''Spyglass Guest'' is the third studio album by British
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. In ...
band
Greenslade
Greenslade were an English progressive rock band, formed in the autumn of 1972 by keyboard player Dave Greenslade and bassist Tony Reeves, with keyboardist Dave Lawson and drummer Andrew McCulloch.
History
The band made their live debu ...
, released in 1974. It is their most commercially successful album to date, having reached number 34 in the
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...
. It was the final recording bassist
Tony Reeves
Anthony Reeves (born 18 April 1943, New Eltham, South East London) is an English bass guitarist/contrabassist, noted for his "distinctive and complex bass sound" and use of electronic effects.
Career
As a teenager Reeves learned orchestral doub ...
made with the group, leaving Greenslade shortly after the LP was completed.
Cover art
Wanting to move away from the style of artwork exemplified by Roger Dean's covers for their first two albums, Greenslade had Marcus Keef do the cover for ''Spyglass Guest'', with the idea of using a live
black panther suggested by Dave Lawson.
[
]
Background and recording
As with their first two albums, Greenslade prepared for ''Spyglass Guest'' by extensively rehearsing at a church hall in Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...
. However, whereas half of the songs on their first albums were written collaboratively, on ''Spyglass Guest'' the band members did not give any input into each other's songs, writing them individually. Dave Greenslade said he could not say why this was, since they were all getting along well with each other.[
Their recording efforts were also more individualized: Dave Greenslade did not play on any of the three Dave Lawson compositions, Tony Reeves was absent from all but one of them, and Dave Lawson in turn did not play on "Spirit of the Dance". This was in part because, due to the band being worked so hard by their management, Dave Greenslade asked Dave Lawson to write a song to be used as a solo spot for himself, in order to reduce rehearsal time. Lawson came up with several pieces, with "Red Light" being selected as his solo spot, but another, "Rainbow", was also put on the album due to a shortage of material.
While Greenslade had produced their previous album, ''Bedside Manners Are Extra'', by themselves, they felt they needed someone in the studio to provide an outside opinion. They selected Jeremy Ensor (formerly bassist of the ]Principal Edwards Magic Theatre
Principal Edwards Magic Theatre was an English performance art collective in the United Kingdom made up of about 14 musicians, poets, dancers, and sound and lighting technicians. It existed between 1968 and 1971, after which core members forme ...
), who was their roadie at the time.[ Unlike their previous recording sessions, the band were doing concerts at the time, and so the album took considerably longer to record. Scheduled to start on 13 May 1974, recording actually commenced on 15 May and ended on 6 June.][ The sessions also broke from the "live" style of recording used for their first two albums; for example, Dave Lawson's parts on "Joie De Vivre" were recorded after all the other tracks for the song had already been laid down.][''Spyglass Guest'' press kit, 1974.]
''Spyglass Guest'' includes the only cover song
In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...
Greenslade ever recorded, "Theme for an Imaginary Western
"Theme for an Imaginary Western" is a song written by Jack Bruce and Pete Brown. The song is sometimes referred to as "Theme from an Imaginary Western". It has been performed by many artists, including Mountain, Jack Bruce, Leslie West, Colosseum ...
", which Dave Greenslade and Tony Reeves had already performed with their previous band Colosseum
The Colosseum ( ; it, Colosseo ) is an oval amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheatre in the world t ...
both live and in the studio. The song was recorded against the objections of Dave Lawson, who felt it did not suit his playing style.[ Despite his objections, and despite the fact that he recorded all of the vocals for ''Spyglass Guest'' while being treated for a ]collapsed lung
A pneumothorax is an abnormal collection of air in the pleural space between the lung and the chest wall. Symptoms typically include sudden onset of sharp, one-sided chest pain and shortness of breath. In a minority of cases, a one-way valve ...
,[ most fans regard Lawson's vocal performance on "Theme for an Imaginary Western" to be a highlight of the track.
The album also includes one of only two Greenslade songs to employ an outside songwriter (the other is "Hallelujah Anyway" from '' Large Afternoon''), "Joie De Vivre". After coming up with the music and title for the song, Dave Greenslade asked around for someone who could write lyrics that would suit the title and overall atmosphere, and the band's publishing company recommended Martin Hall.][ When Andrew McCulloch suggested the phrase "spyglass guest" from Hall's lyrics for the song be used as the album title, the rest of the band happily agreed, though Dave Greenslade admitted in a 2018 interview that he still has no idea what the phrase means.][
Feeling that they had proven the concept of two keyboardists and no guitars with their first two albums, the band decided to bring in guitarists when they felt the songs called for it. Clem Clempson was Greenslade's former bandmate in Colosseum, while Andy Roberts and violinist Graham Smith both came at the recommendation of Greenslade's wife, who worked as a secretary for ]Tony Stratton-Smith
Tony Stratton-Smith (29 October 1933 – 19 March 1987) was an English rock music manager, and entrepreneur. He founded the London-based record label Charisma Records in 1969 and managed rock groups such as the Nice, Van der Graaf Generator and ...
, founder of the Charisma Records
Charisma Records (also known as The Famous Charisma Label) was a British record label founded in 1969 by former journalist Tony Stratton-Smith. He had previously acted as manager for rock bands such as The Nice, the Bonzo Dog Band and Van der ...
label which Roberts and Smith had both recorded for.[
]
Track listing
# "Spirit of the Dance" (music: Dave Greenslade) – 5:08
# "Little Red Fry Up" (music and lyrics: Dave Lawson) – 5:11
# "Rainbow" (music and lyrics: Dave Lawson) – 4:20
# "Siam Seesaw" (music: Tony Reeves) – 4:43
# "Joie De Vivre" (music: Dave Greenslade, lyrics: Martin Hall) – 8:25
# "Red Light" (music and lyrics: Dave Lawson) – 2:27
# "Melancholic Race" (music: Dave Greenslade) – 4:15
# "Theme for an Imaginary Western
"Theme for an Imaginary Western" is a song written by Jack Bruce and Pete Brown. The song is sometimes referred to as "Theme from an Imaginary Western". It has been performed by many artists, including Mountain, Jack Bruce, Leslie West, Colosseum ...
" (music: Jack Bruce
John Symon Asher Bruce (14 May 1943 – 25 October 2014) was a Scottish bassist, singer-songwriter, musician and composer. He gained popularity as the primary lead vocalist and bassist of British rock band Cream. After the group disband ...
, lyrics: Pete Brown) – 3:52
Personnel
;Greenslade
* Dave Lawson
Dave Lawson (born 25 September 1978) is an Australian comedian, actor, and TV and radio personality. He is a regular performer on the stand up comedy circuit, and at one time participated in a talk back radio segment on the commercial radio st ...
— keyboards
Keyboard may refer to:
Text input
* Keyboard, part of a typewriter
* Computer keyboard
** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping
** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware
Music
* Musi ...
(except on "Spirit of the Dance"), vocals
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...
* Dave Greenslade
David John Greenslade (born 18 January 1943) is an English composer and keyboard player. He has played with Colosseum from the beginning in 1968 until the farewell concert in 2015 and also from 1973 in his own band, Greenslade, and others inclu ...
— keyboards (except on "Little Red Fry Up", "Rainbow", and "Red Light")
* Tony Reeves
Anthony Reeves (born 18 April 1943, New Eltham, South East London) is an English bass guitarist/contrabassist, noted for his "distinctive and complex bass sound" and use of electronic effects.
Career
As a teenager Reeves learned orchestral doub ...
— bass guitar
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
* Andrew McCulloch Andrew McCulloch may refer to:
*Andrew McCulloch (civil engineer) (1864–1945), Chief Engineer of the Kettle Valley Railway in Canada
*Sir Andrew McCulloch (British Army officer) (1876–1960), commander of 52nd Lowland Division from 1934&ndas ...
— drums, percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...
;Additional personnel
* Clem Clempson
David "Clem" Clempson (born 5 September 1949) is an English rock guitarist who has played as a member in a number of bands including Colosseum and Humble Pie.
Career
Clempson began his career in the late 1960s with the power trio, Bakerloo (or ...
— electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...
on "Little Red Fry Up" and "Siam Seesaw"
* Andy Roberts — acoustic guitar on "Siam Seesaw"
* Graham Smith — violin
The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...
on "Joie de Vivre"
* Jeremy Ensor — recorded rain on "Rainbow", co-producer
* Greg Jackman — recorded church noises on "Joie de Vivre", engineer
* Lindsay Kidd — assistant engineer
References
{{Authority control
Greenslade albums
1974 albums
Mercury Records albums
Vertigo Records albums
Warner Records albums
Albums recorded at Morgan Sound Studios