Forgotten Songwriters pt.1: Ed Askew
May 20, 2007 at 7:22 am
Little is known about the reclusive folksinger Ed Askew. During the late ‘60s he recorded the psychedelic folk masterpiece “Ask the Unicorn” – his only album which has been released commercially until recent reissues – with only his ten stringed tiple accompanying himself. Little happened when it was released in 1968 by ultra-noncommercial ESP-Disk, the label which was best known for its free jazz releases and which is considered to be one of the most legendary independent labels of the ‘60s. Receiving barely any attention at all the record soon descended into obscurity even among the best informed enthusiasts of the in-crowd.
This in itself is not a unique story. It happens all the time. What makes this story worthwhile telling however is the fact that during all those years after its release its fire was kept alive solely by its unmatched and overwhelming urgency. His music proved so powerful that even time could not take it down. Slowly but surely more and more people started discovering the album. Word got around very gradually. It stole the hearts of listeners one by one. Something within this record made people fall for it like nothing before.
These are the kind of stories that should be told. Songwriters who are largely unknown to the public but have managed to find their place in the history of music, changing its landscape indefinitely and inspiring other artists for many decades without ever getting the deserved recognition. This small series of posts is dedicated to my favourite songwriters who were undeservedly forgotten.
Ed Askew grew up in Stanford, Connecticut after which he moved to nearby New Haven to attend Yale University in the early 60s. After having earned his art degree as a painter he briefly taught art at a high school in New York. It was then when he sent a demo tape to Bernard Stollman of ESP-Disk who quickly invited him to record his first record which would become known as “Ask the Unicorn”. The album received practically no promotion from the label – which was already plagued by financial difficulties – and quickly disappeared from circulation. The second album which Ed Askew recorded for ESP-Disk was never released - due to the eventual bankruptcy of ESP-Disk in 1974 - until the limited vinyl-only release on De Stijl in 2003.
When you talk about independent record labels you automatically talk about ESP-Disk. A New York-based record label, founded in 1966 by Bernard Stollman who was known for his almost spartanesque production methods and a strict no-retakes policy. With the motto: “The artists alone decide what you will hear on their ESP-Disk”; the label opened the door to a wide range of wildly creative sounds including Albert Ayler’s “Spiritual Unity” and is considered to be the most important exponent of free jazz. It is probably no coincidence that it took such a label to discover Ed Askew’s talents. And with our current discussion about independent music and its role in our musical landscape there could be no better example than Ed Askew’s “Ask the Unicorn”.
“Ask the Unicorn” contains a certain urgency. Like the recording of it was an act of desperation. The moment he starts singing and you hear his uniquely strained voice you immediately feel that he is frantically trying to tell you something extremely important. Part of this comes from a less romantic and more practical situation. The instrument which he is using, the ten stringed tiple, is notoriously difficult to master and takes so much pressure to keep it under control that you can actually hear his continuing struggles in his singing. The tiple – which he describes as an instrument shaped like a baritone ukulele – offers stunning arrangements to his harrowing psychedelic folk songs and challenges conventional structure.
“Little Eyes” was recorded immediately following the poorly selling debut. The record shares a similarity with “Ask the Unicorn” when it comes to his strained vocals and his use of the tiple but it also shows his newfound interest in the piano. And again all the songs were recorded in one continuous take.
Lyrically, Ed Askew manages to create emotionally engaging images with tripped out, dreamlike lyrics which effortlessly seem to flow from him. Often abstract and abruptly shifting, his lyrics possess a certain timelessness. He addresses still difficult topics in a way that was well ahead of its time, managing to strip down his songs to the pure and beautiful essence with poetic elegance.
After more than 35 years Ed Askew’s music is more relevant than ever, still able to mesmerize its audience. As David Shirley once truthfully wrote: “This is music that will endure.”
- Ed Askew - Fancy That
Ask the Unicorn (ESP-Disk, 1968) - Ed Askew - Mr. Dream
Ask the Unicorn (ESP-Disk, 1968) - Ed Askew - Peter and David
Ask the Unicorn (ESP-Disk, 1968) - Ed Askew - Little Eyes
Little Eyes (ESP-Disk, 1970 / 2003, De Stijl) - Ed Askew - City of Glass
Little Eyes (ESP-Disk, 1970 / 2003, De Stijl) - Ed Askew - Love is Everyone
Ask the Unicorn (ESP-Disk, 1968) - Ed Askew - Old Mother Moon
Little Eyes (ESP-Disk, 1970 / 2003, De Stijl)
Further readings
Best indie albums
Ed Askew homepage
ESP-Disk homepage
De Stijl Records homepage
Interview with ESP-Disk founder Bernard Stollman
“The Ageless Poetry of Ed Askew” by David Shirley
update: Dec 1′ 07. You can now reach Ed Askew via his MySpace page.
Very good post and introduction to a songwriter I’m ashamed to admit I form part of the people who have never heard of him. im streaming the playlist whilst doing school work and the songs in here, specially the ones from ‘ask the unicorn’ have the strange quality of taking you back in time. Goes straight into my wishlist. Thank you bubba, can’t wait for the next artist in the series :)
ps: how do you do the streaming function on the posts? is it hard to do? I find it very useful and i want to start implementing it on future posts.
Thank you Moka! :-)
I will try to do the next artist somewhere in June. I have too many other stuff laying around that I want to post in the meantime.
ps: the playlists are pretty simple, I will put some info about them on the forum later this evening.
“best indie albums”… “best indie albums” !
the page has to be labeled exactly like the title to increase the chance google calculating it correctly. ahhhhhh …….. :D
oh yeah, interesting post.
I’m sorely tempted to dismiss the gushing hyperbole of the background biography as “spinal tap”-esque mockumementary based - unfairly and arrogantly both, perhaps - entirely on the absurd moniker which recalls too comfortably the Mancunian Punk (”whipped out a hat”)idiocy of “Ed Banger & the Nosebleeds”. Then there’s the Dutch provenance, and their unwavering affection for Syd and Alexander Spence… What if Jerry Garcia had wigged out Owsley blotter as one part of the “Grateful Ed” ? I hate puns, unlike the Dutch.
Then again, there is the music, which certainly has a plausible one-take feel to it, quaintly effervescing as it is.
Say it ain’t so, sister: i want to believe that this is precisely the kind of lost gem the internet is capable of shedding refracted light on.
Lol, thanks for your comments. I appreciate all feedback, so that also means the negative ones. At least you gave him a try. That was the whole point of my post in the first place. There are always people bound to disagree with me, especially since I write so enthusiastically about him.
And speaking of enthusiasm, that seems to be your biggest criticism on my post, I only write that way because I FEEL that way. I cannot possibly write a restrained piece about music that I feel really excited about. Maybe if writing about music was something I was doing for a living, but obviously I’m not.
My goal is very simple: to write about music that I care about and maybe introduce some people to new things along the way. If people don’t agree with me, heck, it’s just my opinion, nothing more, nothing less. But even if there is only one person out there who discovers music through my posts then it was worth all the trouble.
And thanks for reading! :-)
bubba: first rule of the net. reading the blog while sleepy is as bad as riding monocycle while sleepy. Irony brain module doesn’t function until thrid cup of coffe. :)
now I need to do a post, so early in the morning,…sleepy too , good way to spread mass confusion on the blog.
I have no idea what you are talking about and I don’t drink coffee either for that matter. Looking forward to your post though. ;-)
well, i’m loving it. thanks bubba!
x
what a great tip.. magical songs!
Bubbachups, your intro piece was very educational and also, i might add, very well-written. Squahed is absolutely correct ; there should also be a rule governing leaving a comment in the same condition as he so eloquently outlined.
Lest i have contributed to the confusion, your enthusiasm for the subject in hand is to be soundly commended. The post is quite facinating and i LOVE too the tracks highlighted. My only reservation was concerning the artist’s ill-chosen nom de plume - it made me all too readily consider the possibility that his place in psychedelic 60s poetic counter-culture may be a fabrication.
That’s obviously down to my ignorance. Let’s agree i’ve been summarily enlightened.
I loved the post, and i love the blog in general. Now where the hell is that 1/2 pound baga of Columbian Java…
Hay! this is better than my website. It’s amazing what one stumbles upon at 1:30 AM. Thanks for the kind remarks etc. If anyone at the MO+eL wants some recent CDRs email me an address . ED
“Part 1″ sounds promising - who’s next?
Some forgotten songwriters do, if they’re good, eventually get remembered again - Nick Drake and Judee Sill have had a lot of deserved attention in the last few years, and Linda Perhacs is also back on the radar (while still alive, unlike Drake and Sill). It would be nice to see others like Alasdair Clayre get the same treatment.
Thanks for your approval and your kind words mr. Askew! I’m honored by your visit to our little motel. :-)
@ Private Beach: Thanks for your comment! Hmm, Alasdair Clayre is new to me. I will definitely check him out. :-)
great find, this guy. beautiful. reminds me of Bert Jansch a bit.
thanks for the post!
joshua
[...] Earlier in this series: Ed Askew [...]
My homepage (listed here) is no more. I just did it for fun and there were other things I wanted spend the money on. Also I have made a slide show (sort of a picture history of yours truly) with OLD MOTHER MOON sound track. It’s on You Tube (ecaskew) or on my profile at myspace as a blog. Thanks, Ed
MySpace address.
http://www.myspace.com/ecaskew
—————-
Heya Ed.
It’s probably the “spam filter” eating post. We are using akismet plus built in wordpress thing. So links are limited and a lot of things are automatically filtered. Spams have been brutal in the past year.
I apologize if the input box ate your post.
(could you email it to me? if you did post updated links. Or you can repost it again one by one.)
I’ll try to dig the filter to find your post if it hasn’t been deleted.
squashed.
Happy birthday Ed! Loved the WFMU session on Hatch’s show. Also looking forward to the new album.
Squashed, I think you misread.
WHEN I ARIVE remixed by Eoin aka DJ Wak
i know,my fault. all is not lost however. this remix is up as a blog on my myspace profile. DJ Wak is 16
and writes beautiful trance techno etc music. asked if he could try some stuff (bass / rythem track)
on my song. i reworked the video
somewhat and added his remix. still the same song. love it. ed
The Youtube clip (INDUSTRIAL BLAHNESS III/DJ Wak/Ed Askew)
see more songs and writing here:
http://www.myspace.com/ecaskew
I am definitely feeling suprematist now. :D
Bought “Ask The Unicorn” when first released. Thought I was in minority of one in loving this music. But ater 30-odd years Ed Askew’s music seems to be reaching new ears. I love the plaintive quality of his voice. The Tiple’s amazing sound adds a melancholy to the sounds. Just discovered “Little Eyes” and am moved once again by the emotion of the songs. The more I play it the more I enjoy it. Brilliant! Not to every0ne’s taste but as Leonard Cohen says -”..those with eyes shall hear..”
thanks kenny
check out RAINY DAY SONG
http://www.myspace.com/spinninggold
allthe best, ed