{"id":26700,"date":"2024-01-18T05:30:32","date_gmt":"2024-01-18T10:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=26700"},"modified":"2024-01-04T09:24:12","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T14:24:12","slug":"planet-love-and-the-world-of-andrew-gold-part-3-of-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/18\/planet-love-and-the-world-of-andrew-gold-part-3-of-3\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Planet Love’ and the World of Andrew Gold (Part 3 of 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part Two<\/a>…<\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"After Wax ended in 1989, Gouldman returned briefly to a reformed 10cc, though he and Gold would collaborate and contribute to each others\u2019 project in the years to come. \u201cI will always love Andrew,\u201d Gouldman says. \u201cHe was a very major person in my life.\u201d Gold returned once more to southern California; there his work with and for other artists continued at a furious pace. He produced albums by Stephen Bishop, played guitar on albums by Diana Ross, Alvin and the Chipmunks and Neil Diamond, and wrote for many other artists.<\/p>\n

During that period, Gold continued to make occasional albums of his own, releasing them on a variety of smaller, independent labels. A 1996 collection of holiday-themed songs for kids, Andrew Gold\u2019s Halloween Howls<\/i><\/a> found some success among the younger set (the album received a vinyl reissue in 2021, and its single, \u201cSpooky Scary Skeletons\u201d recently earned a Gold record).<\/p>\n

In 1997, Gold embarked upon another labor-of-love project, one that combined his songwriting, instrumental and arrangement prowess, and gift of mimicry. Billing himself (and select guest players including Gouldman) as The Fraternal Order of the All, he made Greetings from Planet Love<\/i>. A knowing pastiche\/homage to the pop-psych stylings of the late \u201860s, the album was never destined for widespread commercial success. But it\u2019s an overlooked gem that tidily sums up all of Gold\u2019s gifts in a wonderful ear-candy package.<\/p>\n

Greetings from Planet Love<\/i> is filled with inside-joke sonic references to legendary \u201860s pop, but those cues never get in the way of the songs; instead, they only enhance the music. The plucky bass guitar fills on \u201cLove Tonight\u201d sound straight out of Brian Wilson\u2019s Gold Star Recording sessions for Pet Sounds<\/i>. The bird calls, swirling sitars and backward-masked spoken parts in the opening title track take the listener back to 1967. Sawing cellos evoke thoughts of \u201cI am the Walrus.\u201d<\/p>\n

The wordless vocal harmonies of \u201cTube Rye & Will\u2019s Son\u201d draw upon the Beach Boys\u2019 \u201cOur Prayer\u201d for inspiration. \u201cMr Plastic Business Man\u201d take cues from Their Satanic Majesties Request<\/i> era Rolling Stones. And Gold\u2019s mimicry finds its most effective expression in \u201cSpace and Time,\u201d sounding for all the world like a long lost prime-era Byrds classic.<\/p>\n

Gold\u2019s songwriting smarts are on brilliant display throughout Greetings from Planet Love<\/i>. \u201cKing of Showbiz\u201d straddles soft-pop and light psychedelia. \u201cFreelove Baby\u201d would have worked perfectly well on the soundtrack of Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery<\/i>, released at roughly the same time. The record concludes with a Revolver<\/i>-era pastiche, the complex and rocking \u201cTomorrow Drop Dead.\u201d The instrumental linking pieces scattered throughout the 20-track album tie the entire project together in a kind of loose conceptual framework. A wacky bio \u2013 complete with fake band member names like Colin Allcars and Gene Pool \u2013 is the icing on the musical cake.<\/p>\n

\"\"On its original release, Greetings<\/i> was packaged inside a somewhat nondescript, vaguely psychedelic cover. For its new (and first-ever vinyl) reissue, the album features cover art in the style of Sgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band<\/i>. Inspired by a hand drawing that Gold had done himself, artist Jess Rotter developed a colorful cover more in keeping with the music within. And the album\u2019s booklet features some of Gold\u2019s fanciful line drawings, colored in by Rotter. \u201cIt\u2019s a ripe blend of artistry,\u201d says Leslie Kogan, Gold\u2019s widow.<\/p>\n

Even after completing that project, Gold continued to exercise his love of classic sixties pop. He put together a Los Angeles-based band, Byrdsofafeather, playing local gigs with a set list heavy on the classics of his youth. And Gold\u2019s meticulous, thorough approach to his art meant that he looked to every detail. \u201cHe made these books for every [band] member, with all the keys and all the instruments they were going to play,\u201d recalls Kogan. \u201cHe was very precise; it had to be exactly like the record. Even if there was a mistake [on the original version], he included that!\u201d<\/p>\n

And Gold\u2019s choice of material leaned toward the challenging end of the pop spectrum. \u201cI remember him sitting on the bed next to me practicing \u2018Eight Miles High,\u2019\u201d Kogan says. \u201cHe had to get that lead guitar part perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gold\u2019s collaborative nature continued to balance his solo endeavors. \u201cI saw him write with Mike Campbell of the Heartbreakers,\u201d Kogan recalls. \u201cHe loved that, when he worked with somebody who inspired him. And he could do both: right after that, he could be the one man band, in his studio doing everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Busy nearly right up until the end, Andrew Gold passed away in 2011. More than a decade after his death, Gold is in the public consciousness primarily thanks to his \u201870s hit singles. Those who dig a bit deeper recognize his substantial contributions to the works of others. And those who explore even further can discover what may well be the most perfect distillation of his artistry, the oddball project known as Greetings from Planet Love<\/i>.<\/p>\n

NOTE: My review of that album is here<\/strong><\/a>, and a survey of other worthy Gold tracks is here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part Two… After Wax ended in 1989, Gouldman returned briefly to a reformed 10cc, though he and Gold would collaborate and contribute to each others\u2019 project in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26705,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,51,57],"tags":[192],"class_list":["post-26700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-pop","category-psych","tag-andrew-gold","cat-41-id","cat-51-id","cat-57-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26700"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26715,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26700\/revisions\/26715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}