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***the biography continues***

01 I like David Bowie (Folks, Rock!, 1996, Track 1)
I like David Bowie swept US student radio by storm in late 1996, aided by a new technology known as the Internet. As one of the first songs popularised by the new mp3 format, students in bedrooms around the world -- but especially in the States -- had only to wait 15 minutes for the 3 megabytes to come down their phone lines before they could enjoy this free music. Barry was one of the first artists to recognise the potential for establishing yourself by giving your tunes away for free, though of course he had well publicised battles with his record label about this later on (see notes to Tracks 8 and 9).

I like David Bowie is the perfect song to start this ‘best of’ album for it bears so many characteristics of his style. The lyrics mock cheesy singalong hooks while getting its own stuck in your head. It's at turns comedic and philosophical, naive and deep. It speaks to the dirty musical secrets in all of us, even those of us in his band -- wearing black, leaning against walls in bars looking moody and fragile -- who would never have admitted that we'd loved Bon Jovi and Meatloaf at school. And the song speaks of his penchant for dressing up, for assuming alternative identities (see notes to Track 7 So Big, Track 11 Won’t be me). It was something he did throughout his career (right to the premature end, see notes to Track 12 The part I play), much like Bowie himself.

We started out like so many bands, a bunch of friends in our first year at uni, learning our instruments as we went. Our bass player Doug’s father was a Presbyterian Minister and we’d get together most evenings and jam in a small hall next to the stone church (until we annoyed the neighbours enough for them to call noise control). Barry quickly emerged as the leader. He was the one who was taking two music papers after all -- but he could also play and sing the best. We’d hang out in the evenings and on weekends, messing about, switching instruments to begin with, until we settled on our various roles. The church had this old vibraphone, which became my instrument.

Barry was heavily into Bowie's Hunky Dory at this stage, so this was the acoustic style that was the hallmark of Folks, Rock! Like all the songs on our self-recorded 1996 debut album, I like David Bowie was recorded on the church’s Fostex four-track tape deck, which we regarded as the height of technology. Still, there was an ambience to the room that you can still clearly feel from the opening drum line. The recording has a beautiful simplicity that matches its simple hook. When Barry first played it for us, his voice rang out just as clearly as on the record, perched on a broken chair strumming out the chords on his Takamine. He never played a song to anyone before he was pretty happy that he'd nailed it. As he strummed, each of us picked up parts during that first run-through -- Bet plodding along with his brushes, Tina adding her trumpet line to the chorus, Doug thumping in with the bass from the second verse. I came up with the distinctive major seventh riff that accompanied each of the three chords in the verses on the vibes. This structure was basically what ended up on the recording, though we eventually decided that my vibraphone melody fitted better into the mix on an acoustic guitar, so Barry over-dubbed it on the one remaining track, while several of us did hand-claps in the background.

Those hand claps turned out to be my only contribution to an official BS recording until Vegas (see notes to Track 12 The part I play). I did play on the apocryphal original recording of Claire (the girl with boofy hair) but of course that one never made it into public circulation -- until now (see notes to Track 4, Bonus Track 13). I played the solo on that one, which has been described as the best vibraphone solo ever recorded on a indie folk rock record but you’ll have to download the bonus recording of Claire to hear it.

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from Best of Barry Starr: the part I played, released April 1, 2013

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Mermaid Guitar New Zealand

If you like it: enjoy it. If you really like it: pay what you feel. Each album has bonus material for download.

Mermaid Guitar music is not earnest navel-gazing. It's indie rock with humour and hidden depths.

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