It's been two months since I last posted on the blog. Judging from the traffic around here, you haven't been missing me much, and I only bother posting when something--usually something musical--really strikes a chord with me. And so it was today, when I popped a little record on the old turntable entitled Budgerigar Man by Don Crown, released in 1970 on the fabulous Orange label.
I'd picked this one up on spec after hearing a brief snippet of the disc, and it didn't disappoint. It's well orchestrated, 'Fading Yellow'-style pop with a patina of post-psychedelic fairy dust. All well and good, even if the lyrics are a bit ropey--'Budgerigars are my friends/you may laugh/but they understand me'--but name a performer from the late sixties who didn't embarrass themselves once in a while word-wise.
Having spun the disc a few times, it was time to go online to see if there was any further information about this dangerously rare record obviously produced by some LSD-addled post graduate genius. Ah, Don Crown--perhaps he died tragically in 1973 in a frozen Earls Court bedsit, his hand clutching the final 5p he was going to deposit into the pay heater, or perhaps he had long since retired to a yurt deep in the Scottish Highlands.
Um, no.
Don Crown is on Facebook. Don Crown is on MySpace. Don Crown has his own website. In fact, Don Crown is all over the entire bloody internet, preaching budgie love to any who will listen. In fact, according to the latest news at http://budgieman.co.uk, Don recently appeared on Radio London, entertains children with his amazing trained budgies, and wrote a special song for Jake Goody.
Don Crown has a picture of the Queen on his MySpace page. Right next to the animated Union Jack.
So, no, Don didn't go the way of Syd, or Nick Drake, or even Cat Stevens. He's just a nice elderly gent who likes parakeets. A lot.
Oh, and as you can see, I've sort of figured out how to post an image with the letters going in the right--or if you are the non-judgmental sort, legible--direction. Now if I can only figure out how to make 'em look pretty.
