VA - Peephole In My Brain, The British Progressive Pop Sound Of 1971 [2020] (3 x CD's)

 

BRITISH PROGRESSIVE POP

VA - Peephole In My Brain, The British Progressive Pop Sound Of 1971 [2020] (3 x CD's)

Cherry Red's archival Grapefruit imprint has been on a roll in recent years with delightfully thorough multi-disc anthologies celebrating a parade of different U.K. psych, garage, and folk pocket scenes from the 1960s and '70s. Ranging from more-expansive celebrations like Strangers in the Room: Journey Through the British Folk Rock Scene 1967-1973 to hyper-specific moments in time like A Slight Disturbance in My Mind: The British Proto-Psychedelic Sounds of 1966, Grapefruit's mission as intrepid rock musicologists always feels like a labor of love. Falling in line with the latter of the two aforementioned sets is another calendar-year time capsule, Peephole in My Brain: British Progressive Pop Sounds of 1971. Framed in the collection's extensive booklet as a sort of bubbling-up year in UK rock, Peephole's 71 tracks chart a dazzling array of forward-thinking acts as they helped merge the underground scene with pop's mainstream. While America hummed along to the mellow sounds of Bread, James Taylor, and the Osmonds, British bands like Curved Air, Cressida, and Atomic Rooster were issuing artful, muscular rock that often made the higher reaches of the charts. Among nicely curated tracks from well-known acts like the Hollies, the Move, and Status Quo are heaps of interesting oddities like Terry Dactyl & the Dinosaurs' springy accordion-led folk romp "Sea Side Shuffle" (which surprisingly became a number two hit a year later) and the rich exploratory pop of Fickle Pickle's "Down Smokey Lane." In typical Grapefruit fashion, they've also managed to exhume a handful of truly obscure cuts like Wil Malone's hauntingly avant-garde rendition of Ringo Starr's "It Don't Come Easy" (previously unreleased), Grandfather's gentle story-song "Dear Mr. Time," and a pre-Hunky Dory version of David Bowie's "Andy Warhol" which he had apparently written for Dana Gillespie, who sings her own much lusher version of it here. It's a testament to both the fertile era and the label's archival efforts that a single year in British music could yield such a bounty of great music without even dipping a ladle into the more obvious mainstream hits by the Who, Led Zeppelin, assorted solo Beatles, or the rise of glam rock with T. Rex, Slade, and others. (AllMusic Review by Timothy Monger)

The important point is that this set is so diverse and so consistent it's a probable twelve to seven that anyone with even the vaguest interest in it will love it to death.

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Track lists

CD1

01 Dana Gillespie Andy Warhol 2:44

02 Kevin Ayers & the Whole Wide World Stranger in Blue Suede Shoes 3:25

03 Hollies Hey Willy 3:34

04 Corn & Seed Merchants Mr Middleton's Lament 2:33

05 Stray Dearest Eloise 2:32

06 Help Yourself Deborah 3:26

07 Stackridge Dora, the Female Explorer 3:47

08 Barclay James Harvest Ursala (The Swansea Song) 2:53

09 Samurai More Rain 4:28

10 Cressida Goodbye Post Office Tower Goodbye 2:50

11 Move Tonight 3:19

12 Fickle Pickle Down Smokey Lane 4:28

13 Shape of the Rain Woman 3:59

14 Unicorn Going Back Home 3:36

15 Factory Castle on the Hill 2:57

16 Magna Carta Time for the Leaving 4:08

17 Legend I Feel Like Sleeping 3:18

18 Michael Chapman Indian Queens 3:57

19 Edgar Broughton Band Hotel Room 4:06

20 Peter Cowap Safari 2:21

21 Cliff Wade Jennifer 2:28

22 Deep Feeling Old People's Home 3:53

23 Wishful Thinking Hiroshima 4:57

CD2

01 Sakkarin Sugar Sugar 3:29

02 Curved Air Back Street Luv 3:38

03 Procol Harum Memorial Drive 3:46

04 Rockin' Horse Oh Carol, I'm So Sad 2:50

05 Gerry Rafferty To Each and Everyone 2:44

06 Colin Blunstone Caroline Goodbye 2:56

07 Nimbo Maisie Jones 2:39

08 Second Hand Hangin' on an Eyelid 4:21

09 Zior I Was Fooling 3:08

10 Fusion Farm Mrs. Speed 3:18

11 Open Road Waterwheel 3:58

12 Ray Fenwick Anniversary 3:55

13 Pluto Mister Westwood 4:43

14 Bear Foot Frightened 3:06

15 Bronx Cheer Weather Or Not 2:54

16 Rick Price Talking to the Flowers 2:25

17 Beau Ferris Street 2:19

18 Brett Marvin & the Thunderbolts Southbound Lane 3:56

19 Don Crown & His Busking Budgies The Flying Machines 1:59

20 Doggs Billy's Gotta Run 2:42

21 Bill Nelson Love's a Way 3:35

22 Fields While the Sun Still Shines 3:17

23 Nirvana The Saddest Day of My Life 5:18

24 Emerson, Lake & Palmer Are You Ready Eddy? 2:11

CD3

01 Status Quo Mean Girl (Early Mix) 3:52

02 Atomic Rooster Devil's Answer 3:29

03 Sweeney Bean Rock 'n' Roll Wedding 2:38

04 Medicine Head (And The) Pictures in the Sky 2:31

05 Kinks God's Children 3:18

06 Airbus This Time Tomorrow 3:35

07 Octopus Summer 3:05

08 Curtiss Maldoon Sepheryn 3:13

09 Blonde on Blonde I Don't Care 2:43

10 Pete Atkin Sunlight Gate 3:42

11 Montage Dangling in the Cool 3:30

12 John Kongos Tokoloshe Man (Single Edit) 3:59

13 Siren Strange Locomotion 2:57

14 Red Sox Mister Ten Percent 3:13

15 Knocker Jungle Where I Belong 2:46

16 Wil Malone It Don't Come Easy 2:41

17 Kingdom Come Eternal Messenger (Single Version) 3:51

18 Edwards Hand Encounter 2:42

19 Lifeblud So Be It 3:06

20 Dear Mr. Time Grandfather 2:46

21 Bullet Hobo 3:29

22 Jackie McAuley Turning Green (Album Version) 6:06

23 Terry Dactyl & the Dinosaurs Sea Side Shuffle 2:43

24 Phase 3 Bill Bailey 2:53

22 Jackie McAuley Turning Green (Album Version) 6:06

23 Terry Dactyl & the Dinosaurs Sea Side Shuffle 2:43

24 Phase 3 Bill Bailey 2:53

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