While critically acclaimed, they were not commercial successes at the time, in spite of the quality of the material. Gary Wright, former keyboardist/songwriter/vocalist for Spooky Tooth, released these two fine albums in succession after the initial breakup of the band, with `Extraction' coming out in 1971 and `Footprint' the next year. They now get a second chance, and fans of great rock music have reason to rejoice.
Wright formed a touring band in the wake of Spooky Tooth's demise, calling it `Wright's Wonderwheel' (which featured, among others, future Tooth and Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones). Most of that band played on 'Extraction', although the name Wonderwheel was not credited (however,they did release a single called 'I Know', and recorded an unreleased album). `Extraction' differed markedly from the trademark Spooky Tooth sound; the songs were generally more up-tempo, with more focus on lead guitar than the heavy organ sound of his previous band. In addition, the production was very bright and clean, with individual instruments very discreet and well separated.
It was sonically impressive on vinyl back then , and remains even more so on CD today. Featuring some truly outstanding songs such as Get on the Right Road, I Know a Place, Too Late to Cry and his own, more rocking version of The Wrong Time, which was also covered on the Wright-less Spooky Tooth Album `The Last Puff'. To me, this and `Footprint' feature Gary's most powerful vocal performances, largely devoid of the falsetto often used in Spooky Tooth recordings.
`Footprint' is a real joy to have. `Extraction' was actually released the previous year on the Repertoire label, but until this two-for set, `Footprint' was something of the Holy Grail of Spooky Tooth related material still unavailable. While `Extraction' had minimal production gloss, with somewhat sparse instrumentation and a generally `hard rock' feel, `Footprint' went a different direction.
Continuing with top-flight songs, superb vocals and lyrics that showed the emerging spiritualistic side of Gary, the recording featured many guest musicians, including George Harrison (under a pseudonym), Bobby Keys, Alan White, Jim Gordon and others. It was a more textured album in production values, with shimmering acoustic guitars augmenting the keyboards and electric instruments, more pensive lyrics and a kind of loose, thematic unity to the album not found on `Extraction'.
This theme is represented in such titles as Give Me the Good Earth, Love to Survive, Fascinating Things and the anthem-like Stand for Our Rights, which featured what may have been the last sax performance from King Curtis before his untimely death. To this day, hearing that song makes me want to jump up with a clenched fist and start marching. A more powerful affirmation to the cause of personal freedom would be hard to find.
While these masterpieces should, by all rights, have been released long before now, the fact that they are now available is great news to fans of not only Spooky Tooth and progeny, but to fans of superb late 60s, early 70s rock music everywhere. Frequent and repeated listenings guaranteed!.
by Dennis Hawley
1. Get on the Right Road - 3:33
2. Get Hold of Yourself - 3:11
3. Sing a Song - 3:14
4. We Try Hard - 2:28
5. I Know a Place - 5:04
6. The Wrong Time (McCracken, Wright) - 3:24
7. Over You Now - 3:47
8. Too Late to Cry - 3:52
9. I've Got a Story (McCracken, Wright) - 5:29
10.Give Me the Good Earth - 3:17
11.Two Faced Man - 3:38
12.Love to Survive - 4:24
13.Whether It's Right or Wrong - 5:09
14.Stand for Our Rights - 3:33
15.Fascinating Things - 5:07
16.Forgotten - 4:05
17.If You Treat Someone Right - 4:00
All compositions by Gary Wright except where indicated.
Musicians
*Gary Wright - Vocals, Keyboards
*Colin Allen - Drums, Percussion
*P.P. Arnold - Vocals
*John Barham - String Arrangements
*Madeline Bell - Vocals
*Jerry Donahue - Guitar
*Jim Gordon - Drums, Percussion
*Jim Keltner - Drums, Percussion
*Bobby Keys - Tenor Sax
*King Curtis - Saxophone
*Hugh McCracken - Guitar
*George O'Hara - Guitar, Slide Guitar
*Barry St. John - Vocals
*Liza Strike - Vocals
*Doris Troy - Vocals
*Klaus Voormann - Bass
*Alan White - Drums
*Mick Abrahams - Guitar
Free Text
Thanks Marios. I've been listening to Spooky Tooth quite a bit recently, so this will be a nice addition.
ReplyDeleteExcellent songs, fantastic musicians backing, BGO have done a great job, the remaster, great sound quality!
ReplyDeleteGreat this one, which I didn't know before.
ReplyDeleteThx
I'm getting a CRC failure when trying to extract, saying something about a possible incorrect password. I'm using "xara", as always. Is anyone else having this problem or did I perhaps have a corrupted download?
ReplyDeleteHi Fare9295,
ReplyDeleteI presume that you haven't complete the d/load, 209.77 Mb for Part1 and 206.69 Mb for part2, until now no other hasn't complained about failure extracting.
209 MB (219,955,200) and 206 MB (216,728,301) respectively. If no one else is having any problems, it's possible that one of the downloads got corrupted while downloading. There weren't any recovery records, so I couldn't attempt a recovery. It's okay...I'll just download again. I just thought I'd check first.
ReplyDeleteThis is great, thanks for posting it!
ReplyDeleteThe brief article here was written by me a few years ago as an Amazon review of the disc. I don't mind seeing it used elsewhere, but how about attribution? No one asked if they could lift my work or use it.
ReplyDeleteThis is pretty shabby, really. Look up the review and you can find this exact work along with my name as the writer.
Hi Dennis Hawley,
ReplyDeletethanks for your intervention, as you noticed I always mention the source of articles I publish, in this case there was nowhere your name, but at anyway I will correct the mistake and add your name as the columnist
I appreciate that, although my real name has been used for all of my Amazon reviews for many years now. I do not use a screen name.
ReplyDeleteDennis
Dennis,
ReplyDeleteit wasn't Amazon the site i found your article,
it was guitartabs explorer, but i presume they took it from there without mentioning the original text writer.
Thanks again.
I see; thanks for adding my name. I'm glad some readers may find it helpful.
ReplyDeleteThank you again too!
What a strong rock music record it is. Thanks a lot. Julien
ReplyDeleteHi Marios.. can you Extract this for me please?
ReplyDeleteDisques légendaires d'un groupe légendaire entre tous groupes légendaires!! Ou presque, mais on a assez d'amis comme ça.....
ReplyDeletePour ce qui est de remettre les dents hantées à qui de droit (si tu lis ceci, Merveille, prends note!!Les malentendus c'est terminé!!): Le problème d'un format L'os-laisse ou Fac, c'est qu'il faut de toute manière convertir en MP3 --- ou alors, MP4 sur YouTube!!
Ariel Bender
Hi! No link available
ReplyDeleteAny chance for a re-upload?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletepawlyn, new links for "Gary Wright - Extraction / Footprint 1971-72, added.
Delete