This is a guide to posts on this blog about songwriter Alan Klein (not the Beatles' infamous manager Allen Klein). They were originally part of a series entitled Gnome Thoughts, speculating about influences on David Bowie's early songwriting.
Alan Klein's What a Crazy World, a hit for Joe Brown, became a stage musical in 1962 and a film the following year. His 1964 solo album, Well At Least Its [sic] British, is now available on CD and has been cited by Damon Albarn as an influence - on himself and, he suggests, Ray Davies and David Bowie. Klein shared the same manager as Bowie.
Introduction
Click here for a concise introduction to Alan Klein and What a Crazy World.
Interview
Click here for an overview of Alan Klein's career, based on an interview kindly provided by Spencer Leigh.
Click here for a considerably revised and expanded version of the above, added in February 2019, which also covers Alan Klein's later theatre work and includes much new information.
Corrections and clarifications
Click here for additional information.
Pete West
Click here for an interview with Pete West, guitarist in Alan Klein's group the Al Kline Five (sic).
Henri Harrison
Click here for an interview with Henri Harrison, drummer in the New Vaudeville Band.
Well At Least Its British
Click here for a post about Alan Klein's 1964 album.
Damon Albarn
Click here to read Damon Albarn on Alan Klein's influence.
What a Crazy World
Click here for an introduction to What a Crazy World.
Click here for a more substantial post about the film version of What a Crazy World, tricked out with pics and song lyrics.
Click here for a clip from the film (Layabout's Lament) - scroll halfway down - and some discussion of the film missing from the previous post.
The videocaps are taken from a ropey, off-air copy of the film; the Network release is a lot better. As is illustrated here - there is an extract from the Layabout's Lament scene.
Three Coins in the Sewer
Click here to listen to this mini-masterpiece which featured in the Joe Meek biopic Telstar.
Alan Klein is now retired but was musically active until the 1990s. You can find what seems like a comprehensive list of his recordings and compositions up to 1970 on wikipedia.
