Jimmy Campbell — “Lyanna”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — January 31, 2024

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

1,096) Jimmy Campbell — “Lyanna”

This blog o’ mine gives me great joy, as when I played as my 22nd song “Michel Angelo”, by Jimmy Campbell (see #22, 648, 736-38, 996) and the 23rd Turnoff. I called the song “[o]ne of the most gorgeous songs I have ever heard.” It is certainly the greatest ever pop psych ballad I have ever heard. But the blog also can give me great sadness, as when today, I focus again on Jimmy and how his talents were left to wither by cruel fate and an indifferent public. As dpnewbold comments, “This guy is so under-rated it hurts.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI-KHv7u4qE) Yes, it does.

Here, from his first solo album (‘69) and a ‘70 A-side, is a “Beautiful yet sad song. Masterful”. (sevenantony7376, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AmwselhjTI), “one example of Jimmy’s heartbreaking melodies.” (tendingthrpalebloom, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AmwselhjTI)

The album, Son of Anastasia, “contained songs of aching beauty and melanchilia”. (Jazzinfo.net, https://blog.naver.com/hubtone/221610862004). Richie Unterberger tells us:

[M]ost of the songs here are good, particularly . . . “Lyanna[.]”

Campbell’s 1969 LP . . . . was a marked change in direction for Campbell, in his style if not his songwriting. For Son of Anastasia is largely a folky, acoustic album, occasionally venturing into orchestrated folk-pop, even if Campbell is more a pop/rock songwriter than a folk one. Campbell’s slightly moody yet catchy melodies, as well as his drolly understated lyrics, mark him as perhaps the best ’60s Liverpool rock songwriter never to have a chart record . . . . It’s an attractively introspective record laced with some bittersweet irony, but the combination of bare-bones and lightly orchestrated arrangements doesn’t always ideally suit the material. . . . occasionally riffs are taken by what sound like either kazoos or someone (Campbell?) trying to imitate a trumpet with mouth noises, which not only adds an unappetizingly vaudevillian flavor, but leaves the impression that there wasn’t enough budget allotted for proper instrumentation.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/son-of-anastasia-mw0000811484#review

As to Jimmy, Matty Loughlin-Day aptly states that:

[Jimmy Campbell is a] songwriter who, for this writer’s money, could go toe-to-toe with any of the more celebrated prodigies from the region, yet who’s name is frequently met with blank faces or a shrug of the shoulders. A writer who, in a sane universe, would be esteemed alongside . . . yes, John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Jimmy Campbell is arguably the archetypal lost son of Liverpool. A talent that was never quite reciprocated by the buying public and the victim of some cruel twists of fate, his is a name that is for one reason or another, never quite mentioned when discussing the plethora of musical talent that the city has produced. . . . [H]is songs entice immediately and gradually work their way into the sub-conscious.

https://www.getintothis.co.uk/2019/06/lost-liverpool-25-jimmy-campbell-the-greatest-songwriter-youve-never-heard-of/

Mark Johnston seconds the thought:

Campbell should rightfully be considered closer to a Merseyside Bob Dylan than the sullen working class Nick Drake he is often painted as. He could have been the Poet Laureate of England! How is it that one day of the greatest sonic creations in his fascinating and flawless back catalogue should be gathering dust for the past thirty-three years?

liner notes to the CD reissue of Rocking Horse’s Yes It Is

And Richie Unterberger poignantly sums things up:

[Jimmy was] perhaps the most unheralded talent to come out of the Liverpool ’60s rock scene, as he was a songwriter capable of both spinning out engaging Merseybeat and — unlike almost every other artist from the city, with the notable exception of the Beatles — making the transition to quality, dreamy psychedelia. . . . It seems as if Campbell needed just a bit more encouragement, and his groups just a little more studio time, to develop into a notable British psychedelic group that could combine solid pop melodies, sophisticated lyrics and arrangements, and touches of English whimsy. Unfortunately they didn’t get that chance . . . .

Campbell’s slightly moody yet catchy melodies, as well as his drolly understated lyrics, mark him as perhaps the best ’60s Liverpool rock songwriter never to have a chart record . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-dream-of-michelangelo-mw0000351105, https://www.allmusic.com/album/son-of-anastasia-mw0000811484

To give a touch of Jimmy Campbell’s early and later history, Matty Loughlin-Day writes that:

Campbell’s first band, The Panthers, were formed in 1962 and were at the heart of all things Merseybeat. Legend has it that at one gig, John Lennon stood in front of the band, keen to suss out local competition; one must assume he was impressed, as before long, the band were able to add ‘supported The Beatles’ to their CV. Convinced by Cavern-legend Bob Wooler to change their name to The Kirkbys (in homage to their home suburb) and looked after by Brian Epstein’s secretary Beryl Adams, Campbell et al toured across Western Europe and recorded a handful of songs, including the Rolling Stones-esque stomper It’s a Crime . . . [see #648]. . . . [I]nitial singles found success in, of all places, Finland. . . . [but a]t home, the singles fared less impressively, and a second name change soon followed.  The Kirbys became the 23rd Turnoff, again based in local geography, named after the M6 junction required for Kirkby. . . .

With a short European tour in 1972 backing Chuck Berry . . . and fortunes truly fading, Campbell decided he’d had enough. . . . [A]pparently rejuvenated and able to muster the strength to record a fourth solo album during the 80’s, Campbell, on completing it, went to the pub to celebrate, only to return home to find his house ransacked and the only master tapes of the album gone, along with a range of equipment. The guy, it seemed, could just not catch a break. . . .

By all accounts, a life of hard-living took its toll and he sadly passed away in 2007 after battling emphysema.

https://www.getintothis.co.uk/2019/06/lost-liverpool-25-jimmy-campbell-the-greatest-songwriter-youve-never-heard-of/

Oh, and Billy Fury did a wonderful version that only surfaced years after his death. Yr Heartout explains:

[Here are a] trio of recordings as good as anyone has ever done, and yet these were never heard until Billy was long gone. What a world! Both ‘In My Room’ and ‘Lyanna’ are so incredibly sad and moving, and Billy’s performance seems to add layers of strangeness, despair and pain. I don’t know. I could be biased because I heard Billy’s versions first, and for me they fit Billy, with his reclusive tendencies, his innate shyness, his modesty, his gentleness, his persistent ill-health, his latter-day bad luck. . . . Jimmy Campbell [was] an incredibly talented singer and songwriter who nevertheless initially made me think of George Formby at times. Jimmy, for me, was an acquired taste, but so often acquired tastes prove to have more durability than instant passions.

https://yrheartout.blogspot.com/2021/10/the-shoebox-files-6-billy-fury.html

Here is Jimmy live in ‘77:

Here is Billy Fury:

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