Door One

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It’s a reflection on the quality experience of singing to an audience, no doubt drawn from David’s experience of doing just that: “I hit the stage as they strike up the band, the audience moves to the beat. The opening has hints of David Crosby’s jazzy inflections and song structures as well as the harmonies. The Singer And The Song continues the autobiographical tone as this track is about how singing his songs enlivens and satisfies him.

Perhaps surprisingly for an album made by someone known mainly as a Lead Singer, the album opens with an atmospheric instrumental – and that’s absolutely as it should be; because David’s talents were much broader than that of a frontman. This is a difficult album if you knew the man but it’s wonderful to hear what he had been working on in these days before he left us.Following on from the themes of relationships ending, this song is about “what to hang on to, and what to let go”. Album bello, ispirato, complesso ma accessibile, la cui qualità riprodotta sul vinile (nero, naturalmente) è ineccepibile e di gran resa sonora. It’s a good thing to know that this album was 95% complete at the time of David’s passing and so what we are hearing is pretty much his complete vision for this set of songs. So the album ends positively and with a strong message of hope that we can all accept and employ in our own lives. There's a suppleness to the instrumentation on Door One that is often missing in BBT’s meticulously crafted music.

I don’t ever think that there can be an absolute truth in music, it’s the people that are involved in the process at that moment, making choices. You feel comforted by the familiarity of David’s voice but but refreshed by the direction he takes in some songs.Door One was recorded with a core of four musicians: drummer Jeremy Stacey (King Crimson, Noel Gallagher, Sheryl Crow, The Finn Brothers), bassist Steve Vantsis (best known for his work with Fish), saxophonist Theo Travis (Steven Wilson, Soft Machine, Gong) and David’s longstanding friend and former 1990s Gifthorse band mate Gary Bromham (Bjork, Sheryl Crow, George Michael) who contributed guitar, backing vocals, keyboard parts and textures. The sadness of knowing that David’s voice is now silent is eased by the wealth of incredible music he has left us – and this album stands as one of his very best. His legacy thankfully remains with this album that was 90% complete at that time having now been completed by his friends as a tribute to a good man, a Brave Captain, to coin one of his songs. Watch It Burn’s low piano line, new wave guitar riff and great Stacey/Vantsis groove power along as Longdon revisits a toxic relationship with an alcohol-dependent ex-lover.

This album took a little while to grow on me but by the time I saw it live I was in love with its humongous, over-egged pomposity! The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. The mandolin and melody line give a folky lilt, the guitar solo and Wurlitzer organ are bluesy, and Theo Travis’ smokey sax outro is pure class (as a steer Longdon’s pointed Travis to Dick Parry’s work on one of his favourite albums, The Dark Side Of The Moon). You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. The CF was then finished and mastered by some exceptional musicians and studio technicians as a tribute to this irreplaceable musical force.

Catchier still is There’s No Ghost Like An Old Ghost, a consideration of past regrets, secrets and lies (‘ The loose ends you’d left unaddressed’) and their nasty habit of resurfacing later in life, ‘ with bones to pick and an axe to grind’. The final track, Love Is All, is a far gentler piece as David exorts us that love is all that matters and, indeed, it does matter and if you find it then work hard for it, treasure and guard it as love is precious and vital to us all. Given the circumstances, this wasn’t created as a “last will and testament” and I’m not going to look at it through that lens. This is a fine second track and it is a joy to hear David’s voice as he swoops and soars in a familiar manner, the song is certainly stirring with some great guitar.

The Letting Go” is just as good, though, with its 10+ minute runtime, hopeful aura, fantastic instrumentation, and grand ending. When David Longdon died suddenly and unexpectedly from a fall last year, the world of music was deeply saddened.There’s No Ghost Like An Old Ghost” is next, kicking off with Jeremy Stacey’s drums, a highlight of many tracks on this album.