Smouldering smoothly
Matthew Krouse
Gordon Haskell belongs on the same shelf as Roger Whittaker, Gordon Lightfoot and Kris Kristofferson. That’s the shelf for senior-citizen pop stars, where experienced idols gather to reminisce about the babes they pulled, and porked, along the way.
Ageing pop stars all seem to have the same fantasy: of being the lonely muso playing solo in a late-night dive, singing about heartbreak and loss. With this point of reference in mind, Haskell called his new (the first in three decades) album Harry’s Bar (Warner). The barfly milieu is no fantasy for Haskell, who is well acquainted with life’s ups and downs. He breezed out of the Seventies after playing with Jimi Hendrix and King Crimson into complete obscurity.
Then last Christmas saw Haskell’s return when, against all odds he topped the British charts with the first song on his album, How Wonderful You Are. At the end of last year, BBC2 reported, the number became the most requested song to date to have been aired.
So what’s it really like? Sad and mundane. Haskell’s voice is rich and warm and, like his graying beard and deep, dark eyes, reflective of the hard road of life. How Wonderful You Are smoulders along smoothly, and there are some tracks that would appeal to the new generation that has resurrected R&B.
In general, Haskell has proven that you don’t have to be young, you just have to stay cool.