Elton John & Linda Peters - The Warlock Demos (1970)

In 1969 Joe Boyd's Warlock Records had signed a formidable array of singer/songwriters who were all relatively unknown at the time, and so in order to get their songs out into the market, Boyd hired a couple of jobbing session musicians to record them so that they could be pressed up onto an album and distributed around the other record companies. The musicians chosen were Elton John and Linda Peters, and they were to sing songs written by Nick Drake, John Martyn, his wife Beverley Martin, Ed Carter, and Mike Heron. Linda Peters would go on to marry Richard Thompson and become better known as Linda Thompson, recording a number of successful albums with him, but not sure whatever became of this Elton John chap. The sound quality here isn't the best, as it was transferred directly from one of the six surviving copies of the original 1970 pressing of 100 LP's, but it's historically interesting to hear both John and Peters before they became better known. The original CD issue came housed in a black and white cover, and was incorrectly dated as 1968, but I've managed to locate the original photo to give it a bit of an upgrade.

Track listing

01 Saturday Sun (Nick Drake)
02 Sweet Honesty (Beverley Martin)
03 You Get Brighter (Mike Heron)
04 Stormbringer (John Martyn)
05 Way To Blue (Nick Drake)
06 This Moment (Mike Heron)
07 Go Out And Get It (Mike Heron)
08 The Day Is Done (Nick Drake)
09 I Don't Mind (Mike Heron)
10 Time Has Told Me (Nick Drake)
11 Pied Piper (Ed Carter)