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Post by jk on Sept 3, 2022 13:29:19 GMT -5
East of Eden was a band I had no time for at the time -- too avant-garde for the sake of being avant-garde, was my reasoning. The chief offender was their 1970 album Snafu (1970). I gave it a listen the other day and was most pleasantly surprised. "East of Eden is a perfect illustration of the futility that Decca Records in England faced in cultivating progressive rock (apart from the Moody Blues. A critically acclaimed jazz-fusion band with a strong Eastern music influence, they were a natural for stardom during the late '60s; indeed, they might've taken the wind out of the sails of the Mahavishnu Orchestra very fast, but they never became more than a cult act in England, with a strong local following in London, especially on the underground scene, even as they attracted serious audiences in continental Europe. "The band was formed in Bristol, during 1967, by Dave Arbus (flute, sax, trumpet), Ron Caines (alto sax), and Geoff Nicholson (guitar, vocals). Caines and Nicholson had previously played together in an r&b-based band, and the Caines and Arbus had been playing together for a couple of years. Future Wings member Geoff Britton was their original drummer, although the group's rhythm section was never an essential focus of their work, and went through quite a few musicians. Arbus had been trained in the violin, but it wasn't until he saw Jean Luc-Ponty playing on stage in Paris that he realized the possibilities that the amplified instrument offered. "He added the electric violin to his repertory, greatly broadening the band's range and sound, and the following year they moved to London. "The group was signed to Decca's progressive rock imprint Deram label in 1968, and cut two LPs, Mercator Projected and Snafu, of which the latter made it into the British top 30, while a single, ‘Ramadhan,' got to number two in France. Their one big hit in England, 'Jig-a-Jig,' made the Top Ten there and became something of a stylistic albatross around the band's neck, since it didn't resemble their usual sound or anything else they normally played. Caines and Nicholson left the band as the '70s began, and Arbus kept it together. "They jumped to the Harvest label, but their work there never caught on, coinciding as it did with a change in style and a veering away from Eastern music to a country-ish sound. Arbus left in the early '70s and was replaced by future Rory Gallagher collaborator Joe O'Donnell. The band carried on thru the mid 1970's as almost exclusively a European act, recording and releasing albums in Europe only. "The three original core members reunited in 1999 for the recording and release of the album Kalipse." [ Source] www.discogs.com/release/2112029-East-Of-Eden-Snafu
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Post by jk on Sept 8, 2022 16:13:54 GMT -5
Originally known as The Hardtimes (whose Blew Mind is one of my friend's "Keepers"), T.I.M.E. (Trust In Men Everywhere) were a '60s band from Los Angeles that combined pop, blues and psychedelia. Their second album under the new name, Smooth Ball (1969), saw them getting more ambitious with longer songs, less straightforward pop and an overall heavier sound. The lineup now consisted of Larry Byrom (guitars, vocals), Bill Richardson (guitars, vocals), Richard Tepp (bass, vocals) and Pat Couchois (drums).
A1 Preparation In G (0:35) A2 Leavin' My Home (3:09) A3 See Me As I Am (5:49) A4 I Think You'd Cry (4:23) A5 I'll Write A Song (4:20)
B1 Lazy Day Blues (1:45) B2 Do You Feel It (2:32) B3 Flowers (2:40) B4 Morning Come (9:59) B5 Trust In Men Everywhere (5:05)
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Post by jk on Oct 7, 2022 16:16:36 GMT -5
Why this wad of text? Well the site from where it comes is bristling with iffy links, so this is perhaps a safer solution. First, a review by Marios from 27 November 2012: "Brothers Dave and Herman Zerfas started their professional recording career as members of the Indiana-based band Jubal. By 1973 the band had morphed into Zerfas, in the process recording an album that I'd easily categorize as a true lost classic. Released by Moe Whittemore, Jr.'s 700 West label, 1973's Zerfas stood as one of those rarities -- an album that came close to living up to the collector hype surrounding it and probably one of a handful of albums that I'd consider paying the asking price in order to own an original copy. "Produced by Whittemore, Jr. with four of the five members contributing material, the album's gained a Beatlesque reputation over the years. That's normally a mixed blessing and while not entirely accurate in this case, the Zefras brothers had clearly listened to their share of mid and late-era Fab Four. The album's also regularly slapped with a psych label which I find somewhat misleading. "I've listened to the album dozens of times over the years and while 'The Piper' is psychedelic and there are occasional psych studio effects including the opener 'You Never Win' which started with an interesting bit of backward tape manipulation before kicking into the tuneful organ propelled garage rocker, the bulk of the set has always struck me as being surprisingly commercial. So what were the highlights? Six of the eight tracks were exceptionally good. With a dazzling fuzz guitar and inspired lead vocal from bassist Mark Tribby (who was supposedly reluctant to sing lead) 'The Sweetest Part' demonstrated the band were equally comfortable working in a country-rock arena. "Apparently written during their Jabul days, 'I Don't Understand' started out with a slice of studio insanity before switching over to a pretty, if stark Badfinger/Emmitt Rhodes/McCartney-styled ballad. The song was also worth hearing for what may have been the album's best guitar solo. With a killer melody, glistening group harmonies and a touch of studio experimentation (I've always loved the way the cheesy synthesizer snuck in) the side one closer 'I Need It Higher' found the band taking a stab at a more commercial sound. You had to scratch your head and wonder how this one wasn't a major radio hit. "Best of all was 'The Piper' which actually managed to mix pop, rock, psych, and progressive moves into a wonderful slice of music. That left one track up in the air (the experimental 'Fool's Parade' - complete with 'mushroom soup' belches) and two tracks that were marginal -- 'Stoney Wellitz' which sported a bouncy melody, but was plagued by a cheesy synthesizer and an irritatingly whiny lead vocal. Complete with ocean waves sound effects, 'Hope' was a mid-tempo piece that simply didn't make much of an impression on me one way or the other. Those minor criticisms apart, as I said earlier, a lost treasure and one of the few LPs I'd even think about awarding 5 stars on my lame grading scale." And now a comment from adamus67 that same day: "Completely forgotten, but great, the American band music. This tight firmly the beatles (though more gloom) among collectors plate is surrounded by a cult of psychedelic rock....It was lovingly cut over six months in 1973 at the tiny 700 West Studio in New Palestine, Indiana, using a four-track 3M recorder, plenty of overdubs, a lot of homemade wine and a hell of a lot of creative ingenuity. There’s no need for me to give a detailed historical perspective of the band, the album or the studio here, because it's all available at the excellent website dedicated to 700 West and I couldn't improve on that compiler’s excellent job. "Interestingly, the band members chose to add colour to their 1969-British-prog-rock style songs with the techniques of 1967 psychedelia, and the album stands as a fine psych/prog artefact despite being several years behind the timeline. The fun starts with 'You Never Win', which opens with a fade-in backwards version of the closing fade-out -- a simple but brilliant idea. 'I Don’t Understand launches with an eerie half-speed recording of small children’s voices, whilst the meandering instrumental heart of 'Hope' is washed by shoreline effects. Much use is made elsewhere of backwards voices, backwards instruments, fade-outs, fade-ins, wild stereo panning, ring modulators, tape loops and leftfield echo effects, and even a blast from an elkhorn. However, the underlying compositions don’t rely solely on these touches for interest; the eight songs, all originals, offer an engaging variety of styles from the 'Born To Be Wild' knockoff of 'You Never Win' through the cosmic boogie of 'Stoney Wellitz'” to the lush progressive soundscapes of ‘Hope', culminating in 'The Piper' which appropriately recalls Pink Floyd’s earliest stoner offerings. The playing and singing are excellent throughout, especially considering the tender ages of the musicians; Herman Zerfas's keyboards in particular are exceptional. Zerfas is (or rather was) Steve Newbold (bass, guitar, backing vocals), Bill Rice (bass, backing vocals), Mark Tribby (vocals, bass, guitar, backing vocals), David Zerfas (vocals, drums, percussion, guitar) and Herman (Brian/Bryan) Zerfas (vocals, keyboards, bass, guitar). The entire album can be enjoyed here: 1. You Never Win (D. Zerfas, H. Zerfas) 2. The Sweetest Part (this pairing D. Zerfas, M. Tribby; 5:16) 3. I Don't Understand (8:56) 4. I Need It Higher (D. Zerfas; 14:09) 5. Stoney Wellitz (D. Zerfas, H. Zerfas; 18:54) 6. Hope (B. Rice, H. Zerfas; 25:24) 7. Fool's Parade (this pairing D. Zerfas, H. Zerfas, S. Newbold; 33:00) 8. The Piper (35:59)
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Post by jk on Oct 8, 2022 14:42:11 GMT -5
Ever since I discovered Alcatraz's 1971 debut Vampire State Building and decided it was just below par for inclusion here, Mr Tubey has been confronting me with it at every turn! So just to please him, here is the opening track. One of the album's reviewers here has this to say about it: "The unhurried ten-minute opener 'Simple Headphone Mind' sets much of the template for the disc, moving seamlessly between mellow come-downs and scorching jagged outbursts. Breezy flute and gentle piano themes float through the air until peppy drumming, dirty huffing sax and erupting electric guitar noodling rush forward, helping the piece softly remind [me] of the lovely obscure 1976 Abraxis album from Belgium with its sparkling piano dominance, and it shares a similar spontaneous vigour and chilled energy." That source also gives us the album's lineup, this being Rüdiger Berghahn (vocals, pianet), Klaus Holst (guitar), Klaus Nagurski (flute, tenor sax), Ronald Wilson (bass) and Jan Rieck (drums, bongos).
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Post by jk on Oct 18, 2022 4:30:22 GMT -5
I almost gave UK "prog" band Jody Grind a miss after hearing their second album, Far Canal (1970). It had something but not quite enough to my mind to warrant inclusion in this thread. A couple of days later I gave their debut from the previous year, One Step On, a listen and changed my mind! There is a freshness to this album, with the horn section adding a thrilling new dimension lacking in its successor, although the band's lineup at the time -- founder member Tim Hinkley (Hammond organ, piano, vocals), Ivan Zagni (guitar) and Barry Wilson (drums) -- is musically very strong in itself. The urgent "Little Message", which kicks off side two, adds Louis Cenammo on bass guitar (one of three tracks on which he plays): www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=16011
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Post by jk on Dec 15, 2022 15:22:42 GMT -5
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Post by jasonaustin on Dec 17, 2022 2:45:19 GMT -5
Originally known as The Hardtimes (whose Blew Mind is one of my friend's "Keepers"), T.I.M.E. (Trust In Men Everywhere) were a '60s band from Los Angeles that combined pop, blues and psychedelia. Their second album under the new name, Smooth Ball (1969), saw them getting more ambitious with longer songs, less straightforward pop and an overall heavier sound. The lineup now consisted of Larry Byrom (guitars, vocals), Bill Richardson (guitars, vocals), Richard Tepp (bass, vocals) and Pat Couchois (drums). I've got both of the T.I.M.E. albums. I didn't think the first one was all that special, but Smooth Ball is pretty killer. "Do You Feel It?" is my favorite cut off of that one. The Hardtimes are worth exploring in their own right. While I find their earlier singles kind of rote, your friend is right that Blew Mind is a decent album. Tangentially interesting is that one of their members-- Lee Kiefer-- was Cass Elliot's boyfriend and can be seen alongside her in Pennebaker's Monterey Pop film. I personally think this crew peaked during their transitional band the New Phoenix, when they released the Mama Cass-produced "Give to Me Your Love". One final piece of trivia is that the "woo-woo man" himself-- Nick St. Nicholas-- left Steppenwolf (they might have still been called the Sparrow at this time) to join T.I.M.E. as their bass player. Then once Steppenwolf hit it big, St. Nicholas was invited back into his original band-- an invite he wisely accepted.
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Post by jk on Dec 29, 2022 17:12:35 GMT -5
I don't believe The Tokens' Intercourse has been posted here yet. To say information on this album is scant is an understatement. It seems to have been recorded in 1968 and first released three years later. To make matters worse, I have seen two different track orders on my travels.
Well, to quote myself (always happy to do that) at Smiley on 18 March 2018, "With thanks to mikewar [who might that be?] at PSF for alerting me to this strange if fascinating album. And yes, it's the same Tokens who sang 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight'!"
And to quote uploader Hal9000ize, "This album is what I would consider the lost spiritual successor to The Beach Boys Smiley Smile album!"
01 "It's Amazing To Be Alive" 02 "Droplets Of Water" 03 "Bathroom Wall" 04 "Animal" 05 "Greenfields" 06 "Wonderful Things" 07 "Commercial" 08 "Gray Is Gray" 09 "Waiting For Something" 10 "I Could Be" 11 "654321 Loul (Girl on 6)" 12 "I Want To Make Love To You" 13 "In & Out" 14 "Stereo" 15 "You Loser - You Fool" 16 "It's Amazing To Be Alive (Reprise)" 17 "Some People Sleep"
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Post by jk on Jan 19, 2023 16:37:29 GMT -5
Late yesterday evening Mr Tubey fed me this remarkable album by the Italian prog rock outfit Banco del Mutuo Soccorso. Darwin! (1972) is not just rated one of Banco's very best albums but one of the top albums in the entire genre. It seems they later shared the same label, ELP's Manticore, with Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM) of a few posts earlier. This page contains some illuminating reviews of Darwin!Side one: "L'evoluzione (Evolution)" – 13:59 "La conquista della posizione eretta (The Conquest of the Upright Stance)" – 8:42 Side two: "Danza dei grandi rettili (Dance of the Big Reptiles)" – 3:42 "Cento mani e cento occhi (One Hundred Hands and One Hundred Eyes)" – 5:22 "750000 anni fa...l'amore? (750000 Years Ago...Love?)" –5:38 "Miserere alla storia (Lament to History)" – 5:58 "Ed ora io domando tempo al tempo ed egli mi risponde...non ne ho! (And Now I Ask Time for More Time and He Answers Me...I Don't Have Any!)" – 3:29 Darwin! features the band's classic lineup: Pierluigi Calderoni – drums, timpani Vittorio Nocenzi – organ, harpsichord, synthesizer Renato D'Angelo – bass guitar, double bass Marcello Todaro – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, trumpet, backing vocals Gianni Nocenzi – piano, E-flat clarinet Francesco Di Giacomo – lead vocals [ Source] This is the epic 14-minute opening track "L'evoluzion". What a wonderfully rich and colourful sound! I'm beginning to think all Italian prog rock bands possess this quality.
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Post by Mark on Jan 19, 2023 17:32:24 GMT -5
Darwin! is a fantastic album from an amazing group. And like PFM's first two albums, what a year 1972 was for Prog! Feel like I might pepper this thread with more RPI albums now! But yeah, soooo many great one album and done groups from the RPI sub genre too. When I describe Italian Prog to people who aren't familiar with it but who like Prog, I tell them it's almost (almost!) like if you liked Rock and Roll and enjoyed Tommy Steele, Cliff Richard etc, and then someone told you that America made great Rock and Roll too and you went on to discover Elvis, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis etc. Obviously I think UK has the cream of the crop but honestly the Italian scene was ridiculously amazing.
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Post by Mark on Jan 20, 2023 10:19:02 GMT -5
Celeste - Principe di un Giorno (1976) Alongside Harmonium's Les Cinq Saisons this album is another platter of pure pastoral prog perfection that I often come back to. Playlist for the album at the following link; www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mfN4HoOReL5_Ml4xILzx8J8eaNjW2QYGUCouldn't find a nice sounding full album video. It's on Spotify & Apple Music also.
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Post by jk on Jun 13, 2023 7:02:54 GMT -5
The Birmingham (UK) band Locomotive initially had some success playing ska, as exemplified by their splendid single "Rudi's In Love", which reached #25 in the UK in late 1968. Following its success, they recorded an album, We Are Everything You See, which after a certain amount of shilly-shallying was released in February of 1970. The whole thing is worth a listen, although it's not an album I would ever revisit. That said, it can hold its own against most early '70s progressive albums. The third track on side two, "Rain", has some interesting keyboard work going on: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locomotive_(band)
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Post by jk on Feb 26, 2024 10:01:53 GMT -5
It's good to get back to this thread from time to time... After leaving home for good in 1972, I lived for a while in the vicinity of the Roundhouse, a music venue that now and again used to hold a marathon concert or "Implosion". The one I attended lasted from three in the afternoon to eleven at night! Among the acts that Sunday were Sam Apple Pie (also in this thread somewhere), Uncle Dog and a remarkable band called Third World War. Besides the problem of nailing TWW's exact lineup that day (my memory tells me it was a keyboardless quartet), the only title of theirs I can recall is "Hammersmith Guerilla", which turns out to be the closing track on their second and last LP, Third World War II: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_World_War_(band)
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Post by jk on Feb 27, 2024 17:37:05 GMT -5
I've said this before but that was more than two years ago, so this is for any interested parties who have looked in since then: Should anyone wish to explore the contents of the three opening posts of this thread, you could do worse than visit my revised version of that list. I have standardized the layout of each of the three tiers, checking dates and spelling and tweaking information where necessary. All the value judgements scattered throughout the list are the OP's. Any inaccuracies that may have remained or crept in during the editing process are my responsibility and mine alone. This revised list is designed to help those wishing to seek out the albums in question: thebeachboysforum.forumotion.com/t193-mr-k-s-revised-list-of-obscure-albums-from-the-mid-60s-to-the-mid-70s
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Post by jk on Mar 3, 2024 15:42:17 GMT -5
This is not among the 500-plus albums sampled by the OP, who I hope is doing well. Mike Heron is best known from his partnership with Robin Williamson in The Incredible String Band. The ISB was over its peak when in 1971 Heron released a solo album, Smiling Men with Bad Reputations, which I recall hearing tracks from at the time. The album's opener, "Call Me Diamond", has a serious Beach Boys connection in the shape of its drummer, Mike Kowalski. The other stellar musicians on this cut besides Heron on vocals and acoustic guitar are Dave Pegg (bass), Dudu Pukwana (piano, alto saxophone, horn charts) and Simon Nicol (rhythm guitar): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Heron
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Post by jk on Mar 4, 2024 3:28:57 GMT -5
This is from the second album (after SMwBR) that I've rediscovered thanks to my current read, The Electric Muse: The Story of Folk into Rock... Roy Harper and The Beach Boys both recorded a song entitled "The Lord's Prayer" but the similarity ends with the name. If not sooner. I remember hearing this remarkable 23-minute track on John Peel's radio show and later borrowing the parent album, 1973's Lifemask, from the library to hear it again. Like its Californian namesake, Harper's "TLP" sounds every bit as remarkable and engaging half a century later: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Harper_(singer)
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Post by Awesoman on Mar 5, 2024 7:05:32 GMT -5
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Post by jk on Mar 5, 2024 16:39:35 GMT -5
Thanks for that, A. Garcia was so ridiculously talented, to say nothing of his colleagues in Old & In the Way. Actually, I was wondering whether I should link a track by the much earlier Even Dozen Jug Band and your post convinced me to do it, not least because both bands feature David Grisman on mandolin and vocals. He and at least three other members of the EDJB would be involved in hit records in later years (see the wiki linked below). This is "Overseas Stomp": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Even_Dozen_Jug_Band_(album)
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Post by jk on Mar 6, 2024 3:55:17 GMT -5
The next name in that book to catch my attention was that of the ill-starred Jackson C. Frank, a shadowy figure often come across in the margins of accounts of the budding folk scene in London in the late '50s and '60s and cited by many far more famous names as an influence. From JCF's lone self-titled album (1965), seen here with its original cover, this is "Yellow Walls" (see his wiki linked below), with Al Stewart adding a second guitar: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_C._Frank
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Post by jk on Mar 7, 2024 8:40:30 GMT -5
According to Wikipedia, the name of the band Horslips (another act culled from my current read) originated from a spoonerism on The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse which became "The Four Poxmen of The Horslypse". "The Abbey Theatre in Dublin asked the band to provide the background for a stage adaptation of 'The Táin'. They leapt at the opportunity. 'Táin Bó Cúailnge' (The Cattle-Raid of Cooley) is a tenth-century story written in Old and Middle Irish. It tells of an ancient war between Ulster and Connacht. The Táin was released in 1973 and had more original material [that its predecessor] alongside the traditional tunes, and greater emphasis on rock. In the same year a single, 'Dearg Doom', went to number one in Germany." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horslips
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Post by jk on Mar 8, 2024 5:41:53 GMT -5
It would be wonderful to push views of this thread into five figures, if only to honour the OP's extraordinary achievements as recorded in the first four posts... Of all the guitarists of the '60s folk revival in the UK, arguably the most famous are John Renbourn (up next) and the Scotsman Bert Jansch (1943–2011), whose recording of "Angie" (one of several spellings and no relation to the Stones' song) was the touchstone for every budding folk guitarist of those years. Written by Davey Graham, one of the most influential figures of the British folk movement in the early '60s, it was the closing track on Jansch's self-titled debut album. It certainly separated the wheat from the chaff * at the time and put the wind up those who thought playing Cream songs was the ultimate achievement for a guitar-player. The YouTube comments are evidence of the esteem accorded Bert and of the sheer extent of his influence through this one track alone: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_Jansch* A great gender-neutral alternative to "men from the boys"
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Post by jk on Mar 9, 2024 4:16:03 GMT -5
Think of Bert Jansch (who incidentally pronounced his name jansh) and it's very likely you'll then think of John Renbourn (1944–2015), who played with Bert as a duo and as a fellow member of the band Pentangle. To quote my rapidly disintegrating folk-into-rock library book: "While Jansch stuck to blues and English 'folk baroque', Renbourn gradually developed an interest in early English music, modal styles and early classical work." I and my guitar-playing brother (the bigger fan) saw John in concert years ago and were most impressed. At one point Renbourn attempted a ridiculously difficult piece and had to stop halfway -- no one complained! A friend saw John in 2015, mere weeks before his death, playing in a duo with Wizz Jones, another UK folk guitar hero. "Morgana" ends side one of John's 1968 album Sir John Alot of Merrie Englandes Musyk Thyng and ye Grene Knyghte, which curiously has no wiki of its own ( this article is the best I could find): Rest in peace, John, rest in peace, Bert. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Renbourn
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Post by jk on Mar 10, 2024 5:20:02 GMT -5
Well I thought I'd run out of possible UK candidates from my book until I stumbled across The Albion Band. Their 1978 album Rise Up Like the Sun is generally regarded as their finest hour, with "Poor Old Horse" its stand-out track, six-plus minutes of magnificence that was released as a single and went nowhere. Maybe the BBC banned it on the strength of the following couplet: "And it's Sally in the kitchen and she's baking the duff And the cheeks of her arse are going chuff chuff chuff" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Albion_Band
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Post by jk on Apr 22, 2024 3:41:40 GMT -5
Now here's a blast from the past, assuming it opens for you. This is the original list as posted exactly seven years ago on the late lamented Pet Sounds Forum.
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