Lyle Swedeen has been a natural talent with music since the age of five. By the age of twenty he set out to LA, California to pursue a Music Career and landed a job for the Language Of Sound Music Publishing Company as a Professional Staff Writer. From his time there, over 2 years and 90 songs later, the experience lead him to his first solo effort towards an album release known as "Sunshine Inside". With over 15 of the top studio musicians in Los Angeles at the time, yhis 1974 Release was not an instant classic but ended up being lost for almost 40 years to become one of the Best Singer-Songwriter Albums of the 1970's and known as a "Lost Treasure of the 70's".
Originally Lyle Swedeen was signed to Fantasy Records, a Label started by Credence Clearwater Revival, which was a subsidiary of Prestige Milestone Records that was strictly a Jazz Label at the time. But after some shady music industry take over, Credence Clearwater Revival sued Prestige Milestone Records to release Fantasy Records from their grip.. and won! But this dropped Lyle Swedeen’s “Sunshine Inside” smack in the middle of a Jazz Record Label and was lost for years!
With such a continued growing response from the music community and fans around the world, this album has been Digitally Re-Mastered and Re-Released for the first time since its original vinyl production by Fantasy Records in 1974, with distribution in South Korea and United States.
Tracks
1. Can't Dance Without Music - 3:27
2. Meadowbird - 3:23
3. It's All Over Now - 4:14
4. I'm Never Gonna Be Lonely Again - 3:04
5. Sunshine Inside - 5:29
6. Of Your Precious Time - 3:12
7. Easily (Sean London) - 2:30
8. If I Were A Rainbow - 3:38
9. Horace Greeley (Collaer, Lloyf) - 3:28
10.It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Take A Train To Cry (Bob Dylan) - 5:18
11.Lover's Fool, Strings - 7:43
12.No More Lies - 2:16
13.California - 2:33
All songs by Lyle Swedeen unless as else stated
The eternal mania for reissues of obscurities turns up all sorts of trumps but sometimes the results are a cut above not simply with the music but with how it's all presented. Such is the case with the self-titled collection by Instant Orange, which compiles the entirety of the recorded work of this San Bernardino band that thrived, via a sporadic series of self-released items, including a full album, from 1968 through the mid-'70s.
Speaking of the music, Instant Orange, at their core a trio of Terry Walters, Randy Lanier, and Lynn McCurdy, were solid but not lost revolutionaries, musical or otherwise; their open Byrds/Buffalo Springfield jones holds sway in a series of performances that are often enjoyable, as with songs like "The Visionary (Reactive)" and "Coming of the Day," not to mention the outright quirk of the banjo-and-kazoo romp of "Cycle 2." Walters and Lanier's guitar work is easygoing and approachable, though, as is their reflective singing, finding a balance between tenderness and electric charge that would get a new life in later years following R.E.M.'s hot-wiring of influences and all that came in its wake.
The album itself is a careful creation, well recorded and with a variety of small interstitial moments of backwards tape and odd elements -- up through and including burping -- while the mastered-from-vinyl rarities, covering two singles and two EPs, include the original 1968 take on "Reflecting Emotions." In ways, though, the loving band history courtesy of Walters (a thorough biography in miniature), his extended introduction explaining how he was tracked down courtesy of an obsessive vinyl collector via former colleagues in police work, and the pleasant surprise of the resultant comprehensive reissue make this just as much of a treasure, providing a detailed story of a band that never "made it" but forged ahead for years in its own right and left more behind it than most.
by Ned Raggett
Tracks
1. Introduction - 0:18
2. The Visionary (Reactive) (Walters, Lanier) - 3:29
3. Whole Lot Better Part 1 (Walters, Lanier) - 0:17
4. Whole Lot Better Part 2 (Walters, Lanier) - 3:23
5. Silent Green (Walters, Lanier) - 2:43
6. Seems Like Everything Part 1 (Walters) - 0:37
7. Seems Like Everything Part 1 (Walters) - 1:58
8. Cycle 2 Part 1 (Walters, Lanier) - 0:48
9. Cycle 2 Part 2 (Walters, Lanier) - 1:48
10.Reflecting Emotions (Walters, Lanier) - 3:35
11.Genesis II (Walters) - 2:51
12.Cactus Gardens (Lanier) - 3:10
13.Ballad Of The RTD Part 1 (Walters, Lanier) - 0:15
14.Ballad Of The RTD Part 2 (Walters, Lanier) - 2:39
15.Prairie To The Sea Part 1 (Walters, Lanier) - 0:11
16.Prairie To The Sea Part 2 (Walters, Lanier) - 3:14
17.Coming Of The Day Part 1 (Walters, Lanier) - 0:15
18.Coming Of The Day Part 2 (Walters, Lanier) - 1:38
19.You I'll Be Following (Walters, Lanier, Prud Homme) - 2:09
20.Reflecting Emotions (Walters, Lanier) - 2:41
21.Suburban Pictorial Abstract (Walters) - 2:39
22.20 To 6 Bianchi Boogie (Bianchi) - 1:27
23.Theme From Beat Whistle (Bianchi) - 8:35
24.View From Ghiradelli Square (Walters) - 2:11
25.Paper Lay (Lanier) - 3:28
26.Skyline (Bianchi) - 3:36
27.Plight Of The Mary Celeste (Lanier) - 4:01
28.Genesis II (Non LP Version) (Walters, Lanier, Brown) - 2:50
29.Same Old Thing (Walters, Lanier, Brown) - 2:03
Finnish guitarist and singer-songwriter Dave Lindholm, who has made a career under his own name, recorded with several bands over 35 albums. Lindholm's first recordings were made with his band Ferris recorded in 1971 for Love Records (same label as Charlies and Wigwam). His unique Fender Strat guitar style and great arrangements your hear on the Ferris album are just outstanding.
His solo album "Sirkus" from 1973 is considered to be one of the most important Finnish rock albums. Pure bluesy underground, all English vocals, hammond organ and great rhythms section. An original Ferris album is next to impossible to find.
Amazing and solid Cream influenced bluesy underground rock with first class guitar and vocals. One of the best and rarest Finnish albums.
Tracks
1. Mama (Lindholm) 2:41
2. Vagabond (Lindholm, Itavaara) 3:31
3. You Could Tell Me (Hiekkada, Lindholm) 3:04
4. Chrystal Angel (Lindholm, Saxelin) 2:54
5. Mr. America (Lindholm) 2:36
6. Basically Pure (Hiekkala) 5:26
7. Stirling (Hiekkala, Lindholm) 1:25
8. Black Friday (Hiekkala, Lindholm) 1:39
9. Shugga Pog (Lindholm) 2:11
10.Women Are Allright (Lindholm) 2:19
The New Tweedy Bros! formed in Portland, Oregon, in early 1966. Lackaff sang and played guitar, his brother Danny was the drummer, Dennis Fagaly was the bassist, and Steve Ekman was lead guitarist. The Northwest sound at that time was mostly known for frenetic R&B bands like the Sonics and the Wailers. The Tweedy Bros! were far removed from that world, incorporating elements from jug bands and folk acts as well as jangly guitars, fuzzy basslines, and distinctive vocal harmonies. They wasted no time finding more fertile creative soil and ended up in San Francisco later that spring, right when the city's acid-rock scene was reaching its creative zenith. One of the Tweedy Bros' first shows was opening for the Grateful Dead at the Avalon, where they later shared the stage with Big Brother, who were debuting a new singer named Janis Joplin.
Take a listen to the Tweedy Bros' ultra-rare 1966 single ("Good Time Car" b/w "Terms Of"), recorded for the DOT label. You can hear a kinship with the great early San Francisco psych-rock groups: the Charlatans, the Mystery Trend, the Great Society, Sopwith Camel. They share a sound devoid of pretension, but there's a cutting-edge wink in the music hinting that the band is in on something bigger.
The New Tweedy Bros! had a busy six-month run before returning to Portland for the holidays in 1967. But times weren't easy: Authorities in both cities were growing suspicious of late-night dances with rock music. Soon promoters were having trouble getting the required licenses to hold such events. For a band like the Tweedy Bros., who didn't want to play bars, jobs dried up. Fagaly was first to leave and start a family. "None of us had any day jobs for the two years I was in the band," says Fagaly, who currently lives in the Bay Area. "We made our living out of this."
By the end of 1968, The New Tweedy Bros! had called it quits. Yet before they faded into history, they recorded for Portland's tiny Ridon label their self-titled debut, which would keep their name around much longer than anyone expected.
Once The New Tweedy Bros! was completed (the covers were hand-assembled by the band members), the albums were sold at shows and distributed to local stores. But here's the rub: When record clerks took this masterpiece out of the box, they realized it wouldn't fit on the shelves. Those six corners were in the way, and ended up getting bent. The album was almost impossible to store, so it was kept behind the counter, out of eyesight from curious buyers. With no major label to promote it, sales were low. Tragically, when the band ordered another run of the album art later in 1968, the pressing plant had a fire, and all future covers were lost. (That fact alone heightens the record's collectability.)
Psych-rock advocates have been seeking out The New Tweedy Bros! throughout the years. It's been bootlegged a number of times, and alternate covers have been used to package the music, but no one has gone to the lengths of Shadoks, the German reissue imprint. In the late '90s, Shadoks owner Thomas Hartlage decided he wanted to create the preeminent reissue of the album. He discovered the band members owned a stack of unplayed vinyl copies as well as the master plates for the cover, a coup in the reissue world. Around the same time, the band finally came into possession of a digital copy of its master tapes. Yet Hartlage was impatient: One insider tells me the label owner pressed his vinyl reissue using a mint-condition copy of the record — what collectors call a "needle drop."
On the upside, Shadoks' CD version of The New Tweedy Bros!, is almost as good as the original because Hartlage held out for the authentic source material. The label also created an exact miniature replica of the original cover, right down to the printing on the spine ... and it doesn't fit into the shelves, either. Showing the true absurdity of the reissue world, though, the Shadoks vinyl version is now also out of print.
So, collectors, which version of The New Tweedy Bros! do you want: the real deal or an almost exact copy? Your decision will depend on how much you want to shell out. Shadoks' releases, containing honest-to-God vinyl from 1968, are priced anywhere from $100 to $175, when they become available. To own the 40-year-old original LP with a hand-assembled cover, however, is a Holy Grail in music collecting: A copy will set you back anywhere from $300 to $4,000 (depending on condition, of course). The New Tweedy Bros! is a piece of San Francisco history as well as a piece of art. Best of all, you can still dance to it.
by Andrew Lau
Tracks
1. Somebody's Peepin (Steve Ekman) - 4:30
2. I Can See It (Steve Ekman) - 4:05
3. I'd Go Anywhere (Dan, Fred Lackaff) - 2:28
4. Danny's Song (Dan Lackaff) - 2:51
5. Wheels Of Fortune (Dan Lackaff) - 4:25
6. I See You're Looking Fine (Steve Ekman) - 2:32
7. What's Wrong With That (Fred Lackaff) - 3:23
8. Someone Just Passed By (Steve Ekman) - 3:28
9. Her Darkness In December (Drone Song) (Fred Lackaff) - 6:04
10.Lazy Livin' (Dennis Phang) - 1:21
11.Her Darkness In December (Alt Version) (Fred Lackaff) - 6:09
12.Good Time Car (Dan, Fred Lackaff) - 2:07
13.Terms Of, You Love Me (Fred Lackaff, Steve Ekman) - 2:01
The New Tweedy Brothers
*Steve Ekman - Lead Guitar, Vocals
*Dennis Phang Fagaly - Bass
*Danny Lackaff - Drums, Vocals
*Fred Lackaff - Rhythm Guitar, Vocals
*Dave McClure - Bass
Anthony Hassini, Marc Mundy's brother and this album's producer, offers the facts plainly, "We were naive...we knew nothing about the music business." The two did all they could to push this collection of tragic love songs onto the airwaves and pop charts, sending copies to label heads and radio jocks but their hard work garnered no response whatsoever. What they might not have realized at the time was that Mundy's music was quite literally too "foreign" for U.S. pop audiences.
This was a major blow to Marc, then twenty years of age. He never recorded again and, while granting us permission for this reissue, declined any active involvement. Everything we know about Marc comes second-hand through his brother.
In talking with Anthony, it became clear that Marc had a complete emotional investment in this album. He believed in what he was doing and felt he had something to offer. He wanted recognition and he wanted to be heard. It didn't turn out this way.
Marc Mundy was born into an eclectic show business family in Cyprus, an island at the eastern edge of the Mediterranean. His birth name is Emin but, in standing with a family tradition, he and his brother took stage names. Marc adopted his Mundy surname from a clarinetist uncle while Anthony, a budding magician, took Hassini, a play on the name Houdini.
Marc's early musical influences were derived almost exclusively from Mediterranean radio: Cairo, Istanbul, Tel Aviv, Athens, and local Cyprian stations broadcasted a rich blend of Near and Middle Eastern traditional music providing the soundtrack to Mundy's childhood.
In 1965, seventeen-year-old Marc Mundy joined Anthony in New York City in search of better opportunities and a new life. He left Cyprus on the heels of an ill-fated love affair, an event that fueled the songwriting on this album. In New York he was exposed to Western music for the first time and former idols like Turkish vocalists Zeki Muren and Boris Manco were joined by new ones including Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix. Marc enrolled in a philosophy program at NYU and immersed himself in the Greenwich Village coffeehouse music scene.
At age nineteen he fell in love again and married Hulya Aziz, a young Turkish emigree. During this period he gathered a loose-knit group of musicians who provided the backing on this album, which they recorded in late 1970. With Marc on vocals and lead guitar, Hulya on backing vocals, and a now anonymous band of friends behind him, the group locked into a unique East/West groove that stands out from the myriad of psychedelic-era rock and pop LPs. 500 copies were pressed and the album promptly vanished into obscurity.
Marc Mundy stayed in New York until the end of the 70s, finishing school, working with his brother, and traveling abroad. Eventually he returned to his hometown Nicosia in Cyprus as a teacher in math and music to high school kids.
Tracks
1. The Hidden Meaning Of Your Love - 3:06
2. Our Love Can Never Be - 3:22
3. How Can I Marry This Language - 2:57
4. Love Me All The Time - 2:24
5. The Nights We Spend Together - 3:09
6. Don't Love Me Anymore - 3:15
7. The Tragic House - 3:11
8. I Know Not Where - 2:38
9. Give Up Your Pride - 3:04
10.I'm Crying Your Name - 2:11
If Earth Opera's self-titled debut album reflected the eclectic, ambitious pop styles of the Flower Power, Sgt. Pepper era of 1967, the group's follow-up, The Great American Eagle Tragedy, took into consideration the changed musical climate of 1968, when arrangements became more stripped down and hard rocking, with country-rock beginning to make inroads.
The departure of bandmember Bill Stevenson, along with his harpsichord and vibraphone, may have hastened the group's transition to a simpler sound, too. But from the first note, the second album was very different from the first. Earth Opera sounded like it had been made by a studio band that had never played out, but the country-rock opener of The Great American Eagle Tragedy, "Home to You," paced by the pedal steel guitar of guest Bill Keith, was a road song in subject matter and feel, played by a band that sounded like it had spent some time before paying customers.
"Mad Lydia's Waltz," the second track, sounded more like the group that had made Earth Opera, but the sound was still more rooted in stringed instruments and steady beats than it had been before, and following the throwaway written by the drummer came a real rocker, "Sanctuary From the Law." But the album's big number, the ten-and-a-half-minute title song, brought the earlier and later parts of Earth Opera together, combining a driving rock chorus, complete with screaming electric guitar solo, with slow, contemplative verse sections in which singer/songwriter Peter Rowan wove a transparent allegory about a royal court in crisis that was really about the state of the U.S. in the late '60s, particularly the quagmire of the Vietnam War. The track attracted the attention of free-form FM radio, and the album made the charts for several weeks. But Earth Opera folded soon after.
by William Ruhlmann
Tracks
1. Home To You -4:27
2. Mad Lydia's Waltz -3:47
3. Alfie Finney (Dillon) -2:35
4. Sanctuary From The Law - 2:54
5. All Winter Long - 5:56
6. The American Eagle Tragedy - 10:36
7. Roast Beef Love - 3:16
8. It's Love - 4:05
All compositions by Peter Rowan, unless as else noted
For a time in the mid- to late '60s, it seemed as though Boston might become the East Coast's answer to San Francisco -- it never happened, but if it had, Earth Opera had as good a shot as any of being the East Coast answer to the Grateful Dead. Spawned out of the early- to mid-'60s folk boom, Earth Opera's core was comprised of Peter Rowan, a former bluegrass player (and Bill Monroe alumnus) whose proficiency on guitar and mandolin was soon matched by his songwriting; and David Grisman, a mandolin virtuoso of no small talent who had played with a various younger ensembles, including Siegel, Grisman, Rose & Lewinger.
By the mid-'60s, even the most serious and dedicated of urban folk players, attuned and attached to younger collegiate audiences, were getting caught up in the changes being wrought in music from across the Atlantic and the West Coast, which had yielded such efforts as the ineptly named bluegrass Beatles effort Beatle Country by the Charles River Valley Boys, and Wheatstraw Suite by the Dillards. In late 1967, Rowan and Grisman made the jump across the psychedelic chasm opened by the Beatles et. al from their folk perch, in the guise of Earth Opera. They were joined by John Nagy on bass, Paul Dillon, and Bill Stevenson on keyboards and vibraphone, and began generating music that was closer in spirit to the spacier parts of Anthem of the Sun than to Bill Monroe, though they didn't leave bluegrass behind entirely.
The group was signed to Elektra Records which, at the time, was enjoying success with its first two rock signings, the Doors and Love and rapidly expanding into the more advanced forms of rock music. Their self-titled debut album, produced by Grisman's ex-bandmate Peter Siegel, and including veteran drummer (and Mothers of Invention alumnus) Billy Mundi on drums, was as spaced-out a record as Elektra had issued up to that time and, in its mix of folk and psychedelic influences, was reminiscent of the music emanating from San Francisco in the same era.
by Bruce Eder
Tracks
1. The Red Sox Are Winning - 3:34
2. As It Is Before - 7:25
3. Dreamless - 2:52
4. To Care At All - 3:35
5. Home Of The Brave - 4:51
6. The Child Bride - 4:43
7. Close Your Eyes And Shut The Door - 2:46
8. Time And Again (Grisman, Rowan) - 5:47
9. When You Were Full Of Wonder - 4:00
10.Death By Fire - 6:08
All compositions by Peter Rowan except where stated
After toiling away in various local bands in the Toronto area, brothers Brian and Ed Pilling packed their bags and headed to England where they formed Wages Of Sin in 1969. Less than a year later they'd caught the eye of Cat Stevens who took them under his paw, renaming them Zeus and using them as his back-up band. But at odds with Stevens over music direction, the 2 brothers quit and returned to Canada before the end of the year. They recruited bassist Greg Godovitz, who they played with a few years earlier in a band called The Pretty Ones. Add drummer Jorn Andersen and guitarist Mick Walsh, and the first incarnation of Fludd was born.
They became mainstays of the Toronto club scene and soon landed a contract with Warner Bros. Adam Mitchell, most noteable for his stint with The Paupers was brought in to the recording studios in California to help produce the band's debut. Released in '71, the self-titled album featured the Canadian top 20 hit "Turned 21". Work on the second record began the next spring in Toronto, with Mitchell returning as producer. By this time however, Walsh had left and was replaced by fellow Wages Of Sin alumni Mick Hopkins.
While still working on the final touches of the album, they released the single "Get Up, Get Out, Move On" that April. However dissension with their label led Hopkins to return to England, where he formed the group Quartz. After being dropped by Warner Brothers, and sensing a change was in need, Fludd continued on their next project but with a different direction in mind. This led to the hiring of keyboardist Peter Csanky.
Fludd was perhaps better known for the list of musicians who played with the band at one time or another, rather than for the music itself. But it definitely has to be noted that the Pilling brothers, and whoever else was in the band at the time, never bowed to pressure from the executives. Always pushing the envelope, they always did things their way, while recording some of Canada's most under-rated and ground-breaking rock in the process.
by Frank Davies and Greg Godovitz
Tracks
1. Turned 21 - 2:26
2. Sailing On - 1:42
3. David Copperfield - 3:10
4. The Egg - 3:02
5. Come Back Home - 2:07
6. A Man Like You - 2:33
7. Birmingham - 2:37
8. Mama's Boy (Greg Godovitz) - 2:59
9. Easy Being No One - 2:03
10.Make It Better - 2:51
11.You See Me - 2:17
12.Tuesday Blue - 3:21
All songs by Brian Pilling and Ed Pilling except where noted.
Dave Mason may have been done too soon in the sense that Mason hadn't come up with an album's worth of good new material. In fact, he had only six new songs, filling up the collection with covers of Sam Cooke's "Bring It On Home to Me" and Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" (in an arrangement that recalled the Jimi Hendrix version on which Mason had appeared), as well as a remake of "Every Woman" from the previous album in a longer, more elaborate arrangement with strings. (The version on It's Like You Never Left, despite the presence of Nash, was a near-demo running only one-minute-and-40-seconds.)
The new songs were good ones, however, particularly "Show Me Some Affection." And while there were no hotshot guest stars this time, the musicians were Mason's road band, including second guitarist Jim Krueger, who would be Mason's partner for many years to come, and keyboardist Mike Finnigan, plus the rhythm section of bassist Bob Glaub and drummer Rick Jagger. The result was a more cohesive band sound in the playing that actually made Dave Mason a stronger musical effort than its predecessor. It also sold better, reaching number 25 during a 25-week chart run and going gold within two years. Even though a hit single would elude Mason until he came up with "We Just Disagree" in 1977, many of the songs on It's Like You Never Left and Dave Mason joined perennials such as "Feelin' Alright?" and "Only You Know and I Know" in his concert repertoire, and these albums helped re-establish him with fans.
Over the years, several different record companies licensed It's Like You Never Left and Dave Mason from Columbia Records for reissue together on a single CD. In 2007, the British Acadia label accidentally pressed its version with the tracks from Dave Mason sequenced ahead of those from It's Like You Never Left, even though the CD booklet indicated that the opposite was the case; thus, on this disc, the tracks shown as one-ten were really ten-nineteen, and those shown as eleven-nineteen were really one-nine.
by William Ruhlmann
Tracks
1. Baby... Please - 3:15
2. Every Woman - 1:40
3. If You've Got Love - 3:24
4. Maybe - 4:03
5. Head Keeper - 3:36
6. Misty Morning Stranger - 4:32
7. Silent Partner - 3:03
8. Side Tracked (Mason, Jordan, Jaeger, Turner) - 3:34
9. The Lonely One - 4:43
10. It's Like You Never Left - 3:03
All songs by Dave Mason except where stated
In October 1967, the Irish singer-songwriter David McWilliams was launched in mainland Britain by his eager manager Phil Solomon, with a barrage of publicity for the dreamy track "The Days of Pearly Spencer".
"The single that will blow your mind, the album that will change the course of music" trumpeted full-page adverts in the New Musical Express alongside enthusiastic quotes from journalists and other pop impresarios comparing the 22-year-old McWilliams to Donovan and Bob Dylan.
Unfortunately, back in 1967, Radio 1, the BBC's new pop network, didn't add "The Days of Pearly Spencer" to its playlist, maybe because Solomon was also a director of Radio Caroline, the pirate station just outlawed by the Marine Broadcasting Offences Acts passed by Harold Wilson's government.
Nevertheless, the single was played incessantly and defiantly on Caroline while stations in continental Europe picked up on its strange "phoned-in" chorus and pastoral arrangement. The following year, the track charted all over Europe and impinged itself on the continental consciousness as the soundtrack to Swinging London alongside the likes of "Nights in White Satin" by the Moody Blues and Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade Of Pale".
A reluctant stage performer, McWilliams recorded more than 10 solo albums and eventually saw the torch singer Marc Almond, formerly of Soft Cell, score the biggest hit of his solo career with a carbon-copy version of "The Days of Pearly Spencer" which reached No 4 in the British charts in 1992.
Born in the Cregagh area of Belfast in 1945, David McWilliams moved to Ballymena when he was three. He grew up with seven brothers and sisters and as a teenager developed an early interest in the rock'n'roll music of Buddy Holly and learned to play the guitar. He also developed a rebellious streak and in 1960 was expelled from Ballymena Technical School for drinking between lessons. Even when he returned, McWilliams played truant constantly, spending days thinking up songs.
In 1963, he followed his father and became an apprentice fitter in a torpedo factory in Co Antrim. However, he was always looking for a way out. Six foot tall with blue eyes and unruly black hair, he cut a distinctive figure on the football pitch; he excelled as a goalkeeper but an ankle injury kept him out of the local Linfield football team.
He preferred music anyway and joined the Coral Showband. Not content with performing covers, he began writing his own compositions such as "Redundancy Blues" and "Time of Trouble", inspired by his surroundings. "I listen with my eyes and I sing what I see," he later told journalists.
The formidable Irish entrepreneur Phil Solomon had made his name with Them and the Bachelors. He had also joined Ronan O'Rahilly's Radio Caroline operation and was keen to establish a record company connected to the pirate station. Having launched the Major Minor label at the tail end of 1966, Solomon wanted to add McWilliams to his roster. Even better, since CBS already manufactured Major Minor's releases, he could appear to do them a favour by offering to take the singer off their hands. The scam worked and Solomon brought his new signing over to London. He teamed up McWilliams with the arranger Mike Leander.
Thanks to Leander's orchestral arrangement, the track had evolved from a poignant ballad about a homeless man whom McWilliams had met in Ballymena into a haunting radio record and a considerable turntable hit. Though it never charted in Britain, the single was re- released on three separate occasions and remains a favourite on oldies stations around Europe. The follow-up single, "Three O'Clock Flamingo Street", proved equally evocative of the down-and-out milieu the songwriter had observed as a teenager. And, despite the lack of hit singles, his third album, David McWilliams Volume III, also charted in March 1968.
This 22-track compilation is largely drawn from the three albums McWilliams released on Major Minor in 1967-68, tagging on a B-side apiece from 1968 and 1969.
David McWilliams, born Belfast 4 July 1945; twice married (one son, seven daughters); died Ballycastle, Co Antrim 9 January 2002.
by Pierre Perrone
Tracks
1. The Days Of Pearly Spencer - 2:33
2. For Josephine - 3:03
3. Brown Eyed Girl - 2:25
4. Marlena - 2:29
5. For A Little Girl - 2:36
6. Lady Helen Of The Laughing Eyes - 3:11
7. What's The Matter With You - 3:29
8. There's No Lock Upon My Door - 2:53
9. Tomorrows Like Today - 1:54
10.Mister Satisfied - 2:30
11.I Love Susie In The Summer - 3:17
12.Harlem Lady - 3:05
13.Letter To My Love - 2:30
14.City Blues - 1:56
15.Three O'Clock Framingo Street - 2:53
16.Redundancy Blues - 4:02
17.Huroshima - 2:41
18.Question Of Indentity - 2:37
19.Time Of Trouble - 1:49
20.And I'm Free - 2:44
21.In The Early Hours Of The Morning - 2:00
22.Born To Ramble - 3:20
Words and Music by David McWilliams
