Somewhere between Blow-up and The Charge Of The Light Brigade, Hemmings headed to Hollywood and recorded Happens, backed by The Byrds and produced by their manager, Jim Dickson. Happily, despite its overblown psych-baroque ? and unlike similar forays by Richards Chamberlain and Harris ? this is no dud. Hemmings had been a boy opera star, and started life on the UK folk circuit. Gene Clark’s unreleased “Back Street Mirror” is tenderly rendered, as is Bill Martin’s “The Soldier Wind”, while “Talkin’LA” (co-written with Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman) spins a medieval raga like “Eight Miles High”, complete with buzzing saxophone, to improbably stirring effect.
Advertisement