In Memoriam-Karl Wallinger

[purchase Best in Show, a World Party greatest hits compilation]

We’re back again for some In Memoriam posts, honoring some of those from the music world we lost in 2024.  How many posts?  We’ll see....

Back in 2014, in my early-ish days writing here, I wrote about the first CD that I ever bought, World Party’s debut, Ship of Fools, in 1987.  I didn’t even have a CD player at that time, but saw the disc at a used record store, and because I had already heard some of it on the radio, I bought it.  The CD player came shortly after that, and I’m still buying them (I’m an old guy, and like to own my music, and yes, I do download music, too.)  The video above is of the hit song from that album, “Ship of Fools.”

Karl Wallinger was born in Wales in 1957, exhibited his musical talent at an early age.  He was a Beatles fanatic, but not to the exclusion of other music, and ended up with a musical scholarship to Charterhouse (the alma mater of, essentially, the original lineup of Genesis and their first manager/producer Jonathan King, as well as Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant, and the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, and many other notable Brits, dating back to its founding in 1611).  After deciding that the life of a classical musician was not for him, Wallinger moved into rock music, forming a band with two guys who went off to be in the Alarm, and doing studio work. 

Answering an ad for a guitarist for The Waterboys, Wallinger convinced Mike Scott that the band really needed a keyboard player, and he joined first as a sideman, before his skill on numerous instruments, and his production talents, led to his joining the band full time for This Is The Sea, and helping to shape “The Whole of the Moon,” probably the Waterboys’ best known song. 

The growing rivalry and infighting between Scott and Wallinger resulted in Wallinger leaving to work on his own material, eventually recording as World Party.  As he later said, World Party consisted of “me and whoever is playing with me at any given time.”  Most of his albums were recorded with Wallinger playing the bulk of the instruments and singing, with guests, including Sinead O’Connor, contributing as needed.

It is hard to listen to World Party without hearing the Beatles’ influences, but he was far from a one trick pony, and his music included other influences ranging from folk to funk and psychedelia, often with lyrics with environmental or anti-war messaging.  World Party’s first three studio albums were critical and commercial successes, with the second, Goodbye, Jumbo, considered by most to be their best work.  But the band’s next two albums were less popular.  During this period, Wallinger also worked with other musicians and on soundtracks.

In 2001, Wallinger suffered a brain aneurysm, which affected his vision and prevented him from working for about five years.  During this inactivity, he was supported, in great part, by royalties from a popular cover of his song, “She’s The One,” by Robbie Williams.  Despite that, Wallinger was pissed off that he wasn’t informed about the cover, and that Williams often introduced the song as one of the best he’d ever written.  In fact, Williams has apparently only rarely publicly admitted that his version is a cover.

Wallinger was able to return to touring in 2006 but never released another studio album of new material.  In 2008, the album Big Blue Ball, a project that Wallinger worked on with fellow “Old Carthusian” (that’s what they are called), Peter Gabriel was released.  It was based on recording sessions from 1991, 1992 and 1995 and Gabriel recalled that working with Wallinger was “the most creative and fun week I have ever had in the studio.” In 2012, Wallinger released Arkeology, a five-CD compilation that included rarities and covers of Beatles songs. 

On March 10, 2024, Wallinger died of a stroke at his home in Hastings, at the age of 66, survived by his wife, sculptor Suzie Zamit, son Louis Wallinger and daughter Nancy Zamit, as well as two grandchildren.

FARMING: CARTWHEELS/ANTHONY THISTLETHWAITE

                                                               

Unusually, at least for me, this post is prompting you toward an entire LP, arguably also maybe the entire solo output, of journeysmith muso Anto Thistlethwaite, one of those awkward northern English names that never look as if they are spelt right. Or ever could be. A name such as Thistlesthwaite smacks of the soil to me, and it is thus no surprise that his oeuvre is chock-full of earthy and organic delights.

His name is probably best known to 2 groups of fans, those of the Waterboys and those of the Saw Doctors, 2 different reflections of an Irish heritage, the sublime and the ridiculous, the romantic and the rowdy. (OK, chief Waterboy, Mike Scott is a Scot, but it is arguably his band and its foray into County Clare that is best known these days.) Between the formation of the Waterboys in the early 80s, through their "Big Music" phase, and their first disintegration, in 1991, by then an almost entirely Celtic inspired quasi-folk (rock) band, Anto was first on sax and later also on mandolin, harmonica and keyboards. For a recent 25th anniversary tour, reprising the various editions and volumes of Fisherman's Blues, he rejoined the ranks (and I was lucky enough to see the band when they touched down in Birmingham, U.K.) After the Waterboys, and a tour or so guesting, he became an official member of the Saw Doctors. He has also notched up a hefty range of sessional work with artists as diverse as Donovan and the Vibrators, Bob Dylan and the Psychedelic Furs, to mention a handful, as well as 5 solo albums. It is to the 2nd of these, from 1994, that I refer.

A&M were the record company of the Waterboys for some time, who were no doubt counting no few chickens as the band first began shedding members, as each departee seemed to establish further success, Karl Wallinger being the first such example, his World Party also signing to the same label. As Anto jumped ship they were likely waiting for him, an unsurprisingly similar aura hanging over each of the various alumni, raggedly sturdy vocals fronting a jangly, melody driven school of songwriting. So, getting finally on theme, Cartwheels. Throughout this record is a a rural ambience, redolent of ploughed fields and evocative of hedgerows. With input from the likes of Kirsty MacColl, Eddi Reader and Sharon Shannon, the idea of there being an earth mother is never far away, with perhaps Ralph McTell there to be the wise scarecrow, seering and sageing the ages. But other cameos include Mick Taylor, yes, that one. and Sonny Landreth, so the hint of guitar pyrotechnic, albeit with a lazy vibe, is never too far away. Here's 3 songs to prove it, the lyrics tending towards an explanation of my choice.

This last must be the only song that, I think (and it's hard to be sure) that has a spoken dedication to a tractor, at 3.46!

This is agro-rock by any exemplar. I hope you have been uplifted enough to seek it further, so here's the link!

Anniversary-Go Deeper: My First---Ship of Fools

World Party: Ship of Fools
[purchase]

The second Star Maker Machine theme was perversely, “My First,” and it was designed to have people post about the first 45, LP, cassette, CD and digital download they ever bought with their own money. After all these years, I can’t remember which was the first 45 or LP I used my own money for, and I have no recollection what my first download was, but for some reason, I do remember my first CD, World Party’s Private Revolution, which was released in 1987. I’m pretty sure that I didn’t even own a CD player at that point, but I knew that I was going to be getting one shortly. I saw it on sale, used, in a small record store on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and figured, why not—I knew it was good.

It was a big step for me. I had many, many records—more than is probably healthy, but I also saw that the music world was moving toward the digital, and I knew that I would be following. I’ve never been an audiophile, so I won’t weigh in on the “vinyl through a good system sounds better than CDs” debate, but I did appreciate that CDs didn’t scratch (as easily) as records.

World Party was really just a solo project from Karl Wallinger, who played most of the instruments (although a pre-fame Sinead O’Connor and Waterboy Anthony Thistlewaite contributed a little), and this album, his debut, had a nice pop feel to it, with clear Beatles/ELO and Prince influences. There also was a message of world improvement, and what can be bad about that? “Ship of Fools” was a minor hit in the U.S. and U.K. and a slightly bigger one in Australia. It took Wallinger a few years to release the more successful Goodbye Jumbo, and he spaced out 3 more albums, the last of which was released in 2000. Since then he has recovered from a brain aneurysm (!), worked on films and other musical projects, and toured.

After buying Private Revolution, and an actual CD player, my CD buying ramped up and my LP buying decreased. At some point, I started to replace LPs with CD’s often used from eBay. At a certain point, I stopped replacing the needle on my turntable, and following a renovation of our house, which eliminated the shelves where I had stored my albums, they have remained in boxes in my basement waiting, for, I don’t know what. Getting rid of them seems complicated, because I suspect that most of the collection is worthless for various reasons, and I know that I have a certain sentimental hesitancy to part with a collection that I spent time, money and effort amassing through my youth.

I now find myself buying more digital downloads than CDs, so that collection, which supplanted the vinyl, and is currently bursting out of its shelf space is growing much more slowly. (And the digital collection is pushing the limits of my iPod Classic).

Although as I mentioned, I cannot recall the first song I ever downloaded digitally, because I admittedly partook of the early smorgasbord of Napster and similar questionable services, I do know that the first song I downloaded from eMusic was a song called “AYSO” by #Poundsign#, a tune about the soccer organization to which I have devoted an incredible amount of time over the past nearly two decades, and which I continue to serve, even though my kids have long since stopped playing.

Thanks and Appreciation: Thank You World

World Party: Thank You World

[purchase]

I was a senior in college in 1990, and my (and the country's) environmental consciousness was at a pre-global warming high point. I was heavily involved in a student environmental group, and was well on my way to becoming a vegetarian. When Goodbye Jumbo, the second album from Karl Wallinger's World Party, came out I was hooked on the addictive hit single "Way Down Now" and its Rolling Stones-aping bass line. But the gem that closed the album, "Thank You World," struck the deepest chord. Over three simple verses, Karl shares his love for, and appreciation of, Mother Earth. I could dig it then, and I can dig it now. Thank you, world. Hope we haven't broken ya.

Questions: Is It Like Today?

World Party: Is It Like Today? [purchase]

Eliza Gilkyson: Is It Like Today? [purchase]

As someone who worked in the service industries through much of the ubiquitous Top 40 radio nineties, I must have had this song buried in my brain somewhere, but it was Eliza Gilkyson's 2005 pensive folkcover that sent me to the stacks to rediscover it, and finally listen to the lyrics.

Turns out the original is pretty deep. Plus it's got a great British janglepop thing going on.

April Fools: Ship of Fools

John Renbourn: Ship of Fools

[purchase]

Grateful Dead: Ship of Fools

[purchase]

World Party: Ship of Fools

[purchase]

John Cale: Ship of Fools

[purchase]

Ship of Fools. Just three words. But these words have multiple associations.

In 1494, Sebastian Brant published a book called Das Narrenschiff, which translates as “Ship of Fools”. In the book, a fleet of ships sets of for the paradise of fools. Each ship contains people who commit a particular sin, or folly, hence the term fool as used here. In the end, only one ship reaches its destination.

Michael Foucalt used the term “Ship of Fools” to describe the practice of place insane people in a ship, and banishing them to sea. Here the fools were the insane people, who were thought to have an affinity with the sea and with mariners.

And of course, Katherine Anne Porter used Foucalt’s idea in her famous novel as a metaphor for the world as it slid towards the madness of World War II. Porter was also aware of Brant’s work.

All of this his been a huge influence on songwriters. I have chosen four songs called Ship of Fools, and each is a different song. We could do an entire week of such songs here and never repeat ourselves; there are that many more that I chose not to include.

John Renbourn points out that love can sometimes be madness, by having his protagonist board a ship captained by a beautiful woman. By the time he realizes his mistake, he finds that the ship is doomed to never see land again.

In the Grateful Dead song, a man has apparently become stuck aboard the ship, having not realized its true nature in time. Now he would rather sink the ship with him on it, than continue with things as they are.
Both John Renbourn and the Grateful Dead sail the ship of madness. But, I think the ship in World Party’s song belongs to Porter. This ship is the world, and none of us can disembark.

John Cale is very much his own man. His song is furthest removed from any of the inspirations I cited. His “ship” journeys over land. If there is a literary model for Cale’s song, it would seem to be the American South of William Faulkner. But, by telling his tale as a trip by ship, Cale also brings the ship of madmen into play as a metaphor.

So, if you are an aspiring songwriter in search of inspiration, learn all you can about the phrase “ship of fools”. It is a well that has inspired many of the finest, and will continue to do so.

Boats: Ship Of Fools

World Party: Ship Of Fools

[purchase]

Van Der Graaf Generator: Ship Of Fools

[purchase]


Wikipedia on Ship of Fools

A vessel populated by human inhabitants who are deranged, frivolous, or oblivious, passengers aboard a ship without a pilot, and seemingly ignorant of their own direction.

Michel Foucault, who wrote Madness and Civilization, saw in the ship of fools a symbol of the consciousness of sin and evil alive in the medieval mindset and imaginative landscapes of the Renaissance. According to the intro to Madness and Civilization, "Renaissance men developed a delightful, yet horrible way of dealing with their mad denizens: they were put on a ship and entrusted to mariners because folly, water, and sea, as everyone then "knew," had an affinity for each other. Thus, "Ship of Fools" crisscrossed the sea and canals of Europe with their comic and pathetic cargo of souls. Some of them found pleasure and even a cure in the changing surroundings, in the isolation of being cast off, while others withdrew further, became worse, or died alone and away from their families. The cities and villages which had thus rid themselves of their crazed and crazy, could now take pleasure in watching the exciting sideshow when a ship full of foreign lunatics would dock at their harbors."