They called rock & roll and blues the Devil's music.
To make Midge Marsden love it, the Devil didn't need to stay up till midnight at a Mississippi crossroads. He sent Midge records instead. Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Elvis on the jukebox at the Port Milk Bar in New Plymouth. Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, Little Walter and Jimmy Reed on vinyl albums, lovingly passed from hand to hand with his mates.
Just weeks out of school, Midge had a steady job, dutifully wearing a collar and tie, and marching into the New Zealand Insurance office five days a week. But in his heart was the music he played with his first band, the Blue Diamonds, rockin' the joint at country halls, in sparkly jackets sewn by their Mums. Then came the chance to play on a show promoted by Johnny Cooper, the man who made New Zealand's first rock and roll record, a version of 'Rock Around the Clock.'
At the top of the bill, a mixture of professionals and a talent quest for amateurs, was Dinah Lee, a long legged mod temptress from the South Island, hotter than a firecracker, with two No.1 hits on the local charts.
Did the Blue Diamonds want to back her on stage? Hell yes. Could Midge sneak away from the insurance office for a rehearsal? Hell yes. Did Midge think that a photo from the rehearsal in the local newspaper might tip off his boss? Hell no.
But it did. The Blue Diamonds played the Devil's music behind Dinah. Midge lost his job, and confessed, in tears, to his parents.
From that day Midge Marsden has been in thrall to the music.
Tens of thousands of Kiwis are thankful. The amazing thing is that despite going down a thousand lost highways, trying to sleep in a thousand transit vans, playing the tiny stages, or the big stages, Midge has never lost his burning passion for music.
After a career that's gone from the Blue Diamonds, to 60s pop stardom with Bari and the Breakaways, to travelling the Southern states of America, playing in juke joints where a drunk shot out the lights of the cars outside, to the chart success of 'Burning Rain', to an award from the nation for his services to music, Midge at heart is still that bright eyed kid who lights up when the topic is music.
A proud addition to the Liberation Blue Acoustic series, TRAVEL N TIME captures possibly some of Midge Marsden's finest work to date.The album opens with the swampy groove track and first single 'Waiting For Rain' penned by respected songwriter and friend Hammond Gamble. Then revels in the salaciousness of 'Kokomo', whilst taking 'The Midnight Special' back to Leadbelly singing for his release from a Texas prison, and so finds a gravity in a new version of 'Burning Rain' that may have been lost in the rock band original.
Here is, as Muddy Waters sang, 'a man, a full grown man', at the height of his powers. Here is music you can dance to, party to, or sit, absorb, and love the way Midge always has.
"It seems I went through my whole personal history to select songs for this album and the final result is a combination of many stories. Here are just some of them." MIDGE MARSDEN
TRAVEL N TIME is out through Liberation Music July 13.
