13th March Goodbye Jumbo


Back in the very early 1990's, having managed to get myself sacked from a voluntary job I had been doing for nearly 3 years in Calcutta, (the best job I have ever done by the way) I tried unsuccesfully to be reinstated. 

During that extreemly frustrating and dark time, two pieces of music were on almost constant rotation. The first was the stunning Woodface by Crowded House, a belter of an album and still in my opinion the best thing they have ever recorded. The second was the equally sublime Goodbye Jumbo by World Party, the group formed by former member of The Waterboys and Mike Scott's side kick and musical foil, Karl Wallinger.

Yesterday it was announced that Karl had died suddenly at the age of 66. Hearing that news sent me on a vivid almost tangible trip down memory lane to the hot, sultry and very often sodden streets of a monsoon drenched Calcutta. And the sounds that filled my head over 30 years ago sounded just as good today as when I first heard them. 

With a fantastic production and a varied yet cohesive set of songs that can be played end to end without skipping a beat, with Goodbye Jumbo, Karl Wallinger reached his creative peak and never quite managed to touch the same heights of aural ecstacy again. But when you have raised the bar that high, improving on it that would have been impossible. Even Robbie Williams appreciated his songwriting gift when he covered one of Wallinger's tunes, 'She's the one' in 1999, taking it to no 1 in the charts

So in memory of Karl, here are two stripped back versions of of two of the standout tracks from part of the sountrack to a particular time in my life. Enjoy. I did. And still do.


 

 

 



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