"Charmer" is a song by

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

band Strawbs featured on their 1976 album '' Deep Cuts''. The song was written by

Dave Cousins Dave Cousins (born David Joseph Hindson; 7 January 1945) is an English musician who has been the leader, singer and most-active songwriter of Strawbs since 1967. Career Cousins is a founder member of the Strawbs, which started out as the Str ...

and

Chas Cronk Chas Cronk is an English musician, best known as the bass player and acoustic guitarist for the Strawbs from 1973 to 1980 and again from 2004 to the present. Chas also toured and recorded with Steve Hackett and Rick Wakeman in the 1980s and C ...

. The single version has some additional overdubs compared to the version on the album.

Release history

B-Side of the single

The B-side track "Beside the Rio Grande" is a Dave Cousins composition also appearing on the album. The lyrics recount a story of the unjust lynching of a preacher, in the American Wild West.

Personnel

– lead vocals, acoustic guitar * Dave Lambert –

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are ...

–

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

, backing vocals *

Rod Coombes Rodney Coombes (born 15 May 1946) is an English musician. He was mostly known from playing drums with British bands Stealers Wheel in 1972 to 1973 and again in 2008 and Strawbs from 1974 to 1977 and again from 2004 to 2010. Career He has pla ...

– drums with *

Robert Kirby Robert Kirby (16 April 1948 – 3 October 2009) was a British-born arranger of string sections for rock and folk music. He was best known for his work on the Nick Drake albums, ''Five Leaves Left'' and '' Bryter Layter'', but also worked ...

– mellotron *

John Mealing John Mealing (born 5 April 1942 in Yeovil, Somerset) is a British keyboardist, composer and arranger. After leaving the Don Rendell-Ian Carr Quintet in the late sixties,keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

Rupert Holmes David Goldstein (born February 24, 1947), better known as Rupert Holmes, is a British-American composer, singer-songwriter, dramatist and author. He is widely known for the hit singles "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" (1979) and " Him" (1980). ...

- keyboards Mellotron can clearly be heard on this track, therefore according to the album credits Robert Kirby is playing on this track. Both the other keyboard players are credited on the album but it is unsure which of them played on this particular track. A synthesizer can be heard in the instrumentation but both Mealing and Holmes are credited with this instrument in the album credits.

References

"Charmer" at Strawbsweb
*Liner notes to Road Goes on Forever CD RGF/WCDCD 027 ''Deep Cuts/Burning for You''

External links

Lyrics to "Charmer" at StrawbswebLyrics to "Beside the Rio Grande" at Strawbsweb
1976 singles Strawbs songs 1976 songs Songs written by Dave Cousins Songs written by Chas Cronk {{1970s-rock-song-stub