Listen to Vin Maskell narrate this story, via Soundcloud.
Melbourne, December 2018
I blinked once and Steve Forbert had recorded another 14 albums. Fourteen. I’d bought his first four back when I was a uni student: Alive On Arrival (1978), Jackrabbit Slim (1979), Little Stevie Orbit (1980) and Steve Forbert (1982). You might remember his hit Romeo’s Tune, a sweet slice of folk-rock pop from Jackrabbit Slim.
Forbert played acoustic guitar, he played harmonica so – voila – lazy journalists talked about another ‘new Dylan’.
I enjoyed those four albums. Energy, charm, melody, introspection but not self-indulgent navel-gazing. What was there not to like? But it was an enjoyment I kept to myself because sometimes that’s just the way it is. As far as I know, Forbert has never toured Australia, he was never on Countdown, he was never on the cover of Juke or RAM or Rolling Stone.
So it was just me and my four second-hand albums and Steve Forbert and his songs. Say Goodbye to Little Jo, Complications, It Isn’t Gonna Be That Way, Goin’ Down To Laurel…
I did wonder if I was the only person in Melbourne, in Australia, listening to Steve Forbert. A one-man fan club. A secret society. A lone, solo follower.
I managed to keep up with most new releases by Jackson Browne, Springsteen, Rickie Lee Jones, Paul Kelly, Van Morrison, and – yes, Dylan – but somehow Steve Forbert slipped through my fingers, drifted from my gaze, floated from my thoughts.
Forbert came to mind recently when watching young new Melbourne band Oliver Northam & The Elsewheres. (Disclosure – my son Reuben is the band’s drummer.) They were playing their sweet, energetic folk-rock to family and friends on a weeknight at a pub called The Grace Darling. In that uncrowded room, with a clear view of the small stage, I thought: Is this what it was like for Forbert all those years ago before Romeo’s Tune catapulted him into the public eye? Playing good, strong songs to Mum and Dad and mates and fellow musicians?
At home the next day I play Jackrabbit Slim and Little Stevie Orbit, and I get on the interweb and the algorithms take me to a 2016 YouTube clip of John Oates and Bekka Bramlett singing a song called I Blinked Once.
Further searching and clicking takes me to Forbert singing the song on BBC TV in 1988. It’s a song from an album called Streets Of This Town and it’s about things that pass you by: childhood, wonderment, romance, money, a father… (Oliver Northam sings a fine song about his grandfather.)
Fourteen studio albums, I’m thinking. Plus some live recordings. And compilations.
I blinked once and married Julie in January 1988.
I blinked once and we had a mortgage.
I blinked once and we had three children.
I blinked once and our parents had passed away.
I blinked once and lost a job, got a job, lost a job…
I blinked once and wrote a few hundred stories.
I blinked once and we’d been married for 30 years.
I blinked once and Steve Forbert recorded another 14 studio albums. Down In Flames, Streets Of This Town, Evergreen Boy, Flying At Night, The Magic Tree…
And he wrote a book: Big City Cat: My Life In Folk-Rock
And here’s his tour schedule: Europe in February, the US in March…
I can’t imagine Steve Forbert coming to Australia after all these years but if he does I’ll be in the front row. And I can recommend a support act.
Thanks Vin,
Great yarn. Never heard of Steve Forbert.
Another talent found to add to my list of singer-songwriters. What a good song, how come I’ve never heard of this guy? A lot to discover. To the internet I will delve.
Cheers Luke.
Awesome story, Vin. I discovered Steve Forbert just 6 months ago and I’m now a huge fan. Alive On Arrival and Jackrabbit Slim are classics – don’t know how he wasn’t bigger or more successful. Prior to reading your story, I had never encountered someone else who was into his music Haha
Thanks for reading the story. Plenty of Forbert fans in the US and Europe but still seemingly a secret society here in the land of Oz.
Enjoyable, Vin! Good one!
“Let me smell the moon in your perfume…”
I had my Steve Forbert period… and now I’m going back. Thanks Vin.
I have a cassette somewhere of a Steve Forbert album that I got way back in 1979. Thanks for the reminder I’ll have to dig it out for another listen.
You’ve got a cassette player that still works?! (Actually, I have too, the cassette player in our 1999 Tarago). There was a comment on the Steve Forbert Facebook page (after my story was generously shared) by a bloke who bought, at a yard sale, a cassette with no cover, and no writing on the cassette itself. The bloke loved the music for quite a few years without knowing who the musician was before a mate said, “That’s Steve Forbert.”
I was introduced to Steve Forbert by a boyfriend in Sheffield,Yorkshire in the late ’70’s.He was a BIG Dylan fan- bootlegs,saw him at Isle of Wight, we queued overnight to get Wembley tix etc – & whilst Punk was all around us I was listening to BD,Van Morrison & early Springsteen. I immediately loved Steve Forbert’s music & we saw him do a uni gig (’79 /or early I think). Over the years I’d play the cassettes that were recorded for me – yep some STILL work. Now all sorts of content is available on the ‘net & Spotify etc means instant access. Last year he was on the compilation playlist for a big, decade-turning party & one Aussie,one New Yorker guest recognised ‘Big City Cat’. Still love the music,that voice,the rich lyrics.
I just Googled any gigs Down Under he might be doing; alas, nothing as usual. I did see your blog though & thought I’d put in my two pennyworth.
Thanks for putting in your two pennyworth, Julie. Very much appreciated. I’m going to have to save all my pennies – and update my passport – if I ever want to see Steve Forbert in concert. Cheers.