How fortunate we are to have this body of work that Billy left us with. He will be remembered as one of the great voices of all modern time. Sad ending to a gifted soul who brightens our lives even now after all these years.
Just coming to this version of Kites as revisiting my youth inspired by the music of Billy Mackenzie. Staggered by how good this version is and how emotionally powerful is voice and character is. Remarkable.
One of the greatest voices ever. This to me, is his best song, but "Rhythm Divine" is very close too, with the band Yello backing him. Shirley Bassey sang it with the band Yello, but Billy sang it better. He wrote the words to it. Billy is sorely missed by millions.
Christ what a voice ! Superb . Always thought Associates were great but this is another level again. Billy MacKenzie was a very very rare talent ! God bless mate !
Billy was a complete punk - a situationist prankster - charging the record company for where his beloved dogs shat, claiming he couldn't do the washing up because he felt the kitchen was haunted - he was fucking hilarious!
Has to be one, if not the, finest male voices ever. The control he has over it, from the high to the low, the opera to the whisper, is just unbelievable.
Note the uncanny, unconscious nod to Nocturne Seven (3:35 onwards, or thereabouts) from the incomparable Billy Mac's posthumous 'Beyond the Sun'. This is of course a cover of a Simon Dupree and the Big Sound original, a wonderfully dark and bonkers 60s record. Billy recorded this as 39 Lyon Street, a 45 I once owned , now, sadly been nicked, sniff :( Wonderful.
I will fly a yellow paper sun in your sky When the wind is high, when the wind is high I will float a silken silver moon near your window If your night is dark, if your night is dark In letters of gold on a snow white kite I will write "I love you" And send it soaring high above you For all to read I will scatter rice paper stars in your heaven If there are no stars, if there are no stars All of these and seven wonders more will I find When the wind is high, when the wind is high In letters of gold on a snow white kite I will write "I love you" And send it soaring high above you For all to read [... verse in Cantonese ? ...] In letters of gold on a snow white kite I will write "I love you" And send it soaring high above you For all to read
I love this song, so it annoys me when it's incorrectly attributed to the fictional "Simon Dupree". The song was actually written by Hal Hackady and Lee Pockriss and (to the best of my knowledge) first recorded by the Rooftop Singers in 1967, in what seems to me to be a complete change of direction from their usual light folk style. The most famous version is probably that recorded by a band called "Simon Dupree and the Big Sound", but in fact there was no Simon Dupree; it was just a name that the band made up! So although they're forever associated with the song, they neither wrote it nor did they record it first. The song was also covered by (The Crazy World of) Arthur Brown and several others.
I think it's actually called Slam - there's a longer clip on RU-vid which shows the presenter interviewing Billy in French. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-JcVjGLZDHPc.html
