This awesome but underrated record from this unjustly forgotten US band from Boston was released on Cotillion Records in 1972 and contained very ambitious, well-arranged and truly inspired, jazzy progessive rock with memorable and complex tracks, full of interesting ideas.
Their music was characterized by fine electric guitar and Hammond phrases mixed with excellent and intensive violin, flute and sax solo parts. Because the Guns & Butter line-up was predominantly Jewish, there was more than a hint of traditional Jewish music in thier sound, which gave them a unique and distinctive sound. This beautifully varied and simply stunning music can be compared to early Kansas, Jethro Tull and Darryl Way's Wolf. Unfortunately the record went completely unnoticed and as a result the band split up.
Tracks
1. I Am (Lenny Federer) - 4:23
2. Time Has Wings (Lenny Federer, Richard Ploss) - 2:54
3. Look At The Day (Paul Cohen, Richard Ploss) - 2:38
4. Sometimes (Lenny Federer) - 8:32
5. It Can't Go On Like This (Richard Ploss) - 3:10
6. Our Album (Paul Cohen) - 3:04
7. Lady Grey (Richard Ploss, S. Blomerth) - 3:48
8. Family (Paul Cohen, Peter Tucker) - 2:33
9. Elysium's Butterfly Comes (Richard Ploss) - 2:33
10.The Wanderer (Paul Cohen, Richard Ploss) - 5:26
Lost Nation were formed in Detroit, Michigan, their sole album "Paradise Lost", originally released 1970 in the US on Rare Earth RS 518. Late psych album , crossing over to progressive rock with some of the organ/guitar jams. Recalls another Michigan group - the more known SRC, especially on their "Traveler's Tale" album. Album is melodic in a heavy style with plenty of organ, including Hammond B3. Great riffing and soloing and always fun, in the style of what people now call “proto-prog”.
Essentially it is an amalgam of late psych rock, early Prog and hard rock. There were lots of bands from the period 1968-71 that encompassed these three elements, played in an atmosphere of early Deep Purple with a touch of Beggars Opera, lots of tasty guitar improvisation! remind me of most, this is a real killer in case you are into US hard psych into prog albums. Stunning tracks and musicianships. 7 minutes "She'll Take You" is nothing else then a monster!. Mandatory purchase for any lover of rock music of 1970!
by Adamus67
Tracks
1. Tall Ivory Castle (Larry Zelanka, Ron Stults) - 4:48
2. Rome (Larry Zelanka, Ron Stults) - 4:05
3. Little Boy (Craig Webb, Ron Stults) - 4:27
4. Images (Craig Webb, Ron Stults) - 6:50
5. Seven Minute Woman (Craig Webb, Ron Stults) - 5:05
6. Shadows Within You (Larry Zelanka, Ron Stults) - 4:36
7. She'll Take You (Craig Webb, Ron Stults) - 7:14
8. Falling Inside My Mind (Larry Zelanka, Ron Stults) - 7:17
Drummer John Kowalski and bass player Bob Homa formed Haymarket Square in Chicago in the late '60s. Both had previously toiled in Chicago high school garage band the Real Things, the name a derivation and tribute to English beat band the Pretty Things. Not your typical amateurs, the Real Things actually played professional instruments and earned professional gigs until they disintegrated in 1967 due to the usual reasons of the season, leaving the two original members to assemble a new unit.
Homa decided to place ads in the campus newspaper of the University of Illinois Chicago -- where both he and Kowalski had enrolled by this time -- as well as in two local Chicago dailies. Guitarist Marc Swenson, a 17-year-old lead player who idolized and emulated Dave Davies, was the first to answer and was quickly hired after a short, impressive audition. The three then set about searching for a singer, but were unsuccessful until receiving a call from Gloria Lambert, who had also seen their advertisement. At the time, she was biding her time in the folk band Jordan, Damian, and Samantha until something more exciting (i.e., electric) came along for which she could utilize her classically trained skills.
An audition was set, and when the 20-year-old blonde with the powerful Grace Slick voice showed up, the three teenagers were somewhat awestruck and, of course, impressed, and snapped her up immediately. Like Swenson, Lambert also happened to be a strong burgeoning songwriter. The quartet took the name Haymarket Square in honor of the Chicago Labor riot that took place at the turn of the century.
Within a short time, the band had earned a strong local reputation and degree of popularity on the Chicago rock scene, playing premier rooms such as the Electric Playground and the Playboy Mansion in addition to the many teen clubs and hangouts, and sharing stages with important international groups like the Yardbirds and Cream, as well as local favorites H.P. Lovecraft, Saturday's Children, and the Shadows of Knight. Soon they were composing their own songs in imitation of their idols Jefferson Airplane, while also absorbing the city's blues and folk traditions, and adding a smattering of Lovecraftian occult touches.
Haymarket Square's escalating stature led to an offer from the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art in the summer of 1968 to act as backup musicians for a live work of art that was on display at the time, the Original Baron and Bailey Light Circus, produced by a pair of University of Illinois professors. It in turn led to Magic Lantern, released on independent Chaparral Records later in 1968.
As the music featured on it was initially utilized as live accompaniment and created expressly with that purpose in mind, the album plays much like the records of the Airplane's middle, most psychedelic period, as much visceral experiences to fill San Francisco ballrooms as they are objects for home listening, or like early Grateful Dead recordings, intended as soundtracks for Acid Tests and experimental light shows. But as with the work of those bands, Magic Lantern transcends its intended purpose; in fact, it is one of the stronger -- not to mention one of the earliest -- slices of acid rock from the era, outstanding in every way, from Kowalski's expert drumming to Lambert's impressive, insistent singing to the intensely mood-filled, darkly textured original songs.
The band changed personnel shortly after the album's release. Homa chose to exit the band and was replaced by Ken Pitlik, while Robert Miller added a second guitar to the mix. This version of Haymarket Square continued through 1974, when they called it quits. By this point, Swenson and Lambert had married, while the others went their own separate ways.
In 1966 the Misunderstood, an ambitious anti-war rock band from small town California, set off on a mission to England. In swinging sixties London they forge a revolutionary new psychedelic sound, but on the very brink of international success the heart of the band is ripped out when their lead singer is drafted by the US Army. Torn from stardom and faced with war or prison he miraculously escapes from boot camp and embarks on a spiritual journey to mystical India, living for seven years as a monk in a primitive ashram.
With the discovery of a secret ruby mine, and magical jewels, he becomes embroiled in further extraordinary adventures, his fugitive life forcing him to live in the shadows, one step ahead of the authorities. Children of the Sun is the thrilling true-life saga of the greatest lost rock band of the 1960s and one young man’s quest for spiritual peace, personal freedom, and survival.
Too little-known in their time to qualify as forgotten, the Misunderstood were, in all but riches and renown, the American Yardbirds: a panzer-garage quintet from Riverside, California, combining electric-blues lust with rave-up dementia and tight, flammable songwriting. After an early-’66 line-up change, the band boasted, in the country-raga invention and greased lightning of steel guitar prodigy Glenn Ross Campbell, its own Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page rolled into one.
These feral demos show why Peel went wild: singer Rick Brown’s deep, scarred bark, like Howlin’ Wolf swallowed whole by Eric Burdon; the searing psychedelic prophecy of Campbell’s pedal steel in the London audition takes of “My Mind” and “Children of the Sun."
Two weeks after that September ’66 session, Jimi Hendrix arrived in the UK and became all the rage, the immigrant acid king. But the Misunderstood got there first. Hear the proof.
by Adamus67
Tracks
1. Children of the Sun (Hill, Brown) - 2:50
2. My Mind (Hill, Brown) - 2:34
3. Who Do You Love (Elias McDaniel) - 2:26
4. I Unseen (Hill) - 2:01
5. Find the Hidden Door (Hill, Brown) - 2:16
6. I Can Take You to the Sun (Hill, Brown) - 3:38
7. I’m Not Talking (Traditional) (Original arrangement) - 2:25
8. Who’s Been Talking? (Traditional) - 2:57
9. I Need Your Love (Treadway) - 3:20
10.You Don’t Have to Go (Traditional) - 4:43
11.I Cried My Eyes Out (Treadway) - 2:39
12.Like I Do (Treadway) - 2:51
13.You've Got Me Crying Over Love (Hidden track) - 2:22
This was apparently a one-shot album for the Uncle Bill label. It was pressed in Greensboro, NC (40 miles south of Danville) and may be the only lp on the label.
The album has a rogressive touch, with quite a lot of brass and woodwind and the occasional mellow instrumental like "Jimmy's Song" and "Rainbows".
Band known for its strong stage presence including an appearance in the buff at the 1971 rock festival in LoveValley, NC; used fog machines and other stage gimmicks to create a crowd frenzy; veteran musicians formed group almost overnight with members of The Impacts and The Pieces of Eight.
Tracks
1 Wishing Well - 4.15
2 Toe Jam - 3.20
3 Blue, Down, And Out - 2.49
4 Big Leg Woman - 2.23
5 Revaduction - 1.20
6 Where Do We Go From Here - 4.10
7 I'll Be Gone Come Yesterday - 2.50
8 I've Learned To Hide The Pazh - 4.21
9 Jimmy's Song - 3.23
10 K.D.'S Dilemma - 5.35
11 Rainbows - 2.11
12 Princess - 3.26
13 Critics, Friends, And People - 3.24
The Twentieth Century Zoo were the first psyche rock hand from Phoenix to have a national album release. The story begins in 1966 when West High School student Bob Sutko recruited Allan Chitwood and Greg Farley and formed the folk-rocking Bitter Sweets.
The band became a fixture on the valley rock ‘n' roll scene, measuring up to such local legends as the (pre-Alice Cooper) Spiders, the Caravelles, the Mile Ends, Vibratos and Phil and the Frantics. The Bitter Sweets released two local singles in 1966 and 1967, including the now sought-after Byrds clone "Cry Your Eyes Out" (Hype 102). The Bitter Sweets gained the support of Tony Evans, an influential music director of Phoenix radio giant KRIZ (1230 am).
Evans ran Routeen Music, a local publishing company, which scored a big hit on Artco - a Phoenix soul label - with the original "Funk)' Broadway" by Dyke and The Blazers. Evans soon placed the regional hit on Art Laboe's Original Sound Records in Los Angeles. This connection led to the band's third and final single - "In The Night/Another Chance" (OSR 70) - getting a similar national shot in 1967. Though "In The Night" holds up as a decent fuzz-punker today, contemporary success eluded the band. By late 1967, the Bitter Sweets decided to take a different tack, psychedelicizing into the Twentieth Century Zoo.
Besides ex-Bitter Sweets Sutko (vocals and harmonica), Farley (rhythm guitar), Chitwood (bass) and drummer Paul Bennett, the group picked up Paul "Skip" Ladd, formerly of the Laser Beats ("Rampage," Laser 101), on lead guitar. Band manager Chari Zelman – affectionately recalled as a pushy, redheaded, single mom - financed a session at Audio Recorders on North Seventh Street in Phoenix. The resulting single's A-side, "Clean Old Man" (CAZ 103) gave little warning ot the ferocity found on the flip.
The mind-crunching fuzz of "You Don't Remember" could have clinched legendary status for The Zoo all by itself. Shortly after the record hit the streets in late 1967, Bennett received his greetings from Uncle Sam and the band needed a new percussionist. Future drummer Randy Wells of Sounds Incorporated remembers auditioning in Zelman's garage: "It was full of young drummers, all banging away on their sets, but as soon as I started to play, they liked me," says Wells, who honed his chops bearing the skins in the Tempe High School marching band. Wells was firmly planted in the drummer's seat by the rime the Zoo returned to the studio to cut their next single, 1968s heavy "Love In Your Face"/ Tossin' and Turnin’ (CAZ 104).
In the fall of that year, Zelman secured an album contract with Vault Records of Los Angeles. Wells remembers spending two weeks in LAs Sound Factory Studios, cutting what was essentially the Zoo's live set at the time. The album, Thunder On A Clear Day (Vault 122), includes rerecorded versions of "You Don't Remember" and "Love In Your Face” both of which arc longer and in stereo.
The pair are included on this CD, along with two previously unreleased album tracks, "Hall Of The Mountain King" and "Enchanted Park." Wells recalls dashing with producer Gene Simmons over the percussion. "I wanted to do a Santana sounding thing with the drums. We had these Latin licks, but Gene didn't have time for it. He did pump up the drums in the mix. They sound pretty good." Simmons added keyboards to the session and many different sound effects, including a string introduction to "Blues With A Feeling" that Wells recalls he found on a tape in the studio. Vault released die LP and edited versions of "Rainbow" and "Bullfrog" as a single (Vault 948) in late 1968.
The album is now considered a West Coast hard-rock classic. "I was surprised with the album cover and my double exposure picture on the back," says Wells. "I was definitely the strongest personality in the band, because I wanted things done a certain way, and I clashed several times with Gene Simmons, but he forgave me. He knew I was a crazy drummer. For that time, (considering) the quality of the studio, they did pretty good with what we had." After the release, the band played several large concerts at the Phoenix Veterans Memorial Coliseum, opening for national acts. "We played with Iron Butterfly twice, The Byrds, Crabby Appleton and Blue Cheer," Wells remembers. "The second time we played with Iron Butterfly we used rented amps for some reason and the fuses kept blowing. It was the most horrendous night of my career. We were really ready to kick butt, and they kept blowing fuses right and left. We had to stop after a couple of songs." There was a final Vault single release in 1969, "Only Thing That's Wrong"/ "Stallion Of Fate" (Vault 961), the group's swansong release.
Following the demise of the Zoo in 1970, Wells played in local Phoenix country-rock band E.Z. Pickins, before answering to a higher calling in the mid-70's. He recently earned his Doctorate of Ministry and has his own church in California, although he still plays drums on Sunday. As Wells says: "I can still get things going with my double bass drums. I don't miss a lick. I've even got some new things, but this time it's for the Lord."
by John P. Dixon
Tracks
1. You Don't Remember (Bob Sutko, Greg Farley) - 2:49
2. Clean Old Man (Bob Sutko) - 2:37
3. Love In Your Face (Greg Farley, Bob Sutko) - 2:03
The recent deluge of mid-'60s relics that continue to rise from the vinyl crypt for a little modern re-consideration are too often more miss than hit. For every Pete Dello or Comus reissue there are seven or eight barely mediocre offerings from bands like Eclection or the Vejtables. Chrysalis, a colorful quintet from Ithaca, New York who dabbled in everything from folk, rock and jazz to Middle Eastern music fall somewhere in the middle, and their one and only recording,
Definition remains a fascinating, if uneven lesson in the fine art of psychedelia. Frank Zappa, who championed Chrysalis as "a group that has yet to destroy your mind" was originally asked to produce, but was in the throes of removing himself from a bitter contractual dispute with MGM/Verve. In the end, Definition went through numerous production teams who all left for various reasons -- none relating to the music or musicians -- which makes it all the more curious that it sounds so defined and cohesive.
Frontman Spider Barbour, who had appeared on both Zappa's We're Only in It for the Money and Lumpy Gravy -- and who is now, ironically, a naturalist devoted to the lives of moths and butterflies -- brings a great deal of early Mothers of Invention aesthetic to the table. Jazzy piano motifs flitter about truncated worldbeat rhythms, while short comedy skits provide segues between songs that deal with insects, yodeling girls, and hippie culture.
It's all very Sgt. Pepper's, but there is an adventurous glee to the songs and arrangements that's equally matched by the talent behind them. It's the kind of brainy yet daft art rock that collegiate drug users, music school geeks and even children can find common ground in, and Rev-Ola's extensive liner notes and inclusion of eight bonus tracks from the sessions makes for a rewarding listen whoever you are.
by James Christopher Monger
Tracks
1. What Will Become of the Morning - 2:33
2. Lacewing - 3:24
3. Cynthia Gerome - 3:56
4, April Grove - 2:54
5. Father's Getting Old - 2:24
6. 30 Poplar - 2:28
7. Baby, Let Me Show You Where I Live - 2:35
8. Fitzpatrick Swanson - 2:33
9. Lake Hope - 2:16
10.Piece of Sun - 1:50
11.Summer in Your Savage Eyes - 2:22
12.Dr Root's Garden - 4:14
13.The Dues Are Hard (Paul Album, Ralph Kotkov) - 2:58
14.Gimme Your Love - 3:23
15.Sink in Deeper - 3:04
16.Window Shopping - 2:42
17.Wheel I Can Ride - 2:48
18.Cold and Windy City - 2:35
19.Cynthia Gerome - 4:19
20.Dr Root's Garden - 4:55
All compositions by J. Spider Barbour except where indicated
It all seems so long ago, but in the early seventies Australia hosted a burgeoning music scene that built on the garage pop explosion of the sixties. Music and culture had reflected on the initial rock’n’roll explosion, and all sorts of new avenues were being explored.
One of the most adventurous explorers was Melbourne ’s magnificent Madder Lake . Their career was typical of the times. Emerging from the sixties as a cover band (San Sebastian), they coalesced into an original band of great creativity and power, helped kickstart an independent Australian music industry, participated in the legendary gigs like Sunbury, and after two amazing albums that pushed the envelope of creativity and could’ve been major highlights in any part of the world, eventually folded without ever achieving the critical or popular acclaim their originality and talent deserved.
That’s the nutshell version, and it will do for now, because the focus really should be on this magnificent pair of albums that have now been given the lavish Aztec Music treatment they deserve. Like Sebastian Hardie in Sydney Madder Lake have remained a secret known only to those who remembered swaying close eyed as their music transported you to a higher state.
It’s often called progressive rock, and that’s probably fair enough, because it was music that transformed our understanding of what was possible, but ultimately it’s too limiting to try and tie music like this down with a label. Explore for yourself and be prepared to marvel and just what the Australian music industry was capable of in 1973 and 1974.
Stillpoint came first and is the product of just a few days in the studio. From the opening bars of “Salmon Song” you realise that you’re hearing something very different. Brenden Mason’s guitar and John McKinnon’s keyboards interplay joyously as the rhythm section of Kerry McKenna (bass) and Jac Kreemers (drums) underpin the sonic excursions with a thunderous bottom end that has just been waiting for a digital remastering to be fully revealed. After six and a half minutes creating expectation, Mick Fettes gravely vocals burst through the speakers, and the strength of Madder Lake is revealed. This is a band the absolutely revels in sparking off each other. The speed of recording captures an almost improvisational feel that was characteristic of their live performances. If “Salmon Song” was the only thing they’d ever recorded they would have been a great band, fortunately for music lovers everywhere it was just an entree.
Stillpoint contains the two singles that were obligatory for any band wanting to achieve recognition in the music industry, “Goodbye Lollipop” and “12-lb Toothbrush”, but goes way beyond that as the band explored textures, sounds and space. “Lollipop” is still irresistible, the perfect name for three and a half minutes of pure, unadulterated joy, while “Toothbrush” sounds as fresh as the first time its “na na nana nana na na” vocal hook first entered the collective consciousness of a generation of Australians.
This superb re-release supplements the musical explorations of the original album with some wonderful rarities. Aztec Music were obviously determined to make sure “12-lb Toothbrush’s” infectious hook infiltrated as many brains as possible, because the original single version is included here, as is a live version from Sunbury ’73. Two tracks from the rare “Final Blow” LP recorded live at The Garrison in Melbourne on 10 June 1973 round out the collection and offer convincing proof of just how powerful Madder Lake were on stage.
by Bernie Howitt
Tracks
1. Salmon Song - 8:22
2. On My Way To Heaven - 3:51
3. Helper - 5:07
4. Listen To The Morning Sunshine - 5:11
5. Goodbye Lollipop - 3:36
6. Song For Little Ernest - 4:30
7. 12-Lb. Toothbrush - 6:02
8. Bumper Bar Song (B-Side) - 4:41
9. 12-Lb. Toothbrush (Single Version) - 3:50
10.Country Blues (B-Side) - 2:43
11.Down The River (G. Ratziass) (Live At Sunbury) - 6:14
12.12-Lb. Toothbrush (Live At Sunbury) - 8:18
13.Bumper Bar Song (Live At Garrison) - 5:50
14.When Is A Mouse (Live At Garrison) - 5:38
All song by Madder Lake except where noted.
Catapilla was a British group acting short time during the early seventies. The founder of the band was saxophonist and keyboardist Robert Calvert. The band recorded two very interesting albums released by Vertigo. Their debut album contained a mix of heavy rock and jazz. Album characterized, by guitar passages interspersed with lots instruments keyboards, organs and saxophone
The great attraction was the vocalist Anna Meek, has a very distinctive voice and original way to use it. Sometimes fragments of the group resembled the Colosseum, Van Der Graaf Generator, Soft Machine and Nucleus.
The flagship track of the first LP Catapilla (Vertigo 6360 029) 1971' is twenty-five-minute"Embryonic Fusion" - the quintessence of style group,pure poetry progressive rock.
After recording their debut album some musicians left the band. Other members-founders Robert Calvert and Anna Meek, Graham Wilson co-opt new instrumentalists and proceeded to record the second album,Catapilla - "Changes" released in 1972 original UK first pressing Vertigo 6360 074 Production: Colin Caldwell, cover-art by Martin Dean, Recorded at Marquee Studios, London..housed in a spectacular die-cut gatefold cover!.
Scary cover, too. A giant die-cut catterpillar gnaws its way through the cabbage leaves. Will they come for you too? The lettering is perhaps a bit too tolerantly chosen. Too much trouble to design your own letters? The inside shows the backside of the caterpillar, which is prolongued even into the inside of the cover where the disc has its place. Interesting idea!
This LP is rare and very very hard to find,one of the most mysterious of all the innovative acts signed by progressive Vertigo Swirl label in the early seventies. This short-lived progressive rock band made an unforgettable impression upon the face of music before their exit into obscurity. It's a wonder how a group that was so well ahead of their time and who were literally one of the pioneers of an entire generation of music could be so unrecognized. Now its time to give credit were it is so rightfully due.
Plate was also curious, as debut the style group remained the same only slightly enriched it even elements of psychedelia and experimental music. It features the powerful vocals of Anna Meek that have been variously described by critics as ‘elegant’ and even ‘witch-like’.
Her voice is complemented on a series of extended performances by the saxophone playing of leader Robert Calvert (who is not to be confused with the singer and poet Robert Calvert of Hawkwind fame). Catapilla’s style veers between avant-garde jazz-fusion and experimental acid rock and there is plenty of room for experimentation on tracks Exorcising and often wordless vocals by Meek still dominate the soundscapes, as do Calvert's ubiquitous saxes, frequently two at the time.
No concessions to sales figures anywhere in sight, the music aims at spiritual cleansing. A lot of echo, a lot of overdubs and long, long tracks govern the style. At times this leads to gaps in the tension, but when it gels it's downright chilling. Best features are the silent passages after wild orgies of sound, that work like sanctuaries after some cosmic ordeal, like the end of Reflections
Also noteworthy: the strange mixture of slow hard-rock and Eastern melodies on Thank Christ for George, moments of savage guitar lines are calmed by vocals that seem to float over the top of a soothing saxophone while the complexity of it all pulls you into another dimension.
They both clock in at over twelve minutes each. Regardless of the length of the songs you are left wanting for more as well as the unexpected tranquillity of the closing track. Unique sounds that make for uneasy but rewarding listening. Vocalist Anna Meek and saxophonist Robert Calvert play off of each other and ride the prog-rock roller coaster of ever changing sound. Prog-rock enthusiasts get a glimpse of where groups like Pink Floyd and Roxy Music could have derived some ideas from. Meek's eerie vocal rants and Calvert's poignant and atmospheric saxophone are everything Graham Wilson (guitar), Ralph Rolinson (keyboards), Carl Wassard (bass), and Brian Hanson (drums) needed to launch a sound that is all at once mysterious as it is aurally exciting.
This LP entailed four ambitious songs of progressive jazz-rock fusion that help to lend a hand in setting the standard for what was to become a new genre. The colorful gatefold sleeve, which has a picture of a caterpillar peeping over a leaf as it enjoys its meal, opens and there is a maggot squirming. This image is a point of reference to the music, its very symbolic. Progressive rock is very much like the process of birth and rebirth.
The caterpillar goes into a cocoon and emerges as a beautiful butterfly. They couldn't have chosen a better analogy or illustration to explain the musical process. Its time for us all to investigate the impact that groups like Catapilla has had on the history and development of prog-rock. Despite this, the album went almost unnoticed. In part, it was because the year 1972 was full of many important works of rock
Catapilla did not have a suitably resilient impresario and good promotion. To the lack of adequate amounts of touring and internal friction in the group soon led to its dissolution. To this lack of proper quantities concert tours and internal friction in the group soon led to its dissolution. Most of the members of the group left the music business and today their names are known only to the a staunch fans.
Robert Calvert joined Hawkwind and for many years with great success in this group, he continued his musical career. The fact remains that Catapilla, is more appreciated team today - over 40 years after its debut, than in the years of its activity.
by Adamus67
Tracks
1. Reflection - 12:06
2. Charing Cross - 6:45
3. Thank Christ For George - 12:07
4. It Could Only Happen To Me (G. Wilson, R. Calvert) - 6:45
All songs written by G. Wilson, R. Calvert and A. Meek unless as else stated.
Mott's last album for Island is a belter. Needing an injection of craziness that was lacking on Wildlife they reluctantly joined forces with Guy Stevens once again and the result is a raw, heavy metal punk album six years ahead of its time.
Of the pre-Bowie albums, this is easily the fans' favourite. Like Mad Shadows, this was recorded live in the studio, and all the tracks were laid down in about four days. Live tapes from the time show just how well this album captured their live sound.
Opener Death May Be Your Santa Claus is frantic (check out the exuberant "Wooo!" at the end). Darkness Darkness features Mick Ralphs on vocals and is a guitar-driven rocker and noteworthy for not featuring Verden at all. The Journey is one of Ian's epic ballads and it is an interesting exercise to compare this to the alternate version recorded a few weeks earlier (included as a bonus track).
Sweet Angeline is another rocker, one that would remain in the live set to the end. Second Love is interesting - the first of Verden Allen's compositions Mott recorded and beautifully sung by Ian. The Moon Upstairs is another full-tilt rocker with is in part a message of defiance to Island: "We ain't bleeding you, we're feeding you, but you're to f***ing slow".
The LP closed with The Wheel Of The Quivering Meat Conception, with is another end-of-session-jam tape reclamation job, this time as an earlier take of The Journey descends into complete chaos.
Bonus tracks here are the non-LP single Midnight Lady and an earlier version of The Journey (which is more acoustic than the LP version).
Sleeve notes as always are excellent, as is the sound quality. The CD also reproduces the original LP cover .
Tracks
1. Death May Be Your Santa Claus (Ian Hunter, Verden Allen) - 4.55
2. Your Own Back Yard (Dion Dimucci) - 4.13
3. Darkness, Darkness (Jesse Colin Young) - 4.33
4. The Journey (Ian Hunter) - 9.15
5. Sweet Angeline (Ian Hunter) - 4.53
6. Second Love (Verden Allen) - 3.46
7. The Moon Upstairs (Ian Hunter, Mick Ralphs) - 5.07
8. The Wheel Of The Quivering Meat Conception (Ian Hunter, Guy Stevens) - 1.21
