UNCUT Magazine reviews The Berry Vest of - April 2004

Tragically unhip
Misunderstood pop maverick's heyday ('71 -'75) and later forays reassessed

Gilbert O'Sullivan
THE BERRY VEST OF [EMI]
    

O'SULLIVAN IS GENERALLY undervalued as a Milliganesque novelty act who penned a few melodic hits, including the schmaltzy "Clair", about his infant niece, and ploddy piano-rocker "Get Down", which made the phrase "you're a bad dog, baby" sound about as sexy as the Tweenies. He dressed as an urchin (though switched to preppier threads around the time of his first big US success in'72) and, heinously, sang "Ooh-Wakka-Doo-Wakka-Day." For years, he's been about as hip as Leo Sayer.

Yet, eerie things happen here. Get over the stinking title, and at least three early songs here are glorious with abstract; melancholy wonder - poetic masterpieces which, had Harry Nilsson or Chris Bell birthed them, we’d be hailing as moody-bugger genius. In "Nothing Rhymed" (recently covered live by Morrissey) and "Alone Again (Naturally)", Eire-born Jersey resident Gilbert created classics of lonely whimsy, of child-like innocence that’s so innocent its sinister. And on the haunting and haunted epic "We Will", he outdid anything written by Dennis Potter - albeit with a lovely tune and ethereal strings. It’s as sublime, frozen and freaky as, say, Big Star's "Holocaust." So he used to enjoy smiling on Top Pops? Look for the clown's tears, friends, and see that his peak work is tragic, which we mean as the highest compliment. The three aforementioned songs will like a ghostly fog when 99 per cent of 20th-centuly, music is burned to cinders. Though he began to back his lyrics for jerky light dance fodder and wolly schmaltz, a lovely later song like the extraordinarily minimal "Miss My Love Today" (think a pared down Andrew Gold*) is a real find.

It's his early burst of creativity that does the damage though. On 'Nothing Rhymed" the (mother narrator glances at his screen to "see real human starve to death right in front of my eyes". In "Alone Again", having been stood up then deserted by a dubious God he recalls his parents deaths and considers suicide ("It seems to me that there are more hearts broken in world than can be mended..left unattended"). And for me, the breathtaking Proustian madeleines of "We Will"- "I bagsy being in goal... Do we all agree? Hands up those who do, Hands up those who don't... I see." - induce (given his impeccable phrasing and the perfect descending chord) a great big sissy lump in the throat.

Eccentric British pop, from that genres insanely brilliant golden age, at its best.

CHRIS ROBERTS

UNCUT: Was pop especially eccentric in the 1970's?

O'SULLIVAN: Presumably by "eccentric" you're referring to the way I looked!? The answer's no. However, between '67 and '77, originality was rife.

UNCUT: Were "Nothing Rhymed" and "Alone Again (Naturally)" written during bouts of melancholy? And to what degree were they autobiographical?

O'SULLIVAN: No, they were written during bouts of songwriting, and were autobiographical to a degree of zero point zero.

UNCUT: What inspired those magical lines about "bagsy being in goal" on "We Will"? And "at my age" - surely you weren't that old?

O'SULLIVAN: Genuine thanks for calling them "magical" - I'm not used to compliments about my work. "Bagsy" is a great English word. I love the fact that when Andy Williams recorded it he didn't have a clue what it meant. as for age - who said it's about me?

UNCUT: Do you love contemporary music? If so what?

O'SULLIVAN: I love pop music, period. "If so, what?" Hmm, great title for a song...

[*Interesting that the writer compares Gilbert to Andrew Gold! Andrew is an american singer-songwriter who had a Number One Hit with "Lonely Boy" and other hits on both sides of the pond in the mid-'70's. I've followed his career since 1975. Gilbert fans will love Andrew. Visit his site here]