The world goes on (Barclay James Harvest) (LP 2008 -2013)

Various  Central Park Music Festival (Vinyl, Capitol Records, 1968) *** 

Herman's Hermits  There's A Kind Of A Hush All Over The World (Vinyl, Columbia Records, 1967) *** 

Roy Harper  In Between Every Line (Vinyl, EMI Records, 1986) ****

Poco  Poco (Vinyl, Epic Records, 1970) *****

Barclay James Harvest  Octoberon (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1976) ***

XTC  Drums and Wires (Vinyl, Virgin Records, 1976) ****

Genre: In this order - Jazz/ pop/ folk rock/ country rock/ prog rock/ alt-pop

Places I remember: Little Red Bookstore Friday August 10, 2023

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: No Milk Today (Herman's Hermits)

Gear costume: Nobody's Fool/ El Tonto De Nadie Regresa (Poco); Making Plans For Nigel (XTC)

Active compensatory factors: After a full on week at school, last Friday I stopped off on the way home, to the Little Red Bookstore in Hastings.

Steven Wilson says that he now buys records in clusters and I'm the same. In our youth we would obsess for weeks over what album to save up for and then read everything we could get our hands on for background details (was it good? Who was on it? What label? What genre? and so on - all the minutiae that would mean either a purchase or not). These days I can afford to buy a few at a time and take a knowledgeable punt - years are important, producers, band line ups, covers, labels, types of instruments...

Anyway, I came away with these albums. BTW, I put a few back from the $5 bin because of the record quality. I really wanted a John Barry compilation of his themes but it was in a terrible, unplayable state. The first two on the list were also in that $5 bin but are in the very good quality category.

The Central Park Music Festival album is from 1968 - one listen to Lou Rawls' pre song raps will immediately tell you that. Apart from Lou sockin' it to em (dig) we have Maxine Brown ramping the crowd up and asking the musical question who's got soul? with great effect and The Ramsey Lewis Trio take over proceedings on side two. Hurrah. 

The trio's three songs. including a great Hang On Sloopy, steel the show for my money.

Hermit's Hermits were an interesting band - a charismatic singer, good production, excellent singles made for the teen pop market. They weren't noted as an album band though, and I couldn't name any of the band apart from Peter Noone. There's A Kind Of A Hush is a good solid effort however, although even here the hits are the stand out tracks. No Milk Today is peerless!

The Roy Harper is a double album, comprising of live tracks. The first side is made up of one track with Harper accompanying himself: One Of These Days In England. That's a sign of how uncompromising Harper is, and the song becomes an intensely mad outpouring of emotion. It's quite visceral in parts, and beautifully bucolic in others. The rest of the concert is superb also with a band approach also featured. The Harper/Dave Gilmour songs are stunning as well!  

Poco's second album is a classic, with inventive song structures and beautiful playing. They created vastly influential country rock ripples via those early albums. I've highlighted a composite track that takes up the bulk of side two. It's a brilliant non-compromising song suite that heads into almost jazz rock directions. It's as barking mad brilliant as the title suggests.

Barclay James Harvest's Octoberon is a laid back progressive rock addition to their catalogue that doesn't break any new ground and is firmly in their signature style. That's fine, and what I expect from BJH. They are not a band who are going to stretch too much out of their comfort zone. Fans pretty much know that going in!

Finally, XTC. For some stupid reason I think I must have sold off all of my XTC albums many years ago. I can't believe that I did that because I loved their albums. Actually, I've just remembered they were in the albums I lost in a house move!!

Now I am engaged in a retrieval exercise - trying to buy them back. Starting with this classic album. It sounds amazingly in the pocket sonically and very very familiar. I've since writing this found the five star White Music. Now to find the rest without spending a fortune.

Where do they all belong? They have all fitted snuggly into all the relevant genres, with Central Park Music Festival heading into the Festivals section.

Forbidden fruit (Roy Harper) (LP The one after 909 - 911)

Roy Harper  Valentine (Vinyl, Harvest Records, 1974) **

Roy Harper  Bullinamingvase (Vinyl, Harvest Records, 1977) *** 

Genre: Folk rock 

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records (Valentine); Chaldon Books and Records (Caterham on the hill) for Bullinamingvase.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: I'll See You Again (Valentine)

Gear costume: One Of Those Days In England (Parts 2 to 10)  

Active compensatory factors: Two of his more uneven works for me. 

Valentine sounds a bit drunk and disorderly - maybe because these are songs left over from other earlier sessions, with only a couple of standout tracks. I'll See You Again is a great song - the kind of thing Roy excels at. I'm not sure why he covers Dylan's North Country and a few songs sound like Donovan (not that there's anything wrong with Donovan, but this is Roy Harper!) 

Bullinamingvase is more consistent and features some excellent guitar work throughout. Thanks to better track sequencing, the more electric moments are better integrated into the album's first side, with Breakfast With You successfully ending side one. Unfortunately my vinyl copy has a few moments where it jumps (although it looks blemish free) and rather spoils the flow of my listening pleasure, so I'll need to look for a better copy.

One Of These Days In England fills most of the album with Part 1 leading off side 1 and then parts 2 to 10 filling all of side 2. It's an excellent song suite that rewards repeat listens.

Where do they all belong? That's it for Roy in my collection. Richie Havens is next up when I return to this section of the catalogue.

One man rock and roll band (Roy Harper) (LP 508 - 511)

Roy Harper Stormcock (CD, Science Friction, 1971) ***** 

Roy Harper Whatever Happened To Jugula? (CD, Science Friction, 1985) **

Roy Harper Death Or Glory (CD, Science Friction, 1994) *** 

Roy Harper Man & Myth (CD, Bella Union, 2013) **** 

Genre: Folk 

Places I remember: JB HiFi; HMV

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: All of Stormcock! January Man (Man & Myth)

Gear costume: Elizabeth (Jugula)

Active compensatory factors: Roy's been at it a while - these four CDs cover four of his six music making decades.

I've covered the classic, brilliant Stormcock before. 

Jugula features Jimmy Page on guitar, but is uneven - what with a poem, and Advertisement - a weird 'humourous' track. Although  Elizabeth is great, the eighties were a tough decade for many sixties artists and Roy is no exception.

 

The nineties brought Death Or Glory - a much more coherent effort. Sounds great too!

But the best of the post Stormcock bunch is Man & Myth. If it's to be his last album, then it's a fitting high point to go out on. The amazing January Man is my favourite but the rest of the album is particularly strong.

Hats off to you Roy!

 

Where do they all belong? That's it for Roy Harper on CD.

Rocking the boat and unrolling the note (Roy Harper)

A work colleague asked me recently, when looking at my CD collection, what my current favourite was.

I couldn't think of any one fav at the time, maybe because I was trying to think of something current.

But then, when I thought about it afterwards, I realised that I have been playing two CDs pretty much every day since I got back from holiday.

Not only that but I've been listening to them on and off since I first heard them in the late 70s.

I'm talking about Roy Harper's Stormcock and Keith Jarrett's The Koln Concert.





I have old cassette tape copies of each one and I found CD versions of them in the UK and France on my recent holiday.

Each album has four tracks on it that link to each other thematically and musically. None of which will ever be played on the radio so they won't ever feature on Gregarious' blog of the seventies. The instrumentation is pretty sparse on each one. Jarrett is playing solo on his piano. Harper is largely singing and playing acoustic guitar. Curiously, it is the only album in their respective catalogues that does it for me too. I have tried but these two are special because they each reveal a degree of individual brilliance and passion and connectiveness that is missing in their other albums for me.

My cassette of Stormcock was recorded by me from a mate's album in the late 70s. He had a lot of Genesis and Harper albums that he wanted me to tape for him (no idea why) and of all the albums he gave me to record only Stormcock shone through with it's brilliance.

Roger Marbeck gave me a cassette recording of the Koln Concert. I never would have listened to it otherwise. Solo piano and a double album?? No way! I think it was part of a large number of cassettes he didn't want anymore. There was some good stuff in the pile but Jarrett's concert was the one that stuck.

With both albums it doesn't matter how many times I hear them, I always hear something new. I think this will continue to be the case.