Picnic – A Breath Of Fresh Air
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Picnic – A Breath Of Fresh Air
''Picnic – A Breath of Fresh Air'' is a sampler issued by the Harvest Records label, originally released in 1970 and notable for including the previously unreleased Pink Floyd song, "Embryo". The similarly-entitled ''A Breath of Fresh Air – A Harvest Records Anthology 1969–1974'' released on 14 May 2007 borrowed most of the original title, but had only three tracks in common with its precursor (Pink Floyd's "Embryo", Panama Limited's "Round and Round", and Quatermass' "Black Sheep of the Family"). Although most tracks featured were of similar vintage, the album was a retrospective compilation, rather than a promotional sampler. History EMI Records launched the Harvest label in 1969 to take advantage of the progressive rock market, and like many record labels at the time, they produced a budget-priced showcase album of their artists. Their roster of artists was large and interesting enough to support a double album retailing at 29s/11d (approximately £1.50). The result wa ...
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Progressive Rock
Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Initially termed "progressive pop", the style was an outgrowth of psychedelic bands who abandoned standard pop traditions in favour of instrumentation and compositional techniques more frequently associated with jazz, folk, or classical music. Additional elements contributed to its " progressive" label: lyrics were more poetic, technology was harnessed for new sounds, music approached the condition of "art", and the studio, rather than the stage, became the focus of musical activity, which often involved creating music for listening rather than dancing. Progressive rock is based on fusions of styles, approaches and genres, involving a continuous move between formalism and eclecticism. Due to its historical reception, the scope of progressiv ...
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Barclay James Harvest
Barclay James Harvest are an English progressive rock band. They were founded in Oldham, in September 1966 by bassist/vocalist Les Holroyd (b. 1948), guitarist/vocalist John Lees (b. 1947), drummer/percussionist Mel Pritchard (1948–2004), and keyboardist/vocalist Stuart "Woolly" Wolstenholme (1947–2010). History After signing with EMI's Parlophone label in the UK for one single in early 1968, they moved to the more progressively inclined Harvest label. The name for the band, according to The International Barclay James Harvest Fan Club, signifies nothing specifically. Having exhausted other possibilities, each of the band members wrote single words on pieces of paper which were drawn out of a hat one by one. All were rejected until only three were left: James, a man who used to sing with the band, Harvest because they were living in a farmhouse, and Barclay after Barclays bank, because they aspired to make money. These were then rearranged to get the best-sounding name - ...
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Roy Harper (singer)
Roy Harper (born 12 June 1941) is an English folk rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He has released 22 studio albums (and 10 live ones) across a career that stretches back to 1966. As a musician, Harper is known for his distinctive fingerstyle playing and lengthy, lyrical, complex compositions, reflecting his love of jazz and the poet John Keats. He was the lead vocalist on Pink Floyd’s “Have a Cigar.” His influence has been acknowledged by Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Pete Townshend, Kate Bush, Pink Floyd, and Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, who said Harper was his "...primary influence as an acoustic guitarist and songwriter." Neil McCormick of ''The Daily Telegraph'' described him as "one of Britain's most complex and eloquent lyricists and genuinely original songwriters... much admired by his peers". Across the Atlantic his influence has been acknowledged by Seattle-based acoustic band Fleet Foxes, American musician and producer Jonathan Wilson and Californian harpi ...
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Flat Baroque And Berserk
''Flat Baroque and Berserk'' is the fourth album by English folk / rock singer-songwriter and guitarist Roy Harper, and was first released in 1970 by Harvest Records. History ''Flat Baroque and Berserk'' was the first of Harper's recordings to enter the charts, reaching number 20 in the UK album chart in January 1970. Produced by Peter Jenner and recorded at Abbey Road Studios, ''Flat Baroque and Berserk'' was the first of eight albums recorded for EMI's Harvest label. Harper has said of the album, "for the first time in my recording career, proper care and attention was paid to the presentation of the song." The album contains some of Harper's best-known songs. "I Hate the White Man", in particular, is noted for its uncompromising lyrics, and Allmusic described the song as Harper described the song as The album also features "Another Day", a song of regret for lost love. The lyrics are written from the point of view of a man looking back with regret upon a missed chance tha ...
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Pretty Things
The Pretty Things were an English band formed in September 1963 in Sidcup, Kent. They took their name from Willie Dixon's 1955 song "Pretty Thing". A pure rhythm and blues band in their early years, with several singles charting in the United Kingdom, they later embraced other genres such as psychedelic rock in the late 1960s (with 1968's ''S.F. Sorrow'' being one of the first rock operas), hard rock in the early 1970s and new wave in the early 1980s. Despite this, they never managed to recapture the same level of commercial success of their early releases. History 1962–1964: Formation The Pretty Things were preceded by Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys, which consisted of Dick Taylor, fellow Sidcup Art College student Keith Richards, and Mick Jagger, among others. When Brian Jones was recruiting for his own band, all three joined Brian and Ian Stewart and were dubbed " Rollin' Stones" by Jones in June 1962. Because there were too many guitar players in the band, Taylor s ...
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Parachute (Pretty Things Album)
''Parachute'' is the fifth studio album by the English rock band Pretty Things, released in 1970. It is their first album without guitarist Dick Taylor. Reviews at the time of release were very positive, with ''Billboard'' calling it "another top-flight album" for the band. In 1975, ''Rolling Stone'' critic Steve Turner wrote that it had been "a ''Rolling Stone'' 'album of the year'," though in fact ''Parachute'' did not place among the magazine's Albums of the Year for 1970 or 1971, and indeed was not mentioned in ''Rolling Stone'' until Stephen Holden called it an "obscure underground classic" in his review of ''Freeway Madness''. The band's lineup had Phil May, Wally Waller, John Povey, Vic Unitt, and Skip Alan. In 1976, the record was packaged as a double LP with their previous album ''S.F. Sorrow'' titled ''Real Pretty''. In Canada, this album was on Motown Records. Snapper Records released a 40th anniversary double CD in September 2010 which included acoustic reworkin ...
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Wally Waller
Alan "Wally" Waller or Wally Allen (born 9 April 1944) is an English bassist and producer. He was a member of Pretty Things on their most famous records, ''S.F. Sorrow'' and ''Parachute''. Biography Wally Waller was born Alan Edward Waller in Barnehurst and grew up in neighbouring Bexley, then in Kent. In the early 1960s, Wally Waller played the rhythm guitar in Bern Elliott and the Fenmen, a five-piece beat and rhythm and blues band. They had a Top 20 hit with their cover of "Money (That's What I Want)" in December 1963. When lead singer Bern Elliott left the band, early in 1964, the other four continued as The Fenmen, releasing a few singles with strong vocal harmonies, such as their cover of "California Dreamin'" in 1966. Their last single, "Rejected", featured one of the first songs penned by Waller as an A-side. In the early months of 1967, Wally Waller joined Pretty Things as a bass player, replacing John Stax. At the same time, Jon Povey, the Fenmen's drummer, became the ...
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Phil May (singer)
Philip Dennis Arthur May (born Wadey, later Kattner; 9 November 1944 – 15 May 2020) was an English vocalist. He gained fame in the 1960s as the lead singer of Pretty Things, of which he was a founding member. May remained a member throughout the band's changing line-up over the years, and was one of the band's main lyricists. He was the primary lyricist for the album ''S.F. Sorrow''. Biography Early life Born Philip Wadey in Dartford, Kent, he was raised by his aunt and uncle, whose surname was May. In childhood he was sent back to live with his mother and stepfather, whose surname was Kattner, but later decided to change his name back to May. The Pretty Things He formed the Pretty Things at Sidcup Art College in 1963 with guitarist Dick Taylor, who had recently left the fledgling Rolling Stones. With May as lead singer, the band became part of the British blues rock scene and quickly gained a recording contract. They became popular and had a number of hit singles i ...
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Love, Death And The Lady
''Love, Death and the Lady'' is an album by Shirley and Dolly Collins. This is a companion-piece to ''Anthems In Eden'' (1969), but with a darker tone to it. She attributes the 'melancholy' mood of the album to her own personal loneliness at that time. Many of the instrumentalists of ''Anthems In Eden'' are present ('Musica Reservata'), but they contributed sparser accompaniments. The figure of Death appears as a character in the title track. "The Oxford Girl", sung unaccompanied, is about an apparently motiveless murder of a woman by her erstwhile lover. The long instrumental sections which were such a feature of ''Anthems In Eden'', are absent, apart from the start and end of "Plains of Waterloo". The male chorus is present on only one track, "The Bold Fisherman". The thematic unity of the album centres on murder, class conflict and betrayal. "The Outlandish Knight" concerns a serial killer. The album was produced by Austin John Marshall, Shirley's husband at the time. Rejected ...
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Dolly Collins
Dorothy Ann Collins (6 March 1933 – 22 September 1995), was an English folk musician, arranger and composer. She was the older sister of Shirley Collins. Born in Hastings, Sussex (now East Sussex), she grew up in an artistic, socialist, folk singing family. She learned the piano at school, and then studied with composer Alan Bush while taking odd jobs in London, including working as a bus conductor. In the mid-1960s she began working with her sister Shirley, who was establishing a reputation as a leading folk singer. She arranged some of Shirley's songs and, on the album ''Sweet Primeroses'', accompanied her on portative organ. Further work with Shirley followed: Shirley said ''"You could launch yourself off on a Dolly arrangement."'' In 1968 they produced the album ''Anthems in Eden'', commissioned by BBC Radio and written for a six-piece early music consort directed by David Munrow, and regularly toured together. Dolly also worked as a musician and arranger with othe ...
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Shirley Collins
Shirley Elizabeth Collins MBE (born 5 July 1935) is an English folk singer who was a significant contributor to the English Folk Revival of the 1960s and 1970s. She often performed and recorded with her sister Dolly, whose accompaniment on piano and portative organ created unique settings for Shirley's plain, austere singing style. Biography Early life Shirley Collins was born in Hastings, East Sussex, England on 5 July 1935. She grew up, with her older sister Dolly, in the area, in a family which kept alive a great love of traditional song. Songs learnt from their grandfather and from their mother's sister, Grace Winborn, were to be important in the sisters' repertoire throughout their career. On leaving school, at the age of 17, Collins enrolled at a teachers' training college in Tooting, south London. In London she also involved herself in the early folk revival, making her first appearance on vinyl on the 1955 compilation ''Folk Song Today''. In 1954, at a party hos ...
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Pete Brown
Peter Ronald Brown (born 25 December 1940) is an English performance poet, lyricist, and singer best known for his collaborations with Cream and Jack Bruce.Colin Larkin, ''Virgin Encyclopedia of Sixties Music'', (Muze UK Ltd, 1997), , p. 80 Brown formed the bands Pete Brown & His Battered Ornaments and Pete Brown & Piblokto! and worked with Graham Bond and Phil Ryan. Brown also writes film scripts and formed a film production company. Early life Brown was born in Ashtead, Surrey, England. Before his involvement with music, he was a poet, having his first poem published in the U.S. magazine ''Evergreen Review'' when he was 14 years old. He then became part of the poetry scene in Liverpool during the 1960s, and in 1964 was the first poet to perform at Morden Tower in Newcastle. He did poetry and music events, including a tour with guitarist Davey Graham. Brown formed The First Real Poetry Band with John McLaughlin (guitar), Binky McKenzie (bass), Laurie Allan (drums) and Pete ...
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