Various Artists - Harvest Festival (@320)

 

Various Artists - Harvest Festival

Harvest Festival Review by Bruce Eder.

Harvest Festival is a genuinely comprehensive and thorough look at the one British major label venture into psychedelia and progressive rock that actually worked, commercially and artistically; it's a panoramic journey though a major part of British rock as it developed over a period of just under a decade. Over the five CDs and 119 songs, more than two dozen acts are featured, ranging from purely English phenomena like Michael Chapman, Quatermass, and Pete Brown to mega-arena acts like Pink Floyd, and the set comes complete with a built-in 120-page book that would be worth 35 dollars by itself. Beginning with the Edgar Broughton Band's Jimi Hendrix meets the Crazy World of Arthur Brown track "Evil," the programming goes a long way to explaining why Harvest worked while other attempts at forming psychedelic and progressive labels in England failed -- in contrast to the slick, commercial psychedelic ventures at rival Deram Records, Harvest always gave its artists the freedom to be louder (or softer) than the norm, and to be bold in their expressions. Moreover, the diversity of form was astonishing, from the acoustic instrumental chamber music rock of the Third Ear Band, to the lively acoustic psychedelia of Syd Barrett and Kevin Ayers, to the high-energy attack of Deep Purple, Quatermass, and Bakerloo -- it all sounds amazingly strong, well crafted, and exciting. Harvest had room for jugband music, traditional acoustic folk, progressive folk-rock, spoken word, and, full-circle commercially from Harvest's late-'60s origins, psychedelic Beatles-influenced commercial rock by way of ELO. Harvest also grew to embrace sounds that would have been inconceivable for EMI to have signed when they started, including Be-Bop Deluxe (versions 1 and 2), Bill Nelson's Red Noise, the reggae outfit Matumbi, the Shirts with Annie Golden, and the punk band Wire. It's all fascinating stuff, told in great detail in the accompanying book, but ultimately, a set like this stands or falls on the music. The archivists have dug deeply enough to find material that makes Barrett's output look tame and conventional, specifically Tea & Symphony, whose "Maybe My Mind (With Egg)" is a truly dissonant and strange journey into thought processes bent by the prism of drugs and meditation. Not everything on this set will be to everyone's liking, but anyone inclined to enjoy Pink Floyd or Syd Barrett's solo stuff will be entranced by most of the content. The sound has been treated first-class, with new state-of-the-art 1999 remasterings. The other measure of success of this box is that there's a huge amount of material here that leaves the listener wanting more from a lot of the acts featured.

 

Tracklist:

 

CD 1:

 

1. Edgar Broughton Band - Evil

2. Michael Chapman - It Didn't Work Out

3. Deep Purple - Wring That Neck

4. Roy Harper - Tom Tiddler's Ground

5. Pete Brown And His Battered Ornaments - Morning Call

6. Third Ear Band - Stone Circle

7. Greatest Show On Earth - Real Cool World

8. Syd Barrett - Octopus

9. Panama Limited Jug Band - Round And Round

10. Barclay James Harvest - Mother Dear

11. Tea & Symphony - Maybe My Mind (With Egg)

12. Michael Chapman - Postcards Of Scarborough

13. Forest - A Glade Somewhere

14. Edgar Broughton Band - Out Demon's Out

15. Pete Brown & Piblokto - Living Life Backwards

16. Quatermass - Black Sheep Of The Family

17. Bakerloo - Big Bear Ffolly

18. The Pretty Things - The Good Mr Square

19. Kevin Ayers - The Lady Rachel

20. Shirley & Dolly Collins - A Foresaking - Our Captain Cried

 

CD 2:

 

1. Deep Purple - Speed King

2. Pete Brown and Piblokto - Things May Come And Things May Go But The Art School Dance Goes On Forever

3. Edgar Broughton Band - Apache Drop Out

4. Climax Chicago Blues Band - Everyday

5. Kevin Ayers - Butterfly Dance

6. Barclay James Harvest - Mocking Bird

7. Michael Chapman - Kodak Ghosts

8. The Move - The Words Of Aaron

9. Deep Purple - Fireball

10. Electric Light Orchestra - 10538 Overture

11. Ron Geesin & Roger Waters - Breathe

12. Barclay James Harvest - Medicine Man

13. Kevin Ayers And The Whole World - Stranger In Blue Suede Shoes

14. Michael Chapman - Fennario

15. Roy Harper - The Same Old Rock

16. Edgar Broughton Band - Hotel Room

17. Syd Barrett - Effervescing Elephant

18. Kevin Ayers - Song From The Bottom Of A Wall

 

CD 3:

 

1. Pink Floyd - Money

2. Roy Harper - South Africa

3. Kevin Ayers - Interview

4. Babe Ruth - The Mexican

5. The Move - Do Ya

6. Southern Comfort - Something Said

7. Be-Bop Deluxe - Adventures In A Yorkshire Landscape

8. Roy Wood - Dear Elaine

9. Kevin Ayers - Take Me To Tahiti

10. Edgar Broughton Band - Things On My Mind

11. Babe Ruth - Hombre De La Guitarre (from Amar Caballero)

12. Roy Harper - Another Day (live)

13. Electric Light Orchestra - Roll Over Beethoven

14. Be-Bop Deluxe - Maid In Heaven

15. Climax Chicago - You Make Me Sick

16. Electric Light Orchestra - Showdown

17. Wizzard - Ball Park Incident

18. Roy Harper - I'll See You Again

 

CD 4:

 

1. The Albion Band - Poor Old Horse

2. Martin Carthy - Old Hog Or None

3. The Albion Dance Band - Hopping Down In Kent

4. Ashley Hutchings - Postmans Knock

5. Gryphon - Spring Song

6. Unicorn - Have You Ever Seen The Rain

7. Be-Bop Deluxe - Fair Exchange

8. Kevin Ayers - Ballad Of A Salesman Who Sold Himself

9. Be-Bop Deluxe - Electric Language

10. David Gilmour - Short And Sweet

11. Roy Harper - When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease

12. The Saints - Erotic Neurotic

13. Wire - Reuters

14. The Saints - (This) Perfect Day

15. The Shirts - Lonely Android

16. The Banned - Little Girl

17. Wire - I Should Have Known Better

18. The Saints - Swing For The Crime

19. Bill Nelson's Red Noise - Revolt Into Style

20. Wire - A Touching Display

 

CD 5:

 

1. Deep Purple - Black Night

2. Pete Brown & Piblokto - Flying Hero Sandwich

3. The Move - California Man

4. Greatest Show On Earth - Magic Woman Touch

5. Kevin Ayers - Caribbean Moon

6. Trinidad Oil Company - The Calendar Song

7. Matumbi - Rock

8. Wire - I Am The Fly

9. Ivor Cutler - Life In A Scotch Sitting Room Vol 2 (excerpt)

10. Vivian Stanshall And Kilgarron - The Young Ones

11. Spontaneous Combustion - Sabre Dance

12. Be-Bop Deluxe - Ships In The Night

13. Bombadil - Breathless

14. Marshall Hain - Dancing In The City

15. Bill Nelson's Red Noise - Radar In My Heart

16. Strapps - Child Of The City

17. Deep Purple - Hallelujah

18. Babe Ruth - Wells Fargo

19. Professor Longhair - Mess Around

20. Syd Barrett - Golden Hair

21. Edgar Broughton Band - Up Yours

****