Released on the private label Pacific in 1976 with a gatefold cover and photo insert. According to the Acid Archives, this is a “Post-Beat Of The Earth classic in a melodic ’70s West Coast style with an impressive crystal clear sound. Has some killer tracks with acoustic/electric guitar tapestries and is of a high standard throughout, although a couple of tracks sound more like outlines than finished creations to me. Reminiscent of Neil Young at his most melodic, with a rare reflective desert mood. ‘Journey thru the valley of O’ is sheer perfection. Much-loved LP with grower qualities.” Another AA reviewer wrote, “At its best, this album is worthy of the legend; a super-clean (the ‘band’ is perfectly named) acoustic-flavored pop/folk-rock feel, in the ’70s California vein but with a more innocent feel. A couple of songs switch from the crisp arrangements and lovely singing on the majority of the songs, but the experiments are interesting ones, whether they mesh perfectly or not. If you don’t come into this one believing the most outrageous hype, you should be very pleased indeed.”
In other words, what took me so long to dig this out and share it with you? Apparently it’s one of the most-hyped private press records recorded in the 60s/70s heyday.
Lastly, the Rising Storm blog writes that “This album comes out of the mind of Phil Pearlman. Pearlman is a veteran of the American ’60s rock scene, being the brains behind such epic psych albums Beat Of The Earth and the great Electronic Hole. Relatively Clean Rivers’ only album was released in 1975/76 though it sounds straight out of 1969. This album is extremely rare and has proven to be quite a controversial privately financed release. Some feel this album is the second coming, with strong apocalyptic acid visions and wonderful musicianship. Others feel that it’s a solid rural rock record with strands of late period psychedelia.”
I guess that leaves it up to you and I to decide. I like it. I’d rather listen to shit like Bill Clint, Jerry Solomon and Dave Bixby, but there’s no denying this is a fine, fine album. What say you?
And in a a related story, when I was a senior in high school I wrote a very happy pop song called “Hello Sunshine.” Clearly Phil Pearlman heard my tune in the year 2001 and then traveled back in time to write his own completely different version of the song only to use the same name. So that in 2011 when I decided to blog about the Relatively Clean Rivers album, I’d look like a chump for being the second most popular person to ever pen a song called “Hello Sunshine.”
Well played, Pearlman.
Relatively Clean Rivers
Relatively Clean Rivers
Pacific, 1976
MediaFire DL Link
01. Easy Ride
02. Journey Through The Valley Of O
03. Babylon
04. Last Flight To Eden
05. Prelude
06. Hello Sunshine
07. They Knew What To Say
08. The Persian Caravan
09. A Thousand Years
