Hurricane Smith – Oh, Babe, What Would You Say

 

 

 Norman 'Hurricane' Smith (1923-2008) was an engineer and subsequently producer of records for EMI, responsible for The Beatles up to Revolver and subsequently early Pink Floyd albums and Barclay James Harvest. The story goes that during sessions with Pink Floyd he made use of the studio time during their tea breaks to make his own records which began with the ecological prayer, Don't Let It Die before progressing to something more vaudevillian in Oh, Babe, What Would You Say and Who Was It? The second of those, once you know, is identifiably the work of Raymond 'Gilbert' O'Sullivan. At least, as I never fail to point out, something worthwhile came out of those sessions.

Oh, Babe is also a rare example of good use of a saxophone on a pop record. I don't celebrate Adolphe Sax and his infernal invention often. It is unobtrusive as part of the riff on Get It On, it's good on Careless Whisper and here it blends well with Norman's throaty vocal but Bob Holness did well not to play it on Baker Street and, like the 60's sound of the Hammond organ, I generally simply don't like it due to preciously nurtured prejudices all of my own. 

Confirming some of that on the internet, I find that he published a memoir entitled John Lennon Called Me Normal, which I'd take as a compliment, but the one copy I can find is £150 so that will have to wait. It might answer such questions as whether there was any conscious attempt to imitate the voice of Jimmy Clitheroe's sister's gormless boyfriend, Alfie Hall.

Hurricane's records flirt with the 'novelty' genre although Don't Let It Die was prescient and well ahead of its time now that the consequences of not acting on its message are being visited on later generations but they are well-crafted songs in their own right. Even though they now come from a bygone Golden Age, they were homage to one further back at the time. The first two singles made the Top 5 but the novelty wore off, with Who Was It? less well appreciated at no. 23 and not much more was heard of him. But he was 'distinctive', not 'novelty', and that was a great shame.

Would you greet me or politely turn away?
Would there suddenly be sunshine on a cold and rainy day?

 

Hurricane's recording career happened in the opposite order. It was sudden, glorious sunshine but then the record-buying public politely turned away.