. Favourite songs… it’s one of my favourite songs EVER, in many ways…

• Best bittersweet “breakup” love song ever.

• Brilliantly mixed, co-engineered and co-produced by Andy Wallace; album co-engineered by Bryant Jackson, Chris Laidlaw, Reggie Griffith, Steve Sisco, and Clif Norrell, and co-produced by Buckley; Steve Berkowitz, Executive Producer

• Brilliant musical performances by the most amazing band (Gary Lucas, guitar; Mick Grondahl, bass; Matt Johnson, drums), with fantastic lyrics, Buckley’s brilliant vocal delivery and amazingly crafted chord structure and arranging.

• Fantastic memories: In about 1995, a good friend recommended “Last Goodbye” and its Grace album whilst visiting him in Sydney, Australia.

And then there’s Jeff Buckley and his father, Tim Buckley — what a pedigree and karma they both had, both very talented musicians/singer/songwriters, both dead by misadventure/bad luck by age thirty.

Brad’s song #1 sent to Nic: Tim Buckley, “Move With Me,” 1972

Nic’s response: Well, looks like Brad is straight in there with the son and father link. So where do I take this now? Maybe Cat Stevens’ song, “Father and Son”? Or any adult male experiential advice to younger male song: “Hey, Jude” perhaps?

Or, any song from a famous parent or their famous child, I was thinking Miley Cyrus’s cover of “Jolene" — that’d fox Brad (for a minute or two). Or perhaps “Cabaret” by Liza Minelli (too obvious)? At a push, I could probably squeeze Tim Buckley into the “27 Club” (he died a very rock’n’roll death, aged twenty eight), so any song from any member of that unfortunate gang… “Riders On The Storm” could work?

Then there’s the “track 1, side 1” status: “Move With Me” is the opening track of Tim Buckley’s 1972 album, Greetings from L.A. But, I’m going to go with that Greetings from L.A. connection. My first thought was Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’” (my favourite is John Mayer’s live acoustic version).

Brad’s rationale: I wanted to make a more “impressively obscure” jump to Nic’s Jeff Buckley song, although in retrospect, pulling “the daddy card” seems a short hop! I refreshed my memory on Jeff’s tragic early passing (at age 30 in 1997), which led me to father, Tim’s equally tragic and early passing in 1975 at 28. Is there a more heart-breaking family demise extant (at least in the record biz)?

I was drawn to Tim’s Greetings From L.A. 1972 album simply because I used to have it at the time—in the summer between my junior and senior years in high school. Dad had brought it home (from the radio station where he worked) as part of another promo largesse of new Warner Bros. Records releases (the album was on Frank Zappa and his manager, Herb Cohen’s Straight Records, distributed by WB).

I had the original pressing, which featured a die-cut front cover, with a large, removable postcard. Of course I removed it (thoughts of an eBay and a secondary vinyl market hadn’t occurred to me in 1972)!

I can’t imagine I mailed the postcard, so I’m sure I just slipped it into the jacket like I did with ripped-from-magazines record reviews, interviews, and articles. That was my filing system for all my LPs! That meant that for the decades that followed, the edges of the perforated “hole” where the postcard used to be were getting hopelessly bent and folded in between my shelved Lord Buckley and Buckinghams albums!

Tim’s “Move With Me,” I’m just noticing, was co-written by Buckley and Jerry Goldstein. Goldstein, who’ll turn 84 in February, wrote two of my favorite ‘60s pure-pop teen ditties: 1963’s “My Boyfriend’s Back” by The Angels (co-written with Richard Gottehrer and Bob Feldman; all three produced) and 1967’s “Come on Down to My Boat” by Every Mother’s Son (co-written with eventual Partridge Family music director, Wes Farrell, who produced). Read more about the Partridges, including my 1975 interview with co-star, David Cassidy, here:

In a Houston Penthouse With David Cassidy: Doing The "Shrimp Shuffle" in 1975

Nic’s song #2: Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Under the Bridge,” 1991 (this video, live 2022 performance on The Howard Stern Show)

Brad’s response: Sadly, an unfortunate reminder referencing how (and where) Jeff was found dead in the Mississippi River near Memphis in 1997.

Nic’s rationale: Well, obviously both our #2 tags have the word “bridge” in the title, but Brad’s too sly for that to be it—that’s just a smoke-screen. I think the link is, again, L.A.

The singer and co-writer of this hit song (just below) is Andrew Gold, Burbank-born and bred, multi-instrumentalist/singer/songwriter. So, this could go in several directions now, as the old proverb goes, “there’s more than one way to Tune a Tag”!

Perhaps another U.S. “bridge” in the title song — or is that just a bridge too far? (Clearly Brad’s humour is beginning to permeate… I’ve gotta get a grip...) 

Obviously, “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” however maybe I could just tag “Mrs. Robinson” as another S&G song (I think Brad would eventually sniff this out; it would take time, but he’d get there).

Brad’s song #2: Wax, “Bridge to Your Heart,” 1987

RCA Records promo 8x10 (l-r) Gouldman and Gold.

Rare demo by Wax (Andrew Gold & Graham Gouldman), who co-wrote:

A 1987 performance on UK’s popular Top of the Pops TV show. They’re lip-synching, of course, to the studio recording (produced by veteran hit producer, Christopher Neil). Graham’s bass is sans cords’n’wires, and Andrew has fun with the synching process, as well: Completely un-mic-ed, he takes the sax he has hidden under his keyboard, and mimes the sax solo he never played in the studio!

Nic’s response: “Bridge to Your Heart” is from Wax’s 1987 album, American English: Could be a lot of mileage in that direction, US/UK collaborations… or maybe a swerve ball, “Broken English” by Marianne Faithfull?

Or, I could go fully off on a tangent: The other co-writer/member of Wax was Graham Gouldman, originally a jobbing songwriter and arranger. In 1969, he did a little-known orchestration of a huge hit from the previous year, “The Windmills of Your Mind” (music composed by Michel Legrand; English lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman, French lyrics by Eddy Marnay), sung in English by Noel Harrison [after Andy Williams passed on it] from the 1968 film, The Thomas Crown Affair. Sting reprised that song in the 1999 film remake, so maybe Sting’s version… I don’t think Brad would get that! Brad: You’re right!

Back to Nic: But honestly, I just can’t go there. Why? The group 10cc. Graham Gouldman was a one of the founding members of 10cc.

Brad’s rationale: With Wax’s “Bridge to Your Heart,” I’m simply constructing a more uplifting bridge (that coincidentally has a well-built bridge itself) than the bridge that happened to be present in Jeff B’s death.

The Brit, Graham Gouldman, and the American, Andrew Gold: The mid-’80s merging of these two world-class, veteran, hit-making pop song-crafters was a musical match made in heaven, especially if you were aware of their respective careers when their Wax album (and this irresistible single) dropped! They even titled the album American English (RCA Records, worldwide) as a nod to their home countries!

Nic’s song #3: 10cc, “I’m Not in Love,” 1975

10cc circa mid-’70s (l-r): Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley, Lol Creme.

Brad’s response: I was a 20-year-old DJ in radio when this came out, but as the music director of the U of Houston’s KUHF-FM, nothing, sadly, on this album fit our generally MOR format. My daily shift (3-6pm) only allowed for the softer side of pop, and surprisingly, not even the softer side of ground-breaking rock like this! That would come the following year, when I slipped behind the mic at commercial FM rocker, KLOL, a year-long adventure detailed here:

Behind The Mic: A Personal Peek Into 1970s FM Classic Rock Radio--Pt. 2, KLOL/Houston, Mother's Family

Nic’s rationale: For me, 10cc is seminal and pivotal in so many ways. Every founding member was a genius songwriter, singer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. They owned two recording studios: Strawberry North, in Manchester. And Strawberry South, in Dorking, Surrey (started in 1976) — which is very near where I lived as an early teenager, and this studio was a legendary Mecca to our local music scene.

10cc made ground-breaking recordings, experimenting with tape loops, Moog synthesizers, and multi-tracking way beyond the then-standard eight tracks.

One of the best examples of this experimental approach (and one of my favourite songs) is “I’m Not in Love,” co-written by Graham Gouldman and Eric Stewart (who sang and engineered this experimental masterpiece).

Stack of original 10cc master tape reels from Strawberry South Studios, mostly from early-’80s sessions, but top, smaller reel is marked, “‘I’m Not in Love’” rough mix of orchestral backing track.”

Nic continues: “I’m Not in Love” features an endless-looped backing pad of stacked hissy, choir-like celestial male voices, constructed using physical loops of tape, up to four metres long, tensioned by make-shift rollers on mic stands. These loops took about three weeks to record and construct in 10cc’s then state of the art recording studio. Today, anyone could do the same thing at home on almost any laptop in about three hours or less!

With 10cc band member (and Trevor Horn, former Buggles, Yes, Art of Noise) interviews, a brief, informative doc on how the song was created:

Nic concludes: BTW, I bought the “I’m Not in Love” single in 1975. I thought it was amazing! I was aged 12, and gave it to a girl that I hoped might become a steady girlfriend. She was not impressed by said single’s title… looking back, I can see that it may not have conveyed the right message! Anyway, things didn’t pan out between us.

Brad’ song #3: Herman’s Hermits, “No Milk Today,” 1966

A longer re-record (by 23 seconds), plus different instrumentation:

Nic’s response: The link is that “No Milk Today” was written by Graham Gouldman (from 10cc, who co-wrote “I’m Not in Love”).

Herman’s Hermits’ lead singer is Peter Noone; he nor Herman’s Hermits were really my cup of tea, for me they were like a low-grade version of The Beatles, however they were HUGE in the USA during the mid-sixties “British Invasion.”

Brad: I concur, Nic! I was an 11-year-old Texan (and apparently a pre-adolescent girl, as I peruse my list of reading materials!) when “No Milk Today” was delivered, and an avid reader of all the teen mags of the day: 16, Flip, and Tiger Beat! Peter and his Hermits were all over ‘em! Here’s Flip housing the Hermits, from November 1965:

Brad’s rationale: Clearly, Nic got the Graham Gouldman connection from Wax to 10cc, and good on ‘im, as not many would, regardless of research! 77 1/2 as of this writing, Gouldman (I’m just gonna say it…I’ve waited too long already) is one of pop’s most prolific (and if we’re to judge, even subjectively…prodigious), successful, and fascinatingly interesting songwriters…and, quite obviously, one of my favorites!

To go from the creative poppery of “No Milk Today” to the mind-bending and ground-breaking “I’m Not in Love” (granted, its arrangement and production are the bigger stories) within a decade is just jaw-dropping! Forget Rock Hall, I’m calling for a Graham Gouldman wing for that Cleveland edifice!

Nic’s song #4: David Bowie, “Oh! You Pretty Things,” 1971

Brad’s response: Bowie, who usually wrote his songs on the guitar, wrote “Oh! You Pretty Things” solely on piano, and only used the black keys (the only way he knew to play…see above video, an alternative live take from UK’s Old Grey Whistle Test)!

This pitched the song mainly in F# (F sharp), placing the song in a challenging range for most singers…at least according to MainMan founder, David’s longtime manager, Tony DeFries, now 80, in this recent podcast interview. However, Substack’s

Michael Acoustic

(singer/songwriter/guitarist), informed me that “the Bowie video above is in the key of Db, 4/4 time, 79 BPM.

“The Noone lip-synched video version below is in F#, 4/4 time, and a faster 91 BPM. F# is a key that is a Major 3rd higher than Db, which would lead me to think Noone actually wanted to sing it in a more falsetto voice,” Michael continued. “Maybe there were lower notes in the Key of Db that Peter didn’t think would fit his voice. The song seems to use every weird chordal arrangement possible, meaning ‘non-diatonic’. Scales/keys that actually follow the ‘rules’ are called ‘Diatonic’.”

Noone, from an interview on Tapatalk.com: “Eventually, David showed me how to play the chords on the piano with a C and D together with a B Flat, which isn’t even a real chord (laughter). You couldn’t even write it down because the chords simply didn’t fit together. Then out of the blue Mickie [Most] asked David to play the song through once on his own, but to let me sing it. 

“So, David and I went through it once and unbeknownst to either of us, Mickie had recorded it, and later we added all of the pieces onto the recorded track. We later found musicians who could play the song in David’s way, and it is just a magical record. There are no backing vocals on it; we just double-tracked it with my voice.  Once it was finished, Mickie looked at me and said, ‘There’s your first solo single’!”

“Oh! You Pretty Things” was the first song Bowie wrote for his 1971 album, Hunky Dory. He recorded the song as a demo before giving it to Noone. Featuring Bowie on piano, Noone’s recording was produced by Mickie Most (briefly considered by Stephen Michael Schwartz to be his second RCA album’s producer in 1975) and featured structural and lyrical differences from Bowie’s later version, including Peter beginning with the chorus.

At Bowie’s urging (to avoid the inevitable airplay resistance), Noone changed David’s “bitch” lyric to “beast.”

Released by Most’s RAK Records (founded in 1969) in April 1971 under the (non-plural) title, “Oh! You Pretty Thing” (deemed a misprint, subsequent printings included the pluralizing “s” on labels and sleeves), the single peaked at #12 in the UK, becoming Bowie’s biggest success as a songwriter since his own single, “Space Oddity,” two years earlier.

Nic’s rationale: Bowie also recorded this song in 1971, co-produced with the now-legendary Ken Scott, recorded in the equally legendary Trident Studios in Soho, London.

It became track 2 of the A side of Bowie’s Hunky Dory album. BTW, for the uninitiated: hunky dory is British English slang for ‘everything’s satisfactory’, like a verbal thumbs up.👍

To be clear, Peter Noone’s version was recorded and released before Bowie’s, and if you listen closely to both you hear some differences in the lyrics. Brad adds: Bowie, early on (believe it or not), was having trouble getting airplay with his own recordings, and set about trying to land his songs with other artists (as he did here with Noone)!

Nic’s impressive UK studio resume:

2 years at Trident Studios, October 1979 to September 1981; I was a ‘tape op’ aka assistant engineer

CBS Studios, Whitfield St., October ‘81 for 1 year, assistant engineer

In October 1982, I started my first freelance sound engineering projects — mainly in Basing Street Studios (which became Trevor Horn’s Sarm West) and Maison Rouge Studios

Back to Nic: Now, here’s the thing: My first music industry job in the UK was assistant sound engineer (also known as ‘the tea boy’) at Trident Studios! One of (the almost countless) things that Trident is famous for is the beyond-legendary, handmade C. Bechstein concert grand piano (shown below) — on which, just for example, “Hey Jude,” “Killer Queen,” and “Your Song” were recorded.

And so, too, was Bowie’s version of  “Oh! You Pretty Things,” with Rick Wakeman (considered by many, at the time, to be the de facto session piano player at Trident Studios before he joined Yes in ‘72) playing Trident’s piano: 

I played that piano almost everyday that I worked at Trident! I was still a teenager, and I have to admit back then I did not fully appreciate just how awesome my luck was! YouTube content creator and piano player, David Bennett, unveils the legend of the C. Bechstein (which resides & is played often, now, in the States with its current owner):

Go a little deeper: click here for a fascinating 8-minute “Story of Trident Studios” vid!

Brad’s song #4: Peter Noone, “Meet Me on the Corner Down at Joe’s Cafe,” 1974

Nic’s response: Ok, I’m foxed by Brad’s #4 tag. Obviously, Peter Noone was Herman’s Hermits’ lead singer, so there’s that continuing thread…but, what’s Brad getting at here? I don’t know this song, I had to look it up…

It was written by two leading British songwriters during the 60s/70s, the late Barry Mason and Tony Macaulay; neither seem to have any link to Bowie.

Herbie Flowers also released a song with a similar title — “Meet Me on the Corner” in 1983 (a B-side co-written by Flowers and George Webley). Flowers played bass on Lou Reed’s “Walk On The Wild Side”, which was co-produced by Bowie and recorded at Trident Studios, but Flowers’ song and Noone’s are different, they just have similar titles… Brad, you got me… can’t figure this out… and I’ve got a plane to catch. Damn! Beaten! Brad Kyle does it again!

Brad’s rationale: Noone, at 27 here, is starting to feel his pop oats as a full-fledged adult, and starting to plot his course in the rock arena (after his ’60s teenybop chart- topper residency). A fan of Peter in his Hermits days, I had begun to collect his post-’60s records as he released them, including this little throwaway on Neil Bogart’s new Casablanca Records, who had just signed KISS, and released their debut album earlier in ‘74.

We can tell already that Peter has impeccable taste in pop, simply due to his early Bowie-song foray. His take on “Pretty Things” is genetically close enough to “Meet Me on the Corner” to gather that Peter employs a decided lean toward British music hall fare (for Americans, think Shakey’s Pizza Parlor with rollicking, vaudeville/barbershop quartet-ish player-tack piano)!

In 1980, Peter formed a power pop outfit, The Tremblers, and got signed to new CBS Records imprint, Beach Boy Bruce Johnston’s Johnston Records! They recorded just one album, Twice Nightly, co-produced by Noone.

Nic signs off: So that’s it, that’s my four Tune Tag songs! I didn’t intend it this way, however every single song that I’ve chosen, each for a very different reason, is one of my all time favourites. If I had to choose one out of the four I think it would have to be Jeff Buckley’s “Last Goodbye.”