Sealed LP: Help Yourself: Beware of the Shadow

$

90

Help Yourself: Beware of the Shadow
FACTORY SEALED LP Format: Sealed LP
Record Company/Release Number: United Artists: UA-LA079-F
Bar Code: NONE
Original release date: 1972
Country: U.S.A.
Condition of the cover: Mint
Condition of the record: Sealed - Assumed Mint
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds, 2 ounces
Inventory number: 209614
Notes: - - - Please contact me if you have any difficulty viewing the photos.

Songs:

• I Must See Jesus for Myself
• To Katherine They Fell
• Your Eyes Are Looking Down
• Old Man
• Look at the View
• Paper Leaves
• Running Down Deep
• Deborah
• Street Songs
• Alabama Lady
• Reaffirmation
• Calapso
• She's My Girl
• Molly Bake Bean
• American Mother
• Passing Though

• Malcolm Morley: Guitar, Vocals
• Richard Treece: Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals
• Kingsley Ward: Engineer
• Ken Whaley: Bass
• Anton Mathews: Engineer, Remixing
• Annie: Original Sleeve Design
• Help Yourself: Producer, Main Performer
• Paul Burton: Bass, Guitar, Vocals
• Dave Charles: Percussion, Vocals, Drums
• Ralph Downs: Engineer

• On Help Yourself's third album, the band kept on exploring its quietly entertaining fusion between the trippier and rootsier sides of its personality, a bar band for those who liked to spend their days baking in the sun. The most affecting song is the closer, the beautiful "Passing Through," a gentle acoustic ballad that has the same regret-tinged melancholy of prime Nick Drake but, thanks to the higher singing register, comes across as a quiet anthem, well worth the hearing. The moments when the band freely takes flight are the major highlights elsewhere. The nearly side-long "Reaffirmation" could almost be a bit of proto-new age banality in the wrong hands but -- given the way Morley sings about "cuttin' butter with a knife" amidst the flute noises and how the slow, understated first section turns into a just-freewheeling-enough jam -- it works. There's even what could almost be an attempt at reggae, though that seems more something by accident than by plan, and by the time everything settles into a fine space rock chug into the infinite, the result is groovy fun, man. "American Mother" takes a more self-consciously epic stance from the start and gets away with it beautifully, with opening guitar that can only be described as heroic and an overall flow that sounds perfect for an easygoing drive down desert highways while chasing the sun. Extra points for the mellotron fake string action at the end as well. Other excursions into varying styles sometimes smack of dilettantism for its own sake, but things like the brief fragment "Calapso" and the goofy country drawling and strumming of "Molly Bake Bean" project good-natured humor more than anything else. ~ Ned Raggett, All Music Guide

Help Yourself biography by Keith Pettipas, All Music Guide

• Help Yourself was formed in the London area of England in 1970 initially as a backup band for Malcolm Morley, who was signed as a solo act under the management of the Famepushers whose acts Brinsley Schwarz and Ernie Graham had also secured contracts with the U.K. division of United Artists/Liberty Records. The band consisted of Richard Treece (guitars/vocals/harmonica), Dave Charles (drums/percussion/vocals), Ken Whaley (bass), and of course Malcolm Morley (guitars/keyboards/vocals). Help Yourself recorded their debut self-titled album in early 1971. The songs on that album were completely written by Morley. Ken Whaley left the band after the debut to be replaced by Ernie Graham (guitars), who had just released his solo album on Liberty. Help Yourself was experiencing some financial difficulties at this time, as were a number of other bands in England, so they teamed up with bandmembers from Brinsley Schwarz and moved into a rented house in Headley in 1971/1972 called the Grange, where Led Zeppelin had recorded the Symbols album earlier that year. While at the Grange, the band recorded the second album Strange Affair, released in early 1972, with the addition of Graham and Jonathan (Jojo) Glemser to the band. Graham and Glesmer left during the recording of Strange Affair and were replaced by Paul Burton for the completion of the album. The lineup of Burton, Morley, Treece, and Charles recorded another album almost immediately, called Beware of the Shadow, which was released at the end of 1972. None of the first three albums were big sellers. The Helps, as they were called by fans, appealed to a hippie audience and found moderate success in the U.S., where they appealed to Deadheads and fans of such bands as Quicksilver. Glam rock was the big rage in England at the time, but Help Yourself were found to be a bit too rural for radio play, especially in England so there was basically no promotion or support for the band. In 1973, Ken Whaley returned to the band and the Helps recorded an album that was appropriately called, The Return of Ken Whaley. The initial release of that album contained a "bonus" album called Happy Days, which was recorded live on tour with the Flying Aces. Shortly after the release of The Return of Ken Whaley, Help Yourself broke up. Malcolm Morley went on to join the Welsh band Man, with Ken Whaley later joining him there. The remaining band members joined Deke Leonard's Iceberg and recorded a couple of albums, while Treece later joined George and Martin Ace in the Flying Aces.

• All pictures are of the exact item being sold.
• This record came from a record store called "Phantasmagoria" which was located in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Phantasmagoria went out of business in 1978. I purchased most of their leftover inventory some years later when I owned a new & used record store in Catasauqua called "Music Madness".
• Phantasmagoria used round colored stickers to indicate the price of the albums. They had a sign on the wall with the color sticker combinations for the customers to use so they knew the price of the albums. Most of the albums still have these stickers on them, and in some rare cases, the stickers are written on. Some of the records have prices on them. This is the price you would have paid for the record in 1978 if you would have bought it at Phantasmagoria. Please don't confuse these prices with their current value.
• All sealed albums are being sold as collector's items and cannot be returned due to manufacturer's defects. It may be almost impossible to replace many of the sealed albums that I am selling.
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