Episode 32! In this episode, we explore June Millington’s “Thinking of You” and Nickey Barclay’s “A Little While Later” both are from Fanny’s second album “Charity Ball”. Alice also shares a bit more from her journal!
Alice, Kristen, and Byron are joined by guitarist June Millington and road manager Jim Segrave via prerecorded interviews.
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Glad you spoke about Billy Preston. However, it is worth noting that when Alice worked with him on “Barbra Joan Streisand” it was a year after the release of The Beatles’ “Let It Be”. As I’m sure you know Preston’s keyboards on “Get Back” earned him a credit – the only non-Beatle to earn such a distinction. (Eric Clapton did overdubs on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” but was not credited). So Preston had cemented his reputation in rock by the time he was part of the proceedings on BJS.
With regard to Babs, I think she would have done well with “Regular Guy” & “Rock Bottom Blues”. Would have loved to hear Streisand say, “It’s so fucking hard.”
I’m really glad you played “Thinking of You” & “A Little While Later” in their entirety – especially the latter because of its epic nature. Although I must admit when I heard Byron chime in at the end of the song I went, “Shush!!!” But that’s just me.
I noticed Jean wasn’t part of this podcast. Hope everything is OK with her.
Hopefully she will be with us in a fortnight. I’m fascinated that the next podcast is a total secret. Until next time….
Hey, I’m an old DJ, we talk over songs. 🙂
Byron, it’s always good to hear your voice! But it’s a good sign folks don’t want to hear anything but the music! Two good things!
“Perfect songs and packaged orgasms”!!
Another wonderful episode has “dropped” and my driving day has been given the boost it needs! Lovely to hear “Thinking Of You” and “A Little While Later” being discussed. Two wonderful ballads from “Charity Ball”.
I am in total agreement with Seagrave: each member knew instinctively what to bring to the table “arrangement wise” which is what makes the albums so damn special! Every song is so thoughtfully arranged and “sculpted”. Alice doesn’t just “lay down a beat”; she plays for each song intuitively and her fills are so musical. Those toms may be “flat” and “FAAAAAT”, but they are melodic (like Ringo’s) and add a musical counterpoint to the chords or vocal line. (The muso in me is at full throttle!)
I’ve heard these songs dozens of times now, but they are still so fresh and invigorating to listen to!
As for Barbra Streisand covering two (only two??) tracks… I’d go with “Conversation With A Cop” and arguably “Old Hat”… but if it’s originals only, then “Think About The Children” is a good contender…
As always, the podcast is the highlight of the fortnight! Here’s to ep33 (and “a third”… love the subtle reference to the George Harrison LP, Byron!!)
Best wishes and love as always! ❤️?❤️
I am sneaky like that. 🙂
I love these podcasts. So much fun to hear all your stories and personalities, the way you joke with one another. Fanny Hill was my home base until I left for France in the Fall of 1970. Obviously, I came home for holidays and kept photographing Fanny, as my negatives and photos attest, and while in France I have postcards from Jeannie I’ve kept, but hearing you read from your diary, Alice, makes me want to admit that while in France I wrote a whole diary to Jeannie! It’s one of those hardback black books that we were using back then. I did it to keep sane. I’ll have to go back and pull it out and read it. It was written to Jeannie so I could feel like I was talking with my friend and write more intimately. I was so immersed in my life in France, going to school (which was so odd after living at Fanny Hill and being on the Cocker Tour) I’m sorry I didn’t have the gumption to fly somewhere when you were in the UK for example and just come hang out. I did hear a Fanny song come on the radio while I was in one of our student hang out rooms and went completely nuts – vociferously letting everyone know, “these are my friends!”
Loved this episode.As you know,Thinking Of You is my personal Fanny Fave.I love the marriage of Maj 7ths, 7ths, and minor chords.And I really dig those piano triplet fills.That combined with June’s singing and the killer bass and drums takes me to a special place.Keeping June and Jean’s respective recoveries in my thoughts and daily prayers.Hope they are both feeling better soon.Love you all and look forward to another stimulating prepackaged posco in 2 weeks…Hey Alice…I bet you thought I was talking about some other prepackaged thing..LOL
Another great posco. Two wonderful songs. “A Little While Later” is very emotional for me. It truly has, as Aaron called it, an epic nature. The lyric and vocals are superb. The strange turn at the end of the chorus is surprising. June’s guitar solo sounds exciting, then instantly melancholy. Alice does some really great licks on the transitions and has such power throughout the song. Nickey’s keys are as fantastic as her keys always are. And in the end section crescendo Jean slides up to a high note and keeps hammering it. The song starts feeling like its running, about to fall down. Nickey is wailing, like pure pain. Then comes this fantastic hard resolving riff to the last chord. And you feel exhausted. Then the music box part. Makes the eyes water. This entire piece of music is sheer fucking genius. I love it so much and thank the band for giving it to us.
Peace,
E
I just realized 🙂 that it my little ol’ opinion, A Little While Later is one of a handful of songs that I think are perfect, just my opinion, there’s not many, but I now add this to my list; still one of my favorite Fanny songs
DAMN FANNY was GREAT…not good…GREAT! Having said that. It never mattered who wrote the song or who sang it or if it was rocker or a ballad. Being serious for once, FANNY WAS GREAT…DAMN!!!
Thanks, guys. I enjoyed the full focus on these two songs, especially how you highlighted June’s guitar solo on Thinking of You. What a lovely touch she has! There are many moments in Fanny’s discography that deserve to be called out like this. I’d love to hear more shows along these lines.
Another suggestion for a show (or shows): all about that Canadian version of the first album, and all those songs that never surfaced elsewhere.
Want to start a campaign to change the banner at the top of the fannyrocks.com website from
“The godmothers of women who rock” to “The godmothers of rock.”
Though your proposed tag-line is probably a bit too grand in scope, I do agree that Fanny was way ahead of their time for their depth and versatility as a rock group that few groups in 1970 exhibited, and thus that tag-line isn’t too far off the mark. I truly believe they proved that a rock group did not have to be stuck with one genre of rock and could delve into a variety of styles and still be recognized as Fanny.
But, I’m game to see if your proposed tag-line gains any traction. Never hurts to try!
Byron – I recognize your reticence to change the tag line but I don’t see why. You agree, quite sure, that Fanny was the first female rock group to release an album and was an influencer on the female groups that had much more success to follow, And they had an influence on male rock groups too. NB – Joe Elliott.
Soo don’t see why you say “your proposed tag-line is probably a bit too grand in scope.”
Also want to point out that the tag line as it exists now is contributing to the sexism that Fanny’s existence was in opposition to.