David Hemmings
Happens

THE REVIEW

The Englishman David Hemmings, an icon of the '60s, entered the legend by right, as he was the lead actor in "Blow-Up" (1966) by Michelangelo Antonioni. And here I stop, ladies and gentlemen; a moment of deserved silence.

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Let's resume, after a moment of understandable emotion on my part, sorry if I am a compatriot of the "Great" minimalist and I'm of the age, many, to have seen this mythical work when it was first released in Italian theaters. We were saying, the young photographer Hemmings emerged unscathed from the photographic encounter with Verushka and the dazzling performance of the Yardbirds with Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck in the "theater of the absurd" of swinging sixties London, as well as from the grainy frames with strong colors of one of the most psychedelic films of our production, flies to the USA in Los Angeles. Here he assembles a respectable cast, recruiting none other than guitarist Roger McGuinn, bassist Chris Hillman from the Byrds, and Oscar Peterson's drummer, Ed Thingpen, to pursue his old passion for singing, with a musical project called "Happens" in 1967.

Produced by Jim Dikson, this work which benefits from many illustrious covers, should not scare, I have always argued that remakes often serve as an excuse, a stimulus to reinvent new musical subjects that shine with their own light, anyway out of nine total tracks, three are co-signed by David Hemmings, To begin with, this "Happens" is an esoteric work on the fringes of official culture, a tribute to oriental-hippie culture, almost unknown to most, but not to lovers of splendid rarities. The first introductory track "Black Street Mirror," composed by Gene Clark, songwriter and co-founder of the Byrds, is a classic folk-rock ballad accompanied by celebratory flute and trumpet, which leads us immediately to the following respectable "Reason to Believe" by Tim Hardin, a traditional country ballad that Hemmings interprets with intense participation. But with the third track, "Good King James" by Hemmings and company, we immediately immerse ourselves in an exotic-opiate universe of fragrant oriental spices, with sitar and tabla, to then be lulled for a moment by the waltz of "Bell Birds." We then enter the depraved mantra of a wild Hemmings, "Talkin L.A.," where the angry and delirious singing is accompanied by a consenting sax that amplifies its infamous effect. With "Anathea," the sitar and flute bring the singing back to more sober and subdued lines for an oriental folk ballad, while "After the Rain," a delicate pop song, brings us back to the surface for a moment. But the third track signed by Hemmings "War's Mystery" is an Indian-like raga played with mandolin and sitar, rhythmically accompanied by orthodox tablas, it's the typical background for a barefoot dancing trip. The album closes with the melancholic farewell of "The Soldier Wind," a shy tribute to the Byrds and Bob Dylan, perhaps the most beautiful piece.

In conclusion, we say that the Englishman David Hemmings, a solid singer but with some precarious grip on the tones, is granted a mitigating factor, also for having contributed with his enlightened and marked predisposition to the dissemination of acid-folk, inserting himself with sincere humility into the American hippie movement, He now serves as a reference for the "summer of love" across the ocean. Great!