HOW CAN I?

Please Don't Touch! (1978) was Steve Hackett's second solo album, but the first one after he left Genesis. He had felt that as a composer he didn't get room enough in Genesis, and by listening to that album one truly can hear the thrill and joy of doing whatever he wished with all his flourishing musical ideas. The album isn't as well received here as the albums around it. Many listeners say it lacks direction and coherence, but I am personally very fond of it, perhaps helped by the fact I found it from library at the early stage of my diving into the classic 70's prog (I was probably sixteen). One thing I appreciate in it is the well chosen host of American guest vocalists: Steve Walsh of Kansas, and two black vocalists, at the time pretty unknown Randy Crawford (her vocals on the lovely ballad 'Hoping Love Will Last' are absolutely gorgeous) and the longtimer folk/blues/soul singer-songwriter Richie Havens, who sang two songs on Please Don't Touch! This single contains the folkier one of them. According to Wikipedia "the members of Genesis were fans of Havens, and the singer agreed to open for them for their series of concerts at Earls Court, London in 1977. Hackett invited him to dinner at his home, during which he wanted Havens to feature on a song of his."

'How Can I?' is an acoustic and rather simple song, but exactly for that reason it functions so brilliantly amidst more adventurous stuff. Havens' warm and raspy voice fits into it so perfectly that it's hard to imagine being sung by anyone else. On the B side is the instrumental track 'Kim' also taken from the album. It features Steve on acoustic guitar and his brother John on flute. The piece was named after Steve's beloved Kim Poor who also made the cover designs for his albums. It was clearly inspired by Erik Satie's music, especially by 'Gymnopedie No. 1' which it actually resembles a lot. Much later the brothers made a whole album of Satie's music called Sketches of Satie.

A lovely single altogether!