Sunday has been transformed. I guess since the mix tapes went bye-bye, I’ve replaced them with the rare, out-of-print downloads. It seems natural and easy to do this, because I spend my Sundays working the collectible and high $$$ counter at work, which gives me time to research the various obscure recordings that are either part of my record collection or on my hard drive.
This week, Swan Fungus reader Geroge has contributed two of the four albums that are being offered for your listening pleasure. Everybody be sure to say, “Thanks George!” and enjoy the following records.
I don’t know anything about the first album George sent me (he described it as “a strange listen”) other than we had it at the store very briefly, so here’s what Wikipedia has to say about it: “Farewell Aldebaran by Judy Henske and Jerry Yester is a remarkable album of folk rock and psychedelic songs issued in 1969. Henske and Yester met while both were working in the West Coast folk scene in the early 1960s, Henske as an uncategorizable solo singer recording folk, blues, jazz and comedy, and Yester as a member of the Modern Folk Quartet. They married in 1963. A few years later, Henske’s career was faltering as a result of ill-advised forays into the cabaret market, while Yester had produced albums by Tim Buckley and The Association, and had also replaced Zal Yanovsky in The Lovin’ Spoonful.
The pair, with their new-born daughter, moved to Los Angeles in 1968. Henske shared a manager, Herb Cohen, with Frank Zappa, and it was Zappa who suggested to her that she should put to music some of the verse she was writing. Yester, at this point, was working with Yanovsky on the latter’s first solo album, and experimenting wildly with new electronic and other sound effects. The trio combined to put together “Farewell Aldebaran”, drawing on a varied selection of their musician friends, and it was issued on Zappa and Cohen’s new Straight label.
The album contains a wild mixture of late 1960s styles, as though recorded by ten different bands, but all featuring Henske’s almost gothic lyrics and remarkable vocal range. The opener, “Snowblind”, is a Janis Joplin-style belter which was issued as a single, but is immediately followed by “Horses on a Stick”, almost a parody of “sunshine pop”. Next is the quasi-classical “Lullaby”, and then a melodramatic hymn with strong anti-clerical lyrics, “St. Nicholas Hall”. From here, the album picks up even higher in quality. “Three Ravens” is a sublime slice of baroque pop; “Raider” has been described as an acid sea shanty; “Rapture” is a folk-rock waltz; and the upbeat “Charity” is possibly the best track of all. Finally, the title track is the most overtly “psychedelic” track on the album, featuring electronically treated vocals and Bernie Krause’s Moog synthesizer.
Although the album got some good reviews, it failed to sell, purchasers possibly driven away by its sheer eclecticism. Henske and Yester went on to form a more conventional band, Rosebud, before they went their separate ways at the start of the 1970s. The album was finally reissued on CD by Radioactive Records in 2005.”
Judy Henske & Jerry Yester
Farewell Aldebaran
MediaFire download link
Track Listing:
01) Snowblind
02) Horses On A Stick
03) Lullaby
04) St. Nicholas Hall
05) Three Ravens
06) Raider
07) One More Time
08) Rapture
09) Charity
10) Farewell Aldebaran
This one I know even less about than the Henske album. The only image of the album’s cover is the size of a thumbnail. AllMusic’s review simply says, “These beautiful selections are beautifully done.” What the fuck, AllMusic! That’s the shittiest review I’ve ever read. George writes that this is “an amazing record by a deceased Scottish folk guitarist & singer”. The closest thing to a review I found states, “In 1988, after much prodding, Tony Cuffe recorded his first solo album, When First I Went to Caledonia. Besides singing, he plays all seven instruments heard on the recording. The title track became a calling-card song for Cuffe, even though the “Caledonia” referred to was not Scotland but the Caledonia Coal Mines in Glace Bay, Cape Breton Island. His dedication on the LP sleeve, however, expressed his true sentiment: “For my father, Thomas Cuffe, who came to Scotland, and stayed.”
Tony Cuffe
When First I Went To Caledonia
MediaFire download link
Track Listing:
01) When I First Went To Caledonia
02) Miss Wharton Duff/The Mare
03) The Iron Horse
04) Caledonia
05) Dr. MacInnes’ Fancy/Jim Tweedie’s Sea Legs
06) The Buchan Turnpike
07) The Lass O’ Patie’s Mill
08) The Weary Pund O’ Tow
09) Paddy Kelly’s/The Humours Of Tulla
10) Otterburn
11) The Scalloway Lasses/Miss Forester
I don’t get excited very often when records come into the store, but this is one album that I’d heard about on one of the web forums I regularly frequent, and could not wait to take home. It’s a hard to find (average sale price $65) folk album courtesy of a duo from Western Canadia (Allan Fraser and Daisy DeBolt) plus fiddler Ian Guenther. Although the artists didn’t receive nearly enough credit for their monumentally important output during their careers, the first time I heard this I was floored. DeBolt’s voice is massive, and the duos’ lyrics are impeccable. Very earthy and eclectic.
AllMusic has this to say (at least it is more than a sentence this time!): “One of the many sad secrets of the popular music business is the way this little gem languished in obscurity. It should have been heard by millions, but disappeared at the height of psychedelia. Two years later, The Band found an audience with haunting tales of bygone rustic North American life with their seminal, self-titled second album. Widespread acclaim eluded the earlier outing by this unheralded Canadian trio. The songs, most written independently by Daisy DeBolt or Allan Fraser, are poetic. DeBolt’s slowly unfolding, album-opening “All This Paradise” is a marvel, introducing listeners right away to her commanding voice and the sinuous fiddle of Ian Guenther. The album was out of print for years, scratchy vinyl platters still treasured by a small but fervent number of fans.”
Fraser & DeBolt
With Ian Guenther
MediaFire download link
Track Listing:
01) All This Paradise
02) Gypsy Solitaire
03) Them Dance Hall Girls
04) David’s Tune
05) Waltz Of The Tennis Players
06) Armstrong Tourest Rest Home
07) Fraser And DeBolt Theme
08) Old Man On The Corner
09) Warmth
10) Stoney Day
11) Pure Spring Water
12) Don’t Let Me Down
For $2.99, this was one of the finest vinyl purchases I’ve made in quite some time. It’s a completely atypical Swans album (I’ll share more in the near future, trust me), but it contains one of my favorite songs of all time, “God Damn The Sun.” As many know, shortly after Children Of God, Michael Gira declared that he was done with the awful racket the band built their reputation upon, and decided that the band would tone down their sound for future releases. The Burning World was the band’s first and only major label release (on MCA in Europe, Uni in the USA). It encompassed many acoustic, folk and world music elements, almost shattering the notion of the band’s primeval, horrifying oeuvre. Although the lyrical content remains fixed on death and depression, the music was such a departure that the album was viewed by many to be a horrible failure. Whatever, I love it.
AllMusic (in it’s 1.5 star review, ouch!) writes: “Swans’ first major-label record, for Uni/MCA, turned out to be their last, and Gira especially has been bitter about the experience ever since; his commentary about the album often involves his anger over Uni’s insistence on having noted New York musician Bill Laswell oversee the recording sessions (Gira himself states that he enjoys Laswell’s work in general, and thinks Burning was a case where agreement over how best to work together simply wasn’t there). Ultimately Burning sounds more like a compromised major label Laswell project than a Swans album, to its overall detriment. To be sure, Gira’s complex, increasingly mythic and mystical lyrical images still retain their power, while his singing and Jarboe’s still each have their own, often gripping appeal. However, Westberg’s playing, whether by choice or by Laswell’s direction, is more functional than striking at this point; in a more troubling move, Kizys and Parsons are completely absent (the latter joined Prong around this time), replaced by Laswell himself and session players. A number of regular Laswell partners like Nicky Skopelitis also assist throughout the album, providing a lot in the way of multicultural instrumentation that doesn’t amount to much in terms of being interesting. Above all, little stands out as being distinctively Swans, being more slightly moody acoustic “world music” rock with electric shadings that is ultimately quite anonymous, lacking much of the dramatic power which informs Swans at their best, loud or soft. To be sure, there are some tracks of note: a Jarboe-sung version of Blind Faith’s “Can’t Find My Way Home” has a gentle appeal, while “(She’s A) Universal Emptiness” and “Jane Mary (Cry One Tear)” have their moments as well. Those aside, though, Burning is an otherwise general disappointment, mostly making fans thankful that the band rebounded as well as they did.”
I still love it. At least listen to “God Damn The Sun” and marvel in it’s pathetic, grand splendor.
Swans
The Burning World
MediaFire download link
Track Listing:
01) The River That Runs WIth Love Won’t Run Dry
02) Let It Come Down
03) Can’t Find My Way Home
04) Mona Lisa, Mother Earth
05) (She’s A) Universal Emptiness
06) Saved
07) I Remember Who You Are
08) Jane Mary, Cry One Tear
09) See No More
10) God Damn The Sun
