Ambergris, as it turned out, was a one-shot album from a band formed by Jerry Weiss, who’d played keyboards with the first version of Blood, Sweat and Tears. Leaving before the group recorded the second album, he formed Ambergris and got Steve Cropper of MG’s fame to produce it. It’s not groundbreaking in the way that the first BST album was or in the way that Chicago’s first two albums were. There are hints of Latin influences in some of the tracks, while some of them sound as if they could easily have been lifted from sessions by BST or Chicago. Highlights, from my listening, are “Play On Player” and “Walking on the Water.”
Jimmy Maelen (vocals & percussion) who played with John Lennon, the Jacksons, Talking Heads, Alice Cooper, Marlena Shaw, Jimi Hendrix, Peter Gabriel, Buddy Rich & too many others to mention. Lewis Kahn (trombone / violin) who later played live with Tito Puente. Larry Harlow (piano, organ & percussion) who had previously put out releases on the lauded Fania label and would much later record with the Mars Volta.
Tracks
1. Something Happened To Me (Jerry Weiss) - 2:50
2. Play On Player (Calvin Clash, Larry Harlow Kahn) - 3:23
3. Gotta Find Her (Arthur Miller, Jerry Weiss) - 3:54
4. Chocolate Pudding (Arthur Miller) - 4:27
5. Forget It, I Got It (Jimmy Miller, Gary Wright) - 4:20
6. Walking On The Water (Herbert L. Lewis, Fred Lewis) - 5:45
7. Sunday Lady (James Maeulen, Jerry Weiss) - 3:20
8. Home Groan (Jerry Weiss) - 3:14
9. Soul Food (Fred Lewis) - 3:15
10.Endless Night (Jerry Weiss) - 5:27
Ambergris
*Larry Harlow - Piano, Organ, Percussion
*Jerry Weiss - Fender Bass, Piano
*Charlie Camilleri - Lead Trumpet
*Harry Max - Trumpet, String Bass,, Violin
*Jimmy Maeulen - Vocals, Conga Drum
*Billy Shay - Guitar, Harmonica
*Lewis Kahn - Trombone, Violin
*Glenn John Miller - Trombone
*Gil Fields - Drums
Mars Bonfire has earned himself rock 'n' roll immortality, not to mention lifetime royalty checks, for penning Steppenwolf's inescapable classic "Born to Be Wild," that eternal anthem of would-be bikers and weekend hellraisers worldwide.
The power of the song has been blunted over the years, thanks to endless cover versions (including a duet between Ozzy Osbourne and Miss Piggy on the Kermit Unpigged album), and ironic use in sitcoms, films, and TV commercials. A listen to Bonfire's own recording of "Born to Be Wild" on this solo outing can remind one just how powerful the song really is.
Bonfire's take is druggier than the balls-out Steppenwolf hit, a slippery psychedelic tone without the dramatic dynamics and steamroller rhythm. It's still an upbeat rocker with twisting fuzz guitar leads, but Bonfire's vocals suggest a college kid dropping acid at a house party, while John Kay makes the same lyric into a threat. Bonfire didn't possess the macho bombast of his ex-bandmates; his self-titled debut is a lost masterpiece of introspective psych-pop full of great tunes.
The lead track, "Ride With Me, Baby" lays out everything on his mind with a groovy, dirty, Sunset Strip vibe. Bonfire manages to get out lines like "the beautiful thing has fallen thru with cancer, death, deformity" without sounding clumsy, and he catalogs his worries, woes, and hopes over six minutes of overdriven organ and guitar. "Night Time's for You" is another great rocker, a rather sinister celebration of the dark, while "Sad Eyes" and "Christina's Arms" are sweeter pop numbers.
Even at his most sensitive, Bonfire never drifts into the ether, keeping things grounded in hard rock instrumentation, so that even ballads like "Tenderness" and "How Much Older Will We Grow?" are loud, full-band affairs. Bonfire's talent as a songwriter was obvious to Steppenwolf, as they would go on to raid this album for a full four songs over the course of their career ("Tenderness," "Ride With Me, Baby," and "The Night Time's for You" all appeared on For Ladies Only).
This debut was repackaged a year later with a different track order as Faster Than the Speed of Life, but Bonfire was unable to net any hits of his own, and he retreated into private life.
by Fred Beldin
There are several reasons why the name of Mars Bonfire should be regarded as quite an important entry in every rock’n’roll related encyclopedia, and while being as good as any itself, none of these reasons happen to be his own LP, originally released on the Uni label in 1968, soon to be re-issued on Columbia.
Before actually starting the “bonfire” of his career, along with, among others, Bruce Palmer (soon to join another fellow Canadian in forming Buffalo Springfield), Mars joined Jack London & The Sparrows as Dennis Edmonton. With German émigré, John Kay, replacing their front man, and shortening the name into The Sparrow, the band relocated to New York, releasing a couple of singles, with Mars’ own Tomorrow’s Ship / Isn’t It Strange these days being considered for a minor psychedelic classic.
After yet another move, onto an even hipper coast, the disillusioned Dennis Edmonton, finally becomes Mars Bonfire, while leaving some of his own songs behind, most notably Born To Be Wild, helping his former bandmates reach the long desired heights “faster than the speed of life”, and under a different moniker of another, more appropriate beast ….. without himself present, ironically enough.
Being too tempting to avoid, I suppose Mars just couldn’t help but “cover” his defining number himself, somewhat lacking a ball or two in delivery, compared to the “original”, and it’s a pretty similar kind of a groove that he explores in a more sophisticated way for the album’s title track.
In spite of it not being suggested so, most of the album falls into a lighter, occasionally slightlydelic sound, as heard in Sad Eyes, Lady Moon Walker, She, So Alive With Love or How Much Older Will We Grow?, with the latter being a great Beatle-ish Britsike ballad.
Sometimes he even gets down the folky country round (Tenderness), and on a couple of bluesier tracks, the fragility of the vocal delivery seems to place him somewhere halfway between the Al Wilson-fronted Canned Heat and the Mickey Dolenz-fronted Monkees (Ride With Me Baby, Night Time’s For You).
No less than three more tracks from Faster … were covered by Steppenwolf in 1971, making the legacy of their former bandmate an inexhaustible source, which he hasn’t seemed to be able to take advantage of himself.
by Garwood Pickjon
Tracks
1. Ride With Me, Baby - 6:07
2. Born To Be Wild - 2:58
3. Sad Eyes - 2:25
4. Lady Moon Walker - 2:45
5. Tenderness - 4:26
6. How Much Older Will We Grow? - 5:47
7. So Alive With Love - 2:45
8. In Christina's Arms - 3:15
9. Little Girl Lost - 2:35
10.Time To Fly - 2:32
11.Night Time's For You - 2:16
All compositions by Mars Bonfire.
Tracks
1. Faster Than The Speed Of Life - 2:59
2. Born To Be Wild - 2:59
3. Sad Eyes - 2:19
4. Lady Moon Walker - 2:39
5. Tenderness - 4:26
6. She - 2:584
7. Ride With Me Baby - 6:01
8. How Much Older Will We Grow? - 5:48
9. So Alive With Love - 2:40
10.In Christina's Arms - 3:11
11.Night Time's For You - 2:16
All songs by Mars Bonfire
Curt Newbury was born and raised in Texas, but while one can hear traces of his Western heritage in his voice, his sole album, 1970s Half a Month of May Days, is an archetypical example of West Coast singer/songwriter-oriented country-rock in its formative stages. Half a Month of May Days features several members of the celebrated psychedelic group Kaleidoscope backing Newbury, and though these sessions lack the sense of trippy adventure that marked that band's best work, Newbury's elliptical wordplay and gently loping melodies mesh nicely with the chiming guitars, fiddles, and organ lines of the studio band, and they turn these tunes into something truly memorable.
Newbury's songs sometimes sound poetic in all the worst ways, but while there are a few flashes of nearly terminal pretension here, most of the time Newbury has the good sense to reign himself in, and his broad celebrations of women, good times, and the mysteries of the universe (as well as decrying the war in Vietnam that was still raging) are well served by his ambitious phrasing and strong, supple tenor voice. And given Newbury's later career as a photographer specializing in glamor shots of teenage models, "Let's Hang Some Pictures Tonight" sounds more than a little prescient. Half a Month of May Days is a good bit short of a lost masterpiece, but it's certainly the work of a talented artist who was well-served in the studio as he was working out a rather ambitious musical vision, and folks with a taste for the acid-tinged side of country-rock will find it well worth investigating.
by Mark Deming
Tracks
1. S And C See Me - 4:43
2. Christ, How Easy Could It Be? - 4:03
3. To Marcia - 2:42
4. Highchair Blue - 3:17
5. Let's Hang Some Pictures Tonight - 4:01
6. Half A Month Of Maydays - 4:51
7. Colonel Haygood - 3:39
8. A Girl Is Just Too Much - 4:32
9. Maybe Summer Bells - 3:35
10.Private Jackson Regrets - 2:10
All songs by Curt Newbury
Musicians
*Curt Newbury - Vocals, Guitar
*Jeff Kaplan - Guitar, Organ, Bass, Piano
*Ron Johnson - Bass
*Paul Lagos - Drums
*Coffi Hall - Percussion
*Rick Matthews - Percussion
*Templeton Parsley - Electric Violin
*Max Buda - Harmonica
*Richard Aplanalp - Clarinet
*Mike Deasy - Guitar, Mandolin
*Howard Johnson - Tuba
*Pat Smith - Bass, Fiddle
Paul Pena came from a Cape Verdean background and learned the Afro-Portuguese music of those islands, including morna. His musician father also sent him to Spain and Portugal to study flamenco. He began to get interested in blues, though. Because of the folk movement in the '60s, he managed to work his way up and sideways, and started to to play with T-Bone Walker and John Lee Hooker. He released a solo album on Capitol in 1972 which did fairly well critically, if not commercially. He moved to San Francisco and began opening gigs for the Grateful Dead. All the while, Pena was impressing many of the musicians with whom he came in contact. He began work on a second album in 1973, but mismanagement conspired to keep it from ever being released. Among the special guests on the album are Jerry Garcia, Merle Saunders, Ben Sidran, and The Persuasions.
Produced by Ben Sidran (Steve Miller, Mose Allison), New Train is being released after its sudden discovery among Pena's personal possessions. Among the songs on the album is the track "Jet Airliner" which was originally penned and sung by Pena and later was a hit for the Steve Miller Band in the 1970s. Performing on the album is the late Jerry Garcia who played the pedal steel guitar on "Venutian Lady" and "Taking Your Love Down." Merle Saunders played keyboards on "Venutian Lady" and "New Train" and R&B greats The Persuasions sang background vocals on "Gonna Move" and "Let's Move and Groove."
Pena, who was born blind and is currently suffering from a terminal illness, studied the piano, guitar, upright bass, violin, and "a little trumpet." Cutting his teeth in coffee houses in and around New England he was soon playing the Newport Folk Festival with such artists as James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, and Kris Kristofferson. As his career furthered, he began playing with B.B. King, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, and Bonnie Raitt. He eventually decided to relocate to San Francisco, where he recorded and released an album on Capitol Records and began working with T-Bone Walker.
Raitt says of Pena, "I've loved Paul and his music since I used to open gigs for him in Worcester, MA thirty years ago. He was then as he is now, one of the most extraordinarily gifted singers, guitarists and songwriters I've ever heard. It was like finding my very own Jimi Hendrix - there's simply nothing he can't play well. Long deserving of wider recognition, I'm glad the film Genghis Blues exposed the rest of the world to his genius. But the real cause for celebration is the long overdue release of his extraordinary album - Paul is a treasure. One of the most unique and soulful artists you'll ever hear."
As the subject of the Academy Award nominated documentary Genghis Blues, Pena first heard Tuvan throat singing, a technique in which a singer produces two or three tones simultaneously, in 1984 and soon taught himself the difficult vocal techniques and language. After meeting performer Kongar-ol Ondar in 1993, Paul was invited to perform at the second international Khoomei Symposium and contest held in the capital - Kyzyl, Tuva and won the contest in the Kargyraa division as well as the "audience favorite" category.
In an article published in 1973 by The Times (MA), Pena is "reminiscent of a young Jimi Hendrix, a dramatic and stylized guitar player. His voice has a touch of pain, humor, and loneliness that is characteristic of a folk singer. Pena is his own master and this becomes readily apparent as he eases through his intense compositions. Pena is a musician's musician." Touching people wherever he goes, Pena was named "San Francisco's Tuvan Blues Ambassador" and July 11, 1999 was declared "Paul Pena Day" by the mayor. Paul Pena passed away on October 4th 2005, due to complications of diabetes and pancreatitis.
by Julie Lichtenstein
Tracks
1. Gonna Move - 4:31
2. New Train - 4:54
3. Jet Airliner - 5:42
4. Wait On What You Want - 3:29
5. Venutian Lady - 4:43
6. Cosmic Mirror - 5:24
7. Let's Move And Groove Together - 4:13
8. Indian Boy - 4:38
9. A Bit Of All Right - 3:44
10.Taking Your Love Down - 2:53
All Music and Lyrics by Paul Pena
The American folk-rock group Wings -- not to be confused with Paul McCartney's 1970's-era band -- is one of the more enigmatic recording outfits of their era, partly owing to the fact that although they managed to cut an entire album, nowhere on its packaging were any credits or other information about the group, just a photo. They were actually an off-shoot of Spanky & Our Gang and the Serendipity Singers, with members who had played in the early incarnations of groups such as the Jefferson Airplane and who would later go on to work with bands such as Mountain.
The group initially came together as a trio consisting of Oz Bach (ex-Spanky & Our Gang), Pam Robins (ex-Serendipity Singers, and Eddie Simon, but the latter was subsequently replaced by guitarist/singer Jim Mason (co-author of the Peter, Paul & Mary hit "I Dig Rock And Roll Music"). Their line-up was rounded out by keyboard player Steve Knight, lead guitarist Jack McNichol, and drummer Jerry Peloquin. The group spent most of late 1967 and a big chunk of 1968 performing, and got to play as the opening act behind bands like Big Brother & The Holding Company, and got a recording contract with ABC-Dunhill Records -- at the time, they seemed like a potential successor to the Mamas & The Papas, especially once producer Steve Barri heard Pam Robins' powerful vocals.
Despite a nicely honed sound and a year of work together, however, the group never got their act together or their signals straight; even the selection of the name "Wings" was sheer serendipity, after an extended period of disagreement, a suggestion by one of Jim Mason's friends. The finished album, produced by Steve Barri -- who, with his backgound as a member/producer of the Grass Roots, knew a thing or two about the folk-rock sound -- never sounded as good as it might have, reportedly due, in part, to the way that it was mastered, and they were unable to agree on a direction or a sound to emphasize when it came time to tour behind it.
Despite some minimal success for the song "General Bringdown", the LP and the group vanished into history -- Peloquin, who had played with the Jefferson Airplane in its earliest days, continued working into the 1970's with various bands before giving up music, and Steve Knight later played with Mountain, while Oz Bach, who passed away in 1998, went on to form Tarantula and to a career as an actor and filmmaker. Paul McCartney later picked up on the group's name for his own uses, which has resulted in the occasional spectacle of unknowing vinyl enthusiasts finding the American group Wings' self-titled album and thinking they may have latched on to a McCartney-related rarity. Their sound was actually closer to that of the Mamas & The Papas or the Stone Poneys.
by Bruce Eder
Tracks
1. See Someone Hangin' (Oz Bach) - 4:11
2. That's Not Real (Jim Mason, Pam Robins) - 3:30
3. General Bringdown (Jim Mason, Oz Bach, Jack McNichol) - 2:34
4. First Time Is The Last (Oz Bach) - 3:04
5. What Do I Know (Jim Mason) - 2:43
6. Pretty Little Girl (Oz Bach) - 3:48
7. Takin' It Lazy (Oz Bach) - 3:09
8. Shrinking Violet (Jim Mason, Felix Pappalardi, Gail Collins) - 2:09
9. Different Kind Of Woman (Pam Robins, Seth Evans, Joe Piazza) - 2:43
10.Changes (Keep Coming About) (Oz Bach) - 2:26
11.Give Me Your Love (Jim Mason) - 2:14
I like the way how Marc Ellington approaches his songs and choices, Sandy Roberton's flawless production, great song adaptations, excellent musicians, and beautiful sound collages, which makes it possible for Marc Ellington to embody and interpret the songs perfectly by smartly slipping from traditional country to folk and blues into straight rock tunes.
His 5th album titled "Marc Time" released 1975, -with contributions from some of the U K's top session players-, stands out the powerful "Ad Man", the self penned (along with Sandy) guitar acid funk "You Just Can't Believe What You See", the blues killer "Stealin" and the beautiful country song "Streets Of Baltimore", written by Harlan Howard, Tompall Glaser -first covered by Bobby Bare-, in any case the whole album moves in high level
.
Tracks
1. Wild About My Lovin' (Traditional) - 3:29
2. The Answer Is You (Marc Ellington, Sandy Roberton, Paul Kent) - 3:16
3. Stealin' (Traditional) - 2:43
4. Streets Of Baltimore (Harlan Howard, Tompall Glaser) - 2:46
5. Ad Man (Marc Ellington, Sandy Roberton) - 2:11
6. I Miss The Mississippi And You (Bill Halley) - 2:46
7. Shady Lies (Richard Thompson) - 2:34
8. Borrowing Time (Chris Hillman, Joe Lala) - 2:14
9. Close The Door (Sandy Roberton, Paul Kent) - 2:49
10.You Just Can't Believe What You See (Marc Ellington, Sandy Roberton) - 3:46
11.Anyday Woman (Paul Siebel) - 2:11
12.Peggy Gordo (Traditional) - 3:18
Hailing from Gravesend in Kent, Fantasy formed in 1970 and were originally known as Chapel Farm, after their rehearsal space. The original line-up was Dave Metcalfe (keyboards), Paul Lawrence (guitar / vocals), Bob Vann (guitar), Dave Read (bass) and Brian Chatham (drums). Initially they focused on cover versions, then began to develop their own material, and decided to enter themselves in Melody Maker's annual 'Search' talent contest. On the day of their heat at a hotel in nearby Cliftonville, the band became concerned when they lost sight of Vann, who had been celebrating his 18th birthday with various drinks. To their horror they realized that he had fallen off a cliff and was lying on the beach below. An ambulance was summoned, but he died on the way to hospital.
Following that blow Chatham also departed their ranks, but the band decided to persevere with new members Pete James (guitar) and Jon Webster (drums), both recruited from a local band named Joy. With a new name of Firequeen, they rehearsed hard and scored support slots with bands including
the Pink Fairies and the Edgar Broughton Band. When they sent a demo tape to numerous labels, Polydor expressed an interest, on the understanding that they changed their name to Fantasy – a name they never liked, but decided to put up with.
A contract was duly signed in the spring of 1973, and the band set about recording their LP in Chipping Norton Studios, Oxfordshire, with producer Peter Sames (who'd recently overseen another cult favourite, Bored Civilians by Cross & Ross, as well as collaborating with hitmaker Peter Skellern).
The album they cut was a superb piece of Moody Blues-inspired prog rock, featuring beautifully textured songs with strong melodies and sublime Mellotron flourishes. Especially notable was The Award', a tribute to their late guitarist Vann. Trailed by an equally rare brass-laden 45, 'Politely Insane' / 'I Was Once Aware' (Polydor 2058 405), which appeared in October (and features a non-LP B-side), the album appeared that winter as Polydor 2383 246, clad in a colourful gatefold sleeve. Its working title was Virgin On The Ridiculous, but fortunately they ended up retitling it. It could have done very well, but Polydor chose not to promote it - perhaps because the band had not committed to music full-time (they still had day-jobs).
Following its release they played a few gigs, including one at the Marquee supporting Queen, but momentum failed to build. Nonetheless, they remained upbeat, returning to the studio with Sames in July 1974 The sessions, The tracks finally emerged two however, did not go smoothly, decades later, as Beyond The and when Polydor rejected the Beyond, confirming that justice is tapes, Metcalfe decided to quit, rarely done in the music business...
CD Liner Notes
Tracks
1. Introduction - 2:12
2. Beyond The Beyond - 5:38
3. Reality - 2:59
4. Alanderie - 9:01
5. Afterthought (David Metcalfe, David Read, Geoff Whitehorn, Paul Petley) - 5:52
6. Worried Man - 2:57
7. Just A Dream - 3:34
8. Winter Rose - 3:29
9. Church Clock - 3:51
10.Fire-Fire (Geoff Whitehorn) - 6:47
11.Vacuum (David Read) - 4:09
12.Alone (David Read) - 4:38
13.Afterthought(David Metcalfe, David Read, Geoff Whitehorn, Paul Petley) - 7:30
14.Church Clock- 3:38
All songs by David Metcalfe, David Read, Paul Lawrence except where stated
Bonus Tracks 10-14
Fantasy
*Paul Lawrence - 12 String Guitar, Lead Vocals
*David Read - Bass, Double Bass, Vocals
*David Metcalfe - Keyboards, Clarinet, Vocals
*Peter James - Lead Guitar, Vocals
*Jon Webster - Drums, Vocals
*Geoff Whitehorn - Lead Guitar (Tracks 10-13)
*Paul Petley - Lead Vocals (Tracks 10-13)
*Brian Chattam - Drums (Tracks 10-13)
Humble Pie endured their share of turbulent times early in the band's existence, overcoming the early departure of guitarist Peter Frampton through a steady diet of regular album releases and a seemingly never-ending series of tours arranged by manager Dee Anthony. By the mid-'70s, they'd attained a measure of commercial success, sending a string of LPs into the American Top 40 and notching a handful of hit singles along the way -- but they were also flat broke, tired of life on the road, and coming apart at the seams.
The band's eighth studio LP, Street Rats, captures Humble Pie mid-implosion; in fact, according to the group's members, it wasn't even supposed to be a Humble Pie record at all. Bandleader Steve Marriott, burned out after one too many tours, wanted to take a break from making the band his top priority, and although their label, A&M Records, was impatient for more Pie product, he opted instead to begin work on three LPs -- a solo album, a duo record with the group's bassist Greg Ridley, and a proper Pie release. Unsurprisingly, between this scattershot creative approach and the musicians' overall burnout, the results weren't exactly coherent.
"Everything was so self-destructive at that point," pointed out drummer Jerry Shirley years later in Dan Muise's book, Gallagher, Marriott, Derringer & Trower: Their Lives and Music. "Everybody was doing everything in a dozen different directions and nothing was getting done." Adding to the band's dire financial straits was their ironclad contract with Anthony, who, as Shirley put it, "had us truly locked up ... it was a nightmare of a time."
Marriott, who ultimately ended up writing or co-writing five of the 11 tracks on Street Rats, dealt with the drama through overindulgence. "Steve's way of dealing with things was buying an ounce of coke every other day and burying himself in his studio," Shirley continued. "When you've got nothing but carte blanche studio time and all the coke in the world, all you do is record." Quantity doesn't necessarily constitute quality, however, especially when you're too addled to make sound decisions about the stuff coming out of the speakers, and so it was with the Street Rats sessions. "There were great bits here and there," argued Shirley, "but there was no one focus on one record."
Ridley, who described himself and Marriott in Muise's book as "two lonely souls," looked back on that period as a sort of sleepless musical haze. "We'd just sit there for almost a week at a time without sleeping," he recalled. "He and I would just go through different things. He'd say, 'Let's try this chord,' and then we'd go off from that."
Eventually, A&M execs grew tired of footing the bill for what appeared to be an increasingly aimless trio of projects and mandated that Marriott and the band bring in a producer to help shepherd the sessions. Their choice, flamboyant former Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham, had name value -- and experience with wrangling drugged-out musicians -- but he wasn't really the rough hand that Humble Pie needed at that point. Although he ended up doing a lot of work salvaging the recordings, Street Rats -- and the band itself -- was probably already a lost cause before he even walked through the door of the studio.
"The rot had long since set in," admitted Shirley. "He tried, he failed, let's put it like that. There was all kinds of nonsense going on."
Not that the band were the only parties guilty of nonsense. Insistent on releasing a Humble Pie album and steadfastly disinterested in Marriott's other plans, the label ultimately commandeered the tapes, demanding that an LP's worth of tracks from the period later dubbed the Scrubbers Sessions be cobbled together into the "band's" next effort. Under duress and fairly shady circumstances, Street Rats was born.
In the months after the album's February 1975 release date, Marriott and his bandmates would publicly disavow the results, with Marriott going so far as to insist that the label "stole" the tapes for the title track, which was played with people outside the band and had "nothing to do" with Humble Pie. Prior to the album's completion, however, the members of the group were more resigned than angry.
"No one cared. No one was talking. We'd already broken up," shrugged Shirley. "We'd agreed to allow the album to be released and to do a farewell tour. Other than that we were pretty much done."
And that's essentially the way it went down for Humble Pie during the Street Rats period. When a last-ditch effort to get Marriott and Ridley to clean up and redouble their commitment to the group failed -- along with an attempt to lure Who manager Bill Curbishley into their camp and ditch Anthony -- Shirley and guitarist Clem Clempson felt there was no choice but to walk away.
While Street Rats fared poorly in comparison to its predecessors, peaking at an unimpressive No. 100 on the Billboard albums chart, there was still plenty of demand for Humble Pie -- something that became abundantly clear during the farewell tour, which drew healthy crowds even if Shirley and Clempson were playing with one foot out the door. And although Marriott and Shirley would revive the band name in later years, both together and apart, the group's glory years were firmly behind them. After Marriott died in a house fire in April of 1991, all hopes for any kind of real reunion were permanently quashed.
Although it's easy to paint Humble Pie's story as another tragic tale of bad behavior and financial tomfoolery splitting up a once-promising band, not all of the group's former members agreed with that point of view. Years later, Clempson gave Muise a more philosophical take on what drove the Pie apart, speculating that the lineup might have dissolved no matter what.
"There are hundreds of Humble Pies and they may all have their personal reasons that they attribute to their downfall," he mused. "But it's usually just because they have a creative period and they get popular. They get some hit songs and everybody wants to hear them. And they just fail to live up to it for whatever reasons. The pressures of touring, the internal conflicts of egos, believing their own hype -- all these things are contributing factors."
by Jeff Giles, February 13, 2015
Tracks
1. Street Rat (Steve Marriott) - 2:51
2. Rock And Roll Music (Chuck Berry) - 2:31
3. We Can Work It Out (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) - 3:20
4. Scored Out (Clem Clempson, Steve Marriott) - 2:34
5. Road Hog (Steve Marriott) - 3:09
6. Rain (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) - 4:02
7. Funky To The Bone (Fred Gowdy, Larry Wilkins) - 4:12
8. Let Me Be Your Lovemaker (Betty Wright, Clarence Reid, Willie Clarke) - 5:57
9. Countryman Stomp (Clem Clempson, Greg Ridley, Tim Hinkley) - 2:20
10.Drive My Car (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) - 3:42
11.Queens And Nuns (Unknown) - 3:05
12.Big Black Dog (Peter Frampton) - 4:05
13.Mister Ring (Greg Ridley) - 4:24
14.The Outcrowd (Jerry Shirley) - 2:51
15.I Don't Need No Doctor (Single Version) (Nickolas Ashford, Valerie Simpson, Jo Armstead) - 3:58
The Floating Opera is into a Blues-Rock sound made unique by guitarist Steve Welkom's persuasive singing in "Vision", he's joined by Gary Munce on bass, and Artie Alinikoff on excellent drums/vocals, while Carol Less provided driving keyboard counterpoint which consistently defined their sound.
The Floating Opera Self-Titled Original 1971 Embryo Records SD-730, has some real moments where the guitar takes off into the stratosphere. They do a nice job with the ballads, and it's cleanly produced. The album is packaged in a nice looking gatefold cover with the lyrics inside, and the group's picture on the front.
Tracks
1. Song Of The Suicides - 4:54
2. The Vision - 6:09
3. Midnight - 3:25
4. Buckwheat Gal - 3:56
5. Fever Day (Carol Lees, John Nemerovski, Steve Welkom) - 4:32
6. Age Of Onan - 4:33
7. Crack On The Wall - 2:46
8. Back On The Street Again - 4:06
9. Angelfood Cake Song (Gary Munce, John Nemerovski, Steve Welkom) - 4:21
10.Soulful Feeling - 5:14
All songs by John Nemerovski, Steve Welkom except where stated
The Floating Opera
*John Nemerovski - Piano
*Steve Welkom - Vocals, Guitar
*Artie Alinikoff - Drums, Vocals
*Carol Lees - Keyboards, Vocals
*Gary Munce - Bass
When the Hollies -- one of the best and most commercially successful pop/rock acts of the British Invasion -- began recording in 1963, they relied heavily upon the R&B/early rock & roll covers that provided the staple diet for countless British bands of the time. They quickly developed a more distinctive style featuring three-part harmonies (heavily influenced by the Everly Brothers), ringing guitars, and hook-happy material, penned by both outside writers (especially future 10cc member Graham Gouldman) and themselves, eventually composing most of their repertoire on their own. The best early Hollies records evoke an infectious, melodic cheer similar to that of the early Beatles, although the Hollies were neither in their class (not an insult: nobody else was) nor demonstrated a similar capacity for artistic growth. They tried, though, easing into somewhat more sophisticated folk-rock and mildly psychedelic sounds as the decade wore on, especially on their albums (which contain quite a few overlooked highlights).
Allan Clarke (lead singer) and Graham Nash (vocals, guitar) had been friends since childhood in Manchester, and they formed the nucleus of the Hollies in the early '60s with bassist Eric Haydock. In early 1963, EMI producer Ron Richards signed the group after seeing them at the famous Cavern Club in Liverpool. Guitarist Vic Steele left before the first session, to be replaced by 17-year-old Tony Hicks. Drummer Don Rathbone only lasted for a couple of singles before being replaced by Bobby Elliott, who had played with Hicks in his pre-Hollies group, the Dolphins. The lineup changes were most fortuitous: Hicks contributed a lot to the group with his ringing guitar work and songwriting, and Elliott was one of the very finest drummers in all of pop/rock. Although their first singles were R&B covers, the Hollies were no match for the Rolling Stones (or, for that matter, the Beatles) in this department, and they sounded much more at home with pop/rock material that provided a sympathetic complement to their glittering harmonies. They ran off an awesome series of hits in the U.K. in the '60s, making the Top 20 almost 20 times. Some of their best mid-'60s singles, like "Here I Go Again," "We're Through," and the British number one "I'm Alive," passed virtually unnoticed in the United States, where they didn't make the Top 40 until early 1966, when Graham Gouldman's "Look Through Any Window" did the trick. In 1966, Eric Haydock left the group under cloudy circumstances, replaced by Bernie Calvert.
The Hollies really didn't break in America in a big way until "Bus Stop" (1966), their first Stateside Top Tenner; "On a Carousel," "Carrie Ann," and "Stop Stop Stop" were also big hits. Here the Hollies were providing something of a satisfying option for pop-oriented listeners that found the increasingly experimental outings of groups like the Beatles and Kinks too difficult to follow. At the same time, the production and harmonies were sophisticated enough to maintain a broader audience than more teen- and bubblegum-oriented British Invasion acts like Herman's Hermits. Their albums showed a more serious and ambitious side, particularly on the part of Graham Nash, without ever escaping the truth that their forte was well-executed pop/rock, not serious statements.
by Richie Unterberger
Tracks
1. Bus Stop (Graham Gouldman) - 2:55
2. The Very Last Day (Paul Stooky, Peter Yarrow) - 2:57
3. Hard Hard Year (Allan Clarke, Tony Hicks, Graham Nash) - 2:17
4. Sweet Little Sixteen (Chuck Berry) - 2:25
5. That's How Strong My Love Is (Roosevelt Jamison) - 2:47
6. Oriental Sadness (Allan Clarke, Tony Hicks, Graham Nash) - 2:39
7. I Am A Rock (Paul Simon) - 2:52
8. Stop Stop Stop (Allan Clarke, Tony Hicks, Graham Nash) - 2:50
9. I Can't Let Go (Chip Taylor, Al Gorgoni) - 2:27
10.Fifi The Flea (Allan Clarke, Tony Hicks, Graham Nash) - 2:09
11.Stewball (Traditional) - 3:07
12.I've Got A Way Of My Own (Allan Clarke, Tony Hicks, Graham Nash) - 2:15
13.Take Your Time (Buddy Holly, Norman Petty) - 2:23
14.Don't You Even Care (Clint Jr Ballard) - 2:28
15.If I Needed Someone (Saturday Club 13th December 1965) (George Harrison) - 2:18
16.He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother (Top Of The Pops Tv 2nd October 1969) (Bob Russell, Bobby Scott) - 4:11
During the British Invasion years, a Cleveland, Ohio band called The Choir ploughed a Brit-focussed furrow from late 1964. Initially and tellingly, they were named The Mods. Their prime mover, Dann Klawon, was a subscriber the switched-on UK monthly Rave, had missed a Mods show to hitch-hike to a Rolling Stones concert and was the first Clevelander to own a copy of “Purple Haze”. His band became The Choir in 1966, played on Who and Yardbirds’ bills, and went through continuous line-up changes. Even so, they issued three singles over 1966 to 1968 beginning with the classic “It’s Cold Outside”. Their music had a moody, minor-key, Zombies-leaning slant.
In February 1969, with founder Dann Klawon gone but his brother Randy on board and with the ethos of the band intact, The Choir recorded an album’s worth of material in the hope of securing a contract with Mercury Records. The new CD Artifact: The Unreleased Album is the first-ever release of this album. Some of its tracks – “Anyway I Can”, “Boris Lament”, a cover of The Kinks’ “David Watts” and “If These Are Men” – have come out before in varying grades of fidelity but Artifact is sourced from recently unearthed masters found in the archive of the late Ken Hamman () - best known for his work with Pere Ubu, the owner of the Ohio studio Suma.
Artifact is a major release and helps fill out the narrative in a figurative chapter of the story of America’s popular music: one dedicated to late-Sixties bands drawing from the hard-edged side of British pop rather than a Band-inspired rootsiness, blues-influenced heaviness or other au courant templates. Similarly minded fellow travellers included Todd Rundgren’s The Nazz and California’s Powder. Artifact places The Choir as central to this narrative.
At this point, The Choir were on the their fifth. The presence of two keyboards acknowledges a Procol Harum influence but the recordings reveal the band as having, to varying degrees, ears open to The Bee Gees, The Kinks, Small Faces and The Who. They did not score a deal with Mercury and, after another couple of line-up changes and a further single, packed it in during June 1970. Bonfanti soon went on to The Raspberries, whose leader Eric Carmen was also from Cleveland and had been in other local bands while The Choir were active.
The Choir were important not just because they were a great band in their own right but also as they impacted on The Raspberries, one of America’s greatest Seventies bands. Eric Carmen has long acknowledged his enthusiasm for The Choir. Some of Artifact could pass for early Raspberries recordings.
Track one is “Anyway I Can”, which first surfaced in murky quality on a 1976 EP issued by the Bomp label and reappeared in slightly better fidelity on CD in 1994 . Though it is the same recording, the new version is a revelation. It is pin-sharp, sports edgy dynamics and is thrillingly immediate. Practically, whether intentionally or not, “Anyway I Can” is the core essence of The Left Banke’s “Walk Away Renee” made over by enthusiasts for the 1968 Small Faces. While possible to detect the ingredients, the track sounds like nothing else. In part, this is due a sturdiness and drumming so powerful it’s as if Bonfanti is trying to hammer his kit through the studio floor.
If that were not enough to make the case for the 1969 Choir as one of America’s great bands, the excitement continues with the driving mod-rocker “If These Are Men” () - more amazing drumming and the fantastic “Ladybug”, a rolling ballad suggesting Procol Harum’s “She Wandered Through the Garden Fence” but infused with power chords and even more of that assertive drumming. On the relatively subdued yet intense ballad “Have I no Love to Offer”, the band get close the emotive force of Robin Gibb in full flow. The powerful “It’s All Over” also brings The Bee Gees to mind.
This configuration of The Choir, though, was more than the sum of it what it drew from. The unique identity shining through seamlessly melds high-pitched, yearning vocals, minor-key melodies and a lacerating power-pop attack. Exactly what The Raspberries took into the American charts in 1972.
Unfortunately, although the booklet with Artifact includes a couple of short reminiscences and a note on the source tape it lacks a contextualising essay. Thankfully, the extraordinary music says it all. This is one of the Sixties’ great lost albums and its appearance is to be greeted with, as The Raspberries sang in 1973, ecstasy.
by Kieron Tyler, Sunday, 18 February 2018
Tracks
1. Anyway I Can (Phil Giallombardo) - 3:30
2. If These Are Men (Denny Carleton) - 2:58
3. Ladybug (Phil Giallombardo) - 3:21
4. I Can't Stay In Your Life (Kenny Margolis) - 3:44
5. David Watts (Ray Davies) - 2:42
6. Have I No Love To Offer (Phil Giallombardo) - 5:42
7. For Eric (Kenny Margolis) - 6:39
8. It's All Over (Kenny Margolis) - 4:30
9. Boris' Lament (Phil Giallombardo) - 2:50
10.Mummer Band (Denny Carleton) - 2:38
Seldom in rock history have four guys who seemingly couldn’t stand each other sounded so good together as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young did on their 1971 double live album 4 Way Street. There have been plenty of great bands that thrived on creative and personal conflict, from the Kinks to the Ramones and beyond, but in most cases the battles were mainly between two of the members, usually the ones occupying the front line. But with CSNY there were four frontmen, and at various points during their time together, they apparently longed to defenestrate each other.
For a band of SoCal hippies, they sure were a fractious bunch; there were feuds between just about every member at one point or another. All these years later, Graham Nash dropped the F-bomb in reference to David Crosby during an interview, declaring the walrus-mustached balladeer persona non grata. So it’s amazing the extra-fragile four-man version of the lineup stayed together long enough to play the concerts captured on 4 Way Street, let alone the fact that they contain some of the strongest music any of them ever made, alone or together.
Against the odds, CSN had managed to improve upon the wheel by adding Y for the follow-up to their debut album. Déjà Vu managed to up the ante considerably thanks to Neil Young’s contributions. Three months after that record’s release, the quartet was out on tour playing the dates documented on 4 Way Street. Songs from shows at New York’s Fillmore East and Los Angeles' Forum in June 1970 and one at the Chicago Auditorium in July ended up on the album, capturing the band in all its fringe-jacketed glory as they opened up the throttle on album cuts and trotted out some still-unrecorded material.
With Young on board, everything got ratcheted up a notch or two. The vocal harmonies went from glistening and pristine to a more ragged-but-right feel, and songs that felt like friendly folk-rockers gained some serious edge and electric bite.
Stephen Stills and Young had been rivals ever since their time together in Buffalo Springfield, but they had always spurred each other on to greater creative heights. That’s the way it worked out here too. The epic six-string firefights they get into on tunes like “Southern Man” (which wouldn’t be heard on a studio record until Young’s After the Gold Rush was released in September) and “Carry On” were unlike anything on either of the band’s first two albums.
It’s the Bay Area bands of the era -- like the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Moby Grape -- who are always credited with the mightiest guitar firepower, but when Stills and Young started swinging their axes around onstage, they gave their friends to the north a run for their money.
Half the material on this record would never see the inside of a CSN(Y) studio album at all, such was the roll the members were on at that time; and a number of those cuts were among the strongest in the repertoire, not to mention on the record. Young’s heart-stopping ballad “On the Way Home,” Crosby’s lecherous but hypnotic tale of instigating a ménage a trois, “Triad,” and Nash’s indignant broadside “Chicago” all fall under that category.
The band was at its most politically charged at that point too, which was only natural considering the turmoil the country was in at the time. It was late 1969 when Bobby Seale was bound and gagged in a courtroom during his trial for inciting a riot at the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago, an event that inspired the aforementioned Nash song. And the horrific Kent State University killings of four students by National Guardsmen had just occurred in May 1970, moving young to pen the raging “Ohio.”
Stills gets his political licks in too, if a little less specifically, with the crowd-pleasing, piano-pumping clap-along medley “49 Bye-Byes/For What It’s Worth/America’s Children,” name-checking Richard Nixon, Spiro Agnew and Chicago mayor Richard Daley and shifting the Springfield-era “For What It’s Worth”’s focus from the Sunset Strip to something more all-encompassing.
4 Way Street was a huge hit, topping the album charts and earning an even bigger audience for the band. But it was also the beginning of the end, at least for a while. By the time the tour was over, the foursome had had enough of each other, splitting to pursue various solo and duo projects. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young didn’t perform together again until 1974, and it wasn’t until 1977 that another studio album (minus Young) was released.
But for all the acrimony fouling the band’s artistic ecosystem, there’s no denying the fact that they followed one of the finest studio albums of the era with a live album that was arguably even better, setting a high bar for the many double-length concert albums to come over the course of the decade.
by Jim Allen, April 5, 2016
Tracks
Disc 1
1. Suite: Judy Blue Eyes (Stephen Stills) - 0:34
2. On The Way Home (Neil Young) - 3:48
3. Teach Your Children (Graham Nash) - 3:02
4. Triad (David Crosby) - 6:55
5. The Lee Shore (David Crosby) - 4:29
6. Chicago (Graham Nash) - 3:11
7. Right Between The Eyes (Graham Nash) - 3:37
8. Cowgirl In The Sand (Neil Young) - 3:59
9. Don't Let Bring You Down (Neil Young) - 3:30
10.49 Bye-Byes-America's Children (Stephen Stills) - 6:35
11.Love The One You're With (Stephen Stills) - 3:25
12.King Midas In Reverse (Graham Nash, Allan Clarke, Tony Hicks) - 3:43
13.Laughing (David Crosby) - 3:36
14.Black Queen (Stephen Stills) - 6:45
15.Medley: The Loner-Cinnamon Girl-Down By The River (Neil Young) - 9:42
Disc 2
1. Pre-Road Downs (Graham Nash) - 3:05
2. Long Time Gone (David Crosby) - 5:59
3. Southern Man (Neil Young) - 13:45
4. Ohio (Neil Young) - 3:34
5. Carry On (Stephen Stills) - 14:19
6. Find The Cost Of Freedom (Stephen Stills) - 2:22)
This is an outstanding collection of contemporary folk-style art-songs by the late great arpeggio-style finger picking guitarist and songwriter Ron Davies...Those who appreciate classics from artists like Donovan, James Taylor, Paul Simon, Bert Jansch, and Don McLean, will find in UFO a rare glimpse of a unique American artist-the Louisiana born Ron Davies.
by Charles Anderson
Tracks
1. I Wonder - 3:42
2. Long Hard Climb - 3:12
3. Flapjack - 3:22
4. Misty Roses - 2:54
5. It's A Lie - 3:53
6. Can I Count On You - 3:24
7. It Ain't Easy - 4:17
8. Lay Down Your Burden - 3:03
9. Shadows - 5:37
All compositions by Ron Davies except Track #4 by Tim Hardin
Janis Joplin’s time in the San Francisco blues crew Big Brother and the Holding Co. was relatively short, only a couple of years — just long enough to record two albums and become an era-defining flashpoint at the Monterey Pop Festival. Their second album, 1968’s Cheap Thrills, became an acid-rock landmark thanks to the barnburner “Piece of My Heart,” a sultry cover of “Summertime” and the crushing, epic cover of Big Mama Thornton’s “Ball and Chain.” It went to Number One and was certified gold and within a few months of its release, Joplin quit to become a solo star.
The new compilation, Sex, Dope & Cheap Thrills, takes its title from the band’s original pitch for the name of the LP (the squares at the record label weren’t having it) and contains nearly two-and-a-half hours of alternate takes and live recordings from the Cheap Thrills era. Most of them are previously unreleased. The live recording of “Ball and Chain” sports a heavier beat and Joplin’s double-fried vocals — a stunning performance — followed by unreasonably polite applause. The three alternate takes of “Piece of My Heart” have a similar energy to the more familiar version, but show just how vibrant Joplin was at the sessions. And the second disc’s first take of “Summertime” captures a brilliant performance that would have been a thing of legend if the band hadn’t fallen apart at the end.
Other standouts include the foot-stomping “How Many Times Blues Jam,” an extended, wailing take on “I Need a Man to Love” and a charging, soulful take of “Combination of the Two.” There’s also studio banter, like Joplin cackling gloriously and saying, “I knew it was gonna take us all night,” before the ninth take of the oddball “Harry” and three takes of “Turtle Blues” on which Joplin talks out the feel of the song.
Also notable are the liner notes. The Jefferson Airplane’s Grace Slick remembers Joplin as a vivacious, joyful force and the Big Brother band as having a “down home” vibe. Meanwhile, drummer Dave Getz offers lively accounts of making the album and working with illustrator Robert Crumb on its problematic, iconic cover – and how the latter was stolen only to be sold at auction for a quarter of a million dollars. It’s the Janis Joplin bonus content you never knew you wanted.
by Kory Grow
Tracks
Disc 1
1. Combination Of The Two (Take 3) (Sam Andrew) - 5:33
2. I Need A Man To Love (Take 4) (Janis Joplin, Sam Andrew) - 8:06
3. Summertime (Take 2) (Dorothy Heyward, George Gershwin) - 4:11
4. Piece Of My Heart (Take 6) (Bert Berns, Jerry Ragovoy) - 4:56
5. Harry (Take 10) (Dave Getz, James Gurley, Janis Joplin, Peter Albin, Sam Andrew) - 1:12
6. Turtle Blues (Take 4) (Janis Joplin) - 4:47
7. Oh, Sweet Mary (Janis Joplin) - 4:24
8. Ball And Chain (Live) (Big Mama Thornton) - (7:29
9. Roadblock (Peter Albin, Janis Joplin) - 5:43
10.Catch Me Daddy (Take 1) (Dave Getz, James Gurley, Janis Joplin, Peter Albin, Sam Andrew) - 5:34
11.It's A Deal (Take 1) (Dave Getz, James Gurley, Janis Joplin, Peter Albin, Sam Andrew) - 2:42
12.Easy Once You Know How (Take 1) (Dave Getz, James Gurley, Janis Joplin, Peter Albin, Sam Andrew) - 4:35
13.How Many Times Blues Jam (Dave Getz, James Gurley, Janis Joplin, Peter Albin, Sam Andrew) - 5:27
14.Farewell Song (Take 7) (Sam Andrew) - 5:03
Disc 2
1. Flower In The Sun (Take 3) (Sam Andrew) - 3:14
2. Oh Sweet Mary (Janis Joplin) - 6:55
3. Summertime (Take 1) (Dorothy Heyward, George Gershwin) - 3:14
4. Piece Of My Heart (Take 4) (Bert Berns, Jerry Ragovoy) - 4:07
5. Catch Me Daddy (Take 9) (Dave Getz, James Gurley, Janis Joplin, Peter Albin, Sam Andrew) - 3:16
6. Catch Me Daddy (Take 10) (Dave Getz, James Gurley, Janis Joplin, Peter Albin, Sam Andrew) - 4:22
7. I Need A Man To Love (Take 3) (Janis Joplin, Sam Andrew) - 7:09
8. Harry (Take 9) (Dave Getz, James Gurley, Janis Joplin, Peter Albin, Sam Andrew) - 1:11
9. Farewell Song (Take 4) (Sam Andrew) - 4:28
10.Misery'n (Takes 2, 3) (Dave Getz, James Gurley, Janis Joplin, Peter Albin, Sam Andrew) - 3:58
11.Misery'n (Take 4) (Dave Getz, James Gurley, Janis Joplin, Peter Albin, Sam Andrew) - 4:58
12.Magic Of Love (Take 1) (Mark Spoelstra) - 3:19
13.Turtle Blues (Take 9) (Janis Joplin) - 4:00
14.Turtle Blues (Last Verse Takes 1, 3) (Janis Joplin) - 4:35
15.Piece Of My Heart (Take 3) (Bert Berns, Jerry Ragovoy) - 4:32
16.Farewell Song (Take 5) (Sam Andrew) - 5:13
Big Brother And Holding Company
*Peter Albin- Bass, Vocals
*Sam Andrew - Guitar, Vocals
*David Getz - Drums
*James Gurley - Guitar, Vocals
*Janis Joplin - Vocals
