Hard rock at its most sublime
 When
the Pretty Things put a song on Savage Eye called
"It Isn't Rock 'n Roll" their sarcasm missed
SAILOR entirely. Unlike other groups that have strayed
out of rock's dominion into other areas as classical or
electronics while retaining a rock-following, SAILOR
began life as a non-rock band appealing to a normal
rock/pop audience, and has so far only made a concession
to the more commercial aspect of their slight fence
straddling.
There's something intangible about a group that is
promoted and presented in the standard rock fashion that
leads one to think of them as a standard rock group,
however unfair the musicians may find that association.
When queried on their self-image, SAILOR's Henry Marsh
admitted to the confusion that surrounds the identity) in
the public's mind only) of a group that on one tour
shares billing with Deep Purple's Tommy Bolin and Pink
Panther's Henry Mancini, in the same city no less. When
pressed for a self-made pigeon-hole, the consensus around
the group runs to "good-time, European and
romantic".
Unless you've heard or seen SAILOR, they bear quite a bit
of description for a vague image to emerge of what they
sound/are like. First, some background: All four SAILORs
have histories in rock bands that they care very little
about discussing. The names Eclection, Gringo and
Affinity come up, as comes a duo album done under the
name Kajanus-Pickett for Signpost a ways back, but
details on the subject are scare. In any case, all four
had known each other and played together on and off over
the years (these are no spring chickens) when Georg
Kajanus (Kai-ah-nus) presented them at the end of 1973
with a tape of songs he had written in fulfilment of an
idea for a red-light revue. The songs were loosely
arranged around the plot of a sailor's night out of the
town in some port city, and it involved booze and hookers
and gambling. (Things which have no bearing on the
musicians - they're all straight dignified and extremely
"ungroovy" as Georg puts it.) They
enthusiastically formed around Georg's idea, and began
playing colleges, clubs and other small venues, while
their conception of the group evolved towards its present
form. Columbia Records became interested in the idea, and
their debut album was released in August 1974. It's an
entirely conceptualised production, the proper
presentation of a tape which had begun the whole process
a year earlier.
Apart from the novelty of their subject matters, SAILOR
scores in the uniqueness ratings by using some of the
more esoteric non -rock instruments available to them.
Although many did not appear on the first LP, the group
has recorded with almost as many instruments as
Thunderclap Newmann: nickelodeon, guitarron, accordion,
Charango, Veracruzana harp and others not so familiar to
rock listeners.
The "Sailor" album mixes Chevalier with
schmaltzy Kinks to create a cabaret sound that holds
hands with Manhattan Transfer and Rupert Holmes (who
arrived in time to be associate producer of
"Trouble"). Songs like "The Girls Of
Amsterdam", "Let's Go To Town" and
"Sailor's Night On The Town" all cover various
romanticized aspects of putting one's ship into port (as
it were) with no further meaning intended. Admittedly,
it's a bit off the wall but enjoyable for its own merits.
Strangely, the song that was released and became somewhat
successful in Britain was "Traffic Jam", a
musical history of the automobile that does not pertain
to the album's main theme. The group's next release was a
re-recording of "Sailor", excised of a few
naughty words for the benefit of all the mummy's
daughters listening to the BBC.
In the meantime, the group became very popular in England
and various parts of Europe, where audiences got used to
the novelty, and became entranced in the jovial fantasy.
America's reaction was, in terms of debut album sales,
reserved. After all, English dance hall music is rather,
how do you say, English - Americans have little nostalgia
for George Formby and Max Bygraves.
SAILOR were doing well in England, but not as well as
they might, so some bright soul at CBS suggests that
Georg write something a bit more commercial than SAILOR's
normal fare. Obeying his better instincts, Georg was, as
he put it, "a very good boy", and knocked of an
admittedly crass bit of fluff, loosely (well, not so
loosely) arranged around Roxy Music's "Virginia
Plain". A cute little ditty with strange
synthesizers and bizarre harmonies, it became, with no
prodding, a number one single in Britain, firmly
establishing themselves as an explosive pop band with a
great future on the single chart. Unfortunately, SAILOR
is neither a pop group, nor has any interest in being one
exclusively. The group's second album helped avoid
typecasting them, for kids who bought the 45 and then the
album, "Trouble", heard the group's choice of
material, which makes no concessions to commerciality -
it fares well with the first album, although the
production is lusher. In order to put the SAILOR image
right to the single-buying public, the group released
another song from "Trouble" past March.
"Girls Girls Girls" sounds more like Sparks
"Looks, Looks, Looks" than anything else, but
maybe you'd have to have been born in the forties to
understand. In any case, nobody is typecasting SAILOR
anymore. They appear, from the smallish repertoire of two
albums, to be capable of anything strange and pleasant.
Their stage act is happy and off-the-cuff, with perhaps a
bit too much Oscar Brand / Burl Ives for me. However,
SAILOR can and should be seen and enjoyed by everyone.
Just don't expect Marshall stacks and smoke machines.
They're not that sort.
By Ira Robbins
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