''Give Me Take You'' is the debut studio album by English singer-songwriter and musician

Duncan Browne Duncan John Browne (25 March 1947 – 28 May 1993) was an English singer-songwriter and musician. He is most remembered for his moderate hit single "Journey," which peaked at No. 23 in the U.K in 1972, and its corresponding 1973 album Duncan ...

. It was released in 1968 through

Andrew Loog Oldham Andrew Loog Oldham (born 29 January 1944) is an English record producer, talent manager, impresario and author. He was manager and producer of the Rolling Stones from 1963 to 1967, and was noted for his flamboyant style. Early life Loog Oldha ...

Immediate Records Immediate Records was a British record label, started in 1965 by The Rolling Stones' manager Andrew Loog Oldham and Tony Calder, and concentrating on the London-based blues and R&B scene. History Immediate Records was started in 1965. Signed ...

. On the record, Browne employs a

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

sound that is informed by rock, pop, and classical elements, with baroque-inspired arrangements. The album spawned the single, "On the Bombsite," which failed to chart.

Background and history

Prior to his solo career, Browne was a member of the

folk rock Folk rock is a hybrid music genre that combines the elements of folk and rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival. Performers s ...

band Lorel, which was signed to Immediate Records. After their single, "A Whiter Shade of Pale", was rejected by the label, the band dissolved. Andrew Oldham, who was impressed by Browne's arrangement work for other Immediate Records acts, wanted a solo album from him. David Bretton served as a lyricist for the record and the two composed a dozen songs together. The album's commercial failure coincided with Immediate Records' financial collapse. Following the company's collapse in 1970, Browne was presented with a bill for 2,000 pounds to cover the recording cost of the album. As with most of the Immediate library, the master tapes to Browne's work for the record are considered as lost. The record was reissued mid-'70s on the Canadian-based

Daffodil ''Narcissus'' is a genus of predominantly spring flowering perennial plants of the amaryllis family, Amaryllidaceae. Various common names including daffodil,The word "daffodil" is also applied to related genera such as ''Sternbergia'', ''Ism ...

label. In 1991, Sony Music Special Products issued a CD edition that was mastered from three different vinyl sources, due to lost master tapes. Castle Records reissued the CD for the first time in the United Kingdom, with five bonus tracks. In 2009, Grapefruit Records released an expanded reissue, containing rehearsal recordings, demos, and an unfinished track.

Critical reception

Despite its commercial failure, the album was received positively and gained attention, particularly from musicians from the respective music scenes at the time of its release. ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...

'' critic Richard Goldstein described the record as an example of "

Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...

Rock." '' Billboard'' magazine regarded the record and its lyrics as auspicious and notable, respectively. Over the decades following its release, the album drew comparisons to the works of

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

the Moody Blues The Moody Blues were an English rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1964, initially consisting of keyboardist Mike Pinder, multi-instrumentalist Ray Thomas, guitarist Denny Laine, drummer Graeme Edge and bassist Clint Warwick. The g ...

Van Morrison Sir George Ivan Morrison (born 31 August 1945), known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans seven decades. He has won two Grammy Awards. As a teenager in t ...

and Nick Drake. In a retrospective review,

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

critic Bryan Thomas described the record as "one wonderfully tender album".

Track listing

All tracks are written by Duncan Browne and David Bretton. # "Give Me Take You" – 3:23 # "Ninepence Worth of Walking" – 3:27 # "Dwarf in a Tree (A Cautionary Tale)" – 3:11 # "The Ghost Walks" – 5:55 # "Waking You (Part One)" – 1:09 # "Chloe in the Garden" – 5:07 # "Waking You (Part Two)" – 0:57 # "On the Bombsite" – 3:10 # "I Was, You Weren't" – 2:02 # "Gabilan" – 4:03 # "Alfred Bell" – 4:30 # "The Death of Neil" – 4:30

Personnel

Album personnel as adapted from album liner notes.Duncan Browne – ''Give Me Take You'' album liner notes *

– production *

– composition, arrangements, cover design, vocals, guitar * David Bretton – lyrics, harmony tenor vocals, cover design * Nicky Hopkins – harpsichord, keyboards * Irish – engineering * Derek Burton – cover design * Max Edwards – photography *

Gered Mankowitz Gered Mankowitz (born 3 August 1946) is an English photographer who focused his career in the music industry. He has worked with a range of artists from The Rolling Stones to Jimi Hendrix, and in other divisions of the photography industry, i ...

– photography

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1968 debut albums Duncan Browne albums Immediate Records albums Albums produced by Andrew Loog Oldham