On the Shelf 190: Bill Pritchard

My first introduction to Bill Pritchard was an IRS release in 1989 called “Three months, three weeks and two days.

” Spin Magazine called him a “French Morrissey” which was more than enough than send me off on a search.

I am not sure what happened next, but I worked at a college radio station and probably went there (It is also possible that I heard Bill on MuchMusic as some songs like “Tommy and Co” did get play). In any case, I found a copy of the disc at a small town pawn shop which was nowhere near anything but I would discover the most obscure finds like The Associates

Pritchard was probably more Cohen than Moz and these days, I see him compared to the lighter side of British and British sounding Pop (Go-Betweens, Aztec Camera, Prefab Sprout, Lloyd Cole)

The record remains a favorite “lost classic” of mine. Two sides of wistful pop that Lloyd Cole would be proud off peaking at the end with a slightly over two minute shrug that Morrissey probably wished he wrote called “ Better to be Bitter”.

There seem to be a couple of sizable gaps in his career. While he has not made any impact in the US, it sounds like he has done well in countries like France, Belgium, Canada and Japan.

There are a good dozen or more songwriters who made a good impact on me and I wonder what happened to them. Pritchard, I discovered has a new record out. In often cases, revisiting one of these major memories reveals a songwriter with diminished talent.

In this case, Midland Lullabies is a hit. It sounds like he has picked up right where he did 30 years ago. Quite possibly, the new record might be an even better collection of songs, though nostalgia is always the strongest contender. In any case, check out both the old and the new.

"Bill Pritchard - Forever (official)" (Watch on YouTube)