THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,618) Lori Balmer — “Four Faces West”
An 8 (or maybe 12) year old Australian girl sings a song written for her by Barry Gibb. The song is incredible, and so is she. “Normally I am not a fan of kids singing pop songs, but there is something haunting and oddly contemporary”. (marcoschoir, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/lori-balmer/treacle-brown-four-faces-west/) “[B]y and large I can’t stand kids on pop records. . . . But every rule has its exceptions, and [this] is just brilliant. Ethereal, wistful and just a bit creepy but also mesmerising.” (mikec2137, https://www.45cat.com/record/56293) “Such powerful, succinct storytelling: The mom (not the dad!) abandons her family… Every night they stand on a wind-swept cliff waiting for her to come back. Very cinematic.” (vince_caprizzi, https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/with-the-sun-in-my-eyes-brothers-gibb-bee-gees-andy-gibb-song-by-song-thread.1188605/page-228)
Andrew Davies and Jordie Kilby tell us about Lori:
In 1966, aged just seven and using only her first name, she cut her first record, “Banjo Boy”. She danced, played tenor uke, worked the Sydney club circuit, appeared on television and was the face of the Infanteen clothing range. . . . The small and close-knit entertainment industry in Sydney gave her a solid schooling and Ms Balmer benefitted from working with many of the best performers of her day, including appearing on Johnny O’Keefe’s TV show Sing Sing Sing. “I sang ‘My Boy Lollipop’. You had to pre-record it in those days[.] When I went in to record the vocals they couldn’t get the mic down low enough. So they had to stack a whole lot of telephone books . . . . “ The Gibb family were close to the Balmers and Lori collaborated with the Bee Gees on a couple of early singles. The first, “Who’s Been Writing on the Wall” and the B-side “In Your World”, was recorded just before they left for the UK and stardom. “The Gibbs had their going away party at our place and then off they went . . . in 1967. Andy [Gibb] kept writing to me telling me first of all that they were to be signed to Brian Epstein, but of course he passed away that same year and Robert [Stigwood] continued and took on the personal management as well as the business management. And through a series of events they said ‘come over’.” Balmer boarded a ship herself not long after and was soon recording a second single, “Treacle Brown”, and its B-Side, “Four Faces West”,* in London. “Barry [Gibb] had written [‘Four Faces West’] for me at the time. We were working in the studio, just working out doing the vocals. Most of these things were done in a couple of takes. Then Robin [Gibb] came in and said, ‘I’ve just written a song, just try it out.’ So he played it through a couple of times, which was ‘Treacle Brown’, and I learned it on the spot and two takes later that was down.” In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s Balmer toured the UK and Europe singing with a broad range of acts . . . . In 1974 her family moved back to Australia and Balmer began recording for Festival Records. She released a handful of singles under her full name . . . . Balmer [found] herself in demand as a studio and backing singer. . . . [S]he sang on stage and recorded with names like . . . Jeff St John [see #470, 1,231], INXS, Midnight Oil, [and] The Church . . . . During the 1980s, Balmer split her time between Australia the US, UK and Japan, where she worked under another name as a model, vocalist and dancer. In Australia she was too often remembered as a child star and international work allowed her to start afresh. . . . Balmer became involved in the new romantic, post punk and rock scenes and supported an incredibly diverse range of performers like The Rolling Stones, Johnny Rotten, U2, Lionel Richie, Joe Cocker, Ian Dury, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Van Halen and Tina Turner.
* Terriannross says that Lori was her sister, and was 12 at the time. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6_amz92gdI)
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