Utopia Avenue - 'The Transatlantic Sessions'
*Please Note* spoilers ahead for 'Utopia Avenue' by David Mitchell, so please only continue if you have read the book. If you haven't - what are you waiting for? You can buy it from Waterstones or Bookish or Hive or lots of other places.
Side 1
'The Blues Are Still Blue' - Moss
'Ancient Rolling Sea' - Holloway
'Checkmate' - de Zoet
'California' - de Zoet
'All You Need is Hate' - Moss
Side 2
'Tomorrow's Hits Today' - de Zoet
'Wallace' - Holloway
'The Late Great Cassiopia' - Moss
'Hobart Paving' - Holloway
'Take Me Round Again' - Holloway
1971 was a big year in music, perhaps the biggest. Colossal records were being released everywhere you looked. In the UK, Led Zeppelin 'IV', Paul and Linda's post-Beatles debut, 'Ram', and 'Bryter Layter' by Nick Drake explored wildly different musical paths. Stateside, Carole King's 'Tapestry' would become one of the most revered albums of all time, with Leonard Cohen's 'Songs of Love and Hate' not far behind. All of these albums had one thing in common. They wouldn't have existed without the influence of Utopia Avenue.
When 'The California Sessions' LP was released in 1968, after a whirlwind tour of the USA, it seemed like the band could do no wrong. Feted on both sides of the Atlantic, the only real question was: what would Utopia Avenue do next? The answer took many fans by surprise. The band did nothing.
Respective record labels in London and New York had anticipated a quick follow-up, something to capitalise on the dying embers of the burned-out sixties scene. Perhaps there were moments when Dean, Elf, Jasper, and Griff could have been persuaded - not an album, but maybe an EP, something to keep the fans' attention. That all changed on the 3rd July 1969 with the death of Brian Jones. The Stone had been more than a mentor to the band; he had been a kind of yardstick by which they measured the true extent of their success. All four attended his funeral, and manager Levon Frankland remarked at the time,
'It felt as though something had changed, something fundamental which would be difficult to fix. I think the band took a long hard look at themselves: what if it had been me? What if it was me lying dead in a coffin, and not Brian? That meant a lot of soul-searching, and for the record company, that meant no product. I could tell that there were some twitchy fingers out there. I mean, as crazy as it sounds, it would not have been impossible for Utopia Avenue to find themselves making history as the biggest band ever to be dropped by a major label. Then Altamont happened, and well... let's just say it got easier to say that the band deserved a break.'
The Altamont Free Festival was one of the biggest happenings of the year and became synonymous not with musical talent, but with human failings. Hell's Angels, hippies, and copious amounts of LSD proved a fatal combination, and the event was widely reported as the death knell for the 'flower power' era. Utopia Avenue had been due to play the festival, sandwiched somewhat incongruously between Jefferson Airplane and The Flying Burrito Brothers, but were forced to pull out when their visas were temporarily revoked due to ongoing litigation between the band and film producer Anthony Hershey, who had sued them for breach of contract. Though the court case was subsequently settled without fuss, the close escape cemented the band's opinion that they were not yet ready to re-enter the studio or to tour. Dean Moss, already counting himself as a lucky man having escaped serious injury when he was involved in a botched armed robbery in San Francisco, was determined to spend as much time as possible with his young son. Elf Holloway kept a low profile, occasionally being seen on the King's Road with a female companion who was apparently writing her biography. Jasper de Zoet was the most active of the band, sitting in on live sessions at the Rainbow or the Marquee. Peter Griffin lived a simple life in Yorkshire, with local newspapers reporting that he was building a studio near to his parent's home.
And so, the sixties dropped out, not with a bang but with a whimper. The seventies promised a more exotic approach to rock, with old acquaintances of the band such as David Bowie tipped for stardom. And as 1970 drew to a close with the break up of the Beatles and the enormous international success of Simon & Garfunkel's 'Bridge Over Troubled Water', there were some who wondered whether there was still a gap in the market for relative old hands such as Utopia Avenue. Levon Frankland was never worried, though his frustration occasionally got the better of him.
'It was difficult at times, I can't deny that. I would ring round the band, going over royalty payments and licensing options. Harry Saltzman was desperate to get them for the 'Diamonds are Forever' soundtrack, but nobody batted an eyelid. Elf said she'd rather carry on listening to 'Just Another Diamond Day' by Vashti Bunyan. Dean wanted a cameo but didn't want to record. Jasper said he felt the films were misogynistic and colonial in their attitude. Griff didn't return my calls. All the while, though, I felt sure they would get back together, that something would spark the magic again, even if only for one last time.'
That moment finally came, as is so often the case, by coincidence. In March 1971, Elf Holloway boarded a Boeing 2707 to JFK and found herself sitting next to Jasper de Zoet in the first-class cabin. A cosmic joke perhaps, but one that was to have profound consequences. Catching up during the flight, the pair agreed to have dinner together the following evening. Unfortunately for them, they were spotted by a photographer from the New York Post, and the next day Frankland had to phone the pair with the grim news that the tabloid splash was being presented as a split in the group, with Elf and Jasper going it alone as a duo. Quick to dispel such rumours, Elf and Jasper made hurried calls to Dean and Griff. These conversations set in motion a chain of events that was to lead to Utopia Avenue entering the studio again for the first time in almost three years. Levon Frankland explains.
'No-one would seriously have believed the stories, least of all Dean and Griff. But the net result was that they were all talking again, and that was important. Elf had two weeks booked in the Hamptons with her biographer after which she was free, and Jasper had a ten-day masterclass session at NYU after which he too had nothing in the calendar. I suggested that they should all meet up, not in LA, or NYC, or anywhere with history for the band, good or bad. I tentatively suggested Memphis, and the Elvis connection sealed the deal. Two weeks later we all met up, and the music just seemed to flow naturally. Perhaps it was pent-up frustration, perhaps they'd been planning it all along, I don't know. But it worked. It was magical.'
The group spent time at Sun Studios, Stax, and Ardent in Memphis, before returning to the UK to finish the sessions at Air Studios and Griff's home studio, with mixing and mastering completed at Rockfield in rural Wales. The finished result was issued without a title, though it quickly came to be known by fans as 'The Transatlantic Sessions'. The cover featured a simple photograph of the four band members in a field with the sun setting behind them, leaving them almost in shadows. This was an album filled with light, however.
Here, all four members of the band look back on 'The Transatlantic Sessions', and how the tracks evolved during the recording process.
Click through to Spotify to listen to the album in full here:
Side One.
'The Blues Are Still Blue' - Moss
Elf Holloway: 'I remember this was one of the first songs that Dean played to us in Memphis. It felt somehow... appropriate? That the blues were still there, still something that rang true for us, despite everything that happened, despite the success and the fame. That sense that there was still something there ready to trip you up at any point. I loved Jasper's solo, it suited the song, but at the same time it was so different to his usual overdriven style - really laid back. That worked for me. Plus, he namechecked the Mamas and Papas, who had been such good friends to all of us. I thought that was somehow quite respectful. Very unlike Dean!'
Jasper de Zoet: 'The song made sense to me straight away. Dean had picked up on the idea of 'punks' from western movies I think, but he also knew it had a derogatory meaning in the US - so that idea of being a 'part-time punk' was a really clever play on words I think, given the changes we encountered as we left the sixties and entered the seventies. I always enjoyed playing it live. It felt like it had a bit of the whole band in there.'
Dean Moss: 'I suppose it sounds like yer typical rocker, straight down the line. I thought it had a bit more depth though - or it did for me anyway. After Brian... it was difficult. I didn't write for a long time. It didn't feel like fun anymore. I was getting to know my little boy, making up for lost time, y'know? At the same point I was spending a lot of time in the states and I think some of that bled into the song. It became this weird, unusual, transatlantic thing. I didn't mind that though. My favourite line? Oh, that's easy. The Otis line. I had to get that in. Dock of the Bay was one of those tour-bus staples for us. It came naturally:
'I'm a singer, a swinger, I'm a layabout but laying on
The dock in the lazy sun
Will never quite relegate me to a bum.'
Peter 'Griff' Griffin: 'My favourite memory of 'Blues...' was when we were back in Hull, doing some overdubs before we were due to take it to be mixed in Wales. We had the whole song down, and it sounded great, but very - like us? Not in a bad way. Just, there was something missing. It needed a bit of magic. Elf was singing along to the chorus one day, and I had my cans [headphones] on so I was a bar or two behind her, and it created this kind of call and response effect when it came back into the verse. It was tiny, but perfect, and miraculously I was able to explain it to her with a lot of 'lalalas'. That's still one of my favourite bits on the album.'
2. 'Ancient Rolling Sea' - Holloway
EH: 'So, the sea is probably one of those enduring ideas that songwriters go back to, right? And I was determined that I would have my great song about the sea. I could hear it in my head. I heard it when I took the Staten Island Ferry, I heard it when I was down at Zuma beach, I heard it walking along the Wapping shoreline. And the song came, and I loved it, and it was the greatest thing I'd ever written, and it *just didn't work.* I was so upset. Something about it just sounded so hokey, like a cliche in song. I was heatrtbroken, and ready to shelve it, but then Levon came along with one of his managerial masterstrokes. And that's how Dean came to sing the best song I ever wrote!'
DM: 'I mean that's not quite right, though bless yer for saying so Elf. I was just another instrument she used to convey her genius. And it was an honour if I'm honest, still one of my proudest moments. Though I do think the bass line is worth a mention as well. I was trying to catch that feeling of waves, pulsing, rolling in and out again. Hopefully it makes some sense if you're on a boat going somewhere interesting with a good pair of headphones on.'
JdZ: 'An experiment with slide guitar for me, which I think worked remarkably well given how simple the song is. Elf still proclaims it as one of her masterpieces, but to me it's a song which comes from everyone, from everything. Ancient Rolling Sea. As I remember it, I came up with the title. I think Elf wanted to call it 'Song for the Seas' or something equally Tim Buckley. I'm being deliberately playfully critical, in case that isn't obvious. The song really is fantastic.'
PG: 'It might feel like there's not much for a drummer to get their teeth into on this one, but that would be a serious misjudgment. Anyway can crash bang wallop away on their umpteen cymbals and snares. It's easy to be a loud, heavy drummer. That light touch, that wave of the stick or the brush - that's where the real skill comes into it. Not that I've got any delusions of grandeur, and I like whacking away with the best of 'em. But Elf really conducted this one, and I mean that in the nicest possible way. She was the composer, and we were the orchestra. Bloody hell, that sounds pretentious. Can I do that bit again?'
3. 'Checkmate' - de Zoet
JdZ: 'This song wouldn't have worked with anyone other than Elf. I find it intriguing, the kind of cascade effect on the album. Elf writes a song which Dean sings. I write a song which needs Elf. It's all interlinked, like a strand running through the cosmos. The concept is very appealing to me. It's short, but intense - it has a lot going on.'
PG: 'I honestly don't know where Jasper gets it from sometimes. This one came together quickly, and it was like he had to all worked out in his head before even showing it to us - Elf does this, Dean does that, Griff, here's what it needs. It can get my back up from time to time, cos I like deciding how my drums sounds on my own terms. But occasionally, confronted with a special moment of de Zoet magic, you just have to smile and nod.'
DM: 'My favourite bit? Weirdly, it's the fade. There's something truly subversive about having a song that's under three minutes long with this outrageously long fade at the end. It works though. I think Jasper was going for a kind of Day in the Life vibe, the ringing note on the piano extending up, up and away. His fade was his expression of that, but it gives the impression that the song could just keep going forever and ever. When we play it live, we do stretch it out a bit, to be fair. No sense throwing away a song like that in three minutes. What if you'd just nipped to the loo?'
EH: 'Everyone goes on about what a virtuoso performer Jasper is, and I get that. But for someone like me, coming from a folk tradition, it's the lyrics that really hit home. And he's so funny! I don't think people see that often enough. How many other lyricists would try something like,
'You can borrow my dad's porn, from 1974.'
I mean, that's psychedelic, isn't it? Porn from the future? And there's so much tied in there about attitudes and morals. He's a very clever chap.'
JdZ: 'I still play chess, from time to time. I had a wonderful game recently against Joan Bakewell. My Modern Benoni attack took me to mate in around 25 minutes. I offered to show her how it was done, but she just smiled and said that some things should remain a mystery.'
4. 'California' - de Zoet
JdZ: 'I made very few demands as part of the recording process. The only thing I insisted on was that 'Checkmate' and 'California' should go back to back. It was something I had in my head when I wrote the songs, and as stupid as it sounds I would rather have had neither on the album than have one on its own, or have them split up. They are a pair. That's just how they work.'
DM: 'I know the song was very personal to Jasper. I didn't get the whole story, though I think he explained it to Elf. Basically his half-brother and wife had lost a kid, terrible business by the sounds of things - and of course something that weighted heavily on Elf. So I think Jasper was wrestling with a lot of unresolved issues, which all made their way into the song.'
JdZ: 'California referred more to an idea than a place. That's all I really want to add.'
PG: 'I could see it was personal, but as a musician I thought the song was incredible. It sounded modern, but had enough of a throwback to that classic Byrds/Beatles chord progression to give it a timeless quality. That was the track I really remember from Rockfield, listening back to the finished version.'
EH: 'Jasper was very conflicted about his family, there's no secret about that. He felt betrayed on the one hand but also intensely loyal on the other. That all came out on 'California.' The song reminded me of Immy, Lawrence and little Mark, of course. How could it not? But every tragedy is different. That's the world we live in. All we can do is support the ones we love. And, despite what some critics wrote at the time, this was not a dismissive song - it came from a really loving part of Jasper's personality. I find it difficult to listen to, but I never skip it.'
5. 'Hate Is All You Need' - Moss
DM: 'A lot of people got the wrong end of the old stick about this one. I had all these geezers chewing my ear off about how I was trashing the legacy of peace and love, man, and all that. Cobblers. It was tongue in cheek, of course it was. All I was trying to say, really, was that the attitude of 'love one another and it will all be okay' hadn't worked for anyone. There was still poverty, still war, still hunger. So I was kind of saying - 'Look at the people who are successful. They all have hate in their hearts. Do you want to be like them? Is it worth being hateful just to get ahead?' But I suppose maybe the irony was just too thin for some people. An English thing, I will admit that.'
PG: 'I had a blast with this one. Right up my alley. No messing, just a glorious racket. And live? Well, you can imagine the scenes. We used to finish it with a 'She hates you, yeah, yeah, yeah' chorus, which the crowd used to absolutely lap up. Dean always had his little intro for it though, explaining the lyrics and that. I think most people understood where we were coming from.'
JdZ: 'As a guitarist, this is a song which you grow to love more and more each time you play it. I was very happy with the way it turned out. And I felt it ended side one very well. And working with George Martin was a privilege of course. A true gentleman.'
EH: 'Ah, George! Yes, we had a week at Air Studios, and that was when I really got to play with the box of magic tricks. It started off with a string quartet, but George made some calls to Abbey Road and before you knew it we had a small orchestra in there. He was so playful with the song - 'try this, try that' - it really gave us a feel for how it must have been when he recorded Sergeant Pepper or Revolver. It has a bounce to it, which offsets Dean's lyrics quite nicely I think. Such a cynic at heart!'
DM: For the record, I ain't a cynic. I just live in the real world, not some Walthamstow Folk Club pastiche!'
Side Two.
'Tomorrow's Hits Today' - de Zoet
EH: 'Ah, who can forget. The infamous Ardent sessions!'
DM: 'Proof, were it needed, that yer man de Zoet is not just a pretty face with a few good licks. He's also a funny beggar.'
JdZ: [sighs] 'I will have to tell you the whole story, though I should note that it was not my finest hour. We loved recording at Ardent, it was a great studio, run by people who truly cared about music. This was when they were still at National Street. Big Star were there too, recording what would become '#1 Record', and initially all was well. We knew Alex Chilton from his Box Tops days, and he was a natural anglophile. He was also a cocky little bastard. He would come into the studio unannounced and quiz us on soul music, R&B, giving us increasingly obscure references to try to catch us out, and, I suppose, to prove that he was more authentic than we were. He was the old master, we were the pale imitations. I liked him, but he annoyed me. And so I wrote 'Tomorrow's Hits Today.' It took around ten minutes. I think it is safe to say he took it personally.'
DM: 'Cowbell! That's what he had me playing. Never mind Chilton, I was fucking furious! The greatest bass player of his generation playing cowbell!'
PG: 'I had a whale of a time, but it was very clearly something Jasper wanted to do, and do quickly. Perhaps it would have been better if he'd done it on his own, but I think the band made it a more rounded song. And for all Dean's protestations, he is a very good cowbell player.'
JdZ: 'We had a big playback session in the studio and invited Alex, Jody, the rest of Big Star to join us. There was sort of stunned silence when the song finished. Alex had a face like thunder, though I could see that Chris and Andy found it pretty amusing. Eventually, Jody turned to Alex and said something like, 'Hey man, why are you so down about this? You're being immortalised by Utopia Avenue!' And that saved us from a fight I think. By the end of the night we had recorded another version with all of us jamming along, but sadly that is lost to the mists of time. Perhaps Alex is hanging on to it until he can properly cash in.'
2. 'Wallace' - Holloway
EH: 'Sometimes the words just come. This was something I sketched out after hearing 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised' by Gil Scott-Heron. I knew I had to find my own voice, though. He has that very hip and happening repetition thing going on. I wanted it to be more like a folk parable. An English version of that narrative style. At first it was fairly simple, but then Jasper suggested the incredible bridge sections and the whole thing just started to sound... epic.'
JdZ: 'From the first demos I knew it was a very special song. I just wanted to help Elf hear on record what she heard in her head. I hope we achieved that.'
DM: 'It's just a monster, innit? I can't remember when I had more fun coming up with a bass part. I mean, it's like playing along with a Saturn V taking off.'
PG: 'I think the reason we were all so pleased this one worked was that it was another step forward. It wasn't just another Utopia Avenue song. We didn't care about 'hit singles' all that crap, but we never wanted fillers. I don't think anyone would describe 'Wallace' as a filler.'
EH: 'No, I can't tell you who Wallace is I'm afraid. You'll have to keep guessing!'
3. 'The Late Great Cassiopia' - Moss
PG: 'As the only one in the band who isn't really a songwriter - though of course I've dabbled - it always amazes me how they keep managing to come out with these tracks. They all sound like Utopia Avenue, but they're all so different. It really is a privilege to be involved.'
DM: 'The riff came first, I remember that. It sounds like a guitar but it's played on the bass which gives it an unusual feel. I suppose there was a bit of a nod to 'Daytripper' in there, and it's probably one of the more hook-laden tunes I've written. When it started it was a straight vocal take from me, with Elf on backing. Then we started mixing. And gradually, we realised that the more equally we mixed the vocals, the better it sounded. We loved 'Forever Changes', of course, and it's a similar thing to what you hear on 'Alone Again Or' - you can't quite work out who's singing lead and who is backing.'
EH: 'Dean still maintains I was bribing the engineer to stick me higher and higher in the mix, but really it was just the way it worked out.'
JdZ: 'I love the unexpected solo in this song. It sounds like it's going to head into that third chorus and then just repeat, and I would have been happy with that. I never want to stick a solo in for the sake of it. Dean encouraged me though, so I went for it, and I was happy with the result.'
4. 'Hobart Paving' - Holloway
JdZ: 'It's maybe the song on the album where I do the least. Also one that I love the most. That's a paradox.'
DM: 'It changed very little from the demo. That was Elf strumming on a guitar, but actually it was pretty much a fully-formed song. And what as song.'
PG: 'The line about Elvis crying gets me every time. There's something so tragic, and yet hopeful at the same time. That's Elf though.'
EH: 'This was such a special song for me, on a number of levels. It was a nod back to my folk roots I suppose, and I enjoyed that sense of having a single spotlight on me, just for the few minutes of the song. Do you think that's really conceited? Anyway. And of course we got Bea along to do her thing.'
DM: 'Most people think it's a double-tracked vocal but it's actually Elf and Bea doing it live. Maybe it would only have worked with sisters, I dunno. It definitely worked though.'
EH: 'I wasn't sure at first, and neither was Bea. We were both a bit paranoid of accusations of nepotism, and Bea was just starting to establish herself in her own right. It was before she landed the role of Maggie March in Doctor Who, of course, but she was certainly a name to watch. Neither of us wanted it to look like it was some backroom deal. The thing was, it just worked. And that soothed a lot of nerves, listening to the playback.'
JdZ: 'I never had any doubts it would work. Sometimes all you need is a simple song.'
5. 'Take Me Round Again' - Holloway
EH: 'I'm a magpie. I'll admit that. So when I heard the first Velvet Underground album, there was something about Nico's vocal delivery that I stored away for later.'
PG: 'What a song to finish an album on. We didn't plan it so that this one came last, but as soon as we heard it there was no real question. It was always going to be the last track. It's a snapshot of all of us, doing what we love, at the very top of our game. '
EH: 'The sequencing did concern me. Having two songs in a row, at the end of the album. Well, I know Levon had doubts too. It was the others who convinced me.'
DM: 'I mean I could hardly object, given I'd had the whole of side two of 'The California Sessions', could I?! And anyway, there was no doubt it had to be 'Take Me Round Again.' There's that line -
'The longest way round is the sweetest way home.'
And that was us, wasn't it? Starting in Memphis, ending in Wales. And of course, there was a sense that we were finding our way home as a band too. A way for us to be a family again. That was really important.'
JdZ: 'I had ideas for what I wanted to do, and was messing around with some tones and notes, but I had no idea Griff was recording me. Somehow it worked. It sounded scrappy, scratchy - not a solo in the conventional sense. But it had a subconscious, non-corporeal feel which I felt very much attracted to.'
EH: 'Next? I have no idea what might happen next. I'm just glad to have the opportunity to play my songs with these guys. I may have the last song on the album, but I never get the last word!'
DM: 'She's right, you know.'
'Author's' Note.
Well, of course, I'm not really the author - David Mitchell created the characters, and none of what you've read could have happened without him. I had a lot of fun writing it though, albeit it was a much trickier task than I had imagined to pick the songs. I set some simple rules which I may or may not have followed:
While I couldn't expect to find bands with exactly the same composition as Utopia Avenue, I did set some restrictions - they all had to have multiple songwriters, including a male and female lead vocal.
I didn't want to tread too closely to the era of the book, so I deliberately chose artists who are all, broadly speaking, from the past twenty years or so.
Caveats about authenticity aside, I didn't want to choose bands who were very clearly not British. That ruled out some really interesting names like Arcade Fire, New Pornographers, and The Dears. I did allow myself to stray a little bit where I felt the transatlantic twang could be put down to an extended holiday in Brooklyn or Venice Beach.
I tried to pick songs that I felt would flow together as an album as well as just being great tracks on their own.
I've no idea how successful this exercise has been, so do let me know. I thought long and hard about which band I thought best encapsulated the spirit of Utopia Avenue today - a mix of the bluesy, jazzy and folky influences, but very much going their own way too. I kept coming back to Belle & Sebastian. I'd love to know who you would have picked.
Cheers,
Andrew Williams.
October 2021
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