Cartoone – Cartoone (1969)

Cartoone – Cartoone (Deluxe Edition 2009)

Scottish PopRock band formed in 1967. Their debut album featured Jimmy Page as guest musician.

Cartoone were formed in 1967 from a band called The Chevlons. They toured all over Scotland in support of other acts such as the Tremeloes, the Merseybeats and the Hollies.

In 1968, the band moved to London in hope of landing a recording contract. Through Lulu they contacted songwriter Mark London (husband of Lulu's manager Marion Massey) and showed him some of the songs they had written. London was impressed with the band and their songs and took them into a recording studio to record four songs with just acoustic guitars. London then took those songs to Ahmet Ertegün and Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records, who subsequently signed Cartoone to a two-album deal. They were the first British rock band to sign with Atlantic, predating Led Zeppelin by several months.

The self-titled debut album, featuring Jimmy Page on guitar for several tracks, was released on Atlantic in January 1969. Cartoone appeared on BBC TV on It's Happening for Lulu (12 December 1968) and Top of the Pops (16 January 1969) performing "Penny for the Sun".

In April 1969, Cartoone went to the United States to support Led Zeppelin on tour. After the tour Atlantic Records dropped the band, and refused to release their second album, Reflections, which featured Leslie Harvey on guitar.

https://www.discogs.com/artist/1253797-Cartoone

Cartoone's sole, self-titled album is more known as a footnote in the late-'60s career of Jimmy Page than it is for its own merits. Page contributed guitar to the record as a session man -- though his work is neither too prominent nor too similar to what he was getting ready to do in Led Zeppelin -- and Cartoone opened for Led Zeppelin at some shows in the U.S. in early 1969, probably because of the Page association and a shared label (Atlantic Records). Not to stretch the Page/Led Zeppelin connection past its breaking point, but those whose interest in this album is piqued by that connection should know that this Scottish band's music is highly dissimilar. Far from being hard rock, it's slightly fey pop/rock with strong debts to the lighter side of the late-'60s Beatles and, more apparently, the late-'60s Bee Gees. Singer/bassist/guitarist Derek Creigan has a far less delicate delivery than the Gibb brothers, but certainly the melancholy melodies, ornate arrangements, and trembling vocal timbres of songs like "Withering Wood," "Girl of Yesterday," "I Can't Walk Back," and especially "Mr. Poor Man" can't help but bring early Bee Gees to mind. Yet Cartoone seemed to be suffering from some indecision as to how to define themselves, with some other tracks indicating some harder-rocking ambitions (especially the opening and most Beatlesque track, "Knick Knock Man"). Other cuts load on so much orchestration that they seem to aim to the right of the Bee Gees, as stabs at the more bombastic and ballad-oriented slice of the late-'60s British pop market. The common shortcoming, as is so often the case in records reflecting numerous trends of the period, is in the material, which just isn't as distinguished as that of the Bee Gees, let alone the Beatles. 

01 - Knick Knack Man (3.51)

02 - Withering Wood (2.28)

03 - Sadness Of Toby Jugg (2.40)

04 - A Penny For The Sun (3.06)

05 - I'll Stay (2.07)

06 - Girl Of Yesterday (3.11)

07 - I Can't Walk Back (2.54)

08 - Let Me Reassure You (2.20)

09 - Mr Poor Man (3.45)

10 - Ice Cream Dreams (2.49)

11 - Doing What Mamma Said (2.40)

12 - See Me (2.03)

13 - Reflections Of A Common Theme [45 Version] (2.41)

14 - Sunday Morning (2.55)

15 - Deep In My Heart (3.53)

16 - Going My Way (The Wind Blows) (3.15)

17 - Give Me Something New (Save Me Save Me) (3.26)

18 - Reflections Of A Common Theme [Album Version] (2.37)

19 - Don't Look Down Your Nose (4.12)

20 - Only I Can Do It (3.54)

21 - Come And Sit By Me (6.40)

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