"...Love's Bringing Me Down..."
When I worked in Reckless Records in Islington and Soho - none of these albums on Deep Purple's Purple Records did any business and were usually only picked up by fans of the band and label completists if they were marked down to say a fiver or less (which was often).
The exception to that was the Yvonne Elliman album with its sexy guest list of high-end contributions (Pete Townshend of The Who to name but one). "Food Of Love" has always had its fans but the others are virtual unknowns – and unfortunately on the well-produced but dreadfully ordinary evidence presented here on Discs 2 and 3 especially – it's all too easy to hear why. Here are the purp-petraters (oh dear)...
UK released 27 October 2017 - "Purple People Vol. 1" by VARIOUS ARTISTS (Yvonne Elliman, Buddy Bohn, Carol Hunter and Colditz) on Cherry Red/Purple Records PURPLEBOX013 (Barcode 5013929861305) offers 4 Albums Remastered onto 4CDs in a Clamshell Mini Box Set that plays out as follows:
CD1 "Food Of Love" by YVONNE ELLIMAN (41:25 minutes):
1. Casserole Me Over [Side 1]
2. More Than One, Less Than Five
3. I Want To Make You Laugh, I Want To Make You Cry
4. Meusli Dreams
5. I Can't Explain
6. Sunshine [Side 2]
7. Hawaii
8. I Don't Know How To Love Him Blues
9. The Moon Struck One
10. Happy Ending
11. Love's Bringing Me Down
Tracks 1 to 11 are her album "Food Of Love" - released November 1973 in the UK on Purple Records TPS 3504 and August 1973 in the USA on MCA Records MCA-356. Produced by RUPERT HINE - guest musicians included Pete Townshend of The Who, Mick Grabham of Bandit and Cochise, Simon Jeffes of The Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Caleb Quaye and Ray Cooper of Hookfoot and Elton John's Band, Peter Robinson of Quatermass and Brand X, Ann Odell of Blue Mink, Chopyn and Roger Glover's Band with Rupert Hine of Quantum Jump.
CD2 "A Drop In The Ocean" by BUDDY BOHN (38:42 minutes):
1. Piccalilli Lady [Side 1]
2. Winter Song
3. Cockroach
4. Almitra
5. Vermouth Rondo
6. Reflecting Butterfly
7. Albert Gate Farm [Side 2]
8. Curious Yellow
9. Sad Lady
10. Samuel
11. Summer Song
12. Forgotten Sound
Tracks 1 to 12 are his third studio album "A Drop In The Ocean" - released October 1971 in the UK on Purple Records TPSA 7503 and February 1972 in the USA on Purple Records SMAS-878. Produced by JERRY LORDAN (engineered Roy Thomas Baker) - it didn't chart in either country. Guests included Tony Burrows of Edison Lighthouse with Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway on Backing Vocals.
CD3 "The Next Voice You Hear" by CAROL HUNTER (33:37 minutes):
1. Look Out Cleveland [Side 1]
2. Pass It On
3. Sea Fever
4. 5/4 March
5. Song For A Winter's Night
6. Dr. Pepper
7. Border Song [Side 2]
8. Dressing Room Jam
9. Gospel Changes / Carol Without Words
10. The Norman Stand There Rag
11. Carol Without Words
12. Dr. Pepper (Instrumental)
13. Soggy Waltz
Tracks 1 to 13 are her debut album "The Next Voice You Hear" - released November 1973 in the UK on Purple Records TPS 3503 (wasn't issued in the USA). Produced by CAROL HUNTER and RANDY STEIRLING - it didn't chart.
CD4 "Colditz Breakpoint!" by VARIOUS ARTISTS (36:14 minutes):
1. The Warsaw Concerto - MELACHRINO ORCHESTRA [Side 1]
2. Wish Me Luck - GRACIE FIELDS
3. London Pride - ELSIE and DORIS WATERS
4. There's A Boy Coming Home On Leave - MAURICE WINNICK
5. Symphony No. 4 In F Major - NEW PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA
6. Washing On The Siegfried Line - ARTHUR ASKEY
7. Siefried's Funeral March - LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
8. I Hear Your Voice - LUTON GIRLS CHOIR
9. Die Fahne Hoch - SS STANDARTE 42 MILITARY BAND [Side 2]
10. Tiggerty Boo - JACK WARNER
11. Rhapsodie Opus 79 No. 2 - NEW PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA
12. Symphony No. 4 - NEW PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA
13. Lili Marlene - LALE ANDERSON
14. Rhymes - LALE ANDERSON
15. Bless 'Em All - GEORGE FORMBY
16. Der Fuhrer's Face - HARRY ROY
17. In The Mood - UNKNOWN ARTIST
18. Symphony No. 4 In F Major - NEW PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA
19. Siegfried's Funeral March - LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Tracks 1 to 19 are the album "Colditz Breakpoint!" - released December 1973 in the UK on Purple Records TPSM 2001 (unissued in the USA). Produced by RUPERT HINE - it didn't chart.
This 2017 four-disc label anthology takes its "Purple People" title from a vinyl LP label sampler issued December 1973 in the UK on Purple TPSS 1 that contained all of these artists (its label is pictured on Page 9 of the booklet). The four singular Mini LP Repro Artwork card sleeves are faithful to the original vinyls (back and front) whilst the new MALCOLM DOME liners in the 20-page booklet fill in all the Purple-pleasing details. There are period pictures of the artists, all those Purple Records LP labels, a picture sleeve of The Who cover version "I Can't Explain" from Yvonne Elliman that features PT of The Who and full musician credits for each platter. Alongside the glossy Clamshell Mini Box Set - it all looks and sounds great courtesy of TONY DIXON Mastering except the embarrassing and largely unlistenable "Colditz Breakpoint!" release that is made up of period recordings with the occasional orchestral interlude. To the contents...
The undoubted catch here is the Yvonne Elliman LP "Food Of Love" – her second solo album after a self-titled US debut on Decca in 1972, itself not surprisingly re-titled in the UK on Polydor as "I Don't Know How To Love Him" after the October 1970 Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice double-album track on "Jesus Christ Superstar" that made her famous. She even does a rather bitter sick-of-it parody of the song on "Food Of Love" called "I Don't Know How To Love Him Blues" – slide guitars and crazy show/God help me now lyrics. The LP benefits immeasurably from the stunning Production values of RUPERT HINE (who also contributed many of the songs with his co-writer David MacIver).
Yvonne warns of gluttony and greed with the opening 'can't seem to stuff my body enough' song "Casserole Me Over" – a Soul-Rock groove funky enough to have been a hit single on an unusual topic. As songs like "I Want To Make You Laugh, I Want To Make You Cry" (stunning guitar solo), her cover of The Band's "The Moon Struck One" or even her own "Hawaii" (a homage to where she was born to Japanese and Irish parents) – sophistication reeks off all the sweetly arranged tunes. And while you can so hear why Purple Records chose the obvious winner of "I Can't Explain" with Pete Townshend letting rip on his guitar with such great swagger as the album's only 45-single in late July 1973 (her own "Hawaii" on the flipside of PUR 114) – you get the awful feeling that this is an accomplished album for sure but just lacking somehow in killer tunes. Elliman had a great voice (she would of course join Eric Clapton's entourage after this for huge success on "461 Ocean Boulevard") – but tunes like "Sunshine" are only saved by clever brass arrangements.
The last time "Food Of Love" was made available digitally was in December 2008 on one of those dinky repro Mini LP Paper Sleeves but only out of Japan on Air Mile Archive AIRAC-1512 (Barcode 4571136375271). And with deletion, this sought-after wee beastie has been expensive (even extortionate) ever since (Buddy Bohn and Carol Hunter were in the same December 2008 series also on Air Mile Archive). So at least UK and US fans can get their hands on the album here in great sound and quality presentation for a reasonable sum.
Vocally US Folky Buddy Bohn comes on like a mix between Jim Croce and Jose Feliciano with String Arrangements from Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway. Every song is earnest acoustic strumming about butterflies and cockroaches and sad ladies in summer, but with overwrought string arrangements it feels like bad Neil Diamond without the tunes. His "A Drop In The Ocean" looks interesting art-wise (especially for a 1971 title), but on playing feels like angst-ridden cheese. It is really not very good at all.
Not so much a Kiki Dee wannabe as the dreadfully dated 1973 artwork seems to indicate – Carol Hunter was an accomplished session guitarist who could also lent harmony vocals. She had played on "Indian Rope Man" for Richie Havens, before that and after for Janis Ian and impressively on the Dylan soundtrack "Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid". But her solo LP features tedious instrumentals that noodle rather than move, although she does reasonably good covers of Gordon Lightfoot's "Song For A Winter's Night”, The Band's "Look Out Cleveland", the John Williams song "Gospel Changes" as covered by John Denver and Elton John's "Border Song”. There are some impressive names contributing too like Larry Carlton and David Cohen – but too often it feels like a hodgepodge LP that doesn't know what its doing half the time and ends on a hoedown called "Soggy Waltz" that does no one any Country Rock favours.
To my knowledge this is the first time the Various Artists "Colditz Breakpoint!" LP has ever been CD reissued – a WW II period-sounds tie-in with the hugely popular TV series airing at the time on British TV. You get field recordings of Spitfires and music from George Formby, Gracie Fields, Jack Warner, Arthur Askey, Elsie and Doris Waters and New Philharmonia Orchestra etc. Unfortunately it's a truly terrible listen – not patriotic like you would imagine – but cringing and almost somehow derogatory in 2020.
A very mixed bag indeed then with the Elliman set being the clear winner of the bunch. "I think it's love... " – Yvonne sang on her smashing cover of The Who's "I Can't Explain". However, I think you should grab a listen first before buying...
