Steve Harley

[Zappathustra]

Such a great, unique talent and a such a sad loss. He was for 3-4 of years at the forefront of inventive, quirky rock music - and criminally underdiscussed and underrated in years to come after. Classics like Human Menagerie and Psychomondo belong to the gallery of progressive music. Hats off to you Steve Harley for one last time.

[Steve983]

RIP Steve Harley, an icon of my youth.

[Piskie]

Sad indeed. Always loved Come Up and See Me.

[Duncan Glenday]

Back in the '70s I loved Steve Harley / Cockney Rebel.

I didn't have many of their albums and can't remember too many details - though I remember enjoying Timeless Flight.

I should see if I can scratch up some of his older albums and give them another listen.

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

Another Steve H? I was unaware of this one...

[Duncan Glenday]

Another Steve H?

I never caught that!

[vandergraf]

A big fan of the Cockney Rebel band. His vocal style was not appealing to some but it caught this angst-ridden romantic youth at the right time. Did see them one time as openers for the Kinks in Waterbury (?) Connecticut. Later, as Steve Harley and CR then just an solo name the music became less interesting to me. Couple of those guys went to play w/ Kate Bush as I recall...

Somebody called me Sebastian

David

[moecurlythanu]

The Human Menagerie is a masterpiece, and there were many other great songs interspersed through his body of work, both band and solo.

Sad day. Another of the greats has left us.

[JKL2000]

“We are so very sad to hear of the passing of Steve Harley,” Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark tweeted Sunday. “His music was determinedly and insistently unconventional. Deeply characterful lyrics and vocal inflections.”

Is OMD still active, aside from X'ing on X?

[moecurlythanu]

Is OMD still active, aside from X'ing on X?

They're on tour now. I don't know about who's in the band.

EDIT: On tour in the USA.

[Progbear]

When I first heard The Human Menagerie and The Psychomodo, I thought Harley was ridiculously pretentious, with deliberately obtuse lyrics, overblown arrangements and an absurdly affected vocal style. I've come to appreciate him as a true original with a singular artistic muse. Obviously David Bowie was a strong influence, but unlike many, he made the influence his own. Apart from the aforementioned, his underrated concept album Love's a Prima Donna (which takes influence from Todd Rundgren's A Wizard/A True Star) is highly recommended.

[Duncan Glenday]

Back in the '70s I loved Steve Harley / Cockney Rebel.

I didn't have many of their albums and can't remember too many details - though I remember enjoying Timeless Flight.

I should see if I can scratch up some of his older albums and give them another listen.

Just spun Timeless Flight for the first time in (probably) 35 years. Strange, I remembered almost every word and every note.

I particularly enjoyed Duncan McKay's keyboard work on the album.

[Mister Triscuits]

I've never owned any of Steve Harley's albums, but I saw him live once at the Cropredy festival. The song everyone wanted to hear was "Come Up and See Me"; I had never even heard it before.

[Teddy Vengeance]

The man had an idiosyncratic style. Couldn’t really sing or play, and I had no idea what he was talking about but found him a compelling artist nonetheless, at least until ‘Prima Donna’. Buddy could pen a tune too: Loretta’s Tale, Mr. Raffles, Mad Mad Moonlight (with its musical orgasm)- all great stuff.

Will be missed.

[Sunlight Caller]

I know the chap who has played thousands of gigs as guitarist in his band for the past 35 years, I used to go to him for guitar lessons. Both he and Steve Harley live close by. He speaks of the driven and consummate professionalism of the man, but also of his good natured soul. I enjoyed the quirky classics as a teen, and some of those songs will endure for down the ages. He had a pretty unique voice and an idiosyncratic talent and leaves us too soon, RIP.

[Scrotum Scissor]

When I first heard The Human Menagerie and The Psychomodo, I thought Harley was ridiculously pretentious, with deliberately obtuse lyrics, overblown arrangements and an absurdly affected vocal style. I've come to appreciate him as a true original with a singular artistic muse. Obviously David Bowie was a strong influence, but unlike many, he made the influence his own. Apart from the aforementioned, his underrated concept album Love's a Prima Donna (which takes influence from Todd Rundgren's A Wizard/A True Star) is highly recommended.

Good post! Of course, Harley himself grew infamously tired of ubiquitous references to Bowie and Bolan, albeit acknowledging Reg Presley's and Ray Davies' obvious influence on not only his voice and vocal technique but his quirky manner of "meta conceptualized" thinking on song and music. For instance, if anyone ever missed the imprint of The Kinks' strange and often bloated yet oddly intriguing rock opera-phase (1970-75) in later 70s British pop, The Human Menagerie is its zenith.

This one and The Psychomodo need to be heard by followers of anything even remotely related to UK progressive, even though they ironically come off as exquisitely timeless in comparison to most things (superficially) similar. Harley's songwriting and lyrics were refinely crafted dealings almost tending to mini-essays, stories or anecdotes alluding to such and elevated to something even grander through particular interplays of words and arrangement. And he was one of extremely few 70s UK songsmiths who actually experienced his biggest chart success with his biggest creative momentum, in that "Make Me Smile" indeed delivers a message of essence; there's the apparent simplicity which evolves into layers of ambigiousness both lyrically and musically, there's the equally apparent arrogance suddenly rendered "all too human", and finally he still leaves an open question of whether farce or drama serves that very same human for better or worse. This one is a case where you'll see folks humming along and inviting you to wonder if it matters if they "get it" in the same sense that you yourself might think you do.

I quite dig a couple of the later Harley & CR records (the first two were credited to CR as one unit); The Best Years is ok, Timeless Flight not so much - but Love's A Prima Donna tangents the first two albeit with more of a singular sensation as to the individual behind it. Those first two and Donna together - now that's a fierce slice of sophisticated British quirkiness in 70s rock/pop right there.

Another great artist to mourn as we're left with ourselves.