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"...Peace And
Love..."
Canada's LIGHTHOUSE are the
very definition of a bargain-bin band - at least the first part of their career
on RCA Records is.
When I worked for Reckless
Records in London's Islington and Soho's Berwick Street (20 years of buying and
selling rarities) - UK copies of their second and third platters - 1969's
"Suite Feeling" and 1970's "Peacing It All Together" was
strictly a no-no. I used to see copies of the 1969 debut "Lighthouse"
too with its silver-foil cover in charity shops - but it elicited little
interest (the debut was American and Canadian only). Toronto's finest pushed
out two further LPs on Vertigo in the UK (Evolution in the USA) - "One
Fine Morning" in October 1971 on Vertigo 6342 010 and "Thoughts Of
Movin' On" in April 1972 on Vertigo 6342 011 - but in my opinion they're
only sought after because 'everything' on that most Prog of spiral labels is.
A 13-piece ensemble that
started out on a brassy Rock tip with some Psych and Fusion flourishes thrown
in - but then went all Association and Harper's Bizarre drippy Pop - the
Lighthouse sound was both hard to nail down and market. In their initial
Jazz-Rock phase - to help them along their Fusion way none other than an aged
but still dapper Duke Ellington introduced the group in May 1969 at Toronto's
Rock Pile Club to a rapturous response. But even his legendary presence and the support of Woodstock
Folk-Soul hero Richie Havens failed to ignite sales and they struggled to feed
those thirteen right-on mouths and hungry wattage. And unfortunately given some
of the musical evidence presented here (even though the new remasters sound
fab) – it's not too difficult to hear why the public weren't really bothered.
Well here comes England's
Beat Goes On Records and the determined Kaftan-wearing Aztec-spaceship
moustaches within their British ranks want us to reconsider Lighthouse's
musical legacy - that amidst the poor man's Blood, Sweat & Tears and
Jefferson Airplane soundscapes is some great fusion Rock and the occasional
hooky groove. And there is actually - but I'm afraid the direness of the 3rd
album kind of takes the discovery thrill out of the first two. Here are the
enlightening details...
UK released 12 May 2017 - "Lighthouse/Suite Feeling/Peacing It All
Together" by LIGHTHOUSE on Beat Goes On BGOCD 1281 (Barcode 5017261212818)
offers 3LPs newly-remastered onto 2CDs (two from 1969 and one from 1970). It
plays out as follows...
Disc 1 (66:29 minutes):
1. Mountain Man [Side 1]
2. If There Ever Was A Time
3. No Opportunity Necessary
4. Never Say Goodbye
5. Follow The Stars
6. Whatever Forever [Side 2]
7. Eight Miles High
8. Marsha, Marsha
9. Ah I Can Feel It
10. Life Can Be So Simple
Tracks 1 to 10 are their
debut album "Lighthouse" - released USA and Canada June 1969 on RCA
Victor LSP-4173. Produced by SKIP PROKOP and PAUL HOFFERT - it didn't chart.
11. Chest Fever [Side 1]
12. Feel So Good
13. Places On Faces Four
Blue Carpet Traces
14. Could You Be Concerned
Tracks 11 to 14 are Side 1
of their second studio album "Suite Feeling" - released November 1969
in the USA and Canada on RCA Victor LSP-4241 and in the UK on RCA Victor SF
8103. Produced by SKIP PROKOP and PAUL HOFFERT - it didn't chart.
Disc 2 (59:11 minutes):
1. Presents Of Presence
[Side 2]
2. Talking A Walk
3. Eight Loaves Of Bread
4. What Sense
5. A Day In The Life
Tracks 1 to 5 are Side 2 of
their second studio album "Suite Feeling" - released November 1969 in
the USA and Canada on RCA Victor LSP-4241 and in the UK on RCA Victor SF 8103.
Produced by SKIP PROKOP and PAUL HOFFERT - it didn't chart.
6. Nam Myoho Renge' Kyo/Let
The Happiness Begin [Side 1]
7. Every Day I Am Reminded
8. The Country Song
9. Sausalito
10. The Fiction Of
Twenty-Six Million
11. The Chant (Nam Myoho
Renge' Kyo)
12. Mr. Candleman [Side 2]
13. On My Way To L.A.
14. Daughters And Sons
15. Just A Little More Time
16. Little People/Nam Myoho
Renge' Kyo
Tracks 6 to 16 are their
third studio album "Peacing It All Together" - released May 1970 in
the USA and Canada on RCA Victor LSP-4325 and in the UK on RCA Victor SF 8121.
Produced by MIKE LIPSKIN, SKIP PROKOP and PAUL HOFFERT - it peaked at No. 133
on the US LP charts (didn't chart UK).
LIGHTHOUSE was:
SKIP PROKOP - Drums and
Vocals
PAUL HOFFERT - Musical
Director. Keyboards and Vibes
RALPH COLE - Guitar and
Vocals
GRANT FULLERTON - Bass and
Vocals
PINKY DAUVIN – Percussion
and Vocals
IAN GUENTHER – Violin
DON DiNOVO – Violin and
Viola
DON WHITTON and LESLIE
SCHNEIDER – Cello
FREDDY STONE and ARNIE
CHYCOSKI – Trumpet and Flugel
HOWARD SHORE – Alto Sax
RUSS LITTLE TROMBONE
There's the usual classy
card-slipcase - the 16-page booklet repro's the artwork for the three LPs and
has new liner notes from Mojo's Jazz columnist CHARLES WARING who presents both
sides of the argument - good and bad. BGO's resident Audio Engineer ANDREW
THOMPSON has newly remastered all three LPs and they sound great - punchy and
full of life.
The two leading lights in
the ensemble were Drummer/Singer Ron 'Skip' Prokop and Keyboardist/Vibes player
Paul Hoffert who wrote most of the tunes and co-produced all three records.
Side 1 highlights of the debut "Lighthouse" are the pretty but
slightly overdone "If There Ever Was A Time" with its soothing
warbling guitar and nice lurve-song melody. Better than the frantic "No
Opportunity Necessary" and the pastoral ELO cellos of the sappy
"Never Say Goodbye" is the Side 1 finisher "Follow The
Stars" which suddenly feels like something magical is happening. There is
an epic Byrds-vibe to the song – all brass lines, clever cellos and flanged vocals
– very cool and interesting. Side 2 gets neck jerking groovy with the Brass and
Organ dancer that is "Whatever Forever" which in turn is quickly
followed by a very complimentary fuzzed-guitar cover of the Byrds Psych classic
"Eight Miles High". RCA UK tried it as an only-45 off the album in
October 1969 – tucked away as the B-side to the more commercial "If There
Ever Was A Time" on RCA 1884 - but it did no business. Guitarist Ralph
Cole suddenly discovers his inner Cream and Hendrix with the excellent
"Marsha, Marsha" – a "Born Under A Bad Sign" Rock-Blues
tune with added clever moments of brass melody and vocal harmonies that take
you by total surprise and make you think we may have missed something
Psych-brill here. There is a very Neil Young simplicity to "Ah I Can Feel It"
as a lone-guitar strums before brass, strings and voices take the song into
‘Lighthouse’ and ‘Stonehouse’ ensemble territory. And they sound like B, S
& T and The Association have had a Woodstock love child on the Side 2
finisher "Life Can Be So Simple" – an accomplished Pop song that half
way through unleashes a properly wild Garage guitar-solo worthy of any Nuggets
Box Set.
Despite some good fuzz
guitar in "Chest Fever" - the opener for "Suite Feeling" is
pretty awful and the everyone's smiling peaceful vibrations of "Feel So
Good" comes over as the kind of song that hippy teenagers would have
played their uptight parents in 1969/1970 (get with it Mom and Pop). Better is
the funky and adventurous "Places On Faces Four Blue Carpet Traces" -
a near eleven-minute Brass and Drums instrumental that is similar to in
structure to the longer stretches on Chicago's "Chicago Transit
Authority" debut in 1969. Trumpets compete for your attention with an
organ - then about five-minutes in you get a clever Vibes solo that feels like
some Avant Garde Atlantic Jazz album as it builds and builds with strings and
more brass and ends on a huge fuzz-guitar solo (easily their technically most
accomplished piece of writing so far). "Could You Be Concerned" taps
into that "Hair Musical" message - as does the very Jefferson
Airplane "Presents Of Presence". We get the sermon on the mount with
the cheesy "Eight Loaves Of Bread" while the coy and poppy flute and
piano bop of "What Sense" is likely to elicit laughter nowadays and not
for the right reasons. They end a patchy album with a six-minute cover of The
Beatles "Sgt. Peppers" classic "A Day In The Life" but it
feels like a frantic brass and strings butchery rather than a compliment.
The third LP is probably the
worst - a record that hasn't weathered well at all. A refrain precedes
"Let The Happiness Begin" - a full on Association meets The Mama's
and The Papa's happy-wappy jaunt that is cringing rather than touching. Even
the honest words of "Every Day I Am Reminded" can't save it from a
wall of voices that make it sound like the kind of pastiche a TV program would
use to slag off the excesses of the Sixties. The fiddling "Country
Song" is awful and the 'come with me to the sea' pap of
"Sausalito" is 1967 and not 1970. And on it goes to the busy and
frankly annoying "On My Way To L.A." and the clinging "Daughters
And Sons".
To sum up - the first LP is
very good and the second is an improvement in places especially the stunning
eleven-minute Fusion-Rock instrumental "Places On Faces Four Blue Carpet
Traces" - but that third platter goes direct for the "Hair"
audience and feels laboured instead of inspired.
Still - fans of the band and
that big brassy Rock Sound should dive in and be thankful that BGO have
reissued Lighthouse's legacy with such style...
