''The Early Tapes (July/Aug 1980)'', also known as ''Strategy'', is the second album released, but first to be recorded, by the British group
Level 42. Originally recorded for Elite Records, the band subsequently signed to Polydor, who bought the masters from Elite and issued it in March 1982. It features Level 42's first two singles - "Love Meeting Love" (UK #61) and "Wings of Love".
Tracks
# "Sandstorm" (Badarou, King) – 4:41
# "
Love Meeting Love" (Gould, King) – 6:24
# "Theme to Margaret" (King) – 3:59
# "Autumn (Paradise Is Free)" (King) – 4:45
# "Wings of Love" (Badarou, Gould, Gould, King, Lindup) – 6:58
# "Woman" (Lindup) – 4:38
# "Mr. Pink" (Badarou, King) – 5:08
# "88" (King) – 5:11
Personnel
;Level 42
*
Mark King – bass guitar, percussion, vocals on "Love Meeting Love" & "Autumn (Paradise is Free)", chant vocals on "88"
*
Mike Lindup
Michael David Lindup (born 17 March 1959) is a musician best known as the keyboard player and falsetto voiced singer, who joined with Mark King and brothers Phil and Boon Gould to form the British jazz-funk/pop rock band, Level 42.
Early li ...
– keyboards, percussion, vocals on "Wings of Love", chant vocals on "88"
*
Boon Gould
Rowland Charles "Boon" Gould (4 March 1955 – 30 April 2019) was an English musician and one of the four founding members of Level 42.
Career
Gould was born in Shanklin on the Isle of Wight. He was the guitarist of Level 42 and occasional sax ...
– guitars, alto saxophone
*
Phil Gould – drums, percussion
with:
*
Wally Badarou –
Prophet 5
The Prophet-5 is an analog synthesizer manufactured by the American company Sequential. It was designed by Dave Smith and John Bowen in 1977, who used microprocessors, then a new technology, to create the first polyphonic synthesizer with full ...
and inspiration
*
Leroy Williams
Leroy Williams (February 3, 1941 – June 1, 2022) was an American drummer, mostly known for his work in jazz.
Williams first began playing drums as a teenager in the 1950s. From 1959 to the middle of the 1960s he played with singer Judy Roberts, ...
– percussion (Courtesy
EMI
EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...
)
*Dave Chambers – tenor and soprano saxophones
Charts
Release history
References
External links
Level 42 Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Early Tapes, The
1982 albums
Level 42 albums
Albums produced by Mike Vernon (record producer)
Polydor Records albums