Bye Bye Terry

Posted on by

 

Sadly, the time has come for another of my reminiscences of a musician who has recently left us. I would imagine that the reaction of most to his name – Terry Cox – would be ‘who?’ but I hope to show you why he was important to my musical tastes. Terry passed away on 19th March, at the age of 89, but I only found out yesterday when The Guardian published a lovely obituary for him, which offered far more detail about his career than his Wikipedia page.

Terry started out by playing drums in Alexis Korner’s band Blues Inc, alongside Danny Thompson on bass. Through this connection they met Bet Jansch and John Renbourn, and both then joined the band those two were putting together: Pentangle. He was also a much respected session musician who played on a wide range of albums, and I’ll give you a taste of those too.

But let’s start with a touch of the blues. Terry and Danny played on two albums by Blues Inc, one of them being Sky High, from which came Long Black Train:

If you know your Pentangle you will see from that the beginnings of the bluesier elements of their music: Terry’s fine drumming does much to drive the song, as it did for so many Pentangle recordings. That was where he spent the most influential part of his career, and as I loved the band from the beginning I’m making no excuses for highlighting them for this post. Their debut album, The Pentangle, was released in May 1968 and reached #21 in the UK. From its opening track, Let No Man Steal Your Thyme,  you get a taste of Jacqui McShee’s gorgeous vocals and the important support provided by Terry’s percussion:

That video is really showing its age, but I wanted to share some of the band environment in which Terry played and was an integral part.

The band released a second album that year, Sweet Child, which came out in November. It was a double record, one disc a live performance from the Royal Festival Hall in London in June 1968, the other a set of studio recordings. It didn’t make the charts but, as I have said before, it was on my Christmas present list that year and after Mum and Dad duly provided I got an album I still love to this day. I was encouraged to play it on Boxing Day, after the hubbub had subsided, and it met with approval from all the family – something that didn’t always happen! This was one of the live tracks – I couldn’t find one of the actual performance for the record but this is from the same year so it does the job, I think:

One of the difficulties in writing a tribute piece for a drummer is that they aren’t always to the fore in performances. This next one is the title track from that second album, still one of my all time favourites. On record it runs to more than five minutes but I’ve found this clip of a live performance from 1971, which is shorter, but you can see and hear Terry in it!:

Pentangle broke big with their third album, Basket Of Light, which was released in October 1969 and made #5 in the UK. It was given a strong boost by the band’s music being used as the backdrop to an excellent BBCTV show that ran that year – Take Three Girls – and from its opening track, Light Flight, being the theme tune for that show. With Jacqui’s usual beautiful vocals, but also with a strong undercurrent of some excellent percussion, this is it, from the same concert as the previous one:

I could play you more, much more, by Pentangle but as I said at the outset I wanted to give you a taste of Terry’s other contributions. After Pentangle first broke up in 1973 he spent eight years as the drummer in Charles Aznavour’s band, but don’t worry, I’m not going with anything by Charlie Avnovoice today. One of his early appearances was as the drummer for an early David Bowie album – bet you didn’t know that! This one, in fact:

Though you wouldn’t know it from that or any other video for the song, which only feature Bowie, he was supported by a five piece band on the recording, plus a sixteen piece orchestra. But you can hear Terry’s contribution clearly enough!

Among others that Terry played for was Lesley Duncan, on her 1971 album Sing Children Sing. Although that contains one of my all time favourite songs – Love Song – that one doesn’t have much drumming on it, but the title track does:

One more to close with, and this is being really self-indulgent. You may vaguely remember my playing this song before. It comes from an obscure album from 1972, which I think I might have been the only person to buy, but the harmonies on this are lovely. It comes from the eponymous (and only) album by Fishbaugh, Fishbaugh and Zorn, and Terry played those drums you can hear:

It is always sad when someone who has been a part of music I have loved for so many years leaves us, but as I always say at this time, we have their legacy to enjoy. Terry’s passing leaves Jacqui as the only original Pentangle member still with us, and I really hope that I won’t be needing to write one of these for her any time soon!

R.I.P. Terry, and thank you for the music.

47 thoughts on “Bye Bye Terry”

  3. You are right to say that I would not have known his name, even though I knew of the bands and had the Bowie record. How quirky that he played for Charles Aznavour for 8 years! Thanks for this tribute, Clive, I learned a lot about someone I didn’t know of.

    Best wishes, Pete.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • I’m glad you learned more of him Pete, and the Guardian obituary is also informative. I wanted to play some Pentangle songs but drew the line at Aznavour for his other work!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • Here’s something I recollect from my days of reading the music press…. So the story goes.
        During Pentangle’s tour of the USA, with their links to jazz they sought out Moondog who had heard their music. Being a drummer himself he spoke with Terry Cox, and Terry wished to shake his hand. Moondog said gladly, first taking off his glove and then his inner glove so that they could shake hands skin to skin.
        Terry Cox was quite overwhelmed.
        (All this took place prior to the classic Moondog album featuring ‘Stamping Ground’

        Roger

        Roger

        Liked by 1 person

      • There’s a track called ‘Moon Dog’ on the ‘Sweet Child’ album, written by Terry, who takes lead vocal on it. That was, I think, before their US tour so he clearly admired the guy!

        Liked by 1 person

  7. Sounds like he was one of those guys you could always rely on to add to any song without imposing himself into it.

    Lol on ‘Charlie Aznovoice.’ Spike Milligan referred to Chuckles as sounding like a goat. (Not GOAT, but actual silly billy bleating goat!)

    I ran recall vaguely seeing the series ‘Take Three Girls’ in cheery black and white, but the theme ‘Light Flight’ I remember more clearly. Ah, those 60’s days are looking and getting further and further away. Rip Terry.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • I think that’s why he was invited to play on recordings by so many others. ‘Take Three Girls’ was essential viewing in our house – Mum loved it and knew Pentangle from my Sweet Child album.

      A sign that we’re all getting older, I’m afraid.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  8. Thank you for this lovely tribute, Clive. As you may assume, I am not familiar with Terry Cox, but it is interesting to learn about how engaged he was in his music career. He even played with David Bowie… great!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  12. Brilliant post, Clive, and a lovely obit, indeed. As you may recall, I’ve been a long time fan going all the way back to Pentangle’s early 1970s performance at the Fillmore East. I had not heard of Terry’s death until just now; it is a great loss for all his fans. Thank you for giving us some of Terry’s wonderful music to enjoy today. RIP Terry.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  13. Thanks for making us aware of Terry Cox. What a fantastic legacy to leave behind, and it shows the value of being diverse as a musician. It sounds like his drumming style was very much supportive rather than showy.

    I too love ‘Love Song’, I first heard it when I heard it on Elton’s Tumbleweed Connection album when I bought it as a teenager.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • I think he was the ideal drummer for a band – along with the bass, the glue that held it all together.

      I bought that Elton album too, and his version of the song is lovely – for me that is his best album. Lesley provided BVs for him and recorded her own song a year later. There are videos of them playing it together.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • It is one of my favourite albums of his, and his best period for me up to ’75. I think the strength of that song is its simplicity. Not an easy thing to pull off.

        Liked by 1 person

      • I agree. I think he went downhill after that – the songs of his I think of as classics were all from that time.

        You’d know better than I how hard that is to do!

        Liked by 1 person

      • Usual story, drugs and booze just got in the way. I do think his more recent albums have been good though, not sure if you’ve heard the album from last year with Brandi Carlisle, Do You Believe in Angels, if not I recommend, it’s very good.

        Liked by 1 person

  14. A sad lost. I had not heard of Terry Cox’s death until reading your post . As you say an excellent obituary. I remember Pentangle well they were such an amazing group. Terry Cox had a varied career and life.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

Please leave a reply, I'd like to know what you think