"MONTAGE - MONTAGE" (BAROQUE POP post-LEFT BANKE US 1968)

If there's a spiritual heir to both "Johann Sebastian Bach" and "Brian Wilson", surely it's "Michael Brown", master of the Rock and roll harpsichord and a perfectionist beyond all reasonable understanding, the combination of which brings him adulation and reverence from fans of Baroque late-Sixties Pop and blank looks from almost everyone else — though the 1966 "Left Banke" single "Walk Away Renee", a staple of present-day oldies radio, will almost always draw understanding nods. But no, that wasn't the voice of "Michael Brown": it's his piano, and his arrangement, and his fixation on the ever-unreachable "Walk Away Renee" (who also motivated the follow-up "Pretty Ballerina"), but the "Left Banke", with three excellent vocalists fronted by "Steve Martin", was clearly more than merely "Michael Brown"'s band, a fact which led to friction, breakup and reunion, and breakup once more.


Cover art and so it was that in 1968, with the rest of the "Left Banke" going on without him, "Michael Brown" disappeared into New Jersey and eventually resurfaced with, but not actually in, Montage; he co-wrote all but one song — his writing partners were "Bert Sommer", with whom he had cut some tracks during the "Left Banke" days, and "Tom Feher", who was actually part of the post-Brown-Banke — played all the keyboards, and arranged all the voices, but somehow he was not a member of the band.
If this seems like an East Coast version of "Brian Wilson", well, certainly "Michael Brown"'s aspirations were no less lofty.
Montage was signed to "Laurie Records" in New York and two singles, credited to Montage, were issued during 1968: "I Shall Call Her Mary", a charming paean to erstwhile Shangri-La Mary Weiss, and "Wake Up Jimmy", an unexpectedly-bouncy tune about the end of the world.
Neither charted, "Laurie Records" perhaps being preoccupied at the time with squeezing more Snoopy songs out of "The Royal Guardsmen", but "Michael Brown" had an Lp's worth of toons to deliver, and he did, in the process recycling two "Left Banke"-era songs: "Desiree", the fifth "Left Banke" single and the last one to scrape into the Top 100, and "Men Are Building Sand", which he had recorded previously with Sommer but which had been left in the vault.


So how good is Montage?
Montage, assisted by the usual orchestral sweeteners when appropriate, kept up with "Michael Brown"'s intricate melodies with no problem, though the vocalists, led by "Bob Steurer", were a couple of notches below the expert harmonizers in the "Left Banke", distressingly so in "Men Are Building Sand", which didn't seem to be quite within anyone's range, though they did just fine on the no-less-difficult "She's Alone".
"Michael Brown" himself doesn't talk much about Montage, and when he has in the past, he has dismissed it as an inadequate production job on his part.
Still, viewed as a second "Left Banke" album, it's as least as good as the real second "Left Banke" album ("Left Banke Too", 1968), and who knows what might have happened had Montage been signed to a label with more vision — or if the ever-flighty "Michael Brown" had stuck with them instead of, like Renee, just walking away?

Personnel:
"Bob Steurer" (lead singer)
"Vance Chapman" (lead singer, drums)
"Mike Smyth" (lead guitar, vocals)
"Lance Cornelius" (bass guitar, vocals)
"Special thanks to "Mike Brown" for all keyboard instruments and vocal arrangements".
"Laurie Records" SLP 2049, 1969.
Produced by "Michael Brown"
Arranged by John Abbott (1, 4, 7, 8, 10) or "Seymour Barab" (2, 5, 6, 9, bonus tracks)
Recorded at Allegro Sound Studios, New York, 1968
Cover art by "Michael Goldberg" © 1969

see also:

"The Left Banke - Walk Away Renee / Pretty Ballerina" (Baroque Pop US 1967)