Released - 1969
Genre - Folk
Producer - Unknown
Selected Personnel - Peter Sarstedt (Vocals/Guitar)
Standout Track - Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?
In late 2007, during my first year at uni, I was sat in the student halls bedroom of a good friend of mine who, over the following years, would go on to be one of my major emotional guides and spirit levels. As such, every book, song or film recommendation she gave me was one I always took very seriously. We sat there, shuffling our way through her iTunes library, and two particular songs came on that lodged themselves in my head and that I forgot to get the names of. Over the next two years or so, I repeatedly forgot to ask her about the songs until eventually they slipped from my memory altogether, only for me to rediscover them both purely by accident within a few weeks of each other in 2009, at which point they leaped fully-formed back into my memory along with every emotion they first stirred in me, and I dedicated a good deal of time into tracking down as much of the artists' work as possible. The first song was "Good Friday" by CocoRosie, which we won't be able to get to until much later. But the second was "Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?" by Peter Sarstedt. Such was the profound effect that song had on me when I first heard it, and such was my joy at rediscovering it two years later, that I made it an ongoing project over the next few months to try and find out as much as I could about the singer which, for a figure as peripheral and minor as Sarstedt, is no easy feat.
The Indian-born Sarstedt was the brother of the minor early 60s pop sensation Eden Kane (real name Richard Sarstedt), and had begun his interest in music by playing guitar in Kane's backing band. By the late 60s, Sarstedt had begun to develop an ambition to be a singer-songwriter in his own right, though his songs exhibited a much more folk-influenced style than the more overt pop of his brother, though simple pop songs still abound here. The style, overall, is something akin to Cat Stevens's earliest albums, with the focus on folk-tinged simple, almost childlike pop song arrangements ornamenting acoustic guitar with brass flares and flute trills. But, "The First Cut Is The Deepest" aside, Stevens's first two albums lacked anything as wonderful as this album's big hit.
We may as well start with "Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?", seeing as it's the only reason anybody (myself included) has ever heard this album. A fairly significant hit in its own time (it won the Ivor Novello Award in 1969 along with David Bowie's "Space Oddity"), it had a resurgence of popularity in recent years due to its use in the soundtrack to Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited, which also saw a resurgence of interest in the music of Sarstedt in general. It manages to be both a heartbreakingly emotional ballad and at the same time, one of the most charmingly silly and innocent songs of all time, with Sarstedt's airy and non-committal vocal performance, plus his almost ad-libbed injections of laughter and the occasional spoken "Yes you do" to reinforce every other point he makes, renders it gloriously light-hearted and silly, but beyond the charming, child-like surface of the song is a masterfully painted love story. Set to a European waltz-style tune, it tells the story of a girl who has become a superficial member of the European jet-set and has forgotten both her poverty-stricken childhood and the boy who grew up with her, loved her and never succeeded in throwing off his "lowly-born tags" as she did. The final reveal of the song's true meaning is a hugely bittersweet sting in the tail, and makes for a song that's every bit as emotionally profound as it is endearingly sweet.
It's fair to say that this album never matches up to its masterful example and nor indeed does any of Sarstedt's other recorded output. But too often is this album written off as a waste of time due to this imbalance, which does a terrible disservice to a lot of other great material. Sarstedt's songs here do include some fairly innocuous and saccharine pop songs, with the inane banality of "No More Lollipops," with its ludicrous sped-up ending, being a particular nadir. But in general he shows himself here to have a keen talent for sweet, simple songs, from the endearing declaration of love that is "You Are My Life" to the more reflective and philosophical "Time, Love, Hope, Life." There are also good things to be found among the album's more upbeat pop songs, such as the happy sunburst of "Stay Within Myself" or the novelty silliness of "Many-Coloured, Semi-Precious Plastic Easter Eggs."
Sarstedt himself isn't a great singer, but these songs don't require a great singer, they just require someone with a great deal of sincerity. His breathy vocals have an innocent, wide-eyed wonder about them that suits these charming songs perfectly, and though what you're listening to is rarely incendiary or breathtaking, it's never anything less than a pleasure to spend time with Sarstedt in the world he's carefully sculpted, with its cheery brass fanfares along his nimble guitar-playing. Furthermore, this album signifies two terribly important things to me - firstly, the enormous rewards that can come from single-mindedly dedicating oneself to the pursuit of a particular artist, no matter how much trawling through charity shops that might necessitate. Going out of your way to learn more about an artist who nothing is known about makes the final product feel infinitely more precious and personal and intimate than it ever could if the search had been easy. Secondly, this album always makes me think of that friend of mine who first inadvertently introduced it to me, and subsequently had to put up with all my tireless updates on things I'd learned about Sarstedt despite the fact that she only ever really liked that one song. This album is as important to me as that friendship is, and for that reason alone it's an essential addition to this list.
Track Listing:
All songs written by Peter Sarstedt.
1. I Am A Cathedral
2. Sons Of Cain Are Abel
3. No More Lollipops
4. Stay Within Myself
5. You Are My Life
6. Sayonara
7. Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?
8. Blagged!
9. My Daddy Is A Millionaire
10. Once Upon An Everyday
11. Time Was Leading Us Home
12. Many-Coloured, Semi-Precious Plastic Easter Eggs
13. Time, Love, Hope, Life
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