Steve Hiett – Down On The Road By The Beach

Steve Hiettの『Down On The Road By The Beach』が、日本国外で初めて正式にリリース。ファッション界では写真家やグラフィック・デザイナーとして知られるHiettだが、そのギターは青く広がる幻想的な世界へと誘う。Paris、Tokyo、New Yorkで録音されながら、どこにも海岸線はないというのがまた面白い。  

Brian Wilsonのハーモニーに魅せられ、Rolling Stone誌の撮影ではThe Beach Boysのほか、The Doors、Miles Davis、Jimi Hendrix（1970年のIsle Of Wight Festivalでの最後期のライヴ）を手がけるなど、音楽との関わりも深い。1972年にParisへ移住し、Vogue ParisやMarie Claireとの長期コラボで独自の鮮やかな色彩感覚を確立した。  

1982年、TokyoのGalerie Watariから個展のオファーを受けた際、カタログの裏に7インチを差し込めないかと提案。Parisのラジオ局で『Blue Beach - Welcome To Your Beach』を録音し、さらにNew YorkでYoko Ono、The Doobie Brothers、Steely DanのElliot Randallらと2曲を制作。するとTokyoから「至急来てほしい」との連絡が殺到。印刷確認の話かと思いきや、CBS/Sonyがアルバム制作を進めていたという展開に。  

急遽ギターを買いホテルで曲作り。翌日スタジオに入ると、待っていたのは日本の伝説的バンドMoonriders。譜面の複雑さに圧倒されつつもRandallを呼び寄せ、潤沢な制作費のもと完成したのがこの一枚。The Durutti ColumnやSteve Cropper、Ashraの間を漂うようなアンビエントなアレンジに加え、『Roll Over Beethoven』や『Sleep Walk』、『Never Found A Girl』を無重力のブルースへと再構築する手腕も圧巻。  

Be WithとEfficient Spaceがアーティスト本人と協力し、オリジナル・マスターからのリマスター音源に加え、リリース当時のカタログの再現、Steve Hiettを敬愛するMikey IQ Jonesによるライナーノーツも収録した決定版。

 

A1. Blue Beach - Welcome To Your Beach
A2. Never Find A Girl (To Love Me Like You Do)
A3. By The Pool
A4. Roll Over, Beethoven - Out Of The Beach
A5. In The Shade
A6. Looking Across The Street
A7. Long Distance Look

B1. Hot Afternoon
B2. Crying In The Sun
B3. The Next Time
B4. Miss B.B. Walks Away
B5. Sleep Walk
B6. Standing There

 

For the first time since its inception 36 years ago, Steve Hiett’s elusive Down On The Road By The Beach is finally made available outside of Japan. Most recognized in the fashion sphere as an English photographer and graphic designer, Hiett‘s transportive audio portraits amplify his serpentine guitar to the infinite blue, recorded across Paris, Tokyo and New York with no coastline in sight. Now widely celebrated as a desert island disc, very little is actually known of its unfathomable genesis.

A career devotee of Brian Wilson’s ground breaking harmonies, Hiett shot The Beach Boys for Rolling Stone - as well as The Doors, Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix (in one of his final performances at the 1970 Isle Of Wight Festival) - while establishing himself as a fashion photographer. Decamping to Paris in 1972, he began what would become 20-year collaborations with Vogue Paris and Marie Claire, printing his signature warm, saturated and vibrantly hued snapshots.

In 1982, representatives from Tokyo’s Galerie Watari visited him to propose a solo exhibition. Asking if he could insert a 7” of original music into the back of the exhibition catalogue, Hiett laid down ‘Blue Beach - Welcome To Your Beach’ in a Parisian radio station, playing all of the instruments himself, and two more cuts in New York with Yoko Ono, The Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan hired-gun Elliot Randall. Once dispatched, the phone began ringing off the hook with requests for him to fly to Tokyo. Assuming these long-distance callers were wanting him to check proofs for the book, it wasn’t until he arrived that he discovered CBS/Sony had facilitated an entire album. Heitt hastily gripped some petty cash, bought a guitar and retreated to his hotel room to start writing.

Entering the studio the following day, he was further surprised by a waiting room of session players known as Moonriders - one of Japan’s most acclaimed rock bands of the 1980s. Intimidated by their indecipherable sheet music, Hiett suggested Randall join them and with money being no object for major labels at the time, his wingman was on the next plane out of New York to finalise the high production indulgence. Near-ambient arrangements that float in a space between The Durutti Column, Steve Cropper and Ashra, Down On The Road By The Beach also crowns Hiett the master of recontextualization with his zero-gravity blues visions of Roll Over Beethoven, Santo & Johnny’s Sleep Walk and the 1967 Eddie Floyd soul hit Never Found A Girl.

Produced in coordination between Be With, Efficient Space and the artist, this definitive reissue is restored from original masters with vivid reproductions of the Down On The Road By The Beach exhibition catalogue, intended to accompany its original release, and extensive liner notes penned by fellow Steve Hiett obsessive Mikey IQ Jones.