Mighty Baby formed in January 1969 from the ashes of The Action, and released their debut, eponymous album at the end of that year. It was a collection of psychedelic rock songs, recorded the previous year, and was released on the small independent 'Head' record label in the UK, and on Chess in the United States. Over the course of 1970 several members of the band became Muslims, and their second album reflected the spiritual journey they had embarked on, with 'Jug Of Love' sounding little like its predecessor. Sessions for their third album commenced in 1970, with instrumental demos being recorded, but the band broke up in 1971, and the recordings for the provisionally titled 'Day Of The Soup' were shelved by the record company. The tracks have recently surfaced as part of a retrospective box set, along with some other rarities, like 'Winter Passes', which a composition that was used by Ian Whiteman as part of the requirements for his master’s degree in architecture, and features piano by the composer joined by Martin Stone on slide guitar, and vocal harmonies by Alan King and Whiteman. The main part of the album is the four-part 'Now You Don't', with Part 1 featuring an exotic mix of flute, tablas, organ, bass, drums and wah wah guitar with Mike Evans' bass line especially notable. Part 2 is dominated by waves of wah wah guitar by Stone, with Whiteman adding saxophone to the mix, while Part 3 retains Stone's wah wah, and Whiteman adds piano, organ and saxophone parts, but it is the precise time keeping of Evans and Roger Powell that comes to the fore. Part 4 shifts to an Eastern vibe with Stone's guitar and Whiteman's keys joined by Powell's tablas, and Stone’s guitar takes center stage and powers the tune to its close. Also included are two songs, 'Ancient Traveller' and 'Messages', which were included on the original acetate of that first album but which were omitted from the final version, and closing this collection is the non-album 'Devil's Whisper' single from 1971.
Track listing
01 Ancient Traveller
02 Messages
03 Now You Don't (Part 1)
04 Now You Don't (Part 2)
05 Now You Don't (Part 3)
06 Now You Don't (Part 4)
07 Winter Passes
08 Devil's Whisper
What's the story with the album cover?
ReplyDeleteIt's the one which was included in the retrospective box set, so I reckon it could well be the original design from the 70's which was later abandoned.
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