LP STONE THE CROWS Stone The Crows - Re-Release - Akarma AK 286 - STILL SEALED
€
20
$
23
€ 20
Sold For
Feb 7, 2015
Sold Date
Feb 17, 2014
Start Date
1
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Germany
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Description
LP STONE THE CROWS
Stone The Crows
Country of release: Italy, 2004
Original released: 1970
Label: Akarma
Catalogue number: AK 286
Barcode: 8026575286115
Klappcover/Gatefold Sleeve: Ja/Yes
Condition Record: MINT
Condition Cover: MINT
LP ist noch verschweißt / LP IS STILL SEALED !!!
(Photo von meiner eigenen LP / Photo taken from my own copy)
Tracks Side 1:
1.The Touch Of Your Loving Hand (6:01)
2.Raining In Your Heart (5:10)
3.Blind Man (5:09)
4.The Fool On The Hill (4:13)
Tracks Side 2:
1.I Saw America (17:28)
Listen At YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jo2stCPzds
Stone The Crows isn't exactly a 'heavy' album by itself, but despite being released in 1969, it certainly sounds like a Seventies album in many respects. A fat, gritty, powerful sound, a sidelong epic, a thoroughly humorless and 'desperate' delivery, all these features probably explain why none other than Peter Grant actually took a liking to the band. There's nothing particularly innovative about the songs on here, but it's pretty strange anyway that it failed to establish Maggie Bell as one of Britain's premiere vocalists - supposedly a hot white soul singerine wasn't exactly the forte of the sensitive British public of the time. Or maybe, since Janis was still alive, people were willing to go for the 'real thing' rather than an inferior, if still solid, imitation.
Whatever, the first side of the album is among the most powerful sides of British blues-rock/R'n'B of the epoch I've ever heard. The album opens with two Harvey - Dewar originals, the first of which, the slow-burning 'Touch Of Your Loving Hand', can seem a bit too plodding and stiff; besides, I already hear all the "faux-soul, disgusting faux-soul!" cries of Temptations and Jackson Five purists out there, but since it's a well-known fact that all purists are fascists by definition, we'll just leave it at that. Actually, I don't think even that many purists would want to castigate this stuff - Dewar and Bell duet with each other at the top of their powers, and the track slowly but gradually progresses towards a tremendous climax, assisted by a tasteful guitar solo and dreamy organ background. And then along comes track number two, the fast funky 'Raining In Your Heart', with a red-hot sizzling guitar line and Derek-and-the-Dominoes-like organ and magnificent vocal parties whose only flaw is being buried so goddamn deep under the guitar. Shoot the engineer. One of the best ever songs by the band, kudos for the organ riff and the terrific drive anyway. And a climactic ending.
They then proceed to leave Harvey and Bell alone in the studio, Les playing a great bluesy pattern and Maggie impersonating the 'Blind Man' - the obvious spot to actually make a careful assessment of the girl's voice. MIGHTY voice for sure. And while we're at it, I wonder if that astutest and fattest of managers, Peter Grant, ever had the obvious idea of having Maggie try out the position of Robert Plant? Heh heh. One thing's for sure, Maggie would have blown the Lion Mane straight out of the window. And of course, Robbie would never have managed to perform such a beautiful version of 'Fool On The Hill' as Maggie does - they arrange the song as a straightforward soul number, and unbelievable as it seems, it works, although it took me a couple listens to get used to the band totally slaughtering a vital part of the original vocal melody in favour of 'free-form' vocal twists. But they're actually fine.
Too bad the band went a bit too far in the 'artsy' direction and entirely ruined the second side of this album, thus mercilessly massacring a fine, sincere, raw and powerful experience. 'I Saw America' is an eighteen-minute pastiche of blues, folk, and hard elements, destined to represent the band's impressions of their first visit to the States. It's hopelessly pretentious and therefore inadequate - had the guys really been experts in Americana subjects, they definitely wouldn't stop to this kind of this stuff, and as 'novices' in these matters, the track is well, made to look really stupid. The segments don't mesh together well; the generic blues tidbits look painfully generic, as if they thought that incorporating the little pieces into one large medley freed them from the necessity of actually making them interesting, and to make matters worse, there's a sort of dissonant free-jazz passage towards the end of the song which is sloppy, hopelessly amateurish and so boring you hardly ever get to the actual end of the track - too bad, since the last three minutes, where they all of a sudden launch into a grumbly heavy rock jam with Harvey spitting out rapid fire licks and Dewar pounding on his bass like a true mountaineer (the band was of Scottish origin, remember), is the composition's best and only memorable passage. But, of course, it hardly justifies sitting through the first fifteen minutes anyway.
So, I guess, this is a "Sixties" album after all, in that it's one of those usual cases for that epoch when a great first half of the album can be hideously annihilated by a thoroughly dated 'experimental' second half. Kinda like Love's Da Capo. You know what I mean. Don't let that stop you from loving the first side, though: the first side doesn't at all sound amateurish.(starling.rinet.ru)
Maggie Bell - Vocals
Les Harvey - Guitar
Jim Dewar - Bass, Vocals
John McGinnis - Organ, Piano
Colin Allen - Drums, Percussion
Versand innerhalb Deutschland (versichert mit GLS - generell innerhalb von 24 Stunden) 5,00 Euro
Egal wieviele LPs gekauft werden, Versand immer 5,00 Euro. Keine weiteren Versandkosten ab der zweiten LP!!
Shipping within EEC & Oversea (AIRMAIL) 8,50 Euro
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