Nick Mason's Ficticious Sports (1981) ...
Carla Bley Band LP released under Nick Mason's name due to Pink Floyd's current popularity at the time ...a poppy effort from Carla Bley who wrote and performed on all songs. Vocals by Robert Wyatt ...this is rather fab, as long as you don't expect a Pink Floyd album ...or a Carla Bley album...Can't Get My Motor To Start ...
Columbia, apparently attempting to cash in on Pink Floyd's explosion in popularity, released this album in 1981 under Nick Mason's name when in reality he's simply the drummer in this incarnation of Carla Bley's ensemble; Ms. Bley composed all the music and lyrics for this project. It's possibly her most overtly pop-oriented album, with all eight songs featuring vocals by Soft Machine alumnus Robert Wyatt. The music, by Bley's standards, is fairly pedestrian if occasionally catchy, though the lyrics are often wryly amusing... allmusic.com ...
I'm A Mineralist (great Philip Glass parody) ...
Robert Wyatt vocals; Nick Mason drums; Carla Bley keyboards; Chris Spedding guitars; Steve Swallow bass guitar, Michael Mantler trumpet; Gary Windo tenor/bass clarinet, flute, additional vocals; Gary Valente trombones, additional vocals; Howard Johnson tuba
Hot River (Pink Floyd pastische) ...
Siam ...
"Hot Water"(Hot River) is something of an "odd song out" on the album, in that it actually *does* come fairly close to the mainstream of 1970s progressive music. Chris Spedding's guitar lines are remarkably Floydian, and the concluding solo is too close to Gilmour's style to be coincidental. Wyatt sings the number in a more "progressive" manner as well, as might be expected (although some might claim that he sounds a bit too much like an Alan Parsons Project vocalist in this context). The song, however, is marred by (i) the fact that Karen Kraft's duet vocals don't fit the style of music very well, and (ii) the fact that the entire "song" section of the track seems underwritten. Still, this is only a few notches away from a four-star rating, and is a good way to end the first side... tranglos.com review ...
Boo To You Too ...
I Was Wrong ...
Vocalist Karen Kraft was invited to join the project when Spedding brought Bley to hear her play in an R&B band in New York City. "Nick and Carla informed me that they didn't want me to sing in my natural voice, but wanted me to sing like I looked," Kraft explains in an exclusive interview with "Floydian Slip".
"I was then and still am a very petite blueish-eyed blonde with a very big, deep, booming quasi-black singing voice," she says. "Nick and Carla were into the dichotomy of it all.
"They were looking for a 'burbling gospel sound' for 'Hot River,' which is a Pink Floyd takeoff. I volunteered that I could sing and gargle at the same time, so I have the 'gargle solo' on the record.
"We performed live a few times and had a blast. Nick Mason is a lovely man. It was a mighty strange trip for a girl from Bryan, Texas," says Kraft, who's now in Los Angeles, Calif., and records with SoulSkin for Askew Records.
"Fictitious Sports" was produced at Grog Kill Studio in Willow, N.Y., in October 1979. It was released in 1981, and rose to number 170 in the United States... floydianslip.com ...
Do Ya ...
Wervin ...
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