Wendy Saddington & The Copperwine
Live
8 Track, LP (2011, Aztec Music)
Related: Wendy Saddington, Chain.
Wendy Saddington was one of the country's most popular live performers in the late ’60s and ’70s, but you'll struggle to find much evidence of her celebrated abilities, with her recorded output in that period amounting to a sole single and one collectible live LP on the Infinity label. But now the ever-dependable folk at Aztec Music have reissued both on one well-packaged CD, giving us an opportunity to hear her in full flight with a band, The Copperwine, one of the most accomplished on the circuit.
The concert portion of this CD was recorded at the Wallacia Music Festival and is a solid set of progressive soul music, offering compelling covers of Nina Simone's 'Backlash Blues', Dylan's ‘Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues' and a delicate 'Tomorrow Never Knows', along with some strong bluesy originals that give all concerned an opportunity to stretch out a bit. The nearest international comparison is perhaps Janis Joplin though Saddington's delivery is more restrained, with none of the histrionics that blight some of Joplin's work. The playing is loose, almost sloppy, but no less compelling for that.
The singer herself dismissed the album completely upon its release in 1971 saying that "anyone who buys it is an idiot who is wasting their money", though it seems she's come around in time. In Ian McFarlane's informed liner notes, Saddington is quoted as saying she's happy that it's being re-released and only gave it such a hard time because she felt it was unrepresentative of The Copperwine at their best (the band had two lead singers, Saddington and the inimitable Jeff St John, but the album featured only her). If this record really does represent just a fraction of her and the band's power, then I hope that some entrepreneur hurries up and sorts out the rights to the unreleased film of the 1970 Ourimbah Festival that Saddington has said was one of the band's finest performances.
The tracks from her 1971 single included here are something different again. 'Looking Through a Window', a Top 30 hit written by The Aztecs' Warren Morgan and featuring members of Chain, is more psychedelic in feel; a six-minute epic that takes off into soaring orchestration that is pushed higher and higher by guitar solos and brass. 'We Need a Song' is an uncomplicated piano ballad that evolves into a gospel-flavoured singalong with Billy Thorpe and his band.
Wendy Saddington - Five People Said I m Crazy by Irene Teresa Chlopicki
Saddington seems to have been a Zelig-like figure, turning up in not one but three of the era's best-known bands – The James Taylor Move, Chain (which she named) and the Copperwine - as well as appearing in the stadium concert of Tommy alongside Keith Moon, Jim Keays and many more, while Go-Set magazine hired her as a music journalist in 1969. She sang composer Peter Sculthorpe's 'Love 200' live with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and appeared in one of Peter Weir's earliest short films.
She was voted the “Face of 1968”, and it's not difficult to see why. With an electric afro and an intense gaze of defiance – she looked like a cross between The Bellrays' Lisa Kekaula and Germaine Greer – photographs of her exude independence and an earthy kind of cool; you can bet that there would have been hordes of girls wandering around Darlinghurst and Fitzroy in 1970 whose entire look was based on Saddington. Not that such physical concerns were Wendy's bag. She soon tired of the pettiness of the music business and embraced spirituality through conversion to the Hare Krishna faith, which she is still involved with to this day, but we have this document at least of her in full flight.
by Aaron Curran
The ‘Boogie’ compilation's 1970s time capsule spurs PATRICK EMERY to r…
Ahhh! This is awesome. You have no idea
Are there any other record companies in this country producing quality Aust & NZ reissues as reliably as Aztec Music? I can't think of one.
chapter does good stuff.
but yeah, aztec just keeps rollin on.
track above is awesome.
Chapter, yep, good call. I've got to get that Essendon Airport reissue.
that voice is really something else!
good review/article, this has gone on the want list
if this isn't on vinyl, i have zero interest in it.
I couldn't even find this 5 years ago. Ages..... I really hunted. Vinyl? Ghaaaawd. The fact that it is available at all is amazing. My mum ended up getting a taped copy from off some guy who owned a second hand music store in Bendigo - from his private collection (I wouldn't sell that record either).
The format is a mute point. This is awesome its still around.
*It's
my mum LOVED wendy saddington back in the day.
definitely getting this for her.
sorry. in-joke pertaining to this thread.
it's not super rare on vinyl nor particularly expensive, there's 6 been sold on ebay in the last year.
I didn't expect to like this CD but it's bloody great. Onya Aztec!
Wow, this is good!!
Is that one of the dudes from Airborne on the cover?
Brody, why weren't you around when I NEEDED you? This was easily 5 or 6 years ago. I recall not having any luck at all, one one of the Music Advisers at my old work was surprised I actually knew who she was....
My mum saw her back in the day, somewhere in between stories about Sunbury and the 70's and Germaine Greer....
Injokes only work if your in on the joke. I'm also shit at jokes. I could be what's called Jokeslecsic.....
I have a 1971 vinyl album that I won off 2JJ called ''wendy saddington - looking through a window'' and it has the same cover photo. It's on the infinity label and the track listing is:
Looking though a window
Backlash blues
Just like tom thumb's blues
Tomorrow never knows
Five people said i was crazy
blues in a
Looking through a window (reprise )
There's no mention of live at wallacia anywhere but the back cover photo is from that festival
another piece found in the puzzle that is Dick Manitoba's early career.
Hey Godzilla, my understanding is that the 'Live with The Copperwine' LP was just retitled and released as the one you have after the chart success of the 'Looking Through A Window' single.
TheBastard - it seems as though you need to up your ebay saved searches game.
I've only really been getting into ebay over the last couple of years. You know I probably wouldn't have thought to buy records through that site when I WAS looking for that record....
There are a couple of hazy years though. *Anything *could have gone down in that period.
Ebay gives me THIS though which I thought was awesome, but is apparantly very common and thus again proves I am behind the 8 ball....
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Black-Cassette-Tape-Silicone-Case-Cover-Phone-4G-/180731407339?pt=Other_MP3_Player_Accessories&hash=item2a146e6beb
I'ts a little off topic, sorry, I digress.
....How long does Aztec generally take to ship???
Anyone purchased anything through their site before?
What a voice!!!! Holy fuck!
Aztec are pretty quick in the ol' mail order stakes.
Me Ma had this album (first issue). It's quite beat up now, but she used to play it lots. The version of Tomorrow Never Knows is sublime.
Wendy Saddington at Fivefortyfive downstairs on the 12th of December
IIIIIIIIiiiiiiinteresting
Last night in a ''Soul Séance'', Wendy Saddington performed some outstanding gems that span the breadth of her 45 year career. Including songs from her major influences, such as Aretha Franklin and Nina Simone. It was a rare performance from the legendary Australian blues icon, with a solo set and duets with jazz maverick, Henry Manetta and Adam Rudegeair on piano. It was a great evening, seeing this reclusive legend blossom on stage, performing soaring covers of Randy Newman, Gil Scott-Heron and Stevie Wonder songs. I was there and captured the following HD Videos at fortyfivedownstairs in Flinders Lane. ENJOY! ㋡
Home Is Where The Hatred Is (Gil Scott-Heron cover)
https://vimeo.com/55442679
Medley: Crawling Kingsnake/Scarred Knees/Five People Said I Was Crazy
https://vimeo.com/55442680
I'll Be Seeing You
https://vimeo.com/55439007
ENCORE: Superstition (Stevie Wonder cover)
https://vimeo.com/55440306