Strawbs For The Witch
Today the nicest thing that has happened to me in months occured. A crony of mine at work complimented me on my Blog. He also pointed out that I'd received a nice comment from someone called the Witch. I hadn't realized anyone had read it yet.
I was gonna mention these guys next anyway, so this is one of those cosmic coincidences I suppose, but this recommendation goes out to "the Witch" because I remember something from her site alluding to Catholicism, and if there ever was a "Catholic" rock band, it was the Strawbs.
Their first single was a tight little rocker entitled The Man Who Called Himself Jesus and The Hangman and the Papist is just one standout tune from their (in my opinion best) LP, From the Witchwood. The title song from that album could be the soundtrack for her site. It's gorgeous and spooky all at the same time with individual notes that loosely follow the sung melody picked out on a highly processed banjo under a swirl of electric dulcimer, mellotron and various lush acoustic guitars. The lyric could send shivers down your spine as would your favorite vampire movie.
The mellotron (an early keyboard string and horn synthesizer) was played by Rick Wakeman who left the Strawbs after the Witchwood LP to join Yes. Some of his most brilliant piano and organ playing are featured on this album as on the Hangman and Papist track mentioned above and on cuts such as Shepherd Song and Sheep (it's a very pastoral LP.) He was only with the band for two records, the afforementioned From the Witchwood and its predecessor Just a Collection of Antiques and Curios, which it certainly was. A live album with a few really good tracks but for diehard fans mostly.
Who the hell puts out a live recording, of all new material, for their third album? But that's the kind of nonesense that made the 70's so much fun.
I hate to make this so short, there's lots to cover with this brilliant but overlooked band that started out as an English Bluegrass band (The Strawberry Hill Boys shortened to simply, the Strawbs) then a folk trio featuring a cellist (you read that correctly) to a Folk Rock set to an Art Rock act to a Prog Rock band and finally to a crap rock band. I really need to check my Strunk and White to see what needs to be capitalized in that last sentence.
To the Witch, nice site! Your writing is vivid and full of detail yet economically executed. I think you must be a reader of poetry to be able to distill your thoughts down to the essential. Very lyrical as well.
More on Strawbs later. They should have been much bigger than they were. I saw Fleetwood Mac open for them once at the Shubert Theater. Yes you read that correctly also. And I haven't forgotten about those clues I left in my third or fourth post. I will answer them and soon so whomever won't have to go back a million years to see what the hell I'm talking about.
posted by Eammon @ 10:44 AM
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