2011 intro
One of the strangest hits of the late 1960s was Excerpt From A Teenage Opera, which reached Number 2 in the charts in 1967. The strangest thing about it was that it was never meant to publicly involve its main artist, singer/lyricist Keith West.
Born Keith Alan Hopkins, he was lead vocalist for Tomorrow – with Steve Howe on guitar – when he got involved with the Teenage Opera project: an ambitious, conceptual rock opus that would inspired prog concepts to come.
“I knew Mark Wirtz, the man who came up with the idea," West explains. "He invited me round to his place one day and played me a lot of the music he was working on. What he needed was for someone to put lyrics to the songs – that just wasn’t his thing.”
So he set about the task. And the first song he finished was Excerpt From A Teenage Opera – also known by its lyric ‘Grocer Jack’.
“Mark had given me the title of the song, and at the time having eccentric characters at the centre of songs was all the rage,” West recalls. “Maybe it was something to do with the fact that we were in an era when everyone was dropping acid!”
The label thought it would be a good thing for me to sing on this. I agreed – it would never amount to much
Having written the song, West then agreed to do guide vocals on a demo, the idea being that a bigger name would be brought in to do a proper job before it was released as a single, with Howe having provided guitar parts. But that never happened.
“The label, EMI, liked what I’d done. And as they already had me under contract through Tomorrow, they thought it would be a good thing for me to sing on this. I agreed – it would never amount to much, and certainly wouldn’t interfere with the band. How wrong I was!”
West was on tour with Tomorrow when the label ordered him back home to promote the single, which was starting sell in major quantities. “It just took on a life of its own,” he says.
“And in Germany it was even bigger than in the UK; it made it to the top of the charts. Everywhere I went I was mobbed by girls – I could have gotten used to that lifestyle!”
Due to record label wranglings, the Teenage Opera project eventually wilted after a second single, Sam, failed to emulate the success of the first; and it took until 1996 for Wirtz to present an album-length version of his concept.
In the end, Excerpt was to prove a one-off hit for West, who’s still involved in music today; but he has no regrets. “It was a good song, and I loved the experience.”
