Strawbs - Why And Wherefore (1976)

Strawbs were one of the best progressive folk-rock bands of the 70's, and included a number of great songwriters in their ranks, such as Dave Lambert, Dave Cousins, and Richard Hudson and John Ford, later to have considerable chart success as Hudson Ford. They started out in 1964 as a bluegrass band called The Strawberry Hill Boys, but by 1967 they'd moved into folk, and their first foray into a recording studio was in Denmark, where they recorded some folk songs with Sandy Denny, later of Fairport Convention, for an album that was never issued at the time. Following 1970's 'Dragonfly' album they recruited Rick Wakeman as their keyboard player, and were more of a folk-rock band, but when Dave Lambert joined in 1972 their music took on a harder rock sound. They had a couple of massive hits with 'Lay Down' and 'Part Of The Union', although the latter was not really representative of their music. Throughout their career they released numerous singles, and some of them had exclusive b-sides, which I've collected together here, along with a cracking live track, and some other out-takes which surfaced when their original albums were remastered and reisued.  

Track listing

01 Keep The Devil Outside (b-side of withdrawn 'Witchwood' single 1971)
02 We'll Meet Again Sometime (b-side of withdrawn 'Witchwood' single 1971)
03 Forever (single 1971)
04 Backside (b-side of 'Lay Down')
05 Changes Arranges (b-side of 'Grace Darling')
06 Why > (b-side of 'Hero And Heroine')
07 And Wherefore (b-side of 'Shine On Silver Sun')
08 Will Ye Go (b-side of 'Part Of The Union')
09 Where Is This Dream Of Your Youth (Live) (Previously unreleased) 
10 Still Small Voice (Previously unreleased)
11 It's Good To See The Sun (Previously unreleased)
12 You Won't See The Light (Previously unreleased)

'Backside' is a David Bowie parody, and was credited to Ciggy Barlust And The Whales From Venus, and 'Will Ye Go' is their take on the traditional 'Wild Mountain Thyme'. 'Why And Wherefore' was a live favourite, and was made up of two parts, usually with an instrumental bridge in the middle. The studio recording was split in two, to be put on the b-sides of a couple of the band's singles, so I've split it into separate tracks, but there's no gap between them and so it will play as one long piece.