Susan McDaniels - 'Harpsichords Of Yesterday' c/w ‘I Love To Cut Your Hair, Bobby’.

Released March 1^st 1967. PYE 5K22946

  

‘As my tears fall on my mother’s wedding gown

I smell the letter that you painted brown

And late at night as my sobbing soaks my tray

I dream of the harpsichords of yesterday

Harpsichords of yesterday are here today

Harpsichords of yesterday tomorrow

My lord, please let me borrow

From the Bank of Sorrow’

Susan McDaniels was hailed as 'Halesowen's answer to Marianne Faithful' even before the latter had made a record. 

Unfortunately, this proved too much for Susan to live up to and she vanished, under mysterious circumstances, when she was only seventeen years old. Her third single ('The Lilies On The Pond' being the first), 'I Watch The Children Play' was a posthumous near-hit and would have reached number 83 in the charts if the charts had gone that far at the time.     

'Harpsichords Of Yesterday' is notable for the presence of Terry Quick’s Baroque ‘n’ Roll as the backing group, their harpsichord-strong line-up ideal for the atmospheric, poignant lyrics. Her former manager Brian Gold does not, however, controversially, have happy memories of the session. “The day that Terry Quick’s Baroque ‘n’ Roll walked into the studio was the day that Susan's death warrant was signed”, he remembers. “After three hours attempting to get their harpsichords into the studio, they got completely drunk and laughingly plied Susan with 99% pure cocaine. After finishing the session, she complained of feeling unwell and was later found driving a number 68 bus on its way to Croydon.”

The bus conductor, fearing trouble, asked Susan to vacate the driver’s seat. In the ensuing scuffle, the conductor’s cap was dislodged, a criminal offence at the time. Susan ran crying into the night, never to be seen again. Until an hour later, when she was spotted eating a fried egg sandwich at an all night café. After she left the café, she was never seen again. No, really.

Her parents, now in their nineties, still hold poorly attended 'Susan McDaniels Days' at their home in Aston, where fans are able to buy Susan memorabilia, reel-to-reel tape copies of her unreleased album 'Pictures In The Clouds' and photographs of fried egg sandwiches. ‘Harpsichords Of Yesterday' is a fitting epitaph to what was, what could have been and what would never be.