Spooky Tooth's 1969 album 'Ceremony: An Electronic Mass' must be one of the most divisive records ever released. Despite the project being instigated by Gary Wright, it is considered by him to have ended the band's career, and has been described by others as being "one of the great screw-ups in rock history". Spooky Tooth wrote and recorded six tracks, and then sent them over to Pierre Henry to add his music concrete contributions to them, which generally involved him hitting anvils with pipes, grunting over the music, or adding three minutes of cacophonous bells to the end of 'Prayer'. As Wright describes it, "...we did a project that wasn't our album. It was with this French electronic music composer named Pierre Henry. We just told the label, 'You know this is his album, not our album. We'll play on it just like musicians.' And then when the album was finished, they said, 'Oh no no — it's great. We're gonna release this as your next album.' We said, 'You can't do that. It doesn't have anything to do with the direction of 'Spooky Two' and it will ruin our career.' And that's exactly what happened". Wright was so unhappy with this decision that he left the band following the release of the album. Following a comment by Unknown on the 'Atom Heart Mother' post, I looked into removing Pierre Henry's contributions from the album, and although some of them were too deeply embedded to remove completely, you can now hear some really fine music from the band coming through, with great guitar work and strong arrangements. This could have been a great Christian rock album if it had been released as a purely Spooky Tooth record, and at the moment this is the closest that we'll get to hearing that concept.
Track listing
01 Have Mercy
02 Jubilation
03 Confession
03 Prayer
05 Offering
06 Hosanna
The Album I wish would exist was the one were there was More Pierre Henry and lee Spooky Tooth. Could you not do that, please.
ReplyDeleteI can't decide if you are joking or not, but if you are serious then here is 'Jubilation' by Pierre Henry with no Spooky Tooth, and if you get any pleasure from listening to this, then Mister, you're a better man than I. https://mega.nz/file/nyJxGCiR#LPAzLEFI7HVgU1iUzVZBxny4D37u9ggCeunx92cqWYM
DeleteDear pj, not joking, I love Spooky Tooth. And I love Pierre Henry's music. In fact in every genre there are treasures. And most of each genre is not to my taste.
DeleteYou are doing such a great job, cleaning up albums, getting rid of over-production. Thank you.
And listening to Jubilation now, I must confess. I never wanted the complete album more. One hears a solo-instrument and not a complete orchestration.
DeleteIf you want to play around with it yourself then here's the programme. https://mvsep.com/en You can create an account using your Google account and then run it through dialog/fx/music and see what comes out. If I have some spare time I might try another few tracks, but as I said, it's not really my thing.
DeleteHere's 'Prayer' to start you off as it was the easiest to do. https://mega.nz/file/q6JDxSBS#2iQhHwXBLI0702M6S-dbS62y7vcMxk3s4Dhku0Fgy2U
DeleteAgree
ReplyDeleteThank you for this! Been waiting a long time for a pue Spooky Tooth version of the record. Pierre H is fine on his own. This mix never worked.
ReplyDeleteI bought this album in the 70's from a deletion bin, and I was so disappointed when the needle touched down to reveal those infernal interruptions, after previously hearing the band's earlier wonderful LP's. I've prayed for a decent version of Ceremony these past six decades, and boy, what a sterling job you have made, making the previously unlistenable very much more palatable. Well done and a thousand thanks.
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ReplyDeleteIs this sick seck sex advert really helpful? Can it be deleted?
ReplyDeleteI'm the anonymous commenter who expressed an interest in this - and thank you for delivering! I have no idea how this was done, but you've done a great job of minimising the electronics and maximising the rock. What a revelation! I had to adjust the amplification on some tracks to balance them all with each others volume-wise, and many tracks benefit from a bit of a high-end EQ cut (kinder on the ears in some parts). But thanks again for doing the work, I am loving this mix.
ReplyDeleteI first came across this album in 1989 in a second-hand record shop on Portobello Road. As I'd heavily delved into Christian rock over the previous 3 years, and found that there was some good stuff there {surprisingly}, I was intrigued by the cover {I thought it was horrible}, so I bought it, along with an LP by a band I'd never heard of, called The Moonrakers {the LP was called "Together With Him}.
ReplyDeleteI hated both instantly !
The electronic noises on this album made my nerves crawl {I've been sensitive to high-pitched sounds since 1968} and I wanted to get my hands round Pierre Henry's neck. What was really annoying was that I could hear some brilliant music outside of the bleeps and whirrs and clangs. But I'd learned at the start of the '80s that if an album is rubbish on first listen, give it a few more listens over a few months, and you never know what might happen. There were a number of LPs by Styx, Grand Funk Railroad, MC5, Lone Star and Jethro Tull, among others, that I grew to love by giving them a chance.
And so I listened to "Ceremony" and within a couple of months, I was loving the album and I still do. The first two tracks are the best, and I especially can't imagine "Jubilation" without Pierre's electric nonsense. I've learned to mentally filter the noises and hear them as part of the overall whole. And as a set of songs, these are some of the best outings of '60s progressive rock. In its own way, it's as revolutionary as "In The Court Of The Crimson King" and "Music in a Doll's House."
I also grew to love "Together With Him" !