“You will be bigger than Elvis”. This is what the legendary music manager Herb Gart had told Scott Fagan in the mid-sixties shortly after the young, good looking musician had arrived in New York City from his native Virgin Islands with a head full of ambition, oceans of talent and a mere 11 cents in his pocket. It is difficult to reconcile this impression of Fagan with that of the grizzled 71 year old gentleman who is sat before us tonight on the stage of the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds. But this is surely before you have listened to his stunningly beautiful debut album South Atlantic Blues.
Released in 1968, South Atlantic Blues promptly disappeared without a trace. The record was then re-issued late last year to instant, if rather belated critical acclaim, attracting glowing reviews in which the phrases ‘lost classic’ and ‘folk-rock masterpiece’ were not merely journalistic hyperbole.
Fagan now finds himself on these shores for his first ever tour of Europe. He is backed on these dates by a group of contemporary musicians, including Mike Hastings and Alex Neilson from the Glasgow-based psych-folk outfit Trembling Bells and Georgia Seddon of the Mike Heron (founding member of the Incredible String Band) Band.
Fagan promises us South Atlantic Blues in its entirety and he duly delivers the 10 songs in the exact order in which they first appeared on the ATCO record label way back in 1968. Whilst his young backing band do remain respectful to the man and his masterpiece, they also add a fresh, modern dimension to these songs relocating them perfectly into the here and now. ‘Tenement Hall’ is truly inspired – “this is insane” screams Fagan in the song’s midst and he is absolutely right to do so – and the concluding ‘Madam Moiselle’, with some gloriously understated guitar from Hastings, is reimagined here as a genuine slice of pure psychedelic folk.
It should perhaps come as little surprise that Scott Fagan’s magnificent voice – compared at the time both favourably and accurately to those of Scott Walker, Tim Hardin, Donovan and a young David Bowie – is not quite the instrument it once was. Almost half a century of living – some of it extremely hard, you would strongly suspect – has put paid to that. But what it may have lost in strength and range it has replaced with experience, heightened emotion and a wonderful weathered charm. And Scott Fagan has still retained all of his remarkable phrasing, demonstrating his God-given ability to effortlessly enunciate his heartfelt words just behind each song’s beat.
In addition to South Atlantic Blues, we also get two songs from Soon. Written by Fagan and Joseph M. Kookolis, this savage indictment on the music industry of the time was the first rock opera on Broadway when it appeared there in 1971. The musical’s title song and ‘Please Be Well’ reinforce the view that Fagan’s was a talent which through a combination of bad luck and poor life choices – at one point he speaks rather tellingly of “wandering in circles in the desert for many a year” – was never properly realised at the time.
Between songs Scott Fagan also impresses as a wonderful raconteur. In his evocative, laconic delivery he takes us back to another time and place. He tells us about the American artist Jasper Johns’ lithograph die-cut print Scott Fagan Record that lies in New York’s Museum of Modern Art. He recalls appearing at the Rheingold Music Festival in Central Park in the late sixties and seeing a hundred gossamer butterflies floating in front of his eyes before realising that it was actually a hail of empty whiskey bottles descending upon him and his band. Fagan assures us that absolutely no hallucinogenic ingestion had taken place at the time. And he remembers declining the famous folk singer and woman behind the ‘soundtrack of the Civil Rights Movement’, Odetta’s invitation to leave the festival with her. Revealingly, he says it was just “one of many should haves” in his life.
Speaking to Scott Fagan after the show he presents as a most humble, kind and considerate individual. He is a man who is genuinely pleased to be here in this country playing the songs that he clearly loves and being able to give a whole new generation of people the opportunity to experience their timeless beauty with him.
Photo credit: Simon Godley
More photos from this show can be found HERE
