Daniel Lentz: On the Leopard Altar (1984)

 |   |  <1 min read

Daniel Lentz: On the Leopard Altar (1984)

To be fair to Paul McCartney, he's always said he can't pick a hit single and never knows if he's written one until people line up to buy it.

Even so, when Mojo magazine asked him in '97 -- as part of their 100 Greatest Singles of All Time issue -- to name his favourite songs, and then one that should have been a contender he went for this odd item by the American contemporary classical composer Daniel Lentz as his shoulda been. McCartney called it "a crazy record".

He might have been referring to the album of the same name -- six pieces which involve the use of wineglasses, synths, orchestration and vocals which one writer likened to Debussy-meets-Schubert's lieder, and another said "a stunning record of clarified timbres and interlocking rhythms".

But let's assume he meant this.  

Is this a song which should have been a hit single?

You be the judge . . . but five will get you 10 you won't hear it on pop radio. 

For more oddities, one-offs or songs with an interesting backstory check the massive back-catalogue at From the Vaults.

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   From the Vaults articles index

Perrey and Kingsley; Strangers in the Night (1971)

Perrey and Kingsley; Strangers in the Night (1971)

Taken from the album Kaleidoscopic Variations; Electronic Pop Music of the Future by innovators and composers Jean Jacques Perrey and Gershon Kingsley, this might be better subtitled "When... > Read more

The Lemonheads: Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye (2009)

The Lemonheads: Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye (2009)

When, in 2004, I interviewed Evan Dando -- the golden boy of great promise who fronted the Lemonheads -- he was pleasingly unapologetic about having taken most drugs known to man . . . and a few... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

EPs by Yasmin Brown

EPs by Yasmin Brown

With so many CDs commanding and demanding attention Elsewhere will run this occasional column by the informed and opinionated Yasmin Brown. She will scoop up some of those many EP... > Read more

The Malawi Mouse Boys: He is #1 (Southbound)

The Malawi Mouse Boys: He is #1 (Southbound)

Their name alone sends you to You Tube to find out more about the Malawi Mouse Boys . . . and indeed that is exactly what they are. They sell mice kebabs on the roadside as a kind of... > Read more