Recorded with producer Michael Cuscuna in two sessions — Woodstock, December 1972, and New York City, Spring 1973 — this was to be Smither’s third album for Poppy. Soon after it was finished, the label folded, parent company United Artists took over the masters, and the album was shelved. The Cambridge-via-New-Orleans guitarist, singer and songwriter subsequently recorded ten of its twelve songs on later albums, but this is the first time Honeysuckle Dog has been released intact. It suggests that with a few breaks labelwise and a less self-destructive personal life, Smither could even then have been a contender, at least on a John Hammond/Ry Cooder level.
On the former, his complex, elegiac fingerpicking style interpolates his own deft instrumental theme with four of the pacific Delta bluesman’s calling-card songs. The latter, with a full band that includes Little Feat’s Lowell George on electric guitar, confirms that even though Smither didn’t have much of a blues voice, he did invest it with tremendous blues feeling of his own. He sounds like nobody but himself, true to his influences without aping them, as did most of his misguided white blues peers. This track and its solo acoustic successor, a knowing interpretation of Randy Newman’s “Guilty” that was recorded before either the composer’s or Bonnie Raitt’s versions, provide the album’s emotional core.
The rest of the set balances originals such as the title song (featuring Dr. John) and the deeply estranged “Homunculus” with Smither readings of Bessie Smith’s “Jailhouse Blues”, Danny O’Keefe’s “Steel Guitar” and the like. Honeysuckle Dog fills a gaping hole in the Smither discography, and most of it can stand with anything he’s done in the three-plus decades since.
by John Morthland.
Tracks
1. Sunshine Lady (Paul MacNeil) - 3:51
2. Tribute to Mississippi John Hurt (John Hurt) - 3:40
3. Honeysuckle Dog - 4:04
4. Rattlesnake Preacher (Eric Von Schmidt) - 4:39
5. Rosalie - 3:05
6. Guilty (Randy Newman) - 2:13
7. It Ain't Easy (Ron Davies) - 3:57
8. Lonely Time - 3:22
9. Homunculus - 3:10
10.Braden River - 3:41
11.Steel Guitar (Danny O'Keefe) - 2:41
12.Jailhouse Blues (Traditional) - 5:39
Written by Chris Smither except where noted
Personnel
*Chris Smither - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
*John Bailey - Acoustic, Electric Guitars, Autoharp
If pure talent was the only requirement to guarantee massive popularity, then Mick Abrahams would be as well known as Eric Clapton. The fact that he is not is due to a combination of bad luck and bad decisions, but rarely bad music, as this CD clearly demonstrates. Abrahams played a very big part in launching rock giants Jethro Tull to mega-star status, but when musical and personal differences with Ian Anderson came to a head at the end of 1968, Mick left that band and formed Blodwyn Pig, carrying on in the jazz/blues style of early Tull whilst Anderson & Co. veered off into more idiosyncratic musical dimensions. Andy Pyle (bass) and Ron Berg (drums) provided the solid rhythm section, and the sax and particularly flute of Jack Lancaster echoed the early Jethro Tull sound, to the extent that an instrumental track from the first Blodwyn Pig album turned up on a Jethro Tull bootleg listed as "untitled instrumental".
Blodwyn Pig (named by a musician friend of Mick's on his return from several years exile as a Buddhist monk!) was an instant success, both musically and commercially, with two UK top 10 albums in '69 and '70. But whilst Mick was clearly the group leader he somehow managed to get himself fired from his own band, and the Pig folded completely weeks after his departure.
Mick carried on his quest for great music and bizarre band names with "Wommet" before launching the more soberly named Mick Abrahams Band in 1971. They made two albums, but failed to match the success of Blodwyn Pig, and, disillusioned, Mick temporarily quit the music business.
It was a short break, as he came back with a revamped Blodwyn Pig in 1974, with Andy Pyle and Jack Lancaster back in the fold, plus Clive Bunker, drummer and fellow Jethro Tull founder. It was a very short lived return lasting for only half a dozen gigs, but they did manage a BBC session for John Peel and an "In Concert" (both featured on this CD) before calling it quits once more. A guitar tutorial album, a few recording sessions and the occasional gig kept Mick in touch with music, but he considered himself retired from the music business, getting "a proper job" and religion simultaneously.
That was almost the end of the story, but thankfully The Blods were resurrected yet again for a 'one-off' charity gig in Luton in 1988. Mick, Andy Pyle and Clive Bunker were joined by Bruce Boardman and the legendary sax man Dick Heckstall-Smith in the new line up, and both audience and band were so delighted with the gig that they decided to carry on - and they are still there, albeit with countless personnel changes since.
The return to recording in 1991 with the Mick Abrahams album All Said And Done" and then the 1993 Blodwyn Pig album "Lies" heralded the rebirth in earnest, and all four of the early albums were issued on CD. In the last few years the recorded output of Mick Abrahams and Blodwyn Pig has bordered on meteoric; four studio albums have highlighted the quality of Abrahams' song writing and amazing guitar technique, and no less than five (count 'em!) live CDs have offered a taste of the excitement generated by the various versions of his bands throughout the years - even if the sound quality on some of them leaves a lot to be desired.
Thankfully Hux Records now bring us a quality reminder of the greatness of Mick Abrahams and Blodwyn Pig, rescuing from the BBC archives tapes that had long been thought lost for ever. The live and session tracks from '69, '71 and '74 are augmented by two tracks recorded during the sessions for the most recent (to date) studio album "Pig In The Middle", released at the end of 1996. This album serves as a handy guide through the Blodwyn Pig story, showing the full range of acoustic blues, heavy rock and progressive blues/rock that endeared them to real music lovers in the 70's, and still excites the fans in the 90's. And on "Mr Green's Blues" we get a sample of Mick's irreverent humour that punctuates every Blodwyn Pig gig.
In many ways Mick is now more involved in music than ever before; in 1998 he put together the This Was Band, touring the UK recreating the sound of the Jethro Tull he had played with some thirty years earlier, and a live album from the tour was released. He was also heavily involved in an all-star line-up on the Jackie Lynton album "Pin-board Wizards", which also featured erstwhile Jethro Tull colleagues Ian Anderson and Clive Bunker, along with Martin Barre who replaced Mick in the Tull ranks and is still there today. In 1999 he started work on a new album in his newly built home studio. The resulting CD "See My Way", was released by A New Day Records in March 2000, featuring guest appearances by Elliott Randall, Geoff Whitehorn and fellow Pig founder, Andy Pyle, who joined Mick for a great new working of the classic title track. There is also talk of another acoustic solo album following the success of "One" in 1996, on which he was joined by Ian Anderson, and another project pending is a collaboration with Jackie Lynton on what promises to be a musical version of Derek & Clive! The mind boggles!
All this activity bodes well for the future, and anybody with an ear for great guitar playing should be grateful for that! Here's to much more from mighty Mick.... and wouldn't it be nice to hear a few more offerings via the BBC in years to come?
by Dave Rees, June 1999
Tracks
1. The Modern Alchemist (Jack Lancaster) - 4:49
2. Mr. Green's Blues (Mick Abrahams, Jack Lancaster, Ron Berg) - 3:49
A sweet 70s set on Capricorn Records – one from a time when the label was moving away from a more slavishly southern sound, and really opening up to some other currents of the period! The group have a nice way of harmonizing on the vocals, with some slight rootsy elements in the instrumentation, supported with richer backings overall – maybe a style that's a more southern take on the territory of America, with a slightly more AOR vibe overall. Titles include the great "She's A Mystery", plus "World On A String", "Lonely In Churchville", "I'm Never Alone", "Tie Me", and "We Got Love".
Larry Keith, Steve Pippin, and Rafe Van Hoy are Fallenrock, based out of Nashville, TN. They only had this one 1974 release, which came out just before Warner Bros acquired Capricorn Records, and thus Fallenrock fell between the cracks, making this an obscure recording today. Rafe Van Hoy wrote or co-wrote many country hits, including "Golden Ring" for George Jones & Tammy Wynette; "Let’s Keep It That Way" by Mac Davis, Tanya Tucker, & others; "Sail Away" by The Oak Ridge Boys; and "What’s Forever For" by Michael Murphey. "Watch For Fallenrock", produced by Johnny Slate & Larry Henley (of The Newbeats) for Windchime Productions, Inc.
Tracks
1. She's A Mystery (Larry Keith, Steve Pippin) - 2:34
2. Tie Me (Steve Pippin) - 2:07
3. Mary Anne (Larry Keith, Steve Pippin) - 3:36
4. I'm Never Alone (Danny Morrison, Johnny Slate, Larry Keith) - 2:16
5. Sayin' It's So Don't Make It So (Danny Morrison, Johnny Slate, Larry Keith) - 3:00
6. Lonely In Churchville (Larry Keith, Steve Pippin) - 3:35
7. My World Begins And Ends With You (Larry Keith, Steve Pippin) - 2:34
8. We Got Love (Larry Keith, Ron Culbertson, Steve Pippin, Hal Forness) - 2:59
9. Love's A Game (Larry Henley, Larry Keith) - 2:38
10.World On A String (Larry Keith, Rafe VanHoy, Steve Pippin) - 3:03
1972's America Eats Its Young is a disparate, schizophrenic record. Despite Clinton's efforts to produce a record that would have a better chance at crossover appeal than the first three Funkadelic records, like many double LPs, there's simply too much material, and too many conflicting directions to really make this seem anything other than a Frankenstein production. Of course, it has its classics: "Loose Booty" and "A Joyful Process" are the two of the best pure funk songs the band ever did, while "If You Don't Like the Effects, Don't Produce the Cause", "Biological Speculation", "Everybody Is Going to Make It This Time", and "Miss Lucifer's Love" are great evidence of the band's strong pop bent even as their chosen subject matters could range from dark to disturbing to sci-fi.
Tunes like "I Call My Baby Pussycat", "Balance", and "Philmore" even hark back to the more rock-oriented stuff of the first three records. However, it's hard to hear "We Hurt Too" (a maudlin ballad about the hidden tenderness of men) as anything but a joke, and the title track, similar to Maggot Brain's title cut, is a bit heavy on the huffing and panting. I think of this record as Funkadelic's White Album, containing too much great stuff to dismiss, but by almost anyone's standards, containing more than it needs.
by Dominique Leone, August 3, 2005
Tracks
1. You Hit The Nail On The Head (Bernie Worrell, Fuzzy Haskins, George Clinton) - 7:11
2. If You Don't Like The Effects, Don't Produce The Cause (Garry Shider, George Clinton) - 3:44
3. Everybody Is Going To Make It This Time (Bernie Worrell, George Clinton) - 5:55
4. A Joyful Process (Bernie Worrell, George Clinton) - 6:14
5. We Hurt Too (Bernie Worrell, George Clinton) - 3:50
6. Loose Booty (George Clinton, Harold Beane) - 4:41
7. Philmore (William Earl Collins) - 2:33
8. I Call My Baby Pussycat (Billy Nelson, Eddie Hazel, George Clinton) - 5:09
9. America Eats Its Young (Bernie Worrell, George Clinton, Harold Beane) - 5:51
10. Biological Speculation (Ernie Harris, George Clinton) - 3:07
11.That Was My Girl (George Clinton, Sidney Barnes) - 3:46
12.Balance (Bernie Worrell, George Clinton) - 5:30
13.Miss Lucifer's Love (Fuzzy Haskins, George Clinton) - 5:55
14.Wake Up (Bernie Worrell, George Clinton, Harold Beane, James Wesley Jackson) - 6:29
15.Loose Booty (George Clinton, Harold Beane) - 2:55
16.A Joyful Process (Bernie Worrell, George Clinton) - 3:15
1972 was a very good year for Kin Ping Meh. They wrote the music for a drug musical called 'Rausch', composed the soundtrack for ZDF series "Sechs unter Millionen" (Weber said in an interview: "We tried to make good rock music because for us, this job is an important milestone, a big step ahead in our career") and thus joined the short list of German rock bands who had achieved something similar, e.g. Can with 'Spoon', their song for a Durbridge crime movie, or Popol Vuh for the Herzog movie 'Aguirre, der Zom Gottes'. Almost simultaneously, they opened the Sailing Olympics in Kiel, went on tour with Rory Gallagher and Golden Earring, and released their second album, 'No. 2'. In their annual vote, the readers of magazine "Popfoto" voted them among the Top 5 in the category, 'Most Promising Band'.
But they had to pay a high price for constantly being on the road - 1972 saw a drastic change in the line-up. Willie Wagner, Werner Stephan and Torsten Herzog left the band to be replaced by Gerhard "Gagey" Mrozeck, Uli Gross, British bass player Alan Joe Wroe and his fellow countryman Geff Harrison. With this line-up, Kin Ping Meh recorded 'III', the band's third album, in the Summer of 1973. The album featured a wind section and a female choir. It was mainly because of singer Geff Harrison's influence that the band developed a hard rock image. "The people mainly want to really rock, to be happy and to get to see something. And that's all true in our case", the band explained in a 1973 "Musik Express" interview and added: "There is not much demand for space and cosmic rock right now." Kin Ping Meh played concerts with hard rock superstars like Deep Purple and Slade and appeared on a couple of television shows.
Alex Gitlin
Tracks
1. Come On In (Fritz Schmitt, Gerhard Mrozeck) - 5:24
2. Random (Alan Joe Wroe, Uli Gross) - 3:50
3. Love Is The Day (Alan Joe Wroe, Gerhard Mrozeck, Uli Gross) - 4:59
4. Rock Is The Way (Fritz Schmitt, Gerhard Mrozeck) - 4:46
5. Circus (Alan Joe Wroe, Gerhard Mrozeck, Uli Gross) - 14:06
6. Mrs. Holmes (Alan Joe Wroe, Kalle Weber, Uli Gross) - 7:20
Kin Ping Meh
*Gerhard Mrozeck - Acoustic, Electric Guitars, Vocals
So here it is, the wonderful Sad About The Times. Imbued with a sense of "sad bliss”, this compilation of could-have-been-hits from 1970s North America drifts between acid folk strummers, soft rock whispers and jangly psych jammers, all crowned with entirely unique vocal performances. Every track tugs on the same very specific heart string, triggering an emotion familiar but difficult to describe.
Sad About The Times is one of those records that permeates your subconscious, floats around with you and plays in your mind when you're at your most contemplative or wistful.
Artist - Tittle - Composer
1. West - Sad About The Times (Lloyd Perata) - 2:34
2. Hollins Ferry - Lonely City (Rob Fahey) - 4:23
3. Randy And The Goats - N.Y. Survivor (Mark Chmielinski) - 3:50
4. Willow - Loaves And Fishes (Barry Fitzgerald, Kevin Dolan, William McSweeney) -
The career of rock band Kin Ping Meh from Mannheim lasted almost exactly seven years and reached quite a few heights. But it still left the band rather disillusioned in the end. Drummer Kalle Weber's resume from the Spring of 1977: "If you're not a pop star, you're still the asshole." Together with amateur musicians Werner Stephan (vocals), Joachim Schafer (guitar, piano), Frieder Schmitt (organ piano) and Torsten Herzog (bass), Weber had formed Kin Ping Meh in 1970.
The name Kin Ping Meh (meaning "branch of a plum blossom in a golden vase") is taken from a Chinese 16th century novel depicting the life and customs of that time. On September 15, 1970 the band gave their first concert. Over the next months, they took part in seven important talent competitions. They won them all and were offered a recording contract from Polydor. From now on, everything went very quick - the important Sunday paper "Bild am Sonntag" had a two-page report about the band in January and their first single was released in February. 'Everything's My Way' made the Top 5 of various radio playlists and March saw the band tour with The Hollies.
In May it was back to the studio to record the second single, 'Everyday'. After guitarist Willie Wagner replaced Joachim Schafer, the band from Mannheim recorded and produced their debut album in autumn 1971, and in December it hit the stores. The band was almost constantly touring at that time and supported acts like Uriah Heep.
The debut album of the Mannheim band was released in December 1971. Producers were Rattles musicians Frank Dostal and Achim Reichel, recording took place in Hamburg's Windrose Dumont Time studio and mixing was done at the Star Studio. Conny Plank, who just made himself a name as a brilliant producer at that time, was the sound engineer. The band had previously released two singles that caused a nation-wide splash. On 'Kin Ping Meh', the band used traditional instruments and line-up and presented eight straight-forward blues-rock songs.
The 11-minute opener, 'Fairy Tales', with its excellent long instrumental part, was followed by 'Too Many People', a straight rock number. 'Sometimes' and 'My Dove' show the musicians in a calmer mood. 'Everything' is a new version of the first single, 'Everything's My Way', and has different lyrics. In its usual critical manner, music magazine "Sounds" looked for reasons "why the record is so mediocre", but had to admit that "the band's musical talents and the palpable enthusiasm actually are a good basis for a solid and catchy down-to-earth sound..." "Pop" magazine, on the other hand, liked all of the "eight melodious, catchy tunes…
The band plays together perfectly, and the production is without flaw. Kin Ping Meh undoubtedly will be celebrate another commercial success with this LP." That forecast was correct - the album paved the road to success over the coming years. Apart from the eight songs of the original release, this CD offers as bonus tracks the singles 'Everything's My Way'/'Woman' (1970, Polydor 2041126), 'Every Day'/'Alexandra' (1971, Polydor 2041172) plus the single A-side 'Too Many People' (1972, Polydor 2041247). The flip side of that single was the album version of 'My Dove' and can be found on the regular album.
Alex Gitlin
Tracks
1. Fairy-Tales (Willie Wagner) - 10:50
2. Sometime (Frieder Schmitt, Kalle Weber, Willie Wagner) - 5:46
3. Don't You Know (Kalle Weber, Torsten Herzog) - 7:25
4. Too Many People (Kalle Weber, Werner Stephan) - 5:02
Over the course of about five years beginning in late 1968, several musicians living in eastern Missouri rocked the area clubs and festivals with a mix of cover and Heavy original songs. The band’s name, Parchment Farm, came from a song on Blue Cheer’s debut LP, “Vincebus Eruptum.”
With several changes in their lineup during the years, they supported some of the top names from late sixties to mid seventies. Their sound is underground bluesy psych rock. Parchment Farm disbanded round 1974.
Lifemask was an emotional if not musical rebirth for Roy Harper, who nearly lost his life in 1972 due to a rare congenital circulatory disorder. When the album was released in early 1973, it showed Harper refining the acoustic music he had perfected on 1971's Stormcock. Some of the songs on the album previously appeared in a motion picture entitled Made, but the sound is nonetheless consistent throughout. "Highway Blues" and "South Africa" are the best-known songs on this set, and have remained concert mainstays for many years.
The former is a strong opener and added a touch of synthesizer to Harper's instrumental stable, while the latter was a political comment on apartheid in the guise of a touching love song. "Little Lady" and "Bank of the Dead" (featuring Jimmy Page) are fairly similar in sound and context, but remain pleasant, if not classic, cuts anyway. The album-closing "The Lord's Prayer" is quite possibly the most confounding piece in Harper's catalog. It has all the benchmarks of one of his classics -- epic, album-side length, poetically obscure lyrics, many musical movements, and, as usual, guitar help from Jimmy Page. However, despite its potential, the song's a bit boring and doesn't approach Harper's former or future epics in terms of listenability. Despite that, Lifemask remains a strong album from Harper's progressive folk period, even if it is a notch below its predecessor, Stormcock.
Flat Baroque and Berserk' was the first record of mine to go into the charts. For the first time in my recording career, proper care and attention was paid to the presentation of the song. Peter Jenner was assigned by EMI Records to produce the recording. Peter and I got on really well and he was a better overseer of my work than anyone I have been involved with before or since. I had also had a Studio upgrade. EMI Studios, Abbey Road was at that time the most advanced studio in Europe, and over the next ten years I was to record in near-perfect conditions.
Over those years, the studio buzzed with four separate Beatles, some Stones, The Pink Floyd, Cliff and the Shadows, Gracie Fields, three of four musical knights, Kate Bush, Olivier Newton-John, The Hollies, Yehudi Menuin, Stefan Grapelli, The Plastic Ono Band, Eric Clapton; you name them, they were all there. Jimmy Page and I were in there three or four times together.It was a creative hotbed where the technical staff, headed by Ken Townsend, were second to none.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I was very pleased with my first record made in such elevated surroundings. The song that I was best known for in those days, 'I Hate the White Man,' was recorded live for this album, and still stands as a testament to my lifelong devotion to espousing equal rights for all humans. I have long since wondered about the wisdom of stating that you have more than the capacity to hate your own race for it's misdemeanors, but as a polemic it has been both an effective tool and somewhere of a place to stand.
Much of the rect of the record is on a gentler level, although 'Hells Angels,' recorded with 'The Nice,' is just as raw and was very eventful.'Another Day' is one of the best love songs I ever wrote and the overall balance of the record is very good.
by Roy Harper
Tracks
1. Don't You Grieve - 5:44
2. I Hate The White Man - 8:04
3. Feeling All The Saturday - 1:56
4. How Does It Feel - 6:27
5. Goodbye - 5:47
6. Another Day - 2:58
7. Davey 1:32
8. East Of The Sun - 3:04
9. Tom Tiddler's Ground - 6:49
10.Francesca - 1:22
11.Song Of The Ages - 3:54
12.Hell's Angels - 6:55
Music and Lyrics by Roy Harper
Personnel
*Roy Harper - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar (Track 12)
