Comment

53: NIRVANA
Rainbow Chaser/Flashbulb
(Island, 1968)

THE original 1960s Nirvana tend to be remembered now, if they ever are at all, for filing a lawsuit against Kurt Cobain's Nirvana in 1992 for appropriating the name.

I don't remember George Hunter or Dan Hicks filing a similar suit against The Charlatans, mind you...?

Anyway, the point is that the Nirvana of Patrick Campbell-Lyons and Alex Spyropolous deserve to be remembered for more than just having a nickable name.

Formed in 1967, Nirvana determinedly explored every avenue which was opened up in that banner year - expansive orchestral arrangements, surreal and pensive lyrics, concept albums, the works.

Anyone of the correct age and disposition should remember Nirvana receiving generous airplay for the singles Pentecost Hotel and Tiny Goddess, but Rainbow Chaser was the nearest they ever got to scoring a hit single when the record made it to number 34 in March 1968.

The song is often erroneously referred to as the first "hit" record to feature phasing - in chart terms, Itchycoo Park by The Small Faces actually beat it to the punch by a full seven months - but perhaps it carries that reputation because the phasing is so integral to the song and, well, so vast.

Never ones to nail their colours anywhere else except firmly to the mast, Nirvana tack the phasing right on to the song's intro - a wobbly piano chord, a roll of drums then a big warped blare of strings which must have melted a few transistor radio speakers in 1968.

It just sounds so... important somehow, as though it's heralding a news bulletin from BBC Saturn. The deliciously creepy melody line sets airy verses against a glowering, burning chorus, and a finely-judged string arrangement dials in the perfect dosage of tension and release.

It always sounds like a hit to me, as though it should carry the same epochal clout as A Whiter Shade Of Pale, but fate had other plans for it.

Nevertheless, Patrick Campbell-Lyons still occasionally fronts a version of Nirvana to this day, gratifyingly, cropping up unexpectedly at prog/psych festivals in European outposts.

9:52am Friday 18th January 2008

Print

Email this

Comment