Well known througout New Zealand and Australia, The Underdogs - on this, their first LP for PYE- entertain with the total comparsion, guts and brilliance of Pig, Mann and Edwards (The Underdogs). With this jacket blurb we want to convince the uninformed that he should have listen.
We know you'll dig it. As the producer i enjoyed every minute of the 3 day session, listening to Harvey, Neil and Glen begin a song and build it on, and punch and polish it here and there -it was like watching a flower unfold. The time was right (recording had been postponed for 2 years), the material was (and is) right, and the mood was warm ebullient.
Executive producer John Kerr wisely decided that if the album was to get off the ground, Harvey, Neil and Glenn would have to do it their way. As a consequence, words and sounds simply fell into place naturally and beautifully. Hear these fantastics: Glen's introdusction to "It's a Blessing" and his extended solo on "Garden of Eden", Harvey's country solo on "Clover In The Air" and his accoustiphonic guitar and singing on his own "Tomorrow's Child", Neil's talking frog Bass on "Is he going to Die?" and his down home singing on "Clover In The Air".
As a close friend of the group, I have seen their ruthless personal huminity blossom into superb musicianship and expression that you will hear on this album.
by Bob Gillet, October 1970, Auckland, New Zealand.
Tracks
1. Tomorrow's Child - 3:18
2. Wasting My Time - 2:18
3. Old Grey Dog - 3:22
4. Name The Day - 2:05
5. It's A Blessing - 3:06
6. Every Little Thing - 5:05
7. Is He Going To Die? - 2:31
8. Duchless Of Montrose - 4:27
9. Clover In The Air - 3:42
10.Garden Of Eden - 7:37
The Underdogs
*Harvey Mann - Telecaster, Gibson, Acoustiphonic Guitars, Vocals
*Neil Edwards - "Talking Frog" Bass, Bass Guitar, Vocals
*Gleny Pig - Drum Kit, Miscellaneous Percussion with the help of
*Bob Gillett - Glock, Recorder, Voice, Production
*Bruce Duske - Dials, Meters, Tape, Mixmaster
*John Kerr - Crystal Ball, Money
Within weeks of Nick Simper's final show with Deep Purple on July 4th 1969, he had played the Isle Of Wight Festival as part of singer Marsha Hunt's backing band White Trash, and was beginning to plan a new group of his own.
After just a couple of gigs with Marsha, Nick realised that the rest of her band weren't really up to the job, said as much, and found himself with the job of finding suitable replacements. He roped in Ged Peck on guitar (with whom he'd toured with The Flowerpot Men and Billie Davis), and his old Pirates band-mate Roger Pinner (aka Roger Truth) on drums. Pinner was soon replaced by Mac Poole. While this was going on Nick still found time for outside work, playing BBC sessions with The James Royal Set, and also putting together his own extracurricular band.
Ged Peck and Mac Poole were first on board, followed by singer Ashley Holt, who had auditioned for Deep Purple back in 1968. The James Royal Set's keyboard player Rick Wakeman took part in early rehearsals but proved unreliable, and when the band's first demo was recorded in April 1970 he was replaced by Frank Wilson. Very soon afterwards the band became a full time operation when Marsha Hunt folded her group due to the fact that she was pregnant by Mick JaggerInitial events made it look as if Warhorse's starting path would be similar to that of Deep Purple. A record contract quickly arrived (with the new Vertigo label), an album was recorded, and the band made their debut live show - supporting Mott The Hoople in Hemel Hempstead.
'Warhorse' was released in November 1970, sounding pretty much like a heavier version of Deep Purple Mk1, and fully illustrating how much Nick Simper had contributed to both bands. However, Vertigo's promotion concentrated more on the label than the album, and it undeservedly failed to chart, as did the belated single 'St.Louis' (an Easybeats song which had been in Deep Purple's live repetoire until August 1969). Around the same time, Ged Peck made his exit, apparently after increasing difficulty in dealiing with Simper's pre-eminence in the group. His replacement was Pete Parks from Black August, a band who had been sharing Warhorse's rehearsal room.
Warhorse had built up a healthy live following inside their first year, and continued to do so when Pete Parks seamlessly stepped in on guitar, but the band's fortunes had already peaked.They were forced to rush the recording of their second album 'Red Sea', which nevertheless received favourable press reviews, and pushed the band's heavy credentials forward by being more guitar based than its predecessor. However, it received very little label promotion, and soon after its June 1972 release Warhorse were dropped from the roster. Around the same time Mac Poole decided to throw his lot in with Gong, after having deputised with them for a few shows.
Drummer Mac Poole was replaced by Barney James, and Warhorse picked themselves up yet again, this time beginning to incorporate soul elements into their music.After a time Rick Wakeman appeared back in the scene. He produced a set of demos for the band, and then borrowed Holt and James to help record his UK #1 'Journey To The Centre of The Earth' solo album. Despite the fact that a new record contract for Warhorse was in the offing, both men decided to throw their lot in permanenty with Wakeman, and in June 1974 Nick Simper decided to bring the band to a close. DP-net
Tracks
1. Red Sea - 4:16
2. Back In Time - 7:47
3. Confident But Wrong - 4:42
4. Feeling Better - 5:29
5. Sybilla - 5:30
6. Mouthpiece - 8:41
7. I (Who Have Nothing) (Carlo Donida, Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller) - 5;11
8. Ritual (Live Version) (Warhorse) - 4:17
9. Bad Time (Demo) (N. Simper) - 4:37
10.She Was My Friend (Demo) (N. Simper) - 4:52
11.Gypsy Dancer (Demo) (N. Simper) - 4:05
12.House Of Dolls (Demo) (N. Simper) - 4:17
13.Standing Right Behind You (Demo) (N. Simper) - 4:29
All songs by P. Parks, M. Poole, A. Holt, N. Simper, except where indicated.
Warhorse
*Ashley Holt - Vocals
*Mac Poole - Drums
*Nick Simper - Bass
*Frank Wilson - Keyboards, Piano
*Peter Parks - Guitar
Five Day Rain formed in late 68 as Iron Prophet, a heavy trio comprising Rick Sharpe, Clive Shepherd and Dick Hawkes. They changed their name to Five Day Rain in early 1970, with the arrival of Graham Maitland and the beginning of the recordings we are presenting here.
The usual disagreement between musicians, management and producers led the album to be shelved (only a few acetates were pressed) and the band to split. Rick Sharpe, Shepherd and Maitland formed the short-lived Studd Pump before taking separate ways, with Sharpe joining glam rockers Streak and Maitland resurfacing with Glencoe. Five Day Rain was issued for the first time on CD a dozen years ago, with nice John Hurford artwork made for International Times magazine, but without both musicians and illustrator permit.
Our issue, made with the essential contribution of Rick Sharpe, uses the original running order and is enriched by a few bonus tracks: a Bob Dylan cover (Too Much Of Nothing) and four tracks recorded at the time but left off the purposed LP. Factory/Fleur de Lys connected early 70s UK psych monsters with all the right moves. Sounds like the aforementioned bands with a dash of Ogden-period Small Faces. Great guitar work particularly on the long trippy instrumental Rough Cut Marmalade."
Tracks
1. Marie's A Woman - 2:54
2. Don't Be Mislead (Clive Shepherd) - 2:20
3. Good Year - 4:03
4. Fallout - 3:32
5. Leave It At That (Clive Shepherd) - 5:22
6. The Reason Why - 4:44
7. Sea Song - 4:13
8. Rough Cut Marmalade - 11:05
9. Lay Me Down - 1:16
10. Too Much Of Nothing (Bob Dylan) - 3:38
11. Antonia - 3:14
12. So Don:t Worry - 3:28
13. The Boy - 5:46
14. Wanna Make Love To You - 4:58
All songs by Rick Sharpe except where indicated.
If I were a copy writer for an advertining agency, I would undoubtebly begin these notes with "Goliath are going to be gigantic etc...." Thankfully, I'm not endowed with those powers of literary imagination or the ability to create lines of such propheticsplendour, so I shall confine myself saying that this is a very good first album from an extremely promising group.
Without wishing to cause overt offence to the ladies concerned, I have always been saddened by the strange British yen for "cite" singers such as Cilla Black, Mary Hopkin, Anita Harris and their warblemates. Why haven't we ever produced a Slick or a Joplin? The answer is that to ne open, honest, and free to express emotions is, ludicrously enough, considered to be too unladylike and unrepresentative of the English Rose.
But we are not going to build Jerusalem in this green and pleasant land. It isn't very green, and at times it's very extremely unpleasant. Linda Rothwell owns up, and you can hear it. She's sup[lied with some very strong bass lines by John Williamson, and some definitive jazz overtones from Malcom Grundy's guitar.
These are morsels I have savoured: there are many others you will discover for yourself, like Joseph Rosbotham an flute and tenor and Eric Eastman on drums. There has been a knock on the door from Phil Sanderson, brandishing an obscene weapon and muttering. Goliath are going to be gigantic etc....
by David Symonds
Tracks
1. Port and Lemon Lady (John Williamson) - 4:05
2. Festival of Light (John Williamson, Linda Rothwell) - 4:58
3. No More Trash (Malcolm Grundy) - 3:43
4. Hunter's Song (John Williamson) - 9:54
5. Men (Malcolm Grundy) - 3:43
6. I Heard About a Friend (John Williamson) - 4:31
7. Prism (Malcolm Grundy) - 6:06
8. Emerge, Breath, Sunshine, Dandelion (John Williamson, Linda Rothwell) - 3:32
9. Maajun (A Taste of Tangier) (Davy Graham) - 4:30
"A Game For All Who Know" is the last album by the trio of Ferdinando, Howell, and Menelaus. At that time, John Ferdinando seems to become the centerpiece of the band, having had a hand in penning all six songs. For more details on the trio and its creation, have a look into the review of their previous album "Fly Away".
The Album. Stylistically and structurally, "A Game For All Who Know" is much in the vein of "Fly Away". In other words, the trio followed their original style right up to the end of their musical career. Of course, the music that is presented on this album is still about the same, accessible and melodious, Symphonic Art-Rock with the elements of Folk Rock. The arrangements that are featured on "A Game For All Who Know" are for the most part of an acoustic character, as well as those on "Fly Away".
However, unlike the trio's previous album, all the songs that are featured on "A Game For All Who Know" were, overall, created within the framework of a unified stylistics. As for the progressiveness of these songs, three of them, namely Journey, Questions, and Dream (tracks 1, 2, & 5), are more straightforward than any of the remaining three songs. The vocals that are present on Journey, Questions, and Dream are for the most part accompanied only by the monotonous rhythms of acoustic guitar and chords of organ.
While on Times, Feelings, and A Game For All Who Know, the instrumental arrangements are always intensive and flow nonstop regardless whether there are the vocals. All three of these songs are excellent, but the album's title-track is an absolute winner.It is filled with diverse and tasteful interplay between passages of acoustic guitar, piano, and Mellotron, and solos of electric and bass guitars. By the way, A Game For All Who is the only track on the album that features the Mellotron.
A 'chief' keyboard instrument on all the other tracks of the album is an electric organ. Apart from the album's title-track, the piano passages are present also on Journey, Questions, and Times. The solos of electric guitar and recorder play minor roles on this album. While the passages, solos, and rhythms of acoustic guitar, solos of bass guitar, and chords of organ are notable throughout the album.
As for the parts of drums and percussion, they are present on each track of the album as well. However, these parts aren't that noticeable. In fact, they are monotonous throughout the album. Which, though, doesn't much matter with regard to this kind of music. Surprisingly enough, about two thirds of the vocal parts that are featured on this album were sung by Lee Mennelaus. (In the review of "Fly Away",
I mentioned that her angelic voice fits well the music of the trio.) Undoubtedly, "A Game For All Who Know" is the most integral, coherent, and progressive album by the trio of Ferdinando, Howell, and Mennelaus. In that way, the last chapter of their creation can be considered their creative peak. Once again, I can highly recommend this album only to those who love the music of Renaissance-Mark-I and Illusion, both of which are virtually the same band, and the likes.
VM
Tracks
1. Journey - 4:56
2. Questions - 4:03
3. Times - 8:19
4. Feelings - 5:32
5. Dream - 2:58
6. A Game For All Who Know - 7:06
7. All My Life - 2:45
8. The Poem - 4:11
9. Peace of Mind [listed, but does not appear on CD]
All music and lyrics by John Ferdinando.
In the late '60s and early '70s, Blood, Sweat & Tears was at the forefront of the rock with horns movement. But after lead singer David Clayton-Thomas' 1972 departure, both he and the band lost their commercial footing. New City finds Clayton-Thomas reconvening with Blood, Sweat & Tears after a three-year absence. Jimmy Ienner, who produced hits with the Raspberries, Grand Funk Railroad, and Three Dog Night, is behind the boards for this 1975 album. It does sound promising, but, in all honesty, New City fortunes seemed doomed from the start.
The cover of the Blues Image's "Ride Captain Ride" turns out to be more than a perfunctory exercise and gives the band a chance to show its jazz chops, and Clayton-Thomas wails to his heart's content. Allan Toussaint's "Life" gets an irreverent and funky treatment. Strangely enough, the workouts on here pale in comparison to the ballads.
The best track, the poignant "I Was a Witness to a War," is delicately arranged in the perfect key for Clayton-Thomas' subdued vocals. Janis Ian's "Applause" sustains interest, even as Clayton-Thomas' dramatic flourishes make Richard Harris seem remote.
After a few ho-hum tracks, this closes with an energetic but anti-climatic cover of the Beatles' "Got to Get You Into My Life." Although New City failed to get the band back to the top of the charts, a listener might be pleasantly surprised to hear that the band did proceed through the '70s accordingly.
by Jason Elias
Tracks
1. Ride Captain Ride (Skip Konte, Franke Konte, Mike Pinera, Carlos Pinera) - 5:06
2. Life (Allen Toussaint) - 4:24
3. No Show (Ron McClure) - 5:15
4. I Was a Witness to a War (Danny Meehan, Bobby Scott) - 5:13
5. One Room Country Shack (John Lee Hooker, Traditional) - 2:24
6. Applause (Janis Ian) - 7:47
7. Yesterday's Music (D. Clayton-Thomas, William Smith) - 4:14
8. Naked Man (Randy Newman) - 4:00
9. Got to Get You into My Life (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) - 3:22
10.Takin' It Home (Bobby Colomby) - 1:37
11.Intro - 0:25
12.Agitato (Bruce Cassidy) - 6:19
13.Nuclear Blues (D. Clayton-Thomas) - 4:08
14.Manic Depresion (J. Hendrix) - 4:45
Tracks 11-14 Bonus Live recordings, October 12 1980, at the Street Scene (Downtown LA)
Some albums are classic journeyman's efforts, the work of someone who might have gained notice with other bands but was never quite a name in his own right -- thus Andrew Leigh's one-off solo effort Magician, recorded between his stint in Spooky Tooth's final months and becoming part of Matthews Southern Comfort soon afterward.
Despite the cover art and swirl of flutes helping kick things off, Magician is less acid folk/prog whimsy and more an overview of a lot of things in the year of its release, with a little electric bite here and there but otherwise aiming for gentler twang and rough-and-ready acoustic chug. There's stately late-Beatles pop via "Get Myself Together" (one of two songs from friend and fellow pro Kevin Westlake), a bit of moody folk-rock with "Windy Baker Street," easygoing country-tinged rambles like "Solitaire" and "Leaving Song," and more besides.
Throughout, the echoes of people like Bob Dylan, the Band, the Byrds, Free, and many others can be heard, all slotting into what would be Leigh's own career path well and showing that if his work wasn't deathless it was pleasant listening with a bit of flair. Leigh's liner notes are a fun read, the voice of someone who explored a path, then decided on a new one in later years, before returning to music on a casual for-the-heck-of-it basis -- not a bad place to be.
by Ned Raggett
Tracks
1. Magician - 3:22
2. Get Myself Together (Kevin Westlake) - 4:03
3. Goin’ Out To The West (Kevin Westlake) - 4:36
4. Solitaire - 3:57
5. Windy Baker Street - 4:55
6. Take Me Back - 4:50
7. Leaving Song - 2:58
8. Fresh Brown Eggs - 2:29
9. Up The USA - 9:19
10. The Passing (Bonus Track) - 5:01
All titles by Andrew Leigh except where noted.
Musicians
*Andrew Leigh - Vocals, Acoustic, Electric Guitars, Banjo, Recorder, Piano, Mellotron, Claves, Maracas
*Kevin Westlake - Acoustic, Electric Guitars, Drums, Background Vocals
*Bryan Hayward - Electric, Acoustic Guitars
*Reggie King - Piano, Vocals
*Gordon Jackson - Electric Sitar
*Gary Farr - Harmonica, Acoustic Guitar
*Mike Kellie - Tambourine
*Brian Godding - Electric Guitars
*Tony Priestland - Tenor Sax, Flute, Oboe
*Gary Wright - Electric Piano
*Sam Duboff, George Pastel, Philip Lusher, Mutzi Horvath - Hand Clapping
The Rugbys formed when all the members of the popular Louisville group the Oxfords left that band except the drummer, Jim Guest. Guest kept the Oxfords name and brought in members of the Spectres, soon releasing a good 45 on the Mala label.
The Rugbys took the Spectres' drummer, Glenn Howerton to replace Guest; the other members being Steve McNicol on lead guitar, his brother Jim McNicol on bass, Chris Hubbs on guitar and Doug Black on sax. The band's name supposedly came from wearing rugby shirts onstage.
At least, that was what I had read, but then Susan Harkins sent in this photo of the Rugbys signed by Jim Guest on the back, and Glenn Howerton's signature is not included. Perhaps the Oxfords changed their name to the Rugbys, then Guest left or was kicked out and restarted the Oxfords with new members.
In any case, their first release is this great version of a Doug Sahm song, "Walking the Streets Tonight", on the Top Dog label, from July, 1966. The flip side, "Endlessly", a ballad original by Steve McNicol, has been ignored until now, though mellow it's very good.
The Rugbys continued on until 1970 with some personnel changes, releasing several 45s and an album in a hard rock style. Garage Hangover
Tracks
1. You, I (Steve McNicol) - 2:57
2. Juditha Gina (Eddy Vernon) - 2:42
3. Song to fellow man (Eddy Vernon) - 2:20
4. King and queen of the world (Steve McNicol) - 3:08
5. Stay with me (Steve McNicol) - 3:05
6. The light (Steve McNicol) - 2:26
7. Rockin' all over again (Mike Hoerni) - 2:17
8. Lines of thought (Mike Hoerni, Steve McNicol) - 4:00
9. For A Love gone (Steve McNicol) - 3:56
10.Wendegahl The Warlock (Eddy Vernon) - 6:20
Recorded at the BBC Studios, London, England between 1968 and 1972 and issued in England in 1999, Keef Hartley's Not Foolish Not Wise is, apparently, a compilation of sorts of old live recordings and some from the studio. What is maddening is that apart from a personal reminiscence by Neil Slaven that covers some of Hartley's career, there isn't one iota of information -- other than titles and songwriting credits -- as to when or where these recordings were made, or even who played on them.
One can deduce with a degree of certainty that many of these recordings were live gigs featuring outtakes and alternate material from the Halfbreed era that included the four-piece horn section of Henry Lowther (trumpet, violin), Harry Beckett (trumpet), Lyn Dobson (tenor sax, flute), and Chris Mercer (tenor sax), with Hartley on drums, the late bassist Gary Thain (formerly of Uriah Heep!), Dino Dines on keyboards, and Miller Anderson (who also served as vocalist) and Spit James on guitars.
Some come from a later edition of the band with only two horns. The music is rooted deeply in the progressive blues of the early '70s, where the influence of John Mayall's Jazz Blues Fusion project was just making itself known. But Hartley's band was deeper into a more raucous form of blues and R&B than jazz, though the horn charts are fairly sophisticated, as evidenced by the title track, "Marin County," "Too Much Thinking" with its subtly shaded trumpets shimmering over the saxophones, and the slippery funk groove of "Don't You Belong," driven by Thain's bass thud and punched up by the horns Famous Flames style. Given that many of these are live cuts and the rest are outtakes, the sound can be a tad muddy, but it only adds to the overall presence of the music.
Despite the dodgy omissions in credits, this is a vital and thoroughly engaging release, capturing a band at the stellar height of its power both live and in the studio. As Slaven put it in his liner notes, this "was a no nonsense band that played no nonsense music." Recommended for anyone ever interested in Hartley or in the evolution of British blues.
by Thom Jurek
Tracks
1. Sinning for You - 3:36
2. Spanish Fly - 6:05
3. Me and My Woman - 5:21
4. Too Much Thinking - 6:47
5. Not Foolish Not Wise - 4:33
6. Don't You Belong - 5:55
7. Marin County - 4:05
8. Always Thinking of You - 4:31
9. Don't Sing It - 5:05
10.Colours - 6:04
11.Roundabout - 6:19
12.You Can't Take it With You - 7:46
13.Just a Cry - 7:59
Third Estate’s “Years Before the Wine” is an ambitious and intricate psychedelic concept album from 1976 about the French Revolution (!) which blends warm Southern summer sounds (the band were from Baton Rouge, Louisiana) with baroque song structures. Never fear, the serious subject matter is no match for the strong songwriting and light, flowing music.
Stunning vocals from Fae Ficklin on the title track are lovely, but even without them this album would richly deserve its status as a psychedelic classic. Stark, intimate production, with tasty fuzz guitar, backwards tape-loop soundscapes and beautiful treated acoustic guitar, puts one in mind of the Ithaca/Agincourt/Friends trilogy from England. The sound of exploration is evident everywhere, as the band spreads its wings, and glorious harmonies flow forth.
The previously unreleased album recorded as Agonistes (the Greek word for The Fighters) in 1973 shows that the later recordings were no fluke—it can stand alone as one of the most beguiling folk/psych albums we’ve ever heard..
Tracks
1a. Years Before the Wine - Destiny (Robert Everett, Chas Harrell) - 4:44
b. Years Before the Wine - Overcast (Robert Everett, Chas Harrell) - 5:35
2. Useless Things (Robert Everett) - 3:34
3. Look at Me (Chas Harrell) - 8:42
4. Kings (Robert Everett, Chas Harrell) - 2:32
5. Puppet City (Robert Everett, Chas Harrell) - 8:07
6. Think It's Time (Robert Everett, Chas Harrell) - 4:40
7. The Third Estate (Robert Everett) - 5:31
Beckett Vocalist Terry Wilson-Slesser, a native of Newcastle upon Tyne, was to figure in ex-Free guitarist Paul Kossoff's solo outfit Back Street Crawler and was later hook up with Charlie. The vocalist was also known to be in contention during 1980 for the AC/DC frontman vacancy following Bon Scott's death.
Wilson-Slesser had replaced original Beckett singer Rob Turner, the previous frontman having been killed in an auto accident. Soon after this appointment guitarist Les Tones quit. The group's first major performance was supporting UFO at Newcastle's City Hall. Beckett carved out a live reputation by performing residencies at the infamous Star Club in Hamburg, Germany. Beckett , having scored the financial backing of Island Publishing, then underwent a major line-up change.
The band's 'My Lady' single was a clear flexi-disc given away free at gigs in 1974, the same year the band released their eponymously titled album, produced by Family's Roger Chapman, on the Raft label subsidiary of Warner Bros. On the live front Beckett supported the likes of Wizzard, Slade, Free, Ten Years After, Thin Lizzy and The Faces. The band performed at the 1974 Reading Festival, after which they switched labels to CBS Records. For a period Wilson-Slesser was rehearsing with Mott The Hoople musicians following Ian Hunter's exit.
The Beckett concerts with Free would ultimately lead to an eventual union between Terry Wilson-Slesser and guitarist Paul Kossoff in Back Street Crawler. Slesser was known to be in contention for the AC/DC frontman position during 1980 after Bon Scott's death. The singer also acted as backing vocalist on Def Leppard's 'Pyromania' album. The Beckett song 'A Rainbow's Gold' was covered by Iron Maiden as a B side on their 1984 hit single '2 Minutes To Midnight'. That same year Wilson-Slesser acted as an offstage singer for the Michael Schenker Group, performing on a European and Japanese tour. The Rock Detector
Tracks
1. Once Upon a Time... The End - 0:55
2. Rolling Thunder - 5:23
3. Rainclouds - 5:10
4. Life's Shadow - 6:51
5. New Dawn Chorus - 1:02
6. A Rainbow's Gold - 4:40
7. Don't Tell Me I Wasn't Listening - 5:30
8. Green Grass Green - 4:35
9. My Lady - 3:26
10.True Life Story - 5:36
Released shortly after the transitional In the Falling Dark, Circles in the Stream seemed to serve as the final chapter in Bruce Cockburn's promising yet inconsistent early career. Recorded live in Toronto, the record brings together some of Cockburn's best songs from this period, including the beautiful meditation "All the Diamonds in the World," the bluesy "Mama Just Wants to Barrelhouse All Night Long," and "Lord of the Starfields" from his previous release.
And while there isn't anything drastically different here, many of the tracks are more assured and fully realized than their studio counterparts, with Cockburn's guitar and voice front and center -- solo or backed by subtle bass, percussion, and piano or marimba. There are also a scattering of new tunes that mix nicely with the older material, with the Native American tribute "Red Brother, Red Sister" and the instrumental "Deer Dancing Round a Broken Mirror" the true standouts.
Strong performances and a good selection of songs help Circles in the Stream succeed not only as a good live album, but also as a decent retrospective of Cockburn's first seven years.
by Brett Hartenbach
Tracks
1. The Pipes, the Pipes - 1:23
2. Starwheel - 3:56
3. Never So Free - 4:06
4. Deer Dancing Around a Broken Mirror - 4:37
5. Homme Brûlant - 6:17
6. Free To Be - 2:54
7. Mama Just Wants to Barrelhouse All Night Long - 4:24
8. Cader Idris - 7:05
9. Arrows of Light - 4:15
10.One Day I Walk - 4:29
11.Love Song - 3:52
12.Red Brother Red Sister - 4:06
13.Lord of the Starfields - 5:29
14.All the Diamonds in the World - 2:46
15.Dialogue With the Devil - 9:34
16.Joy Will Find a Way - 4:48
17.God, Bless the Children - 5:15
In 1966 Bruce Cockburn was asked to join an Ottawa band called The Children, which lasted for about a year. In the spring of 1967, he joined the final lineup of the Esquires before moving to Toronto in the summer to form The Flying Circus with former Bobby Kris & The Imperials members Marty Fisher and Gordon MacBain and ex-Tripp member Neil Lillie. The group recorded some material in late 1967 (which remains unreleased) before changing its name to Olivus in the spring of 1968, by which point Lillie (who changed his name to Neil Merryweather) had been replaced by Dennis Pendrith from Livingstone's Journey.
Olivus opened for The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Cream in April 1968. That summer Cockburn broke up Olivus, intending to go solo but ending up in the band 3's a Crowd. with David Wiffen, Colleen Peterson and Richard Patterson, who had played with him in The Children. Cockburn left this band in the spring of 1969 to pursue a solo career.
He had made his first solo appearance at the Mariposa Folk Festival in 1967, and was the headliner when Beldin Arechavala cancelled in order to appear at Woodstock in 1969. In 1970 he released his first, self-titled, solo album. Cockburn's phenomenal guitar work and songwriting skills won him an enthusiastic following. His early work sparkles with rural and nautical imagery, Biblical metaphors, and a sense of delight in the belief that whatever happens here on earth, heaven is not far away.
Raised as an agnostic, early in his career he became a devout Christian. Many of his albums from the 1970s refer to his Christian belief, which in turn informs the concerns for human rights and environmentalism expressed on his 1980s albums. His references to Christianity in his music include the Grail imagery of 20th-century Christian poet Charles Williams and the ideas of theologian Harvey Cox, but they are so subtle and musical that they do not exclude nonbelievers.
Tracks
1. Going To The Country - 3:10
2. Thoughts On A Rainy Afternoon - 3:42
3. Together Alone - 2:42
4. The Bicycle Trip - 4:05
5. The Thirteenth Mountain - 4:45
6. Musical Friends - 2:54
7. Change Your Mind - 2:19
8. Man Of A Thousand Faces - 5:40
9. Spring Song - 4:19
10.Keep It Open - 1:40
Thus abandoned and solitary in the world, human beings are forced to confront their own freedom, a freedom to choose that is both demanding and deadly serious. One of Colville's best-known works, Horse and Train, goes straight to the heart of this source of human anxiety and raises an essential question: can destiny be altered? A helpless witness to imminent disaster, the viewer of this painting can never know the outcome.
Clearly, the train cannot deviate from its track, but the horse has a choice - we think. Is it mesmerized by the light? Is it challenging a foe? Is it aware of the terrible danger? If not, can the engineer stop the train in time? The animal may be driven by instinct, but the human faces an ethical dilemma: Is it worth stopping? How much does the death of a horse matter? Which is more dangerous - to brake and cause a possible derailment, or to keep going and risk a deadly collision? Can we halt time - the little that remains?
The picture was inspired by a poem published in 1949 by the South African writer Roy Campbell. Words by Wilfred Owen serve as the poem's epigraph: "None will break ranks." The poem itself includes the lines: "Against a regiment I oppose a brain / And a dark horse against an armoured train." During his military career, Colville had exhibited an independence of mind that was not always appreciated by his superiors; it is a characteristic he subsequently cultivated, like his opposition to the various forms of 20th-century abstraction.
In Horse and Train, the artist seems to be emphasizing the unavoidable need to make choices: despite the apparently hopeless situation and the magnetic power of the train's light over the animal, we are witnessing a confrontation between two freedoms. The horse is free to change direction, the engineer to engage the brakes.
From The Original Liner Notes
"I think it was Christmas of '73, I was given a book featuring the work of a Canadian painter whose name was new to me. The paintings were striking - perfectly executed, realistic, but with a depth, a kind of transcendence that spoke to me of a larger reality. One painting in particular jumped out at me. In it, a well-muscled black horse gallops headlong down a railway track, straight at an oncoming train.
The horse seems to contain such energy, it's as if it were a charged particle of pure spirit. This sense of spirit, in confrontation with material power, is something any artist can relate to. A sense of impending doom too, I think. I certainly did! Some months later, as we got into working on what was then the "new" album, I kept thinking of the painting, feeling a connection between it and the music we were making. Music which was a little different from the preceding three albums.
In part, a reaction against the hemmed-in feelinq of having been filtered and "labelled" by media and music business expectations. We approached the artist about using his work on the cover of that album and he graciously said "yes". The album was "Night Vision", the paintinq "Horse and Train", the painter Alex Colville.
Bruce Cockburn, May 2002
Born in Ottawa in 1945, Cockburn set his sights on a career in music after growing up listening to Elvis records. He landed at Berklee College of Music in Boston in the early '60s, but found he was too spiritually restless to settle into studies of jazz guitar and composition, and in 1965 he moved back to Ottawa to play in a series of rock 'n' roll bands.
Cockburn eventually found his voice as a songwriter drawing upon instinctive spirituality, a keen eye for detail, and a wry sense of humor. By then he had also developed a highly personal finger-picking guitar style that merged Mississippi John Hurt blues with modal jazz harmony as well as melodic lyricism and cycling rhythms that suggested an ear for Indian, Asian, and African music.
Tracks
1. Foxglove - 1:21
2. You Don't Have To Play The Horses - 3:42
3. The Blues Got The World. - 1:45
4. Mama Just Wants To Barrelhouse All Night Long - 4:10
When the Strawberry Alarm Clock recorded their second album, they were facing the challenge of trying to sustain the remarkable and sudden success of their classic psychedelic debut single, "Incense and Peppermints," which hit #1 on November 25, 1967. Their debut LP of the same name had also done well, rising to #11 in the album charts with its mix of California harmony pop, garage rock, and raga-influenced psychedelia. Wake Up...It's Tomorrow would diversify yet further, adding more sophisticated vocal arrangements and flitting between flower-pop, fuzzed-out psychedelia, and a three-song suite of sorts with sitar and backwards effects. It also yielded their only other Top 40 hit in the semi-title track, "Tomorrow," an effervescent psych-popper that sounded rather like a more psychedelic Association.
There were also some changes from the band that had recorded the earlier Strawberry Alarm Clock material. The unusual six-man, two-bass lineup in place for the first album proved to have one bass player too many. One of the bassists, Gary Lovetro, departed, getting bought out of the band for $25,000 and leaving the position in the hands of George Bunnell. "It is physically impossible to get a clear bass sound with two bass players on stage," explains keyboardist Mark Weitz. "Even though he was one of the original members [dating back to the days of Thee Sixpence, the band that evolved into the Strawberry Alarm Clock], we felt his interest in the band was more business-oriented than contributing musically.
Sometimes [guitarist] Ed [King] had to do the bass parts in the studio for Gary. He just didn't have enough talent to conceive a good original bass part." Virtually absent was high school student Steve Bartek, who'd contributed to the songwriting on the first album as well as playing some flute and other instruments, although he was never officially in the band. As Weitz notes, "Steve was only fifteen or sixteen years old. He was a high school friend of George. I think George tried to get him to join the band, but his Mom wouldn't let him -- I didn't blame her. He was a little too young. Steve was exceptionally gifted in his playing -- too bad." Bartek did write the music for one of the tracks on Wake Up...It's Tomorrow, "Sitting on a Star," but as Bunnell notes, "Unfortunately, with me on tour and Steve still in school we weren't writing together. In fact, we didn't resume our co-writing until 1969, after I had left the SAC."
The recording process would be different this time around as well. "Our first album sold well (250,000 copies), we had a nationwide number one record!" exclaims Weitz. "The first album was written quickly, recorded all in one week on a small budget at Original Sound studio on Sunset, in Hollywood. Some of the songs were worked out in the studio right before recording! It was recorded in a low tech studio, we were all feeling each other out. We had not had a lot of experience playing together yet, especially in a studio environment. After we completed the first album, we became a little more sure of each other. Also, at that point, we knew who was more musically talented and who was not, as far as contributing to the overall ideas of our sound. UNI [Records], I guess, was willing to spend more on the second album, in a better studio (TTG) with better equipment and sound. That led ultimately to a better all-around-sounding album. By then, we had played on the road together, we were just more polished, and getting tighter."
Adds guitarist Ed King, "All of the songs for the second album were written in the studio; in other words, they were barely rehearsed and the material wasn't played to a crowd. I played bass on all the songs that I wrote, and George Bunnell played bass on his songs." Other big changes were the Association-like vocal arrangements, devised by vocal coach Howard Davis, who Weitz thinks was brought in by the band's manager. "He was a great guy in his fifties that played piano and sang nightly at a bar in Montrose, California. His voice can be heard [doing the spoken section] in 'Nightmare of Percussion.' He was the main source of most of our three- and-four-part harmonies. That was another MAJOR influence in our sound. He had a great way of being patient with us while we rehearsed some pretty difficult stuff; none of us had previous harmony training as far as I know. Our 'patented' Strawberry Alarm Clock vocal sound was mostly, but not all, Howard Davis arrangements."
While the mixture of styles on the rest of the album testified to band's eclecticism, Weitz agrees it might have worked against the establishment of a consistent band sound and identity. "I think one of the problems was in the beginning, we would all write together. Now band members were splitting up into writing 'cliques' or writing partners: Ed and [rhythm guitarist] Lee Freeman, [drummer] Randy [Seol] and George, myself and sometimes Ed. I guess each of our styles of writing was going off in different directions -- not on purpose, it just happened.
A form of competition was developing in the wind...and notwithstanding the constant distraction of our producer, manager and record company execs always telling us what WE should do and HOW we have to sound musically to succeed. 'Trying to do it their way' was hindering our true musical direction, and we were not allowed to flourish on our own....whether we would have succeeded or flopped, at least we would have done it 'on our own.' We were always willing to take that chance all along, but were constantly being directed by the powers that be. We were afraid to react negatively for fear of UNI's rejection, and the ultimate end of our careers as the Strawberry Alarm Clock. So we went along with just about everything they wanted us to do, even if it meant failure.
Aside from "Tomorrow," the song that got the most exposure was "Pretty Song from Psych-Out," which was used in the notorious Dick Clark-produced Haight-Ashbury psychsploitation movie Psych-Out, starring Jack Nicholson (as guitarist of a fictional psychedelic rock band!). "We were invited on the Dick Clark show playing our #1 hit record," remembers Weitz. "Some time shortly after we performed on his show, I think he asked us to be in a movie he was producing. He also asked us to write a theme song for the movie, which was Ed and Lee's creation from start to finish." King's involvement didn't stop there: "I was assigned the job of sitting down with Jack Nicholson and teaching him some guitar stuff for the movie. The director wanted him to look like he was really playing. Jack really didn't want to have much to do with it!"
The album's diversity was also a reflection of the different tastes and, to some degree, tensions within the group. "Mark and I didn't care for Randy's taste in material," confesses King, "so the ['Curse of the Witches' and 'Nightmare of Percussion'] songs were pretty much recorded under protest. ['Nightmare of Percussion'] was a Bunnell/Seol tune, and they needed Howard [Davis]'s really deep 'thick' voice to complete the song, so they included him as a writer. It was their song, they arranged that with him. I liked Lee's lyrics very much, but didn't want him playing guitar on anything. As it turned out, Lee became a very good guitar player. But I think, during the Alarm Clock days, he was preoccupied with being a teenager. I was preoccupied with learning how to play that damn guitar."
Rather surprisingly, considering the band were still riding the momentum of "Incense and Peppermints" and also coming off a decent-sized follow-up hit single in "Tomorrow" (as well as touring with the Beach Boys and Buffalo Springfield in late 1967 and early 1968), the album failed to reach the charts. King lays some of the blame on the poor timing of the LP release, feeling that it came out way too late to capitalize on the success of the "Tomorrow" single, which was released a month before the album on which it was featured was even recorded. Weitz thinks UNI had already dropped the ball on the "Tomorrow" single, noting that "their record distribution nationwide on 'Tomorrow' was really slow and too late for the fans. It just wasn't promoted. We would play in a small town in the south, and the records weren't in the stores yet.
How could you sell records on tour if they're not in the record stores when you were there to promote them and play at a concert? Also our manager, Bill Holmes, put up a barrier to UNI and prevented them and other promoters from helping us. That was a big problem for us. Holmes was afraid of losing control of 'his' band, which probably backed down UNI, [the booking agencies] William Morris [and] Premier Talent, and others from promoting us more seriously and to the fullest. Holmes's possessiveness hurt us deeply. That alone was a huge hindrance to us moving forward in our careers, I thought." It didn't keep the Strawberry Alarm Clock, however, from recording quite a bit more material in the late 1960s, including two subsequent albums -- both now available on Collectors' Choice Music as CD reissues, on which the story continues.
by Richie Unterberger
Tracks
1. Nightmare Of Percussion (G. Bunnell, H. Davis, R. Seol ) - 2:57
2. Soft Skies, No Lies (E. King, L. Freeman) - 3:07
3. Tomorrow (L. Freeman, M. Weitz) - 2:14
4. They Saw The Fat One Coming (E. King, L. Freeman) - 3:25
5. Curse Of The Witches (G. Bunnell, R. Seol) - 6:46
6. Sit With The Guru (E. King, L. Freeman, M. Weitz) - 2:59
7. Go Back, You're Going The Wrong Way (E. King, L. Freeman, M. Weitz) - 2:19
8. Pretty Song From Psych-Out (E. King, L. Freeman) - 3:15
9. Sitting On A Star (G. Bunnell, R. Seol, S. Bartek) - 2:55
10.Black Butter, Past (E. King, H. Davis, L. Freeman) - 2:23
11.Black Butter, Present (E. King, L. Freeman) - 2:10
12.Black Butter, Future (E. King, H. Davis, L. Freeman) - 1:32
Blessed End was conceived in a 10th grade Geometry class in 1968 at Ridley High School by Ken Carson and Jim Shugarts. Neither one even owned a bass or guitar at that time. They agreed that it would be a fun challenge. Over the next summer they both acquired summer jobs and bought their first guitars. They would take turns at each others houses practicing together. In September of 1969 they recruited another guitarist Lenny Perchowski who was a neighbor of Kens'.
They met Mike Petrylak at Ridley High School and Doug Teti in a bowling league. They asked Doug and Mike to come to one of their practices and tryout for the group. When they came over everyone hit it off and Blessed End was formed. We rehearsed for a couple months and started playing school dances, coffee houses, pep rallies, splash parties and battle-of-the-bands. The band had a loyal bunch of fans and friends such as Angela, Clare, Libby, Lynne, Lucy, Mary Jo, Mary Lou, Sue, Phil and Steve whom we thank for all their devotion.
After playing for about a year Lenny had to leave the band to prepare for medical school. SteveQuinzi, joined the band in the fall of 1970. The band continued playing for after prom events, proms, coffee houses etc.
By the spring of 1971 the band was getting itchy to try doing more original tunes and also Ken and Doug were talking about the possibility of leaving for the Navy and medical school. The band decided to try and write a few songs and see how they would turn out. Over the summer of 1971 Jim and Steve devoted many hours composing the ten songs on the album Movin' On. The band rehearsed relentlessly for the recording session.
During the summer a local studio owner asked to borrow some of the band's equipment and Steve bartered for studio time in exchange. Movin' On was recorded in just one day with several songs being recorded totally live.
Several good paying jobs came along and the band had 1000 copies of Movin' On pressed. To save expense Jim had the album cover printed at a print shop where he was working at the time. Ken did the artwork on the cover. The band would always play one set of original music at each gig and then sell some albums. We sold enough records to cover expenses but the record never took off commercially.
Not long after recording the album, Ken left the band to join the Navy, mostly because his dad kicked him out of the house. After that the band lost some character. Blessed End made only one other recording without Ken and that was a remake of Can't Be Without Her with a substitute bass player.
Shortly after Ken was replaced by Rick Swanson, Jim left the group and was replaced by Ernie Fletsig who later had some personal problems, and had to leave the band. His replacement was Lou Grieco who had a personality clash with Mike. By the winter of 1973 things got pretty messy and Steve left to join a top 40 band and Blessed End formally ended.
Jim, started Argus at the end of 1971 and Ken and Mike joined the band, after Ken got a medical discharge from the Navy in 1973. They played together for 10 years.
Doug went on to college and is now a professor of psychology at the University of Maryland. Steve moved to Miami, Fl. in 1978 where he does music production for advertising and corporate presentations at Steve Quinzi Music. Steve is also a New Age artist with three albums out, The Pond, Vanishing Rainforest, and Rhythm Of The World . Mike went on to stay in the area and work as a self-employed auto mechanic. Ken and Jim went on to work at Boeing Helicopter Co. as research and development mechanics. Jim worked there as a manager of several departments until July of 2001. He now is working on a music project, and is President of Web Builder USA - a web page design company. Ken passed away from pancreatic cancer in 1992. The Blessed End
Tracks
1. Nighttime Rider (Steve Quinzi, Jim Shugarts) - 3:08
2. Someplace To Hide (Steve Quinzi) - 3:29
3. Is It Time (Jim Shugarts) - 4:22
4. Sometime You've Got To Be Strong (Steve Quinzi) - 3:51
5. Movin' On (Steve Quinzi) - 7:44
6. Day Before Tomorrow (Steve Quinzi) - 4:14
7. Dead Man (Jim Shugarts) - 2:36
8. Can't be Without Her (Steve Quinzi, Jim Shugarts) - 4:05
9. One Stop Woman (Steve Quinzi, Jim Shugarts) - 3:07
10.Escape Train (Steve Quinzi, Jim Shugarts) - 5:50
From the opening wah-wah rhythm guitar of "You Can Choose, and the thundering attack of Thain and Hartley when the group comes in, it's clear that Overdog is a considerably different beast to The Time Is Near.... While the previous album had an energy of its own, "You Can Choose righteously bristles with excitement. While nowhere near the metal-edge of Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, Miller adopts a weightier tone and more "reckless abandon approach to soloing.
That doesn't mean that Keef Hartley Band had walked away from its stylistic cross-pollination of soul, jazz, folk and rock. But even the ever-so-slightly countrified opening to "Plain Talkin' is propelled by a more visceral rhythm section, a more assertive solo from Anderson and some fine organ work from now-regular keyboardist Mick Weaver.
There were comparisons, at the time, between Keef Hartley Band and Colosseum, the group spearheaded by drummer Jon Hiseman, who guests on a couple of tracks here. The link is clear when Hartley takes the compositional reins on a couple of tracks, including the "Enroute section of the eight-minute "Theme/Enroute/Theme Reprise medley, which is a vamp-based jam feature for guest flautist Johnny Almond, whose group Mark-Almond would mine similar turf. He also contributes the Latin jazz-tinged, minor-keyed instrumental vamp "Imitations From Home, with Hiseman contributing some propulsive conga work.
But these tracks represent the lighter side of Overdog, an overall heavier album. Anderson's title track begins with thundering tom-toms and a bass pulse, over which Anderson delivers some processed guitar before heading into flat-out funk territory. "Roundabout —heard here in its original version and on two additional bonus takes—begins with another tom tom-driven beat that features a horn arrangement that, like many of the horn parts here and on The Time is Near..., could easily have fit into any version of British jazz/rock group Nucleus. Ultimately it turns rockier, but never loses sight of the soul component.
The link between Keef Hartley Band and groups like Nucleus is, in fact, not a far-fetched one. The difference is that Nucleus came to rock from a jazz background, while Keef Hartley Band did just the opposite. That there are common meeting points is further demonstration of the remarkably fluid cross-fertilization that was taking place in England at the time. Despite the liberal intermixing of musicians, each group managed to assert its own identity, and while there were other bands examining some of the same musical references, none of them sounded quite like Keef Hartley Band.
That Eclectic Discs has made these two seminal recordings available in 24-bit digitally mastered form from the original master tapes, with informative liner notes and a couple of bonus tracks on Overdog, means that while most of the members of the group have slipped into obscurity, a whole new generation of listeners can hear just how vibrant, unfettered and unbiased the English scene of the mid 1960s to mid 1970s was in general—and how great Keef Hartley Band were specifically.
by John Kelman
Tracks
1. You Can Choose (M. Anderson) - 5:30
2 . Plain Talkin' (M. Anderson) - 3:23
3. Theme Song/En Route/Theme Song (reprise) (M. Anderson, K. Hartley, G. Thain) - 8:05
4. Overdog (M. Anderson) - 4:20
5. Roundabout (M. Anderson) - 6:07
6. Imitations From Home (K. Hartley) - 3:35
7. We Are All The Same (M. Anderson) - 4:42
8. Roundabout (M. Anderson) - 2:55
9. Roundabout Part 2 (M. Anderson) - 4:18
