"...Silken Thomas Is My Name..."
Sandwiched between the Hard
Rock of Atomic Rooster's "Made In England" (with Chris Farlowe on
Vocals) in June 1972 and the Jug Band Kazoo Shuffle of the King Earl Boogie
Band's "Trouble At Mill" in July 1972 (an off offshoot of Mungo Jerry)
– Pye Records Prog Rock label imprint DAWN released David McWilliams'
singer-songwriter Folk-Rock LP "Lord Offaly" in July 1972 as well -
and it was of course promptly lost in the musical mishmash of that mixed-up
summer.
In my twenty-plus years of
rarity buying for Reckless Records in London – I've seen maybe three or four
copies in people's collections resplendent in its lovely textured gatefold
sleeve. In fact – despite charting his first three albums on Major Minor
Records in the Top 40 LP charts of 1967 and 1968 – Belfast Folky David
McWilliams is all but forgotten now (the Atomic Rooster album from June
1972 is three times the rarity value...yet much easier to find).
But in 2016 - up steps
reissue heroes Esoteric Recordings (part of Cherry Red) to put our wee
historical oversight right. Here are the details for this lovingly presented CD
reissue...
UK released Friday, 29 July
2016 (August 2016 in the USA) – "Lord Offaly" by DAVID McWILLIAMS on
Esoteric Recordings ECLEC 2559 (Barcode 5013929465947) is a straightforward CD
Remaster of the 10-track 1972 LP and plays out as follows (43:23 minutes):
1. Go On Back To Momma (From
The Film "Gold")
2. She Was A Lady
3. I Will Always Be Your
Friend
4. Heart Of The Roll
5. I Would Be Confessed
6. Spanish Hope [Side 2]
7. Blind Men’s Stepping
Stones
8. Lord Offaly
9. The Prisoner
10. The Gypsy
Tracks 1 to 10 are his 4th
studio album "Lord Offaly" – released July 1972 in the UK on Dawn
Records DNLS 3039 and 1973 in the USA on Pye Records PYE 3302 (distributed by Bell
Records). Produced by DAVID McWILLIAMS and DAVE HUNT with all songs written by
McWilliams – the LP didn’t chart in either country.
The 20-page booklet is
pleasingly detailed featuring typically in-depth liner notes from noted writer
MALCOLM DOME. The black and white photo that adorned the inner gatefold of the
rare original 1972 British LP is reproduced (so to that gorgeous Gil McWilliams
artwork), as are the lyrics that sat beneath the photo. It's a damn shame no
one has found out who plays what on what (still a mystery) – but all of that
pales once you clap your lugs on the actual remaster. Done by BEN WISEMAN at
Broadlake Studios in Hertfordshire – the 24-bit bit digital transfer from
original Dawn Records mastertapes is gorgeous – all that beautifully recorded
acoustic instrumentation now shining like a sixpence dipped in Coke – layers of
dirt removed. This is a fabulous-sounding remaster – and fans of the record
will be thrilled with it...
Depicting far out hippy life
and 'free love' to a musical backdrop of MC5 whilst 'the man' establishment
tries to oppress all of the aforementioned rumpy-pumpy and good times - the
film "Gold" was finally released in 1972 (filmed in 1968) - opening
with "Go On Back To Mamma" - its theme song supplied by David McWilliams.
It immediately feels 'American' in its Emitt Rhodes structures - a better
produced Elton John. It turned up as the B-side to the March 1973 UK 7"
single to "Gold" on Mother Records MOT 101. Quite why Dawn didn't use
one of the album tracks like "Heart Of The Roll" or even "Go On
Back To Momma" as a lead-off single is a mystery - the album could have
benefitted from such a plug. The pretty "She Was A Lady" feels very
Phillip Goodhand-Tate or even Colin Blunstone - sweet piano and vocals from
McWilliams. His philosophy of love and comradeship flows out of the overly busy
"I Will Always Be Your Friend" while "Heart Of The Roll" is
undoubtedly one of the LP's highlights. It feels like Help Yourself or even
McGuinness Flint - McWilliams' vocals like the Eggs Over Easy debut album.
Beautiful remaster quality on the Side 1 finisher "I Would Be
Confessed" - a 'wondering days are through' confessional which sees David
delivery a warm song with sincerity.
My personal fave is the
beautiful instrumental "Spanish Hope" which opens the more-overtly
Folky Side 2 - a ballad where Acoustic Guitars strums are soon joined by a
wailing penny-whistle lament - as deeply Celtic as Simple Minds and just as
reminiscent. That same Folk Jaunt follows with "Blind Men's Stepping
Stones" where the historical chap Emon Lynott 'curses his fate' as he
mandolins his way over the Giant's Causeway.
Sounds like a Bouzouki at the opening of "Lord Offaly" -
another undoubted highlight on the LP - a very warm melody from McWilliams that
chronicles the distrust of England's King Henry by locals in Ireland's
Maynooth. Even at 6:33 minutes - it doesn't overstay its welcome and feels like
great Fairport Convention or even Sandy Denny. It ends on more history lessons
in the plaintive and hurting "The Prisoner" and "The Gypsy"
- tales of hungry ordinary folk paying the price for stealing bread and wine
and thereafter transformed into rebels at the hands of their heartless
landlords...
McWilliams made two more
platters for Dawn Records in the shape of "The Beggar And The Priest"
in 1973 (Dawn DNLS 3047) and "Living's Just A State Of Mind" in 1974
(Dawn DNLS 3059) and hopefully Esoteric Recordings have those obscurities also
in their reissue sights.
"Lord Offaly" is a
wonderful album that's way too obscure and shouldn't be. Silken indeed...
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