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"…Come On Let's Get Together…"
UK released 18 July 2011 -
"Taking Some Time On: The Parlophone-Harvest Years (1968-73)" by
BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST features 69-tracks across 5CDs and is housed in a double
jewel case (with fold-out flaps on the inside for some of the discs). Here's a
detailed breakdown of EMI/Harvest 5099908378826 (SHTW 802)…
Disc 1 (60:56 minutes)
Tracks 1 & 2 are
"Early Morning" and "Mr. Sunshine" – the non-album
A&B-sides of the band’s debut UK 7” single released 26 April 1969 on
Parlophone R 5693
3. So Tomorrow
4. Eden Unobtainable
5. Eden Unobtainable (May
1968 Version)
Tracks 3 to 5 are a 'BBC Top
Gear Session' recorded live 23 April 1968
6. Night
7. Pools Of Blue
8. Need You Oh So Bad
9. Small Time Town
10. Dark Now My Sky
Tracks 6 to 10 are a 'BBC Top
Gear Session' recorded live 30 July 1968
Tracks 11 and 12 are
"Brother Thrush" and "Poor Wages" – the non-album
A&B-sides of their 2nd UK single on Harvest HAR 5003 (released 20 June
1969)
Track 13 is "Mocking
Bird" (May 1970 version at 6:17 minutes)
[Another version at 6:39
minutes is on the "Once Again" album on Disc 2]
14. Taking Some Time ON
15. Mother Dear
16. The Sun Will Never Shine
17. When The World Was Woken
Tracks 14 to 17 are Side 1 of
their debut LP "Their First Album" released 5 June 1970 in the UK on
Harvest SHVL 770
Disc 2 (62:42 minutes):
1. Good Love Child
2. The Iron Maiden
3. Dark Now My Sky
Tracks 1 to 3 are Side 2 of
"Their First Album" (as per 14 to 17 on Disc 1)
Track 4 "I Can’t Go On
Without You" was a 'Bonus Track' on the expanded 2002 CD of "Their
First Album"
5. She Said
6. Happy Old World
7. Song For Dying
8. Galadriel
9. Mocking Bird
10. Vanessa Simmons
11. Ball And Chain
12. Lady Loves
Tracks 5 to 12 are their 2nd
album "Once Again" released 5 February 1971 in the UK on Harvest SHVL
788
Disc 3 (66:39 minutes):
1. Introduction-White Sails
(A Seascape)
2. Too Much On Your Plate
3. Galadriel (Non Orchestral
Version)
4. Happy Old World (Take One)
5. Song For Dying (Full
Un-edited Version)
6. Mocking Bird (Extended
Non-Orchestral Version)
7. Dark Now My Sky (Live
March 1971)
Tracks 1 to 7 are bonus
tracks on the CD of "Once Again"
8. Galadriel
9. She Said
10. Someone There You Know
11. Ursula (The Swansea Song)
12. Medicine Man
Tracks 8 to 12 are a 'Bob
Harris Session' recorded for the BBC on 29 June 1971
Disc 4 (67:06 minutes):
1. Medicine Man
2. Someone There You Know
3. Harry’s Song
4. Ursula (The Swansea Song)
5. Little Lapwing
6. Song With No Meaning
7. Blue John’s Blues
8. The Poet
9. After The Day
Tracks 1 to 9 are their 3rd
album "And Other Short Stories" released 5 November 1971 in the UK on
Harvest SHVL 794
Track 10 is "Brave New
World (Demo Version)" – a bonus track on the "And Other Short
Stories" CD of 2002
Track 11 is "Child Of
Man" recorded for a 'Bob Harris Session' on 15 March 1972
Tracks 12 and 13 are
"I'm Over You" and "Child Of Man" – the non-album
A&B-sides of a UK 7” single released 28 April 1972 on Harvest HAR 5051
Tracks 14 and 15 are
"Breathless" and "When The City Sleeps" (with the band
credited as BOMBADIL) – the A&B-sides of a UK 7" single released 29
September 1971 on Harvest HAR 5056
Track 16 is "Medicine
Man" – released 20 October 1972 as the non-album B-side of "Thank
You" on Harvest HAR 5058
Disc 5 (60:41 minutes):
1. One Hundred Thousand
Smiles Out
2. Delph Town Morn
3. Summer Soldier
Tracks 1 to 3 are a 'Bob
Harris Session' for the BBC recorded 9 October 1972
4. Crazy Over (You)
5. Delph Town Morn
6. Summer Soldier
7. Thank You
8. One Hundred Thousand
Smiles Out
9. Moonwater
Tracks 4 to 9 are their 4th
LP "Baby James Harvest" released 10 November 1972 in the UK on
Harvest SHSP 4023
Track 10 is "Thank You
(Alternate Version)" is a bonus track on the 2002 expanded CD of
"Baby James Harvest"
Track 11 and 12 are
"Rock And Roll Woman" and "The Joker" – the A&B-sides
of a UK 7" single released 4 May 1973 on Harvest HAR 5068
The discs themselves all have
the distinctive 'Harvest' label logo and there are pictures of the band beneath
the see-through trays (a nice touch). But its also one of those fiddly and easy
to break double jewel-cases - so you need to be a tad careful handling it. The
booklet has excellent liner notes by MALCOM DOME, but at 12-pages is a fairly
slight affair. However it does picture concert tickets, flyers, badges,
posters, small shots of the four album sleeves etc…and of course full
discography info.
But the really great news is
the superb new remastered sound. Done by PETER MEW at Abbey Road Studios, I've
praised his exceptional transfer work before (see reviews for the Deluxe
Editions of Dr. Feelgood's "Down By The Jetty", David Bowie's
"David Bowie", Free's "Fire And Water" and Jethro Tull's
"This Was") – here it's the same. The audio is very clear despite the
denseness of the instrumentation, powerful without being over-trebled for
effect and full of presence. (See the 'tag' marked "Peter Mew
Remasters" above this review and it will give you a pictorial of 40 great
reissues he’s been involved in).
The music as you can imagine
is a mixed bag of the great and the merely good. Comparison-wise BJH were
actually hard to pin down (constantly experimenting with their 'sound' as the
liner notes explain). The Mellotron gives a song like the lovely "Mocking
Bird" a sort Moody Blues feel with a faint hint of Nick Drake's melancholy
– while the compilation’s title track "Taking Some Time On" (lyrics
above) rocks it up with the best of them (albeit in a very Seventies Prog Rock
kind of a way). The early BBC stuff (expertly engineered by the greatly missed
BBC engineer and character BERNIE ANDREWS) is tight and impressive. It's all
very inviting somehow. And you can feel them inching towards "Time
Honoured Ghosts" and "Octoberon" (their popular 1975 and 1976
Polydor LPs) by the time you get to the strings and acoustic bedroom melodrama
of "Medicine Man" and "Song With No Meaning" on Disc
4.
To sum up - die-hard BJH fans
will know that the 2002 remasters for the first four LPs - "Their First
Album" [aka "Barclay James Harvest"], "Once Again",
"And Other Short Stories" and "Baby James Harvest" - are
all here along with their large number of bonus tracks (64 songs in total). So
there are only 5 new additions. But for the casual buyer however - you get 4
whole albums worth, 5 rare non-album 45s (A&B-sides) and a slew of live BBC
Sessions and other rarities. A huge haul in great sound and all at a very
reasonable cost…
