THE LEFT BANKE
The Left Banke is an American baroque pop rock band that formed in New York City in 1965, disbanded in 1969, reformed in 2011 and again in 2015, with original lead singer Steve Martin Caro. They are best remembered for their two US hit singles, “Walk Away Renée” and “Pretty Ballerina”. The band often utilized what the music press referred to as “baroque” string arrangements, which led to their music being variously termed as “Bach-rock”, “baroque rock”, or “baroque ’n’ roll”. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine placed “Walk Away Renée” at #220 in its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. (More from Wikipedia)
The Skywalkers learned about the 1960’s music scene through early Pink Floyd albums and the Soft Machine, and no doubt the rich musical heritage in their home country. Their musical vision was to fuse garage and psychedelic music together, but always with a pop sensibility; as they put it in the interview: “We like psychedelic music but it has to have a pop character as well. Think of bands like the Electric Prunes, Love and Strawberry Alarm Clock, Tomorrow. Our favorite years in music are 1966 and 1967, where garage and psychedelic music just came together. Our favourite subgenre is Baroque Pop with artists like Billy Nicholls, Sagittarius, the Millennium, and of course the Zombies.” I would add to that list a rather under-appreciated American band called the Left Banke, who had a lovely hit song in 1967, “Walk Away Renee”.
(January 2013)
