Morley Hayden Haines
Backra Man (Silvery)
Its fair to say that jazz tinged poetry albums rarely make this reviewers top 1000 records of the year so receiving ‘Backra Man’ by Morley Hayden Haines has certainly came in from the left-field. If you are not accustomed to this form of record, it can be hard to grasp the need or reason for it but you can picture the scene where this lp would be played out. In café bars where people dress as stereotypes, there would be beatniks nodding silently before launching into a vigorous finger snapping to air their approval of the latest stanza that says so much by saying so little. Or is it the other way about? Does it even really matter?
Theres a market for everything so no doubt there will be people who appreciate whats going on here but that have never really been a sign of quality or a ringing endorsement. Hitler managed to get a good few people hanging on his every word and that didn’t work out too well in the end. Not that we’re linking this record or its participants to the rise of Nazism but you know, it is jazz, the vast majority of it is horrendous, particularly the stuff that gets played in the bars of Glasgow on a Sunday afternoon, so you know, maybe there is a market for this record.
God, sometimes you just wish you got the latest Saturdays single to review and be done with it. It would be far more interesting than chin stroking pretension like this. Sorry lads, maybe it says more about this reviewer than the album itself but this holds no interest at all.
Andy Reilly
