As a founder member of the Strawberry Hill Boys, Dave Cousins helped transfer the band via bluegrass and people till they lastly grew to become worldwide prog icons Strawbs, who may depend Led Zeppelin amongst their followers. In 2019 Cousins advised Prog about his journey from underground band to the family identify that helped give Sandy Denny and Rick Wakeman their breaks.
Having notched up 19 studio albums since Strawbs’ 1969 self-titled debut, Dave Cousins has remained the one fixed on the centre of the band, amid numerous shifts in musical instructions and typically turbulent personnel modifications. And the prolific songwriter and vocalist intends to remain busy. “Whereas I nonetheless take pleasure in it, I’ll carry on doing it,” he says.
In 2019 Strawbs celebrated their golden jubilee at a gala occasion in Lakewood, New Jersey. Backed by a 30-piece orchestra and a choir of workers members from New York’s United Nations constructing, the gig lined their prolonged profession from begin to current day. Cousins recollects: “Tony Visconti, who’d labored with us on our very first information, agreed to return and conduct.
“It was unbelievable to have Tony there. We did our very first single, Oh, How She Modified, with Dave Lambert singing, backed by the orchestra. We additionally had the choir sing an incredible rendition of Lay Down and so they accompanied us on We Have The Energy from our 2017 album, The Ferryman’s Curse. That was extraordinary.”
The three-day celebration featured many musicians who’ve performed dwell or recorded with the band. “Strawbs are a household. You’ll be able to by no means overlook that. And all of us get on very nicely collectively. Although folks left the band there was by no means actually any arduous feeling. Sure, there might need been aggravation on the time – however by and huge, we’ve all caught collectively and taken care of each other.”
Whether or not it’s touring on his personal or with The Acoustic Strawbs alongside longtime members bassist Chas Cronk and guitarist Lambert, 2020 appears to be like like one other busy 12 months. When Prog caught up with Cousins at his house in Kent, he was nonetheless on the early phases of engaged on Strawbs’ twentieth studio album.
“For the time being I’ve obtained concepts and some scraps of paper with titles on them. I’m taking place to my native pub, who’ve agreed to let me have the again room on a day, the place I can sit alone and get on with the writing.”
You began out taking part in the people circuit within the early Sixties.
Sure – although we had been by no means a people group as such. I used to be the quickest banjo participant round, Tony Hooper was the lead singer and we had a double bass participant. Earlier than that we’d performed a BBC audition which we handed, and I began ringing up BBC producers making an attempt to get us work. One among them returned our name and advised us we had been recording the following week. The present was broadcast in 1963 and we shared billing on Saturday Membership with Chris Barber’s Jazz Band and The Beatles.
Captain Beefheart mentioned, ‘I can’t do that interview with out working water.’ He put the faucet on. It sounded as if he was having a pee!
On the time, I used to be the cloakroom attendant at Eel Pie Island Jazz Membership in Twickenham; Arthur Chisnall, who ran the membership, heard us on the radio and requested if we’d love to do the intervals for a bunch he had coming in. They had been booked for the following six weeks and so they had been known as The Rolling Stones. No thought what occurred to them!
A bit later you had been a producer on a pop present for Danish radio. How did that occur?
Tom Browne, who was later a Radio 1 DJ, did an interview with me concerning the Strawberry Hill Boys and he helped arrange a tour of Denmark. I obtained booked for a Danish TV present. Additionally on there was The Who, selling I Can’t Clarify, and I obtained chatting to them afterwards. Pete Townshend gave me his telephone quantity and advised me to present him a hoop someday.
Anyway, Tom Browne had been requested by Danish radio to do a pop present from London known as The London Information. He mentioned to me, ‘I do know nothing about pop music – will you produce it?’ He and I interviewed all types of individuals: David Bowie, Sandy Shaw, Marc Bolan, Mary Hopkin, Keith Emerson.
We even interviewed Captain Beefheart on his first go to to England. We went as much as his lodge off Oxford Avenue and he mentioned, ‘I can’t do that interview with out working water.’ So he went into the bathroom, put the faucet on, got here again in after which we talked. In fact, after we got here to edit, it sounded as if he was having a pee all through the interview!
How did you meet Sandy Denny?
I’d gone to The Troubadour in Earl’s Courtroom, and there’s Sandy down there sporting a protracted white gown and a straw hat taking part in a Gibson Hummingbird, singing the Gaelic tune Worry a’ Bhàta. I launched myself after she got here offstage and requested if she needed to affix my group. ‘What’s the identify?’ she requested. ‘Strawbs,’ I advised her, and he or she mentioned, ‘Yeah, okay.’ It was so simple as that!
“It was in 1967. She was 20 on the time and residing at house along with her mum and pa. She joined us and we had been booked to play in Denmark. We actually obtained to know Sandy on the ferry from Newcastle to Aarhus the place we sat up all evening, rehearsing and consuming each bottle of beer that was on the ship.
Sandy joined Fairport Conference – which I didn’t thoughts. We had been nonetheless the most effective of associates. She was an absolute icon
We obtained signed to Sonet Information, run by Karl-Emil Knudsen, and made a report in Copenhagen in an outdated cinema. We may solely report throughout the day as a result of folks needed to be let into see the movie within the night. So we’d go off and play in Tivoli Gardens with Sandy singing.
It was the one time we carried out on stage along with her, actually. She got here again to England and, after three months, I hadn’t been in a position to get anyone in England keen on releasing it. By then Sandy had joined Fairport Conference – which I didn’t thoughts. We had been nonetheless the most effective of associates. She was an absolute icon.
And also you had been the primary British act to signal to A&M Information, weren’t you?
Sure. That was via Knudsen, who distributed A&M in Denmark. He performed them the recordings with Sandy; and though they had been disillusioned she wasn’t with us anymore, Jerry Moss – the M of A&M – phoned to inform me they had been excited to have us and needed a single. We had been within the studio with Gus Dudgeon as producer, who shared his workplace with Tony Visconti.
A&M had despatched $15,000, which at the moment was a colossal amount of cash, and it was all spent on that first report as a result of Gus Dugeon needed to show himself with orchestras and Christ is aware of what. So after they mentioned they needed one other album we requested for more cash. They advised us the money they’d initially despatched was to be unfold throughout three albums!
So we went from London again to Denmark, however we took Tony Visconti with us as a result of Gus had buried my voice on the primary album. So Tony produced Dragonfly [1970].
How did you hook up with Rick Wakeman?
We’d been requested to do a session for the John Peel present and we needed to do a bit known as The Battle, however we didn’t have a keyboard participant. Tony advised he convey Rick alongside, and it was nice – we obtained on famously. When it got here to Dragonfly we had him play on The Imaginative and prescient Of The Girl Of The Lake.
I requested Rick the place he was going for the honeymoon. He mentioned, ‘We are able to’t afford one’ … So he got here to Paris with us and had his honeymoon there
I put his identify on the sleeve notes, and when it got here out despatched him a duplicate. He mentioned he was thrilled – that was the primary time he’d had his identify on the again of an album.
We met up and had a beer and I requested him to affix the group. Our first gig with him was to be in Paris a fortnight later, however he mentioned, ‘I can’t try this; I’m getting married.’ I requested him the place he was going for the honeymoon. He mentioned, ‘We’re not; we will’t afford one.’ So I mentioned, ‘Properly, I’ve obtained an thought…’ He got here to Paris with us and had his honeymoon there!
After Dragonfly your music shifted in direction of a extra electrical sound. Was that deliberate?
We’d been utilizing acoustic bass however it simply wasn’t working for what we would have liked. On the time I had a people membership after which an arts lab in Hounslow and I’d booked Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera. It had guitarist Paul Brett, who’d guested with us on Dragonfly; and Richard Hudson and John Ford on drums and bass respectively. I believed they had been nice and invited them to affix.
I nonetheless seen us as a people group, so the truth that Richard performed percussion slightly than an everyday drum equipment is what attracted me. It was solely after we made From The Witchwood [1971] that we introduced drums in for the primary time, however they had been very a lot combined down as a result of I didn’t need them to overwhelm the songs.
From The Witchwood has fairly an eclectic mixture of sounds and devices, doesn’t it?
Sure, it does. On A Glimpse Of Heaven you’ve obtained multi-tracked voices to create a choir, Rick steaming in with a ferocious Hammond organ solo, and me taking part in bluegrass banjo behind him. Witchwood has me taking part in dulcimer and Rick taking part in clarinet – his second instrument in school. The Shepherd’s Track has that nice Mellotron half in addition to Rick’s nice synth solo.
That was the primary time we used a Mellotron. Additionally within the studio was a Moog synthesiser, the actually large one. Rick sat with Tony and so they obtained a type of piccolo trumpet sound which Rick overdubbed. I’d been influenced on that tune by Alone Once more Or by Love. I adored that tune and nonetheless do. So Rick dubbed that Moog on high of the strings.
We recorded a model of Half Of The Union that was way more left-wing, however that wasn’t launched
You should have been actually sorry to lose Rick to Sure.
Properly, in fact – however we’d been paying Rick £25 per week and Sure supplied him £100, so it was comprehensible actually. Funnily sufficient historical past repeated itself, as a result of we had Oliver, Rick’s son, taking part in with us for some time, and he left us to affix Sure as nicely!
1972’s Grave New World had a grander, extra dramatic really feel to it, and naturally it had that unbelievable triple fold-out sleeve which should have been very costly to provide on the time.
The sleeve was immensely highly effective. We’d grow to be fairly a major band so A&M didn’t thoughts spending the cash. We went from promoting 5,000 copies of From The Witchwood to promoting 98,000 within the UK with Grave New World.
A&M did the art work and we had no involvement, apart from me writing the sleeve notes and selecting the bits of textual content from the Egyptian E-book Of The Useless and the Tibetan ebook of the useless [Bardo Thodol].
I had no thought what was going to enter the art work till I noticed the completed factor. I used to be staggered. The William Blake portray The Dance Of Albion [also known as Glad Day] is an immensely highly effective image as nicely. As for the center image, I’ve obtained that hanging on my wall at house.
You had an surprising hit single within the UK with Half Of The Union, which obtained to No. 2 in 1973. Was {that a} blessing or a curse?
That tune has been an albatross spherical our necks because it got here out – on this nation anyway. It was No. 1 in Germany as a result of it’s an oom-pah tune. In America no person heard it. The primary tune we recorded for what grew to become Bursting At The Seams was Lay Down and that was very a lot in my fashion.
On the similar time, Hud and John had recorded a demo of Half Of The Union, and had been going to place it out beneath the identify of The Brothers. The publicity we obtained from the tune on the time of the miners’ strikes and the three-day week and so forth, was colossal.
However the issue was we didn’t come out and say whether or not we had been left-wing or right-wing; we sort of sat on the fence. I believe, sadly, that clouded the judgment of us for a couple of folks. We recorded a model that was way more left-wing, however that wasn’t launched. I’ve that on a cassette nonetheless.
The album title Bursting At The Seams was very apt. Issues within the band had grow to be fairly acrimonious, hadn’t they?
Yeah. I used to be taken to 1 aspect by our supervisor, who mentioned, ‘The band have determined to fireplace you. ‘We’re going to maintain you on as a solo artist and so they’re going to hold on as Strawbs.’ I mentioned, ‘Over my useless physique.’ There was a massacre in Hollywood, the place we had been on the time, and so John and Richard went their separate method and had some success as Hudson Ford.
Your subsequent album, 1973’s Hero And Heroine, is considered a traditional, that includes John Hawken from the unique Renaissance on keyboards.
When John got here in he’d by no means touched a Mellotron or a synthesiser. ‘What do I do with this?’ he mentioned. However he was such a helpful piano participant with such a beautiful contact. I’d first heard him on that first Renaissance album [1969] once I was producing my Danish radio present. Hero And Heroine was after we grew to become a correct progressive rock band. It was in all probability our greatest album worldwide, particularly in America.
Probably the most satisfying reveals we did on the time had been the double-header reveals with King Crimson. Each bands preferred each other’s firm. There was a sympathy between Hero And Heroine – tracks like The River and Down By The Sea – and King Crimson, who had been doing plenty of Larks’ Tongues In Aspic on the time.
Led Zeppelin would fly out to wherever they had been taking part in, come again on their personal jet and watch our final set
Life on the street can take its toll by way of relationships and private well being. How did you address it?
We weren’t into medication. We cherished outdated drink, you realize? Sure, we sometimes smoked a couple of joints, however not coke or something like that. It’s solely after we met up with Led Zeppelin in Hollywood that I had coke with John Bonham, which was a unprecedented expertise. He stored pushing my head all the way down to the desk, saying, ‘Extra, extra, extra!’
Our first gig within the States was a week-long residency on the Whiskey A Go Go. Zeppelin would go flying out to wherever they had been taking part in that day, come again on their personal jet to the Go Go and watch our final set. They did that two or three nights working. Our viewers had been astonished that Led Zeppelin had been there watching us.
Your 1976 album, Deep Cuts, was given the deluxe reissue remedy final 12 months. The way you assume it stands up?
It’s in all probability the best-sounding Strawbs album of the lot – however we had been rushed into doing it. I didn’t have any songs. I’d simply bought a cottage in Devon that I used to be about to maneuver out of, so it had no furnishings in it. I invited Chas Cronk to return down.
We went down the pub first after which went again, sat on the ground with two guitars, and in lower than 5 days we’d written six or seven songs. It turned out to be extra of a pop album because of the strain of administration saying we actually wanted a success single.
Had been you happy by the reception to your 2017 album The Ferryman’s Curse?
Sure! It went into the prog rock album charts and I used to be thrilled. It wasn’t straightforward to make that album. I had a horrible hernia and it made singing plenty of the songs extremely painful. I used to be additionally affected by kidney issues; I used to be out and in of the hospital plenty of the time.
It was well-received by followers and critics in order that was nice. A few of the pleasure was taken from it, nevertheless, as a result of our producer, Chris Tsangarides [Colosseum II, Brand X] sadly died a month later, which actually broke my coronary heart.
I requested Common if they may get Steven Wilson to remix Hero And Heroine, however they weren’t eager
What’s the Strawbs album you’ll level to and say, ‘That is what you should take heed to?’
Grave New World. There’s one factor flawed with the studio model – we put it proper within the dwell recording from our fiftieth anniversary present, which we’re going to launch quickly. We reprise Grave New World in a unique key and all of the sudden the entire thing goes round, involves a decision and is smart.
Rolling Stone journal listed Hero And Heroine as one of many 50 best prog rock albums of all time. Common owns the masters of the largest albums on A&M. When Steven Wilson began remixing all of the traditional albums by King Crimson, Sure and others, I wrote to Common and requested them if they may get Steven to remix it to five.1, however they weren’t eager on the thought.
But 50 years on our albums are nonetheless promoting. We repaid our advance from A&M 20 years in the past and we’ve been receiving royalties ever since. They’ve completely recouped. Now, for argument’s sake, say the royalty is 10 per cent and we’ve been paid over £100,000 – meaning Common has grossed 1,000,000 kilos over the past 20 years. There aren’t many bands from that period nonetheless promoting these sorts of portions.
