THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,930) The La De Da’s* — “Tales of the Nile”
New Zealand’s La De Da’s (see #216, 846, 946) take a walk on the Wilde side with this wistful proto-prog number from The Happy Prince, which would have been the world’s first rock opera had it not taken over two years to get onto LP.
Andrew Schmidt writes that:
In their 12-year journey through New Zealand and Australia in the 1960s and 1970s, The La De Da’s never took a backward step. They conquered New Zealand with a passionate live show, a string of hard, uncompromising chart singles and two of the best NZ albums of the 1960s. Changing gear from R&B to psychedelia, The La De Da’s shifted base to Australia in 1967 and 1968 where they released New Zealand’s first rock opera, The Happy Prince. In England in 1969 they captured a fine version of The Beatles’ voodoo rocker ‘Come Together’ at Abbey Road studios before returning to Australia and success as pioneering festival blues rockers.
The definitive Milesago: Australasian Music and Popular Culture 1964-1975 tells us:
Formed in New Zealand at the very start of the beat boom, they were . . . . practically the only major group [Kiwi or Aussie] . . . who managed to ride out the massive musical changes of the Sixties and adapt to the new scene in the Seventies, emerging as one of Australia’s most popular hard rock groups during the first half of the Seventies. . . . [T]hey started off as blues/R&B purists . . . . moved into their ‘mod’ period – with covers of Ray Charles, Motown and Northern Soul favourites, replete with tartan trousers, satin shirts and buckle shoes. . . . [and then] plunged headlong into psychedelia (the obligatory concept album, covers of songs from West Coast outfits like Blues Magoos, paisley shirts, sitars, long hair and moustaches). They almost came unstuck after the inevitable — and ultimately futile — attempt to “make it in England”. . . . limped back to Australia, regrouped, and bounced back . . . .
Grant Gillanders tells us of the not-so-happy prince:
In late 1966 Bruce Howard and Trevor Wilson of The La De Da’s had a vision for a rock opera based on Oscar Wilde’s 1888 short story The Happy Prince.** As children growing up in the UK, both of them had treasured their Orson Welles and Bing Crosby 78rpm recording of the story. What started out as an “oh that would be a good idea” moment turned into a reality just a short time later while the group were touring the South Island in January 1967. . . . Howard spent the idle hours on the road experimenting with the new sounds the harmonium [he bought at a second hand shop] offered and thus was born their concept album, The Happy Prince. To put this into perspective, the off-Broadway production of Hair! was 10 months away, and The Who’s Tommy would not make its debut for 28 months. By mid-1967 . . . Howard and Wilson had over half of the opera written. In late 1967 they debuted four of the pivotal songs at Auckland’s Galaxie night club . . . . [T]hey decided to record it for Sunshine Records in Australia . . . . The sessions started in early 1968, but this was to turn into a nightmare. When they had recorded back home at Zodiac engineer John Hawkins and studio owner Eldred Stebbing respected the group and to a large extent let them produce themselves. This wasn’t the case at Sunshine where a producer was assigned to the project, a situation the group wasn’t used to. The constant bickering between producer and Howard, and some band members, started on day one. This vibe plagued the sessions until the group walked out on the project. It was to be a year later before recording started again from scratch when EMI (Australia) funded the project. Between the Sunshine and EMI sessions the group played the entire opera in Sydney, in front of an invited audience including impresario Robert Stigwood and Liza Minnelli, with the express purpose of wooing Stigwood to bankroll the project and produce a stage version. He was keen to pursue it but nothing ever eventuated. One person who encouraged the group was Melbourne poet Adrian Rawlins, who recorded the narration on the album. The Happy Prince was finally released in April 1969. It contained the group’s first new recordings in nearly two years, which reflected the scope of the project and the drain on the group. The La De Da’s only performed it once after its release before moving on with their career. If the group had recorded the album at Stebbing’s in late 1967, its likely release would have been in early 1968, and The La De Da’s would have been at the zeitgeist of international pop music – and their latter years could well have been a lot different.
https://www.audioculture.co.nz/articles/the-la-de-da-s-concept-album-the-happy-prince
Milesago.com adds:
While preparing for their second album, Trevor Wilson came up with an idea that was well ahead of its time (unfortunately a little too far, as it turned out). . . . to create what would later be called “rock opera”. . . . Unfortunately, Bruce Howard was his only ally in the band, but together they started to piece the work together, although it would take several years to come to fruition. It was also the seed of later divisions within the band. . . . After over 12 months in Australia, the La De Das were a hit on the live circuit, but they still hadn’t released any records, steadfastly refusing to record anything other than their cherished Happy Prince project. The chance finally came their way in late 1968. Jimmy Stewart . . . [, who] had recently set up a new independent label, Sweet Peach[,]. . . . approached The La De Das with an offer to record and release The Happy Prince. The delighted band began intensive rehearsals in preparation for recording at Bill Armstrong’s Melbourne studio. But as the year wore on, Sweet Peach repeatedly arranged sessions and then postponed them, and by November the deal had collapsed. This was a major disappointment for the band, who had worked for several months to arrange and rehearse the piece, and the failure of the deal was a massive letdown for Trevor Wilson. It was at this point that the saviour of The Happy Prince appeared. Melbourne writer, “cultural commentator” and hip identity Adrian Rawlins had attended many of the rehearsals and was profoundly impressed with the piece . . . . [H]e exhorted the band not to give up on the project and his enthusiasm convinced Trevor Wilson to give it one more try. Roping in support from . . . publishers Essex Music, and from EMI, he managed to stitch together a deal to record the album at last. . . . The Happy Prince was recorded over four weeks in early 1969 . . . . Hailed as the first Australian concept album, the ambitious LP was a suite of songs co-written by Howard and Wilson. Lead vocals were, for the sake of dramatic consistency, entirely by Phil Key. He gives a great performance . . . . [R]ave reviews from the critics did not transfer into sales. In fact the album died a death commercially, and the band came close to splitting after its release. The production is excellent and was a breakthrough for the time, although the material has been criticised as being patchy and rather overblown in parts. It was also the album was also marred (for some critics) by the rather campy narrated links, read by Adrian Rawlins — although considering that the original story is by Oscar Wilde, it’s hard to see why this should have been a problem!
* The name? —
The lads realised pretty quickly that “The Mergers” didn’t really reflect the toughness of their music . . . . They decided on something a bit more hardline — The Criminals — but Phil’s mother was less than impressed and after rehearsals one night at the Wilson house she jokingly suggested instead that they call themselves “something nice, like the la-de-das …”. Phil [Key] loved it, and the name stuck.
** Wikipedia on The Happy Prince:
The Happy Prince and Other Tales . . . is a collection of bedtime stories for children . . . first published in May 1888. It contains five stories that are highly popular among children and frequently read in schools [including] The Happy Prince . . . . In a town full of suffering poor people, a swallow who was left behind after his flock flew off to Egypt for the winter meets the statue of the late “Happy Prince”, who has never experienced true sorrow, for he lived in a palace where sorrow was not allowed to enter. Viewing various scenes of people suffering in poverty from his tall monument, the Happy Prince asks the swallow to take the ruby from his hilt, the sapphires from his eyes, and the gold leaf covering his body to give to the poor. As winter comes and the Happy Prince is stripped of all of his beauty, his lead heart breaks when the swallow dies as a result of his selfless deeds and severe cold. The people, unaware of their good deeds, take the statue down from the pillar due to its shabbiness (intending to replace it with one of the Mayor) and melt the metal in a furnace, leaving behind the broken heart and the dead swallow, which are thrown in a dust heap. These are taken up to heaven by an Angel that has deemed them the two most precious things in the city. This is affirmed by God, and they live forever in His “city of gold” and garden of Paradise.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Happy_Prince_and_Other_Tales
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