The first day of Spring always makes me think of John Langstaff. 15 or so years ago I was working in a children's bookshop and discovered a series of recordings by Revels. A series of Cd's recorded by a group in Cambridge ( and other cities as I would later find out). I loved them, I listened to them all the time. Revels produced shows in many cities, the closest to us in San Francisco. The big voice in Revels was John Langstaff. He founded the company in 1971. Revels is a hard beast to describe and I won't even try. But Jack's voice is the heart and soul of all Revels.
One night as Lady Jane and I were leaving a rather...ahem....drunken event at the Tractor Tavern we stumbled on a flyer. A committee was forming to start a Revels. Here. Jack would be there!~ I couldn't go, but Jane went and reported back. We were hooked. We took Jack's voice with us on a harrowing drive across the south of England, through Cornwall and into Wales.
Jane sang for many years with the chorus and I have been their stage manager for these twelve or thirteen years. The first few shows, Jack would fly out in time for a dress rehearsal ( maybe two, if we were lucky) and appear onstage like magic. It is hard for me to imagine what I might have become if Jack's voice had not called out to me from the dusty shelves of a bookstore, or if Jane had not seen that flyer. Huge parts of my life are steeped with Revels, not just production season, but the Spring and Summer too. It turns out that Jack had always been a part of my life. I have a copy of the Jackfish ( a children's recording from the 1950's) on reel to reel tape! I had actually been listening to Jack as a young child, it just took until my twenties to discover him again.
In 2005 when Jack died I put away my Revels recordings. It made me cry to hear his voice. This morning, the first day of Spring I got out Wild Mountain Thyme and listened over and over. He's still there, singing in my ear ( and reminding me that his costume needs pressing!) It still makes me weepy to hear his gorgeous baritone. It's old fashioned music, corny, folky and sometimes downright strange. It speaks to my heart, it is part of the soundtrack of my life and I am so grateful that it found me again.
5 comments:
I'm so glad you write about these things. I need to pull out that well-travelled casette and get all weepy while I sing along.
Are those cousins in the seasonal photo? Where is that?
Well, I was going to write about cone fucker man, but Jack won out!
Yes, that is Ross and Patti with what looks like curlers in her hair. We are standing in Grandpa's garden in St. Helena.
Maybe you can write a nice May Day story about Cone Fucker Man (which, for you other readers, is not nearly as bad as it sounds).
I think I must do a little searching for Jack...sounds very interesting.
btw, I love the new/old photo! and I can't wait to hear about CFM.
I'm deeply grateful that you found Jack and Revels too, HG. That's where we met, of course. Meeting Jack was a peak experience for me too. Almost as important as meeting you, HG.
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