THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,525) Nirvana — “The Touchables (All of Us)”
Pure Nirvana (see #287, 391, 475, 1,238) from Swinging London’s Irish/Greek duo of Patrick Campbell-Lyons (Cork born) and Alex Spyropoulos (Athens born) — “a perfect encapsulation of the[ir] floating, blissful, softly lysergic . . . sound” (David Wells, Record Collector: 100 Greatest Psychedelic Records: High Times and Strange Tales from Rock’s Most Mind-Blowing Era), a “fine piece of harmonic pop from the flower power era”. (Easy Livin, https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=14717) It comes from Nirvana’s 2nd LP — All of Us — “a beautiful late 60’s psychedelic-pop album, full of eccentric English imagery and catchy songs, definitely an unsung classic.” (Penza, https://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/reviews/nirvana-uk-all-of-us)
The song had been commissioned as the theme for the film The Touchables:
Absolutely the rarest (and wildest) of Mod Artifacts . . . star[ring] Judy Huxtable, Esther Anderson, Marilyn Rickard and Kathy Simmonds as a quartet of Pop-Art princesses who kidnap rock-star Christian (David Anthony) and imprison him in their plastic, see-through Bubble House. Gay wrestler Ricki Starr gets jealous, and tries to (literally) muscle his way into the action. Directed by Beatles-photographer Robert Freeman (who shot the cover for Rubber Soul) . . . .
https://www.modcinema.com/categories/5-bestsellers/160-touchables-the-uncut-1968-dvd
John Seal warns us that:
The ONLY reasons to watch The Touchables are if you a) have an insatiable appetite for plotless 60s fashion shows masquerading as films, or b) you want to hear the terrific theme song by the (English) Nirvana. There’s also a snippet of The Pink Floyd’s “Interstellar Overdrive” used inexplicably as background music during a boat ride, but it’s precious little consolation for sitting through this piece of ripe tripe.
I need to see this flick! Melanie Blue explains that:
John Bryan was directing a feature film starring four girls . . . who were models plucked from the pages of Vogue to appear in a typical summer-of-love romp entitled The Touchables. What the director wanted was Stevie Winwood to write something along the lines of his music for Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush. Stevie was too busy — but fortunately “Tiny Goddess” [see #475] was playing in the Island office and the film people asked “What’s that?” Chris Blackwell played them more and Nirvana were asked to write a title theme for the movie. . . . The new song was to be based on a half-written track called “We’ve Got To Find A Place”. . . . The original idea was to have the girls from the film sing the track, at least on the movie soundtrack version, and although various takes were made the job finally fell to Patrick.
liner notes to the CD reissue of All of Us
David Wells writes that “Nirvana’s sound involves “mystical, gently romantic lyrics . . . [with a] breathy falsetto and a gorgeous combination of soft psych/pop melodic flair and baroque-flavoured arrangements that incorporated the use of cello and French horn.” (Record Collector: 100 Greatest Psychedelic Records: High Times and Strange Tales from Rock’s Most Mind-Blowing Era)
Let me sprinkle some more Oregano:
Nirvana, the nonchalantly enigmatic duo of Patrick Campbell-Lyons and Alex Spyropoulos . . . . releas[ed] a brace of the most airily accessible and mercilessly hooky albums to have floated into being in the culturally charged domain of 1967 and ’68, without sacrificing a neutrino of integrity. . . . [We must] ponder anew why Nirvana didn’t make a deeper impression on the malleable hearts of the record-buying public. They fared rather better in mainland Europe, admittedly, where their billowing, romantic, sumptuously arranged and gracefully baroque compositions were tailor-made for trailing fingers in petal-strewn lakes on warm nights and contemplating Greco-Roman statuary. Nevertheless, their comparatively brief entry in the historical record remains mystifying when they were the perfect panacea for intense times. [A]n ambrosial, benevolent air blew over them and lightly draped a paisley pattern over most everything they recorded. Theirs was a sonic picture unassailed by acid horrors . . . . For the most part, this was sweet-natured, serenely uplifting mood music for the watering of ferns and the lighting of joss sticks; and even in the hard light of 1968, when the compass-overboard hedonism of the previous year had tipped over into revolution, riots and a return to rock, you still had the option of sinking into Nirvana’s plushly-upholstered sound cave of incense, patchouli, silks and satins after a hard day at the barricades.
Was that a bit tongue-in-cheek? Who knows, but don’t bogart the patchouli.
Here is the trailer:
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