Bill Nelson

2 thoughts on “Bill Nelson”

1. “I find another really interesting trope of Nelson’s music showcased in the piece is the chords that overlay the entire thing. He has a particular way of creating these chord strokes, both with guitar and keyboard, that carry a lot of weight in the song without sounding heavy or too reliant on bass tones. They lack the punch that many other artists would have when playing these large chord movements but they still have a very confident nature to them. I think in general this song is really a shining example of the curiosity and whimsical nature of his music.” – A System Is Failing (YouTube user)

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2. “Great to see Bill’s earlier work getting this depth of attention. I followed Bill post Be Bop, and Red Noise, a time when he seemed to abandon his guitar (brave for a guitar hero) for electronics, and sampling. I believe it lost him quite a few fans, but i found this work fascinating. His creativity seemed to know no bounds. And this 4 album box set I loved. My copy is titled: Trial by Intimacy, The Book Splendours. I read a BN interview that an error at the printers meant a number were made with the ‘of’ left out of the title. The box set came with a number of postcards with Bill’s drawings on them, and a large, glossy booklet of his photographs. Also, a small, pale blue badge, with a drawn self portrait of Bill, with his name on.

   The piece, ‘The Charm of Transit’ is my favouite on the whole box set. A beautiful, multi layered track enhanced by those samples. Re the samples: The first half of the track, they sound like fragments of fairy tales. I’m not 100% sure of their origins, if audio books were about then, but i recognise a number of the voices. If not from audio books, I think they may have come from a UK children’s show called Jackanory. This was a late afternoon show, on Monday to Friday. Famous people, actors, comedians, presenters, and various other entertainers read stories. Meant as entertainment for kids not long home from school, and to promote reading.

   Of the voices, the first male voice is Bernard Cribbins, comic actor. the second male voice is George Layton, also a comic actor. The lady between then, I don’t recognise, but the final voice is Michael Aspel. He was a very famous presenter who hosted a myriad of shows. The French voices, with the odd English comment ‘return please’ I believe have been sampled from Linguaphone cassettes. Linguaphone are/were a popular teach yourself a foreign language course that came out on tapes, and an accompanying book. They may still be going, not sure, likely online now if they are. Well, I hope this is of some interest to anyone who reads it. This vid deserves a lot more views. And Bill, still going strong, and very much back in touch with his guitary side. Cheers. ” – Jfergs (YouTube user)

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