Born Nov 13, 1946, raised in Kentucky and Virginia by middle-class parents. I was given piano lessons at age five for a few years, then switched to guitar. My early idols were the Everly Brothers and Elvis. Folk music caught my ear around age fifteen, and I was impressed by Ian and Sylvia and Joan Baez. Jimmy Reed was a big influence and really got me started on the blues.
I started performing at age fifteen at some of the local coffee houses for ten dollars a night. I met a lot of older musicians and learned a lot about singing and playing with feeling. There was no room for phonies in that scene, and I knew I would always be content in that environment. I went off to college like most kids in my high school, spent a couple years at Georgetown University (Bill Clinton was my classmate) and immediately got into the Washington, D.C. music scene. As you might have guessed I spent more time hanging out in blues clubs and psychedelic joints than I did studying. I dropped out after two years and decided to become a full time musician.
I played coffeehouses and bars up and down the East Coast, mostly as a soloist on accoustic guitar, and singing my own songs. After a few years of this the psychedelic band Headstone Circus asked me to join them and I did. That was a fun band and we had some wild times during the late sixties. It was a great time to be alive, to be in a popular band, and of course the women were flocking around us continuously.
When I was offered a recording contract as a soloist, I reluctantly left that band to record in New York City. It was a sad parting, but I felt that I better take my shot when I had the chance. Well, the rest is history. I never got rich and famous but I have had a wonderful career in music, written some good songs, met some great people, and have the satisfaction of knowing that I did and am still doing the thing that I was born to do.
by Glenn Faria
PS. My only complaint is the sound quality, I believe it could be better...
Tracks
1. Born In Georgia -3:57
2. Summer's Gone -4:30
3. Reason To Live -3:16
4. Centuries To Live -2:22
5. Feast Your Eyes -2:32
6. Love Is Calling -6:22
7. No Time For Your Tears -4:26
8. I'm Crazy -5:41
9. I'm Crazy -2:39
10.Get Off My Back -3:19
11.I Can't Take It -3:27
12.Strange Love -3:58
13.I'm Going Down -5:06
14.You Got To Live -4:21
15.Bear Down -5:18
Lyrics and Music by Glenn Faria
*Glenn Faria - Vocals, All Instruments except Drums
For most of its early history, the Elektra label concentrated almost exclusively on the album market. Prior to Love's "My Little Red Book" in 1966, they never had a significant entry on the national singles charts; prior to the same band's "7 and 7 Is" later that year, they never had a Top Forty hit. In 1967, this would change to some degree when the Doors' "Light My Fire" soared to #1, followed in the rest of the 1960s by several other Doors smashes and the Top Ten success of Judy Collins's "Both Sides Now." Yet even into the first half of the 1970s, Elektra's product and aesthetic would remain firmly geared toward the long-playing record.
That didn't prevent the label from often trying, however, to get both singles sales and AM radio airplay. From the mid-1960s through the mid-1970s, Elektra issued quite a few singles, which included a surprising number of non-LP tracks. Some of them, in fact, were by artists who never managed to record an album for Elektra; many of the tracks have seldom or never been reissued since. On this compilation, Collectors' Choice Music gathers ten of the more interesting such non-LP sides from the mid-'60s through the beginning of the '70s.
Although it wasn't until Elektra began recording rock music in the mid-1960s that any of their singles attracted national airplay, the company's ventures into the singles market stretched back further than many realize -- indeed, all the way to its earliest days in the early 1950s, when it was recording little else but folk music. "There was [an] attempt to get radio airplay going back to the very beginning of the label," notes Elektra founder and president Jac Holzman. "In fact, we had a singles label at the very beginning called Stratford Records. We were originally called the Elektra-Stratford Record Corporation. They came out as 78s, this is how early they were." But after a few 78s (including efforts by Jean Ritchie, Frank Warner, and a young Glenn Yarbrough), "I decided that singles were a waste of time. So I stopped doing that immediately, and just concentrated on the LPs."
Still, Elektra never totally abandoned the singles field. Around the late 1950s and early 1960s, there were 45s by two of the label's more popular and mainstream folkies, Yarbrough and Bob Gibson. As the early '60s approached the mid-'60s, there were singles by Dian & the Greenbriar Boys, the Dillards, Fred Neil & Vince Martin, Judy Henske, and Judy Collins. In fact, Henske's "High Flying Bird," which verged on rock'n'roll with its drums and electric guitar, sounds like it could have even been a hit given the right push. For her part, Collins recalled in a 2001 interview that her single of Pete Seeger's "Turn! Turn! Turn!" -- with a young, pre-Byrds Roger McGuinn on guitar -- "became a bit of a minor hit. I remember it was the first time that the Gavin Report took any notice of me; they wrote about 'Turn! Turn! Turn!,' and how terrific it was. And I began to show up on the Billboard and Cashbox lists, I believe."
"Turn! Turn! Turn!" would, of course, become a #1 hit in a folk-rock arrangement for McGuinn and the Byrds in late 1965, about a couple of years after Collins recorded it. It's still not widely known, however, that about a year before the Byrds took Seeger's anthem to AM radio, and about six months before they ignited the folk-rock explosion with a chart-topping cover of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man," Elektra Records had issued the band's debut single. It's not widely known for a simple reason: the single was credited to the Beefeaters, a name chosen by Holzman "because I was enamored of what was going on with the British Invasion." Both sides of that obscure 45, "Please Let Me Love You" and "Don't Be Long," kick off this Elektra non-LP rarities anthology.
Of the five original Byrds, only McGuinn, Gene Clark, and David Crosby performed on this 45, recorded with the assistance of Los Angeles session men Ray Pohlman (on bass) and Earl Palmer (on drums). "Please Let Me Love You" showed the embryonic Byrds at their most Beatlesque, while "Don't Be Long" would be remade, in a more tightly arranged and well-recorded version, by the Byrds on their second album (under the title "It Won't Be Wrong"). Though simplistic and overtly Beatles-influenced, both sides (both penned by Clark, McGuinn, and their friend Harvey Gerst) were charming and catchy tunes, and intriguing (if naive and rudimentary) documents of the band's first steps toward their pioneering folk-rock fusion. The record made no commercial impact, however, and under the name of the Byrds, the band were soon recording for Columbia, where they'd quickly rise to stardom with "Mr. Tambourine Man."
Holzman isn't sure why Elektra didn't record more with the Beefeaters/Byrds. "I don't know why we just got the single, and didn't get the album," he admitted in a 2001 interview. "[Byrds co-manager] Jim Dickson really wanted to be on a larger label. He was concerned that singles would be necessary, and Elektra had no track records with singles. I think they wanted to keep the band a little innocent, in case there was an opportunity to make a deal elsewhere. My recollection is that they were asking for far more money than I was willing to pay. Which, in retrospect, was stupid, 'cause I later paid that same amount of money for Love. But they also wanted a ton of stuff that I didn't want to get started with, stuff that was routine in the '80s. They were asking for this stuff back in the mid-'60s." Specifically, Dickson told me in an interview the same year, he and the Byrds wanted $5,000 from Holzman to buy instruments. He also said the tracks used on the 45 were sold to Jac with the understanding that Holzman select the name and not disclose the identity of the group. In Dickson's view, Jac broke that promise, although Holzman does not recall this.
Though it took a while for Elektra to fully immerse itself in rock, it continued to dabble in it with other non-LP folk-rock singles in the mid-1960s. In the early days of folk-rock, there was a boom in Bob Dylan covers, and Elektra entered the fray with Judy Collins's rendition of "I'll Keep It With Mine" in late 1965. "I'll Keep It With Mine" was, on paper at least, a hot item, being an unreleased song by folk-rock's hottest songwriter. In fact, Nico had wanted to record the song first, but Collins beat her to the punch, though Nico would release her own version on her debut album a couple of years later. Despite organ by Al Kooper (who also played on some of Dylan's best early folk-rock recordings, including "Like a Rolling Stone"), and despite being hailed by future Dylan biographer Robert Shelton in The New York Times as "one of the best folk-rock performances yet recorded," and despite Collins's stature as the most successful Elektra recording artist at that time, the single stiffed.
"There's a very good reason that it never made it onto an album," Collins told me in 2001. "It's not a very good song, particularly. Certainly not a Dylan song that lives up to its name. It doesn't really go anywhere, the lyric's kind of flat, and the singing is very flat." All the same, she added, "I love the idea that he said, at least said to me, that he wrote the song for me. Then he told Joanie Baez that he wrote it for her. There was some talk about that, as to who did what. Of course, he says in his retrospective album [Biograph] that he wrote the song for me."
Another established Elektra artist who used a non-LP single as an opportunity to dive into electric folk-rock for the first time -- with Al Kooper in tow again! -- was Phil Ochs. In its original acoustic folk guise, "I Ain't Marching Anymore" had already been the popular title track of Ochs's second album (as well as quickly becoming a vastly popular singalong anthem at antiwar demonstrations). With backing by Kooper's new rock band, the Blues Project (also including guitarist Danny Kalb, who'd played guitar on Ochs's first album), and production by Elektra stalwart Paul Rothchild, it translated quite successfully into folk-rock. Starting and closing with bagpipes, the song was exponentially more powerful in its new arrangement -- enough so that it seemed like it could have had a chance on AM radio. Yet it was only released in Britain when it came out in 1966, though it did make it onto a flexi-disc in the US folk magazine Sing Out! It would, in fact, be Ochs's only electric rock recording for Elektra, though he'd make numerous others in the following few years after moving to A&M Records.
"It was basically to test the waters," Michael Ochs, Phil's brother and (beginning in 1967) manager, told me in 2001. "He wanted to expand his music, and so he thought, 'Wouldn't this be great, to do a rock version.' I'm not sure that it was his decision to be careful and only put it out in England. Phil was very tight with Murray the K, and Murray the K was on [New York's] WOR-FM at that point, doing a very hip show. Every week he'd play like three new releases for major artists, and people would call in and pick their favorite. I know he played Phil's electric 'I Ain't Marching Anymore' against the latest Stones record and one other major one, and the calls that came in all said they loved Phil's record the best." Roger Daltrey of the Who, however, did not love the record; in his review of the single in Melody Maker's "Blind Date" column, he complained, "It sounds like a punished protest song. Turn it off, turn it off, turn it off! It's not even good for my grandmother."
Along with Judy Collins and Love, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band were the biggest sellers on the Elektra roster just prior to the emergence of the Doors. Though their sales came almost exclusively from album-buyers, they didn't totally ignore the singles market. In 1966, they came up with the non-LP 45 "Come On In," which boasted somewhat of a funkier rock-soul feel than their more customary electric blues approach. It should be noted, however, that the Butterfield Band were never purists, even if they started out playing nothing but the blues. By their second and best album, East West, they were branching out into a cover of the jazz standard "Work Song," the tour de force thirteen-minute psychedelic instrumental "East West," and even a pass at Mike Nesmith's "Mary, Mary." "Come On In" didn't give Butterfield a pass into the hit parade, but his band remained a popular Elektra act throughout the rest of the decade, even after the departures of ace guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop, both of whom played on the single.
The Doors' phenomenally popular 1967 debut album, including the #1 hit "Light My Fire," launched Elektra into the psychedelic era with a vengeance. While the Doors were by far the label's biggest sellers in the 45 market, Elektra did land some other chart hits in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the biggest of them being Judy Collins's Top Ten cover of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now." Many people who own that single, however, are unaware to this day that the B-side was not issued on LP at the time. For the song on the flip was Sandy Denny's "Who Knows Where the Time Goes," which was used as the title track of her well-received late-'60s album of the same name. However, the recording used on the B-side of the single was an entirely different one than the LP version, which had a full-band production and a dramatic rising key change mid-song. In contrast, the B-side version featured a much sparser drumless arrangement minus that key change. For a non-LP B-side, it must be said, it did get around: it was also used for the film soundtrack of The Subject Was Roses, and later showed up on the 1972 Judy Collins greatest hits collection Colors of the Day: The Best of Judy Collins. And now, naturally, it's on this CD.
Collins had a great knack for introducing the work of as-yet-little-known songwriters to a wider audience via her cover versions, having been among the first singers to record compositions by such outstanding composers as Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Randy Newman, Robin Williamson, Richard Fariña, Eric Andersen, John Phillips, Fred Neil, Tom Paxton, Gordon Lightfoot, and Joni Mitchell. Sandy Denny was one of her lesser-heralded such discoveries, and it's a testament to Collins's adventurousness in recording up-and-coming writers that the song was recorded in the first place. For Sandy Denny, and even her late-'60s group Fairport Convention, were barely known in the United States when Judy recorded "Who Knows Where the Time Goes." As Collins remembered in her autobiography Singing Lessons, it was her producer of the time, David Anderle, who made her aware of the song. "One day David Anderle said, 'I have a tape to play for you,' and put on Sandy Denny's great song, 'Who Knows Where the Time Goes,'" she wrote. "I fell head over heels in love with the song and used it as the title song of the album...She was a great writer and I came to know and hang out with her later in England when Anthea Joseph, a red-haired fireball who worked for Polygram in England, introduced us. Sandy was pretty and blond, with a voice that could cut through a concrete wall or lull a baby to sleep. Her solos with the Fairport Convention are still hauntingly beautiful. On a visit to New York she once came to my apartment and we swapped songs. She sang me a great song called 'Solo,' which I would someday like to record."
In the late '60s, David Anderle was also producing another Elektra artist, David Ackles. Though his darkly theatrical brand of singer-songwriting generated a cult following among album-oriented listeners and some fellow musicians (most notably the young songwriting team of Elton John and Bernie Taupin), Ackles racked up few actual sales for the label. Elektra nonetheless did release a single of his in 1968, "Down River," backed by one of the oddest items in the company's whole catalog, "La Route a Chicago." A French-language version of "The Road to Cairo," one of the stronger numbers on his 1968 self-titled debut LP, it's one of the rarest (and strangest) tracks only to show up on an Elektra 45. "The Road to Cairo," incidentally, was one of Anderle's most commercial numbers, if there could be said to even be any such things; Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger, & the Trinity covered it on a single as the follow-up to their big British hit "This Wheel's on Fire," although it didn't make the UK charts.
It's still a mystery as to how this French version of the song came to pass. " I remember -- and it might have even been Jac Holzman -- but somebody thought that David would have a shot in France, because of the nature of Charles Aznavour and the French ballad singers," Anderle told me in a 2002 interview. "Somebody had a mention that his music was very remindful of French balladeer music. Jacques Brel, I think, was the person that was mentioned. It might even have come from Judy Collins, who I was producing at the time also. I think Elektra figured he would have a shot internationally. And so he did the French version of the song. Maybe it was paid for by the French office? I'm surprised we didn't do an Egyptian one, a Tasmanian one, and...we tried everything with that poor guy." Elektra did indeed try with three separate David Ackles in the late 1960s and early 1970s, though only the third of them made the Billboard charts, and then peaking at a lowly #167. "David Ackles was one of my great disappointments, that we weren't able to do better with him," admits Holzman. "I thought he was terrific. But then the person who admired him most wiped him off the map" -- that person being Ackles fan Elton John, whose songwriting partner, Bernie Taupin, would end up producing that final Elektra Ackles album, American Gothic.
As another overlooked Elektra act of the late 1960s, Eclection put out just one self-titled album before breaking up. Though usually described as a British folk-rock group, only one member was actually British, the others hailing from Norway, Canada, and Australia. The Eclection album is one of the best little-known folk-rock LPs of the era, its strong male-female vocal harmonies and rich orchestral production at times making the group sound more like a California group than a British one. The record was promising enough to make collectors wish there was more, and in fact there is more, in the form of the non-LP B-side included on this CD, "Mark Time." The track could have fit into the Eclection album without a hitch, but didn't make that cut and never surfaced again, Eclection itself marking time before their possibly premature split. Eclection bassist Trevor Lucas would later team up with future wife Sandy Denny (as well as Eclection drummer Gerry Conway) in Fotheringay and a mid-'70s Fairport Convention lineup, while chief Eclection songwriter Georg Hultgreen would (as Georg Kajanus) join Sailor, who had a couple of Top Ten British singles in the mid-1970s.
"I loved that group," Holzman told me in a 2001 interview. "They were a fascinating group, a wonderful band, and I thought the records were wonderful. I think our mistake was not bringing them to the States, because they really needed to get out of England. There was too much other stuff competing in England, and in the States, we might have had an easier time. I don't know why we didn't bring 'em. I think, had we got 'em the right venues and gotten them some help with their show, it would have worked."
At least Eclection got to release an album, an honor denied the Stalk-Forrest Group, although the band recorded quite a bit of material for Elektra in the first half of 1970. Nowadays the outfit are primarily remembered for having evolved into Blue Öyster Cult. But as the Stalk-Forrest Group, they played a far lighter brand of psychedelic-folk-rock that fit in well with the Elektra roster, with some similarities to the sound of fellow Elektra artists Love and the Doors. Legendary rock critic Richard Meltzer was a friend of the band, and contributed lyrics to much of their material, as did fellow rock critic Sandy Pearlman, who also managed the group.
For reasons that are still not totally clear, Elektra decided not to release an LP, though enough songs had been recorded to produce a fairly strong one. "I think I didn't like the group," Holzman frankly states. "Had I heard Blue Öyster Cult more evolved, that would have been another matter. They altered the personnel, and the group then became very solid." Before the band got dropped from the label, however, two tracks -- the A-side co-written by Meltzer and future Blue Öyster Cult keyboardist-guitarist Allen Lanier, the B-side by Meltzer and future Blue Öyster Cult drummer Albert Bouchard -- did eke out in July 1970 as a promotional single, of which only about 300 copies were pressed. Both sides of that 45, "What Is Quicksand?"/"Arthur Comics," conclude our Elektra rarities compilation, which in its own small way reflects the label's evolution as a whole from folk through folk-rock to psychedelia and the dawn of hard rock.
by Richie Unterberger
Artist - Title - Composer
1. The Beefeaters - Please Let Me Love You (Gene Clark, Harvey Gerst, Roger McGuinn) - 2:23
2. The Beefeaters - Don't Be Long (Gene Clark, Harvey Gerst, Roger McGuinn) - 1:56
3. Judy Collins - I'll Keep It With Mine (Bob Dylan) - 3:09
4. Judy Collins - Who Knows Where The Time Goes (Sandy Denny) - 4:44
5. Phil Ochs - I Ain't Marching Anymore (Phil Ochs) - 2:52
6. Paul Butterfield - Come On In (Mel London) - 2:08
7. David Ackles - La Route A Chicago (David Ackles) - 5:16
8. Eclection - Mark Time (Georg Hultgreen) - 2:54
9. Stalk-Forrest Group - What Is Quicksand? (Allen Lanier, Richard Meltzer) - 3:22
10.Stalk-Forrest Group - Arthur Comics (Albert Bouchard, Richard Meltzer) - 3:11
The initial album is called Grandfather, giving its name to the title of this collection. Released in February 1971, it’s actually a conceptual piece telling the story of a man’s life from birth to death. Now, this wasn’t an original idea even then (yes, sit down S F Sorrow by The Pretty Things, we know you’re there), but it is surprisingly well-executed, even now not appearing too dated. The influences are clear throughout: the album comes across as something of a cross between The Moody Blues and King Crimson’s first album. The former supplies the concise nature of the songwriting, and the way with an often simple but effective melody and easily understandable lyric, while the latter supplies the sometimes angular instrumentation, the sax and the sometimes quirky urgency.
The whole thing holds together pretty well still, with tracks like Make Your Peace and the double header Prelude / Your Country Needs You being particular highlights. It really is worth a listen, and not merely for the curious. Thirteen (!) bonus tracks are appended, being mostly acoustic demos recorded by guitarist Chris Baker, and they are a mixed bag as you would expect – though one or two of them, such as A Song Of Fairgrounds for example, really could have been made into something very good.
ow, we fast forward as a kind of montage through such trifles as the invention of video recorders, mobile phones, DVD, CD, satellite television, the entire life-cycle of Britain in the EU, and something called the internet, and reach the second album. Which is called Brontosaurs And Bling. On Hallowed Ground arrives, and all bets are off. It’s suddenly powerfully-played, edgy yet melodic prog with a real kick in its boots, and the band have almost visibly found their lost mojo. It’s so unexpected as to be utterly joyful. But here’s the thing: it gets even better. Well, not immediately, as It’s Only Love / Tomorrow Is Another Day threatens to derail things again immediately, but with track seven, Sitting In An English Garden, we get the best song on the first and second discs combined, with a brilliantly clever and wittily sardonic lyric referencing the 1960s via an English summer’s day, being perfectly matched by a delightfully upbeat psych-pop tune which simply entrances.
It’s the best song that XTC never wrote. Following this, Pigs In Outer Space, despite the odd title (the second pig reference, for some reason), almost repeats the trick with another slice of pure power-pop genius, borrowing a hint of Peter Frampton’s Baby I Love Your Way, and turning it into a much better song while they do so. At this point, the album has become really exciting.
Next up is the 2018 album, the unimaginatively titled Time, but against every single expectation we could possibly have, this turns out to be a dyed in the wool classic album. Taking the best facets of the highlights of the previous record, the band manage to turn out a razor-sharp, satirical and witty art-pop album which has the best qualities of XTC and 10cc / Godley & Creme written through it like a stick of rock. The difference from the previous album is astonishing, as if they have taken a trip to Robert Johnson’s crossroads in order to become the spiritual heirs to 10cc. From the opening ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds homage’ of the darkly cynical Acid Rain through to the final deftly delivered eco-message of The Houses In Between, there is no weak song here among the thirteen tracks.
Today Is Such A Lovely Day is irresistible no matter how hard you try, Elephants Dump is hilariously clever while Never Done Godspell lists all of the low points and degrading indignities the protagonist has been forced to endure during his life and career, with the repeated caveat ‘but I’ve never done Godspell…’ Some of the stuff here is honestly like Zappa fronting the Kursaal Flyers, it’s that perfect a distillation of that slyly, sardonic art-pop that the previous album missed by the length of a football pitch. Best of all, and for me the standout song on the whole three disc set, is the hymn to rampant entitled consumerism and greed which is Gimme Jam. Interspersed with the constant urgent demands to ‘Gimme Jam’, we get brilliant lines such as ‘Gimme champagne and caviar for sophistication / Gimme real French coffee for my constipation’ and, best of all, ‘Gimme new Maseratis to a monthly quota / Gimme GaGa and Cheryl on a nightly rota – Gimme Jam!’- all this to a leg-pumping boogie accompaniment which just makes you want to put it straight back on when its finished.
The main thrust of the promotion here, and indeed almost all of the accompanying booklet, is based around the Grandfather album, which is understandable as it has its collectable and cult reputation – but despite the undeniable quality of that album, it is still outshone by the unheralded ‘underdog’ Time. Get this set. Enjoy Grandfather, be patient by Brontosaurs, but fall in love with Time. The latter is the most surprised by an album I’ve been in a very, very long … well … Time. Inspired stuff.
by Steve Pilkington, September 27, 2021
Tracks
Disc 1 Grandfather 1970-71
1. Birth The Beginning (Barry Everitt) - 4:01
2. Out Of Time - 4:32
3. Make Your Peace (Barry Everitt) - 5:25
4. Yours Claudia - 2:55
5. Prelude To Your Country Needs You? (Chris Baker, Barry Everitt, John Clements, Dave Sewell, Jim Sturgeon) - 3:03
6. Your Country Needs You? (Chris Baker, Barry Everitt, John Clements, Dave Sewell, Jim Sturgeon) - 3:41
7. A Dawning Moonshine - 3:50
8. Years And Fortunes - 4:09
9. A Prayer For Her - 2:56
10.Light Up A Light - 3:27
11.On A Lonely Night - 4:21
12.Grandfather - 2:49
13.Only Feeling - 2:42
14.Henrietta Hall - 2:07
15.Not Now At All - 2:20
16.Victorian Blue - 1:07
17.This Place Was Us Was Home - 3:30
18.When Baby Comes - 2:20
19.A Song Of Fairgrounds - 2:11
20.Gold And Silver - 1:22
21.True Blue - 1:16
22.When You Move - 2:29
23.All I Have To Give - 3:21
24.August Lights - 3:53
25.Naked Fingers - 2:15
All songs by Chris Baker except where stated
Tracks 1-12 The album "Grandfather", released February 1971 (Square Records SQ 101)
Bonus Tracks 13-25 as Chris Baker, home demos recorded 1970-71
Disc 2 Brontosaurs And Bling
1. Pig Heaven - 4:07
2. In '67 - 4:04
3. I Don't Understand (Peru) - 3:38
4. Like The First Time Again - 4:35
5. On Hallowed Ground (Chris Baker, Nikos Iosifides) - 4:57
6. It's Only Love / Tomorrow Is Another Day - 6:35
7. Sitting In An English Garden - 4:11
8. Pigs In Outer Space - 5:14
9. Butterflies Are Free - 4:21
10.The Universe In My Heart (Chris Baker, Nikos Iosifides) - 3:52
11.Streetwise - 3:56
12.Songbird In The Rain - 4:31
13.Peru (Reprise) - 2:32
14.Full Circle - 4:57
15.We're Only Human - 3:29
16.Maisie Grey - 2:53
17.Don't Go Holding On To Me - 3:15
18.Kifissia Sunrise - 3:20
19.All The Same - 3:20
All songs by Chris Baker except where indicated
Tracks 1-13 from The album "Brontosaurs And Bling" (DMT DMT 0001, released 2015)
Tracks 14-19 Previously unreleased, recorded 2020-21
Disc 3 Time... 2018
1. Acid Rain - 3:14
2. Today Is Such A Lovely Day - 3:00
3. The One Who Saved The Sun - 3:48
4. Elephants Dump - 4:12
5. Summer Days With You - 3:42
6. Einstein In The Sun - 3:19
7. Mr Towers' Hours - 3:18
8. Gimme Jam - 2:52
9. I Will Be With You - 3:49
10.Never Done Godspell - 2:46
11.Home Again - 3:31
12.We Always Knew - 4:43
13.The Houses In Between - 1:23
14.Archie Vine - 6:10
15.When We Were Young - 4:42
16.Lonely Eyes - 3:41
17.The Sentimentalist - 3:39
18.The One - 2:35
19.Walk The World - 3:39
20.What Will Be - 3:37
21.There Is No More (You Do It All) - 2:45
All songs by Chris Baker
Tracks 1-13 from the album "Time" (DMT DMT 0002, released 2018)
Tracks 14-21 Previously unreleased, recorded 2020-21
Dear Mr.Time
*Chris Baker - Lead, Acoustic Guitar, Vocals, Bass (Disc 1, Tracks 13-25 all Instruments and Vocals)
*John Clements - Drums, Percussion
*Barry Everitt - Lead Vocals, Organ, Piano, Harpsichord
A nearly forgotten singer/songwriter of the '60s, Tim Rose's early work bore a strong resemblance to another Tim working in Greenwich Village around 1966-67, Tim Hardin. Rose also favored a throaty blues-folk-rock style with pop production flourishes, though he looked to outside material more, wasn't quite in Hardin's league as a singer or songwriter, and had a much harsher, even gravelly vocal tone. Before beginning a solo career, Rose had sung with Cass Elliott in the folk trio The Big Three, a few years before she joined The Mamas And Papas. Signed by Columbia in 1966, his 1967 debut album (which actually included a few previously released singles) is considered by far his most significant work.
by Richie Unterberger
Although The Musician was recorded several years after Tim Rose's 15 minutes of fame had officially ended, his voice is as gloriously ragged and raspy as ever, and the album contains several flashes of the brilliance that made Rose a Greenwich Village legend in the mid- and late '60s. Considerably less folky-sounding than his earlier records, The Musician contains heavy rock versions of the two songs with which Rose is most identified ("Morning Dew" and "Hey Joe") along with several originals and covers of generally high quality. Like Alex Chilton, another devotee of pure pop music who seems entirely unconcerned with commercial success, Rose's no-apologies vibe has always placed him in the "love him or hate him" category.
On his exceedingly strange version of Neil Young's "Old Man," Rose, amid swirling psychedelic slide guitars, sings like a raging drunk, lending the song an air of chilling desperation. Although much of the production values are quite dated, Rose does a good job of treating each song with a complete emotional honesty that transcends any sonic limitations.
by Pemberton Roach
Tracks
1. Morning Dew (Bonnie Dobson) - 4:43
2. 7.30 Song (Tim Rose, Nick Theobald) - 4:51
3. Small Town Talk (Bobby Charles, Rick Danko) - 3:51
4. The Musician (Mike Shepstone, Peter Dibbens) - 3:43
5. Loving Arms (Tom Jans) - 3:31
6. Old Man (Neil Young) - 4:09
7. Hey Joe (Billy Roberts) - 4:30
8. It's Not My Life That's Been Changing (Tim Rose) - 3:25
9. The Day I Spent With You (Tim Rose) - 3:29
10.Second Avenue (Tim Moore) - 3:13
11.Now You're A Lady (John D. Bryant) - 3:26
12.Where Is The Good Life? (Tim Rose, Andy Summers) - 3:52
Personnel
*Tim Rose - 5-string Banjo, Banjo, Bass, Acoustic, Rhythm Guitars, Electric Piano, String Arrangements, Vocals
*Jonathan Rowlands - Tambourine
*Andy Summers - Electric Guitar, Nylon String Guitar
*Roger Sutton - Bass
*John Verity - Electric Guitar
*Ron Berg - Drums
*Richard Burgess - Drums
*David Charles - Drums
*Tina Charles - Background Vocals
*Paul Cobbold - Bass, Bowed Bass, Fuzz Bass, Electric Guitar
*B.J. Cole - Dobro, Steel Guitar
*Mick Dyche - Guitar
*Ian Ellis - Bass
*Tommy Eyre - Flute, Keyboards, Electric Piano, String Arrangements
Released in 1971 around the same time as his solo Buddah release (The Time to Live Is Now), Music, on Artie Kornfeld's Eleuthera imprint distributed by Buddah, distinguished itself from the Carole King album of the same name because Music was also the title of this group led by songwriter Buzzy Linhart. Not the Music Explosion or Roxy Music or the Music or Music, Inc., the band known simply as Music feels like a cohesive unit, and the album plays with that rock band consistent groove. On "Everybody's Got (And Don't You Know)," Linhart veers off into Donovan Leitch's swimming pool; to be specific, he's vamping on the riff from Donovan's "Atlantis" inside this tune. "Mother's Red Light" is a whole other thing.
Heavy with Linhart's vibes, Klingman's keyboards, and bassist Douglas Rauch playing some lead guitar, the song is psychedelic jazz, more so than Dave Grusin's acidic soundtrack to the film Candy, which came just a few years before. Produced by the band with engineer Eddie Kramer, the album is a solid effort boasting a heavier sound than Linhart's other solo efforts and a deliciously psychedelic gatefold cover. David Bromberg guest stars on dobro for the Mark Klingman composition "Kilpatrick's Defeat," while Moogy, of course, appears on piano and organ, musically supplementing the sounds of drummer John Siomos, lead guitarist Doug Rodriques, and the aforementioned bassist, Doug Rauch. Leiber & Stoller's "Searching" crawls and slinks with a rock & roll groove, the charm and band identity giving all the melodies on Music a solid spirit that comes from a group effort when everything is clicking, ending the album the way things began on "The Bag I'm In" -- that Fred Neil number moving with a blues-rock earnest.
Tim Hardin's "Reputation" almost goes honky tonky, a bit of a change from the Cream-meets-Stories sound of the album's first track. Stories were also on a Buddah imprint around this point in time, and the label seemed to be making a serious move into adult pop. The tragedy here is that Music didn't get to put out more...music. There's definitely something special in the grooves of this important but not very visible recording. (This album was later released on the Kama Sutra label under the title Buzzy Linhart is Music.)
by Joe Viglione
Health issues plagued Linhart throughout his entire career, and potentially prevented him from achieving the fame commercial success enjoyed by many of his peers. During his stint in the Navy, Linhart developed chronic lung damage while fighting a fire with inadequate breathing apparatus which resulted in emphysema. The death of one of his fellow sailors during his naval service caused poorly-treated PTSD, while a late ‘70s car accident during a move to L.A. resulted in permanent hip and knee injuries. Linhart was homeless for a while during the 1980s before getting on SSI disability in 1990 and settling in the Berkeley, California area. As he got older, Linhart suffered from osteoporosis, a series of mild strokes, and several moderate heart attacks, although he continued to perform whenever possible.
Buzzy Linhart, a gifted songwriter and instrumentalist, passed away on Friday, February 13th, 2020 at the age of 76.
Linhart was one of the best, if perhaps the most obscure of 1960s-era Greenwich Village artists, the five albums he released between 1969 and 1974 featuring his unique vocals, immense songwriting skills, and remarkable instrumental talents, resulting in an often-exhilarating blend of folk, jazz, blues, and psychedelic-rock unlike anything any other artist was creating at the time. Known for his manic live shows, critic Robert Palmer wrote in a 1977 New York Times review of one of Linhart’s performances, “no sooner has he hit an opening chord than his eyes roll back in his head and he begins to bob and weave like a dervish in a trance,” the legendary critic concluding that “Mr. Linhart’s talent is genuine.”
by Rev. Keith A. Gordon, March 2, 2020
Tracks
1. That's The Bag I'm In (Fred Neil) - 3:53
2. You Got A Reputation (Tim Hardin) - 4:21
3. Time To Go - 4:58
4. Talk About A Morning - 6:35
5. If You Love Me - 3:57
6. Everybody's Got/Don't You Know - 3:01
7. Mother's Red Light - 4:16
8. Kilpatrick's Defeat (Mark Klingman, Mike Gayle) - 2:57
Singer songwriter John Buck Wilkin's second and last album from 1971, in diversed styles, kind of folk country rock delivered in a very smooth style, sometimes harder with a use of wah wah guitar. John Buck Wilkin has a soft voice and the songs are very good with meaningful lyrics.
Tracks
1. I'm Free - 2:02
2. Going On - 2:47
3. Get Up - 4:04
4. Down On Music Row - 2:24
5. Star Spangled Girl - 5:03
6. Money (Berry Gordy, Janie Bradford) - 4:13
7. Sun Moon And Stars - 4:09
8. Johnny B. Goode (Chuck Berry) - 3:39
9. Look At Me Mama - 2:59
10.God Save The Queen - 2:49
Words and Music by John Buck Wilkin except where indicated
The first thing that strikes you about this new 2CD live album from Colosseum, professionally recorded across several shows in early 1971, is how sensational it sounds. Vibrant, clear, sparkling, dynamic and alive. Mixing/mastering engineer Eroc (one Joachim Ehrig, a pro recording artist in bands and solo, as Eroc, from the 70s to the 90s, now a mastering maestro) has done an astounding job!
It’s a blistering performance, too. For those who don’t know much about Colosseum, their sound is – to my mind – part of a peculiarly British sort of jazz/rock blend, involving the likes of brass, Hammond and vibraphones, that thrived briefly for roughly a year either side of 1970. It’s a sound world that had its origins in the Graham Bond Organisation of the middle 60s – in which Colosseum mainstays Jon Hiseman (drums) and Dick Heckstall-Smith (saxes) both played – was influenced by the absurdist songwriting of Pete Brown with Jack Bruce in Cream, and that was developed by Jack Bruce’s ‘Songs for a Tailor’ (1969) album arrangements (again, featuring both Hiseman and DHS) and his 1971 touring band (which reunited him with Bond), by the Keef Hartley Band (a briefly flourishing drummer-led band with horn section), by Neil Ardley’s New Jazz Orchestra (which collaborated with Colosseum on some live shows), by the first two albums by jazz/rock arranger Michael Gibbs (1970-71) and his live band, and by one or two other acts of that brief period. It wasn’t ‘jazz-rock’ as represented by the likes of Nucleus in Britain or the Mahavishnu Orchestra in the US; rather, it was a kind of progressive rock music with jazz players and influences involved and, in Hartley and Colosseum’s cases, based more around songs than instrumentals.
If this new 2CD is so sensational, one might ask why it has languished so long in the late Colosseum bandleader Jon Hiseman’s archive, although really that question refers specifically to Disc 1, recorded live at a university in Canterbury on 12 February 1971. Let me explain…
During a British tour in early 1971, Colosseum, with doubtful enthusiasm from their management and label, set about recording shows with the Granada mobile, with the intention of capturing their onstage magic, and a clutch of hitherto unrecorded numbers, on a live album (Jon feeling their three studio albums to that point had lacked something of this). In Jon’s 2010 autobiography ‘Playing the Band’, it is explained that while nobody could by then recall how many shows had been recorded, the first was at Canterbury, the third was at Manchester University on 13 March, there was another at Manchester University on 18 March and the final recording was made at the Big Apple in Brighton on 27 March. Somewhere in between, there had also been a recording made at Bristol. The second show in Manchester – a free gig – was put on because the band had felt the first one was below par, with a ‘huge row’ in the dressing room after, and they were desperate to try and get something good on tape.
After the Brighton show, their manager, Gerry Bron, pulled the plug on more live recordings and Jon became despondent. However, they all listened again to the first Manchester show at Lansdowne Studios and realised it was much better than they’d reckoned at the time. Thus, five tracks from Manchester on March 13, and one from Bristol (date not given, track not identified) – according to Jon in his book, the only one from a show other than Manchester that they thought was any good – became the June 1971 double LP ‘Colosseum Live’. It would be their last album, bar a compilation of oddities, until reforming in 1994.
In Jon’s book, bar a passing mention, there is no discussion of the Canterbury show. The presumption is that, for whatever reason, it was simply not considered for release and everyone moved on to the next gig recording (and the next…).
Emails with Eroc reveal that the original multi-track recording from Canterbury was rather weak and needed a lot of work. Clearly, his results with today’s technology would not have been possible in 1971. Indeed, the eventual ‘Colosseum Live’ 2LP that was mixed back in the day, from the first Manchester show, was often thought to be an imperfect, rather gritty presentation, albeit capturing the energy Jon was after (the 2016 Esoteric Records expanded edition of the album, remastered by Ben Wiseman, significantly enhanced the sound). So, one presumes that technical issues rather than any questions about the performance were why the Canterbury show was never considered for release in 1971, and nor for a disc’s worth of further drawings from the well of these 1971 tapes that appeared in 2009 (more of which below).
So, what’s on the new album? Well, in different order, Disc 1 comprises Canterbury versions of five of the six (Manchester) numbers on the 1971 LP – Mike Gibbs’ ‘Tanglewood ‘63’, Jack Bruce’s ‘Rope Ladder to the Moon’, Graham Bond’s ‘Walking in the Park’ and band originals ‘Skellington’ and ‘Lost Angeles’. The 1971 LP’s sixth number* was ‘Stormy Monday’ – famously, an entirely spontaneous encore version (after that dressing room contretemps) of the classic T-Bone Walker blues. It was immediately added to the Colosseum repertoire – but, of course, it had been absent at Canterbury. The sixth number on the Canterbury disc of the new 2CD set is a barnstorming 15-minute ‘The Machine Demands a Sacrifice’ (incorporating Jon’s ‘Time Machine’ drum solo).
(* Note: ‘I Can’t Live Without You’, recorded at the first Manchester show, was added as a seventh track to all CD versions of ‘Colosseum Live’ from 1992–2004; indeed, a 1990 Japanese CD edition of the album remains the only one to NOT feature this extra.)
Disc 2 of the new 2CD ‘Live ‘71’ comprises five numbers over its 73 minutes (Colosseum specialising in rather long items) that have been released before in two contexts: firstly, as a live disc of previously-unreleased tracks in the 2009 4CD Colosseum box set ‘Morituri Te Salutant’, presumably mixed by Jon Hiseman and certainly mastered by Peter Reynolds; secondly, as the second disc in Esoteric’s 2016 2CD edition of ‘Colosseum Live’, mastered by Ben Wiseman. These are: ‘Rope Ladder’ and ‘Skellington’ from Brighton; ‘I Can’t Live Without You / Time Machine / The Machine Demands a Sacrifice’ from the first Manchester show (the ‘I Can’t Live’ section being the bit added to those 1992-2004 single CD editions of the original live album, mentioned earlier); ‘The Valentyne Suite’ from the second Manchester show; and ‘Stormy Monday’ from Bristol.
Is Eroc’s mastering of the items on this disc better than the previous two outings? I believe it is. Others with more time can do a more comprehensive A/B, but from a few minutes each of two tracks compared between the Esoteric release and the Repertoire one, it’s clear that there is more warmth and depth in Eroc’s mastering without sacrificing any of the presence; Wiseman’s mastering on the Esoteric release is good, but chooses to emphasise the top end, with a slight harshness (albeit plenty of punch). At the very least, Eroc brings something fresh to the tracks on this disc.
It is Disc 1, however, the 74 minutes of magic from Canterbury, that make this release essential for anyone interested in British progressive rock. To reiterate: the performance is great and the mixing and mastering are sensational. In short, a deftly covered Chris Farlowe fluffed entry into one track aside, it’s better in my view than the released-at-the-time ‘Colosseum Live’, which is itself a classic of the era.
‘Colosseum Live ‘71’ is one of five (!) Colosseum live albums that Repertoire has just released – the others being a ‘best of the bootlegs’, from quality amateur recordings made between 1969–71 at Boston, Montreux, Turku and Rome, and newly mastered (also by Eroc). The first three of these are probably of most interest to fans, in featuring vocalist Chris Farlowe’s predecessors James Litherland and Dave Clempson along with a diversity of material. The Rome 1971 set, with Chris, comprises four numbers familiar from the pro-recorded Canterbury set. Seventies ‘Melody Maker’ personality and uber Colosseum fan Chris Welch contributes notes to all of these releases.
If I’ve mentioned Eroc a few times, it’s partly to put right an administrative error: in contrast to the revamped bootleg albums, he is not mentioned at all in the ‘Live ‘71’ booklet, where his work was many times more demanding. (A more minor error in the ‘Live ‘71’ package miscredits the Disc 2 ‘Stormy Monday’ as being from Manchester rather than Bristol.)
by Colin H, 19/07/2020
Tracks
Disc 1
1. Tanglewood '63 (Michael Gibbs) - 13:09
2. Rope Ladder To The Moon (Jack Bruce, Pete Brown) - 8:39
3. Walking In The Park (Graham Bond) - 8:13
4. Skellington (Dave "Clem" Clempson, Jon Hiseman) - 13:21
5. The Machine Demands A Sacrifice (Jon Hiseman, James Litherland, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Pete Brown) - 14:59
6. Lost Angeles (Chris Farlowe, Dave Greenslade, Dick Heckstall-Smith) - 15:53
Recorded live at the University of Kent, 12 February 1971
Disc 2
1. Rope Ladder To The Moon (Jack Bruce, Pete Brown) - 11:14
2. Skellington (Dave "Clem" Clempson, Jon Hiseman) - 14:18
3. I Can't Live Without You-The Time Machine-The Machine Demands A Sacrifice (James Litherland, Jon Hiseman, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Pete Brown) - 21:37
4. The Valentyne Suite (Jon Hiseman, Dave Greenslade) - 21:13
5. Stormy Monday Blues (Aron T. Walker) - 5:12
Tracks 1-2 recorded live at the Big Apple, Brighton 27 March 1971
Tracks 3,5 recorded live at Manchester Univercity 13 March 1971
Track 4 recorded live at Manchester Univercity 18 March 1971
Sky King formed in Ann Arbor Michigan in about 1974 and their first and only album in 1975. Their nucleus ((Chris Brubeck, David Mason, Peter Ruth) had all played together in “New Heavenly Blue" who had released two albums, "Educated Homegrown” (1970) and “New Heavenly Blue” (1972).
Chris Brubeck: A multi-instrumentalist (fretless electric bass, bass trombone, piano), vocalist, composer and orchestrator, and the son of jazz legend Dave Brubeck, born March 19, 1952 in Los Angeles, California. His resume includes stints in The Brubeck LaVerne Trio, New Heavenly Blue, Sky King, The Brubeck Brothers Quartet, The Dave Brubeck Quartet, The New Brubeck Quartet, Triple Play, and Two Generations Of Brubeck
David Mason: an American guitarist, violinist, vocalist from NYC (not to be confused with English guitarist Dave Mason) who had worked with Dave Brubeck in the early 1970s as well as being a member in “New Heavenly Blue”. Rick Jacobi: guitar. Ostensibly a commercial artist he only seems to have played in this band. Chris Coan: vocals. Coan seems to have come from theatre with no musical band experience prior to this.
Richie Morales: a jazz drummer who had played with Dave Brubeck (in Two Generations of Brubeck) and many others. Peter "Madcat" Ruth: is an American harmonica player, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, born in Chicago 1949. He played with Dave Brubeck, was in New Heavenly Blue, and done a lot of session work with people like Bootsy Collins, Ken Nordine, and Blackfoot.
For this debut album they added the full horn section from Oakland, California’s R&B-based soul, jazz and funk band “Tower of Power” (Stephen MacKenzie Kupka: saxophonist and composer, Emilio Castillo: saxophonist, Lenny Pickett : alto and tenor saxophonist), Greg Adams: Trumpet, Flugelhorn) as well as Jerry Bergonzi: Jazz saxophonist, who had played with Dave Brubeck in Two Generations of Brubeck
Perry Robinson: a free jazz and klezmer clarinettist who was in many jazz groups including the Galaxie Dream Band in the 70s,and Two Generations of Brubeck with Chris Brubeck and Peter Ruth. He has done much session work as well as solo. Lee Pastora: a conga player who has done much session work with jazz acts (especially Don Ellis) and rock bands.
Joshie Armstead: backing vocalist. In the early 1960's she was a member of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue as one of the original Ikettes. From 1964 -1967 she was part of a songwriting team with Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, co-writing songs such as 'Let's Go Get Stoned' and 'I Don't Need No Doctor' by Ray Charles)
Maretha Stewart: backing vocalist. She is a singer and voice actress, known for The Wiz , Schoolhouse Rock! and The Muppets. She has done much session work and is perhaps best known for her improvised backing vocals on the track "If Dogs Run Free" from Bob Dylan’s “New Morning”.
Cissy Houston: backing vocalist. The legendary Cissy (mother of Whitney and sometimes Elvis backup singer), vocalist in The Drinkard Singers and the Sweet Inspirations as well as a lot of solo pop and gospel.
The music is really jazz rock though incorporating folk, blues, jazz, country, funk and experimental asides.
The album was produced by Martyn Ford and an uncredited Steve Cropper (tracks: 1-4, 6, 8). Guitarist rick Jacobi says, “By the way, most of the album was actually recorded and produced by Steve Cropper at his studio in Memphis. He recorded us for free on spec (including paying for us to stay at a motel for two weeks), and eventually sold the material to Columbia. We finished the recording in NY at Columbia's "A" studio; Martyn Ford was assigned to produce us, and we more or less steamrollered right over him as much as possible. Cropper really deserves most of the credit, but as I recall, he and Columbia were kind of "on the outs" at the time. Cropper was a super-nice guy, and a real pleasure to work and hang out with”.
Singer/guitarist J. Steve Soles had been a member of Jeff Barry's stable of mid-'70s songwriters working with a broad array of acts ranging from The Archies to Dusty Springfield. He and keyboard player Ned Albright had placed a pair of songs on The Monkees' final studio album - 1970's "Changes".
In the early '70s the two were members of the New York based band Tidbits which attracted the attention of Artie Ripp. Ripp signed them to his short-lived Family Records. Released in 1973, "Greetings from Jamaica" found Soles and Albright fronting a true band showcasing the talents of drummer Tali Jackson, and bass player David Kapell. Self-produced, the album was interesting if for no other reason than Soles and company were groundbreakers, being one of the first American bands I know of to record an album in Jamaica (Kingston's Dynamic Sound Studios).
The funny thing is even though the recorded the album with Carlton Lee engineering and help from various local musicians, with the exceptions of 'My Friend Maude' and 'Jamaican Sunset' reggae influences were far and few between. So if there wasn't much reggae, what was on this one? Well, the answer was a relative straightforward and quite impressive collection of English inspired pop and rock material. Largely penned by Soles and Albright (Soles then-wife/actress P.J. Soles co-wrote two tracks), selections such as 'Carol' and 'It's a Come On' were full of Badfinger, Emitt Rhodes, and Paul McCartney influences.
And here's where it got weird. In 1976 Morris Levy's infamous Tiger Lily Records reissued the album as a Soles product - "Steve Soles and Friends". The cover art was different, but the album featured the same eleven songs in the same track order as the 1973 Tidbits LP.
Culpeper’s Orchard were formed around 1969 in Denmark. The band’s original line up consisted of singer Cy Nicklin, guitarist Neils Hendriksen, bassist Michael Friis and drummer Rodger Barker. Throughout the 1960s, Nicklin had been performing with Sandy Denny and the Strawbs, along with Day of Phoenix. After meeting Hendriksen, Culpeper’s Orchard were soon formed. While the band would go through several line ups during their time together, Nicklin and Friis would be the band’s lone two consistent members.
Along with featuring the band’s three albums for Polydor Records, there’s an essay included in the set’s booklet written by journalist Malcolm Dome. In the essay are exclusive interviews with members of the band, who all help tell the story of the band. With there being close to nothing on the band’s story online, this is a great thing to have for those who might be new to the band.
Released in March 1971, the band’s first album received some buzz. Today, the original vinyl is now a sought out collector’s item and is usually regarded as an overlooked album in the psychedelic/progressive sub genres. Listening to this album, the band are an amazing amalgamation of various genres. The nine songs on this album range from heavy psychedelic rockers (“Mountain Music”) to progressive rock mini-epics (“Tea Party for an Orchard”)- with a side of US West Coast folk rock (“Blues Day Morning”). From beginning to end, Culpeper’s Orchard is a mind-bending psychedelic trip. If any of this sounds interesting to you, then you really owe it to yourself to listen to this album. It truly is a feast for the ears.
Second Sight is a surprisingly pleasant album. By this point, the band had stripped down a little bit on their heaviness- leaning more towards a progressive rock/folk rock sound. If the debut was a psychedelic/acid rock trip, this is an overall folk rock driven album. Examples include the pleasantly folk sounds of “Julia” and the West Coast psychedelic jam “Classified Ads.” If you want a little bit of everything, look no further than the album’s nine-minute epic “Mind Pollution”- a progressive/psychedelic rocker that sounds like it could’ve been on the first album, albeit lighter production. Overall, this is not a bad follow up.
Going for a Song doesn’t seem to have been released on CD before. For their third album, the band headed towards a more country rock sound- which feels off compared to the first two albums. While most of this album is a snooze, there are a few decent songs here. “Trying to Find a Home” and “Couldn’t Be Better,” while more commercial, are decent pop tunes- with the latter being a tad bit funky. Of the ten songs on here, “Roger and Out” comes the closest to sound like something from the first two album- given its soaring electric guitar riffs and slight psychedelic feel.
Culpeper’s Orchard were soon dropped by Polydor Records shortly after the release of Going for a Song. Despite this, the band kept performing live. By 1977, the band released a fourth studio album- All Dressed Up & Nowhere to Go– on Sonet Records. This was not released under the Culpeper’s Orchard name- with the band’s name now shortened to Culpeper. Given that it wasn’t released by Polydor Records, All Dressed Up is not included in this set.
by Aaron Conn, October/2020
Tracks
Disc 1
1. Banjocul (Cy Nicklin) - 0:46
2. Mountain Music (Part 1) (Cy Nicklin) - 6:27
3. Hey You People (Cy Nicklin) - 1:29
4. Teaparty For An Orchard (Cy Nicklin, Michael Friis, Thomsen) - 6:10
5. Ode To Resistance (Cy Nicklin, Michael Friis) - 5:50
6. Your Song And Mine (Cy Nicklin, Nils Henriksen) - 5:34
7. Gideon's Trap (Michael Friis) - 5:44
8. Blue Day's Morning (Nils Henriksen) - 2:10
9. Mountain Music (Part 2) (Cy Nicklin) - 7:27
10.Steamhouse (Michael Friis) - 2:34
11.Julia (Cy Nicklin) - 3:17
12.Keyboard Waltz (Cy Nicklin, Michael Friis) - 4:24
13.Classified Ads (Cy Nicklin) - 4:13
14.Late Night Woman Blues (Nils Henriksen) - 6:40
Tracks 1-9 taken from the album "Culpeper's Orchard" released in 1971
Track 10 released as a single 1971
Tracks 11-14 taken from the album "Second Sight" released in 1972
Disc 2
1. Mind Pollution-Weather Report (Cy Nicklin) - 9:36
2. Autumn Of It All (Michael Friis) - 4:08
3. Satisfied Mind (Andrew Jackson Rhodes, Joe Herman Hayes) - 6:08
4. Trying To Find Home (Cy Nicklin) - 3:41
5. She's Back Again (Michael Friis, Tom McEwan) - 3:20
6. Good Days (Cy Nicklin, Gary Nicklin) - 2:34
7. Alone In Pain (Cy Nicklin, Nils Tuxen) - 4:12
8. Time Flies (Niels Vangkilde, Tom McEwan) - 6:17
9. Sailor (Cy Nicklin, Gary Nicklin) - 6:27
10.Couldn't Be Better (Cy Nicklin, Gary Nicklin) - 4:16
11.Roger And Out (Cy Nicklin, Gary Nicklin) - 3:54
12.Before It Begun (Michael Friis, Tom McEwan) - 2:54
13.New Day New Day (Cy Nicklin) - 1:37
14.Raving (Cy Nicklin) - 5:13
15.Satisfied Mind (Andrew Jackson Rhodes, Joe Herman Hayes) - 5:41
16.Good Days (Cy Nicklin, Gary Nicklin) - 3:35
Tracks 1-3 taken from the album "Second Sight" released in 1972
Tracks 4-13 taken from the album "Going For A Song" released 1972
Track 14 taken from the compilation "Dansk Arbejde 2" released in 1972
Tracks 15-16 recorded live at the Holmenkollen open-air concert 1973
Culpeper's Orchard
*Cy Nicklin - Lead Vocals, Rhythm, Acoustic Guitars, Percussion
*Nils Henriksen - Lead, Acoustic Guitars, Piano, Harpsichord, Lead Vocals
*Michael Friis - Bass, Organ, Flute, Two Finger Piano, Percussion
