Discography
Video
Links
Amazing Grace
It seems that this music video is now only available in the US NTSC-VHS format. There was a European PAL version but I don't know of anybody who still stocks it.
If your video can't read NTSC and you can't get a PAL version you could buy a NTSC video and get it transcribed. Copying a video is, of course, an infringement of copyright and not everyone will do it. Any specialist video magazines will contain phone numbers of companies that offer this service & they seem to be reasonable if you make it clear that you do not want multiple copies, just one readable copy of a video that you have bought.
If I were you I'd move fast on this one - CDnow still have it in their catalogue.
So is it worth the hassle?
Definitely. For those of us who never got to see Ted when he was alive the video is a must.
Track List
Most of the following tracks were recorded live and there is some footage of Ted busking:
- There stands the glass
- The Lost Ones
- Biloxi
- Be with me Jesus
- Amazing Grace
- Who do you love?
- Strange conversation
- Baby
- Good times
- Got what I wanted (lost everything I had)
- Watch your step
- I ain't got nothing yet
- Ladder of Success
- All I have to offer you is me
- Bring it home daddy
- Green eyed girl
- Sorry you're sick
- Groovy little things
- The good and the bad
- As long as I can see the light
The video begins with Ted's childhood in Biloxi, reform school at 12, penitentiary at 18. In an effort to get away he became a hobo and went south to Tallahassee, Florida in 1957 and then north to New York Suffering from the cold New York winter he bought a one way ticket for Los Angeles, where he made a living as a busker on Venice Beach.
Ted wrote his first song "Baby" and recorded it in 1966 but he never received any royalties. He recorded "Watch Your Step" in 1971 but it wasn't released for over 10 years. In between he suffered a nervous breakdown and spent time in mental institutions and jail. Andy Kershaw went to visit him in 1986 (the video doesn't mention the recording of "Happy Hour" and the "Venice Beach Tapes" which took place in 85 & 86) and, in Oct 86 Ted played his first British gig. He lived in Bridlington for 4 years (thanks to Andrew Wheeler for this information) before returning to the US in 1990. I understand that he was deported from the UK under unpalatable circumstances.
The video makes it clear that his return to busking on Venice Beach was hard to take after his success in Europe, but he was "rediscovered" by Tony Berg of Geffen Records in 1994 which led to the making of "The Next Hundred Years. He toured America and Australia but, sadly, he died on Jan 1st, 1995.
Who's in the video?
Harry Belafonte does a kind of linking narrative and there are contributions of varying lengths from Mavis Staples, Paul Labelle, Tony Berg, John Doe, Pete Seeger, Michael Penn, Andy Kershaw, Billy Bragg, and family members Elizabeth Hawkins, Tina Hawkins Fowler, Elizabeth Hawkins Lewis and Ted Hawkins III.