I was lucky enough to attend a conference in the US not long after I discovered Bill’s music in the late 80s, and basically bought every Enigma CD I could find in record stores while I was there. One of these was the rather nice compilation CD The Strangest Things - in retrospect I think Enigma was a great match for Bill, it’s a shame the label imploded so quickly (anyone else hoping that Signature Tunes turns up on Bandcamp someday? I’ve still got my CD, but the Enigma release left out the Yukihiro Takahashi track, presumably for US rights reasons).
The “title track” of the compilation is “The Strangest Things, The Strangest Times”, which remained a real rarity until Transcorder came out. It’s got a little bit of found voice that says “He does the strangest things at the strangest times” which has nagged at me since 1989 - does anybody know where it’s from? My initial guess was that it was from a bizarre and rather surreal little animated series called “Murun Buchstansangur” that Channel 4 used as filler if there was a gap in programming in their early years. However, today I finally remembered the name of the series and found some episodes of it on YouTube, and I’m no longer as sure as I was. The voice might be the same as the narrator of said animation, but I’m far from certain. Anyone identified it? I’ve waited 35 years without knowing, so it’s not what I’d call urgent.
I was lucky enough to pick up Sound-On-Sound and The Strangest Things in the early 1990s on Enigma/Cocteau. And that was in a small long gone store in Bolton, England…obviously they had an eye for a good import.
hmmm,
it's been quite a while since I listened to this, but I thought it was Russell Harty
(in)Famous for the Grace Jones incident
I cannot find Transcorder just now.
Isn't "Strangest Things..." the one that starts with the quote "could have become Mr Big Rock Star"?
That quote is - I'm pretty sure - from journalist/presenter Robin Denselow introducing an interview with Bill on an early-evening BBC2 music show. It's odd that I've never even thought about the quote that leads to the title of the piece.
Sorry I can't add anything else about this one.
In the track “Strangest Things, Strangest Times”, I'd always assumed it was the voice of Jack Benny.
It's the same cadence and tone….