"The Pentangle" by THE PENTANGLE – May 1968 UK Debut Album on Transatlantic Records, November 1968 US LP on Reprise Records in Stereo – Inside "The Albums" - featuring Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Jacqui McShee, Danny Thompson and Terry Cox (October 2017 UK Cherry Red 7-Disc Breeze Block Box Set of Remasters with Mini LP Repro Artwork – Nick Watson Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

1968 UK Debut Album on Transatlantic Records (Reprise USA)

Inside "The Albums" 7CD UK Cherry Red Box Set 

Remastered, Bonus Tracks, Repro Card Sleeve Artwork

 

 

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"...Way Beyond The Sun..."

 

I'm struck with a thought as I wade through this boatload of musical brilliance - why aren't PENTANGLE monster - I mean absolutely friggin' huge?

 

Celebrating 50 years in 2017 since their formation in 1967 - Cherry Red's "The Albums" Box Set is a gorgeous thing to have and hold for sure. Superlative brick block presentation with Mini LP Repro sleeves for all six titles, best-ever sound (a new audio source for 1972's magical "Solomon's Seal") and extras galore (22 Previously Unreleased).

 

Chronologically you get five albums (1968 to 1972) from their initial productive blitz at the UK's home for all things Folk and Weird - Transatlantic Records - along with their sixth and final on Reprise Records – a supposed comeback that cruelly turned out to be a false new dawn before the horrid and acrimonious split in the spring of 1973 (drunken phonecalls ahoy). Alongside all that reissue-sexiness is a 20,000-word essay by MICK HOUGHTON (long-time associate with the band and Bert Jansch) in a beautifully laid out 88-page book (concert tickets, UK and US trade adverts and flyers etc).

 

"The Albums" also includes a COLIN HARPER month-by-month band history timeline (worrying amounts of details and tour dates), NICK WATSON Remasters that breath new life into these largely Acoustic songs and a quantity of repro'd memorabilia that would make Bear Family of Germany twitchy in the lederhosen area.

 

But more than that, as you re-visit record after record here - you're filled with admiration at their originality – musical soundscapes and philosophical themes that still have a lingering influence in Folk-Rock, Acid-Folk, Acoustic Blues and even World Music. And all of it achieved without ever really getting the blue-plaque credit Pentangle so obviously deserve. There's a huge amount of info to slaver over, so let's get to those Reflections and Baskets of Light and that "Pentangle" beginning...

 

UK released Friday, 6 October 2017 (13 October 2017 in the USA) - "The Albums" by PENTANGLE on Cherry Red Records CRCDBOX41 (Barcode 5013929104105) is a 6-Album/7-Disc Box Set with an Extensive 88-Page Booklet, 22 Previously Unreleased Tracks and Mini LP Repro Artwork Card Sleeves. The debut album "The Pentangle" is Disc 1 and plays out as follows:

 

Disc 1 "The Pentangle" 1968 Debut Album (72:12 minutes):

1. Let No Man Steal Away Your Thyme [Side 1]

2. Bells

3. Hear My Call

4. Pentangling

5. Mirage [Side 2]

6. Way Behind The Sun

7. Bruton Town

8. Waltz

Tracks 1 to 8 are their debut album "The Pentangle" - released May 1968 in the UK on Transatlantic Records TRA 162 and November 1968 in the USA on Reprise Records RS 6315.

 

BONUS TRACKS:

9. Koan (Take 2)

10. The Wheel

11. The Casbah

12. Bruton Town (Take 3)

13. Hear My Call (Alternate Take)

14. Way Behind The Sun (Alternate Take)

15. Way Behind The Sun (Instrumental)

Tracks 9 to 15 are outtakes from the 1968 sessions and first appeared on the 2001 CD Reissue of "The Pentangle" on Castle Music CMRCD 131

 

16. Bruton Town (Take 5) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED Session Outtake

 

17. Koan (Take 1) - 1968 Session outtake first appeared on the December 2007 4CD Box Set "The Time Has Come 1967-1973" on Castle Music CMXBX664

 

18. Travellin' Song - a non-album UK 7" single A-side released May 1968 on Big T Records BIG T 109 (the album track "Mirage" was the B-side)

 

19. Poison

20. I've Got A Feeling

21. Market Song

Tracks 19 to 21 are from their first sessions in August 1967 - "Poison" was issued on the 2007 Box Set "The Time Has Come 1967-1973" - the other two are PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED. A re-recording of "Market Song" opens the "Sweet Child" double-album

 

PENTANGLE was:

JACQUI McSHEE – Lead Vocals

BERT JANSCH – Lead Vocals and Guitars

JOHN RENBOURN – Lead and Backing Vocals and Guitars

DANNY THOMPSON – Double Bass

TERRY COX – Drums and Percussion

 

A drawn-out gut-string double-bass note eases in the Traditional "Let No Man Steal Your Thyme" - the Side 1 opener for their groundbreaking 1968 debut album "The Pentangle". Reprise Records of the USA was want to tell its sceptical US public not to fret at such audio audaciousness – oh no – because "...it is necessary to talk of fusions of traditional folk forms..." And that's what Pentangle and their cool music has always been – a fusion of Folk and Rock and maybe even a few Jazz licks thrown in too.

 

First up, the audio on this forgotten beginning of Pentangle is fantastic - the instrumental "Bells" sounding positively cathedral-like. The cover of The Staple Singers secular classic "Hear My Call" is given that Pentangle shuffle (no voices sounding). But little prepared May 1968 listeners for the sneakily clever twister "Pentangling" - seven minutes of go-go 60ts Folk with Jacqui McShee's vocals lovely and soothing at first only to be replaced with acoustic-guitar battles, a Double Bass solo and a Bert Jansch counter vocal that underpins the whole mad brilliant thing. Wow - is it any wonder the Ling became such a concert showstopper. Other highlights include the Trad Blues of "Way Behind The Sun" - a song associated with Barbara Dane and her 1964 US Folkways album "Sings The Blues With 6 & 12-String Guitar" (The Byrds recorded a version during the "Sweethearts Of The Rodeo" sessions in 1968).

 

Amazing audio too on the finisher instrumental "Waltz" which is more Guitars-Go-Dancing than Strauss with Thompson's Double Bass solo likely to kick her your speaker's teeth in. Of the Disc 1 Bonus Material my raves are the duo of "The Wheel" and "The Casbah" which sound like Jimmy Page goofing off on an Acoustic Guitar during the recordings of Roy Harper's 1971 Harvest masterpiece "Stormcock". The unreleased Take 5 of "Bruton Town" is getting close to the released version and is beautifully rendered here - while the alarmingly poppy "I've Got A Feeling" and "Market Song" make their debut here (what a blast).

 

"...My own darling jewel sat smiling by me..." - Jacqui McShee sang wistfully on "Once I Had A Sweetheart". I'm going to be smiling and dipping into this amazing box set for years to come – I know it. Well done to John Reed, Adam Velasco, Dave Timperley and all the other good eggs at Cherry Red Records for giving PENTANGLE the send off they deserved instead of the 'whimpering' one they got back in 1973.

 

You can get the "Pentangle" debut on an individual CD remaster fairly easily, but this is one group and one release I urge you to spend a few more bob on. They didn’t just begin well, they continued as such and grew more.

 

"...Sit thee down and put them on..." we're advised in the receive-thy-soul song "Lyke-Wake Dirge". Amen to that acid advice baby...