Morten Harket / Dad (a Parkinson's special)
- jamesgeraghty
- Jun 8
- 7 min read
When I saw the news the other day about Morten Harket, lead singer of Norway's biggest 1980's export, A-ha, my heart went out to him.
Sadly, a diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease is not especially uncommon these days - but it is an utter bastard for the person in question, not to mention all those around them! It is a cruel, debilitating disease, that slowly takes from you, your ability to do all of the things you once took for granted, making everything a daily struggle. And perhaps worst of all, nobody really understands what causes it (we know it is centred around dopamine levels), which presumably makes trying to find a cure much harder. You can read more - here.
Morten is already questioning whether he will be able to sing again, but from the reports I've seen, he is already fighting it as much as he can, and has already had some brain treatments to try and ease his symptoms. I really hope that these pioneering treatments help, and that he continues to live a long, happy life. The hope is that over time, treatments, and ultimately cures, will be more forthcoming so that less people have to go through this.
You may wonder why this opening is rambling on about something not fully related to music (although if you've read anything on this site before, maybe not 😁). To get back on theme - A-ha were a significant part of the 1980's music scene, they are responsible for one of the greatest music videos of that decade, and one of the better pop debut albums of that era - so my thought was to use and celebrate that, by having Morten be the starting point for another episode of Six Degrees Of Kevin Shields, our occasional rambling meander through musical factoids.
But then I thought, maybe I should use this topic, but do it celebrating someone much closer to home. So that is what we shall do. You see, the main reason that this (or any) Parkinson's diagnosis caught my attention, is because this is something that my own dad has had to confront and cope with for more than a decade now. He's a top man, who's had to deal with a lot (plus - I have to include a big shout out to my mum), and is trying his hardest to not let it knock him down - so, this one's for them!!
(To avoid disappointment, here is that A-ha video)
Okay, you say, but he's not a musician, so how does that work? Well, no he isn't. But he has told me more than a few stories over the years that have a musical connection, so I am going to start with one of those. Back in the day, he was a policeman in North London, and it seems he saw quite a few sights during his time - I'm sure there were all the usual low-life's and petty criminals, but there were also football matches to police (Arsenal double winning side, for instance), celebrities to interact with (Peter Sellers has been mentioned) - and then there were some musicians too. I seem to recall that he was part of an escort for The Beach Boys up in Finsbury Park one time, but then there was also the story of seeing Chris Farlowe hanging out of a flat window somewhere in the Holloway / Highbury area.
So, we'll start with that.
***
Chris Farlowe was born John Henry Deighton, and if that name seems familiar, he is the nephew of famous crime writer, Len Deighton. He was a North London lad, and started out as an apprentice carpenter, before drifting into singing, eventually going solo in the mid-60's. He was signed to Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate record label, and five of his eleven singles for them were Rolling Stones songs.
Chris Farlowe: Out Of Time (On Beat Club, 1966 - quite a voice)
He had done Paint It Black and Satisfaction, but most famous was his version Out Of Time, another written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. It had appeared on the Stones Aftermath album in 1966, before Farlowe's came out that same year, produced by Jagger and featuring session guitarist Jimmy Page. His other biggish hit was another cover, but this time of Handbags & Gladrags, which was by Mike D'Abo (Manfred Mann).
In the 1970's, Farlowe would go on to play with Atomic Rooster, a band set up several of the musicians from the Crazy World Of Arthur Brown.
***
Mike D'Abo said that Handbags & Gladrags was about, "saying to a teenage girl that the way to happiness is not through being trendy. There are deeper values." It was a hit for Chris Farlowe in 1967, but was also done by Rod Stewart the following year, and by Welsh rockers, Stereophonics in 2001, when they initially demo'ed it 'for a laugh'.
Rod Stewart & The Stereophonics: Handbags & Gladrags (Live)
***
Stereophonics were formed as the ultimate result of Kelley Jones and Stuart Cable meeting in their small Welsh village of Cwmaman in the mid-80s. There were a few different bands, with a few differing line-ups, but Stereophonics emerged at the end of it, and have since released thirteen studio albums since their first, back in 1997 (Word Gets Around).
In 2009, the band was selected by the 2010 Winter Olympic organising committee, to be a part of the musical line-up for the games to be held in Vancouver, in early 2010. There were a range of Canadian and international musicians picked to perform at the Victory Ceremonies. So it was that they ended up on 'Yukon Night', 20 February 2010, performing I Got Your Number (from 2009's Keep Calm & Carry On album).
Other performers at the 2010 Winter Olympics included Nelly Furtado, Barenaked Ladies, Deadmau5, Feist, INXS and The Roots. The Victory Ceremonies were all held at the BC Place Stadium between 13 and 27 February.
Stereophonics: I Got Your Number (Audio only)
***
Another performer that year was Burton Cummings. He was originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba, and started his musical career with local band, Chad Allen & The Expressions. They did a cover, in 1965, of Johnny Kidd's classic Shakin' All Over - and as a publicity stunt, it was sent to radio stations without a band name on it. Their management were hoping that everyone would believe it to be another of those British Invasion bands, and so be more inclined to play it. However, because the sleeves just said 'Guess Who?' on them, some of the DJ's who played it, read that out as the band name!
So, when Chad Allen left his own namesake band, they clearly needed a name change, and The Guess Who was the obvious choice. The band also included a certain Randy Bachman on guitar, who would ultimately go on to other things with Mr Turner and Mr Overdrive (a meaningless reference if you are unfamiliar with 1990's UK comedy sketch shows). They had their greatest success in 1970, with the song American Woman, which in fact became the first track by a Canadian band to hit the US top spot. They would disband in 1975, although Cummings and Bachman would play together occasionally over the years.
The Guess Who: American Woman (TV appearance, 1970)
Lenny Kravitz did the most notable cover of it, for the soundtrack to Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. He played it slower than the original and omitted the guitar solo, later admitting to Bachman that it was because he couldn't get the tone and feel of it quite right.
***
Also on that Austin Powers soundtrack, was another cover, this time featuring Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots, who did a version of Time Of The Season (using the fictional band name Big Blue Missile).
This is a tune with something of a funny history. It was written by Rob Argent in 1967 for his band, The Zombies. It was released as a single in late 1967 and included on the 1968 album Odessy & Oracle (apparently a deliberate spelling mistake by the band), but didn't go anywhere. But then it became a bit of a sleeper hit, resurfacing in the charts over a year after its initial release. It made number three in the US charts, with the kicker being that the band had already split by this time!
The Zombies: Time Of The Season (Live from Abbey Road, 2021)
After The Zombies, Argent formed another band, imaginatively called Argent. There biggest moment was probably his song Hold Your Head Up, which included his work on the Hammond organ, which fellow keyboard twiddler Rick Wakeman would call, "the greatest organ solo ever!"
Argent: Hold Your Head Up (Audio only - Wakeman wasn't wrong, that organ is nuts!)
Argent lead singer Russ Ballard also wrote a song for the band called God Gave Rock And Roll To You, which was most famously covered by Kiss. Argent would later form a production company with Peter Van Hooke, who had drummed with the likes of Van Morrison and Mike & The Mechanics. They would produce Late Night Grande Hotel for Nanci Griffiths, and Tanita Tikaram's 1988 debut, Ancient Heart.
***
Tanita Tikaram was born in Germany, to a Indo-Fijian officer of the British Army, and a Sarwakian-Malay mother. She grew up in the glitzy surroundings of Basingstoke, back in suburban Britain. She released her well received debut album, Ancient Heart, in 1988, at just nineteen years of age.
The following year she was on the well worn European festival circuit. One of the stops was at that years Roskilde Festival in Denmark (about 20 miles west of Copenhagen), which is one of the biggest in Europe and one that has been going since the early 1970's.
Tanita Tikaram: Twist In My Sobriety (Official music video)
In a slightly tenuous link (but one that is needed, otherwise this may go on for ever), also on the bill at Roskilde that year was no less than My Bloody Valentine, featuring the one and only KEVIN SHIELDS.
***
Here is a bonus, to take us back to vaguely link to one of those stories at the start.
Comments