(ProtoProd) It's A Beautiful Day 2CD - It's A Beautiful Day 1969/Marrying Maiden 1970 - 1970, FLAC (image + .cue)

It's A Beautiful Day 2CD - It's A Beautiful Day 1969/Marrying Maiden 1970

#777Страна: US
Жанр: ProtoProg
Год выпуска: 1970
Формат: FLAC (image + .cue)
Трэклист:
It's A Beautiful Day by IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY
Studio Album, released in 1969

Track Listings

1. White Bird 6:12
2. A Hot Summer Day 5:51
3. Wasted Union Blues 4:09
4. Girl With No Eyes 3:51
5. Bombay Calling 4:29
6. Bulgaria 6:14
7. Time Is 9:38

Total Time 40:26
Line-up/Musicians

- David LaFlamme / violin, vocals
- Linda LaFlamme / organ, piano, electric piano, celeste, harpsichord
- Hal Wagenet / guitar
- Mitchell Holman / bass
- Val Fuentes / drums
- Pattie Santos / tambourine, bells, block, gourd, vocals

Guest:
- Bruce Steinberg / harmonica on "Hot Summer Day"

Marrying Maiden by IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY

Studio Album, released in 1970

Track Listings

1. Don and Dewey (5:16)
2. The Dolphins (4:30)
3. Essence of Now (3:20)
4. Hoedown (2:29)
5. Soapstone Mountain (4:20)
6. Waiting for the Song (1:03)
7. Let a Woman Flow (4:04)
8. It Comes Right Down to You (3:14)
9. Good Lovin' (3:59)
10. Galileo (3:02)
11. Do You Remember the Sun? (3:14)

Total Time: 38:31
Line-up/Musicians

- Pattie Santos / percussion, vocals
- Val Fuentes / drums, vocals
- Fred Webb / french horn, keyboards, vocals
- David LaFlamme / flute, violin, guitar, vocals
- Mitchell Holman / bass, harmonica, vocals
- Hal Wagenet / guitar, vocals

Guests:
- Richard Olsen / clarinet
- Jerry Garcia / banjo (Hoedown), pedal steel (It Comes Right Down To You)
Доп. информация: Way back in 1969, a haunting little song called “White Bird” could be heard on just about every classic-rock radio station across North America. The song is intrinsically linked to this band, brainchild of David LaFlamme, a virtuoso violinist who frequently jammed alongside the likes of Jerry Garcia and Janis Joplin. Their original line-up included Patti Santos on vocals, David’s own wife Linda LaFlamme on keyboards, Hal Wagenet on guitar, Mitchell Holman on bass and Val Fluentes on drums. Through numerous personnel changes, ongoing legal disputes over royalties and various setbacks (the LaFlamme’s own divorce and then Linda Laflamme having to hand over her keyboard duties after being struck in the head by a bottle thrown from the audience), the group released three studio albums. A nasty lawsuit then saw David LaFlamme forced out of the band he had created. With a new violinist, keyboard player and still more musicians passing through the revolving doors, the band eventually issued two rather disappointing albums and then fizzled out of the picture. Late-period members such as bassist Bud Cockrell and guitarist David Jenkins resurfaced in PABLO CRUISE while David LaFlamme and Patti Santos enjoyed low-key solo careers. Patti (the voice of “White Bird”) was killed in a car accident in 1989.

Their eponymous first album is an American masterpiece of finely crafted, classically inspired folk-rock structured around violinist LaFlamme’s virtuosity. A combination of San Francisco Bay Area psychedelia, folk, classical and jazz, it has a very 60ish ‘trippy’ feel. “Marrying Maiden”, their second release, is exceedingly pastoral compared to the first, as the band switched to earthier, country-flavoured rock with cajun spices, bits of jazz and good old-time rock’n roll. By the time the third album “Choice Quality Stuff / Anytime” was released in ‘72, David LaFlamme was being ousted and the band altogether had seen so many personnel changes it was becoming something of a loose aggregate of the Bay Area ‘all stars’ (among whom were several members from SANTANA). Although not a bad album, “Choice Quality Stuff” with its distinctly blues-based rock’n roll is nothing remotely similar to the first. Two subsequent LPs, released in ’73 and ’74 respectively, feature yet another string of new musicians and don’t have much to offer to progheads.

The late 60s psychedelic scene produced a huge number of exciting bands, many of whom created exciting music that destroyed prevailing boundaries that existed within the music industry and paved the way for progressive rock. Whether It's A Beautiful Day is more progressive than its comtemporaries Love, Jefferson Airplane, Sprit, The Doors, Quicksilver Messenger Service and The Grateful Dead is certainly debatable. What is not in doubt is that this is an outstanding psych classic by an underrated band.

White Bird is one outstanding song, with great flute (or is it the celeste imitatiting a flute) and violin passages. Some might claim that David LaFlame's vocals should not have been allowed to drown out Pattie Santos' contributions and while I'd like to have heard more of her over the course of the album I think the combination works for this wonderful track. Hot Summer Day continues in a similar vibe with organ, harmonica and wah-wah guitar added to the mix, while the heavy blues-rock Wasted Union Blues proves a surprising change of pace, with some fiery violin work from LaFlame, whose then-wife Linda also deserves a mention for her great keyboard playing throughout this record.

The delicate Girl With No Eyes is a real heartbreaker. With a glorious mixture of harpischord, flute, organ, violin and classical guitar, this delightful slice of Baroque-pop alone should be enough to win any hard-core proggie over. The funny thing about this song is that every time I hear it I decide that its my new favourite song on the album, but when I spend time away from the album, White Bird sticks in my mind more!

If you've never heard the instrumental Bombay Calling before, it will come as a real surprise to you, because Deep Purple ripped off the intro and melody for their stunning song Child In Time. With another heady mix of organ, violin and wordless vocals, this is a lovely psychedelia-drenched song. Bulgaria is a deeper darker stoned exploration that I really enjoy. Time Is another surprising stomper that really rocks along for nearly 10 minutes without getting boring. Piano and bass does most of the driving, the organ solo is very nice, and even the Val Fuentes drum solo is very much to my taste (although perhaps a little too similar to some of the work Iron Butterfly's Ron Bushy laid down on In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida).