HEAD MASTERS THE RAP IN ‘BANGKOK’

Murray Head, who “sings” the Top Five single “One Night in Bangkok,” isn’t black--although some people think he is.

“Me, sounding black?,” said Head, in mock horror. In conversation, Head--droll, witty and often slashingly sarcastic--sounds like a Shakespearean actor.

“It’s not that I mind the comparison, but it’s so bizarre for anyone to think I sound black. I’m English. I sound so proper and formal. Are these people deaf or what?”

The reason for the confusion is that “Bangkok” is a rap song, with Head reciting the lyrics to the accompaniment of a sizzling dance track. Female vocalists, who really sound black, perform the chorus.

“I never tried to emulate that New York rap style,” Head pointed out. “What I do is a quasi rap. It’s a honky rap, not a black rap. I find it puzzling that so many people have assumed I’m black.”

Once recently, however, Head was probably sorry he’s not black. “This top black agent in New York rang up my manager and said I could make a fortune in America because of ‘Bangkok,’ ” recalled Head, who lives in London. “He said I could do clubs and this and that and I could wind up making $50,000 a week. That would have been real nice. But my manager said, ‘Are you aware that Mr. Head is white?’ The guy said, ‘Aw hell.’ What if I had come to New York and not said anything about my color? That guy would really have been in for a shock.”

Don’t expect an album of disco-rap numbers from Head. “That hit single is not at all indicative of what I do,” he explained.

What does Head usually do?

“I’m a singer and a songwriter,” he explained. “It’s hard to describe what I sound like when I sing. When I was younger (he’s now 39), people made dubious comparisons with Cat Stevens. I have a high range. Sometimes I sound like Stevie Winwood. Some people say I sound like Peter Gabriel. Some of the songs I write are funky. Others are slow. Some are ponderous and some are there to shock. I must say some are pretty damn good too.”

Basically a pop singer, Head, who has no American record contract, records for Virgin Records in Europe. His biggest market is France, where he’s a big star. “Don’t ask me why,” he said. “I don’t understand it. It makes absolutely no sense why I’d be so popular there. The French have bizarre tastes. Maybe that’s why they like me.”

“One Night in Bangkok” is one of the songs from an unusual musical, “Chess,” written by lyricist Tim Rice and composers Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, both of the Swedish pop group ABBA (see Record Rack, Page 57). Rice is known for his work with composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote the colossal hit musicals “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Evita.”

Following the pattern established with those two shows, the cast album for “Chess” was recorded as a two-record set for RCA before the production was staged (the musical isn’t scheduled until next year).

“Chess” concerns a battle between an American and a Russian for a chess championship and a Hungarian woman. Head, hired after the composers saw one of his concerts in London, sings the role of the American grandmaster, with Tommy Korberg as the Russian and Elaine Paige as the beleaguered lady.

Head sang on the original “Superstar” album, but wasn’t in the show. “Tim liked me but I don’t think Andrew did,” he observed. But Head does expects to be in the theatrical production of “Chess.”

“I want to do it but I’d only do it if there’s a good script and it’s properly staged,” he explained. Backed by the London Symphony Orchestra and a huge choir, Head and the other principals on the album did a five-date European tour performing the “Chess” score.

“It wasn’t anything fancy,” he said. “It was just to announce the release of the album. It was very basic. We just stood there and sang. It begged for direction and movement and imagination. What a frustrating experience that was.”

Some may remember Head as an actor. In the brilliant 1971 film “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” he played the young man who was involved with both Glenda Jackson and Peter Finch. It’s the pinnacle of an largely undistinguished film acting career that began in 1965 in a Hayley Mills movie, “The Family Way.”

“It’s the only time I’ve been directed properly (by John Schlesinger),” he said. “I’ve done 10 movies. The last movie I did was pretty ghastly. Don’t even ask me what it is.”

As a film actor, Head is in semi-retirement. Only an exceptionally juicy role, he insisted, would change his mind: “I don’t miss acting in films. I haven’t had that many good experiences with it. If I had, I probably would like it more.”

An unschooled musician, Head has no formal training in acting either. He stumbled into both careers as a youngster doggedly in search of expression.

“My parents locked off most areas of expression,” he recalled. “The only outlet left to me was the arts. First I started with music--singing, writing songs, playing music. Later I got into acting. I’m not a brilliant musician or a brilliant actor. But, to me, they’re still great vehicles for expression. That’s why I’m still doing this, I guess.”

Head’s immediate problem is what to do for an encore to “Bangkok.” Normally, an artist follows a big hit single with something similar. But Head, who’s working on a follow-up in the London studio, is unwilling to do that with “Bangkok.”

“It’s really a novelty record, an oddity,” he said. “It’s a hard act to follow. I can’t follow it with anything like it. It’s not me. I wouldn’t be able to tolerate people saying to me, ‘You changed direction for commercial reasons, you sold out.’ I couldn’t live with myself if that happened.”

The instant international fame resulting from “Bangkok” hasn’t gone to his head. He’s still the sane, sensible veteran.

“I got over all that crap about fame years ago,” he insisted. “I have no aspirations for stardom at all. My career has been up and down. I got used to being in the shadows most of the time. Once in a while the sun shines on me, like now with ‘Bangkok.’

“But it’s probably just temporary. I have absolutely no fear about quietly sinking into obscurity again. The nice thing about obscurity is that you can stick to your own truth. At this point in my life, that’s more important to me than fame.”