VASHTI BUNYAN
Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind: Singles And Demos 1964 To 1967
FATCD59
Fat-Cat Records / Spinney Records 2007
25 Tracks. 52mins32secs

Before taking a turn toward earthy folk songs, then giving it all up to go travelling on a horse and cart with her husband, Vashti Bunyan was briefly heading for a career as a pop singer. Discovered by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Oldham, Bunyan found herself propelled in a world where she rubbed shoulders with greats and soon to become legends, culminating in her debut single being penned by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards no less. Soon though, the production became sparser, leaving her fragile voice exposed, with only an acoustic guitar to rely on.

The story of how she eventually returned to music, and released her sophomore effort, Lookaftering, a couple of years ago, has been told many a time. Here, Bunyan was given the chance to recollect and gather some long forgotten demos, some of which found only recently in her brother’s attic, and early and never released singles, including her debut release, Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind. This album is split over two CDs. While the first focuses on early singles and demo recorded between 1965 and 1967, the second features a 1964 demo tape collecting twelve songs written when Bunyan was just eighteen.

In the liner notes that accompany this release, Vashti Bunyan insist that she was not, and is not, a folk singer, and that she has always nurtured a passion for pop music. Indeed, the opening tracks bear traces of exquisite sixties pop. The album opens with the Jagger/Richards title track and songs such as Train Song, the festive Coldest Night Of The Year, which has remained until now unreleased, or an early version of I’d Like To Walk Around In Your Mind, all recorded with a full orchestra, are all too precious pop gems. The second half of the first disc and the whole of the second find Bunyan in a much more familiar territory, with her guitar as sole accompaniment.

Salvaged from demo tapes and restored acetates, and often recorded without the help of a full studio set up, the songs appear at their most fragile and pure. Much more than the pop songs, the outlines of Just Another Diamond Day can be found amongst these. Songs like the heart warming Girl’s Song In Winter, Autumn Leaves, or Find My Heart Again have the grace and elegance of Where I Like To Stand or Swallow Song, while 17 Pink Sugar Elephants, If In Winter (100 Lovers), How Do I Know or Go Before Dawn are perfectly crafted little stories, beautifully conveyed.

While she only got to realise her pop ambition momentarily, Vashti Bunyan has finally been given a chance to document it for posterity. While it is unlikely that she will shed once and for all the folk tag for which she is best known, her early singles certainly show how, given more ambitious surroundings, her songs, and her career, may have taken an entirely different path.

3.7/5

Vashti Bunyan | Fat-Cat Records | Spinney Records
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