English psychedelic rock band Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera made one self-titled album in 1968 and then had to deal with their lead singer Dave Terry, a.k.a. Elmer Gantry named after the character of the Sinclair Lewis novel, calling it quits, so they became Velvet Opera instead, a band that only recorded one album, Ride A Hustler's Dream in 1969.
The band went through so many personnel changes in their short tenure, it is a kind of miracle they got any recording done. The albums became cult favourites, with their music a summation of what wa ship and happening back then: psychedelic tinged songs, a bit of sitar, some blues and orchestral leanings that would reach a peak when the Canterbury scene made its mark.
Roger Houdaille, owner of Miami's niche label Think Like A Key Music, is a fan, and he got fabled recording engineer Prof. Stoned to work his magic that can be heard on the expanded CD reissues of both albums. The extensive liner notes courtesy of Mike Stax (Ugly Things Magazine) shed a light on the career of a band that never fully lived up to its promise. Their debut single Flames was played live by Led Zeppelin (and Robert Plant during his solo career). The BBC stopped playing their Mary Jane single for obvious reasons and once their lead singer walked out, the band fell apart not being sure where to go next. As a time capsule, however, when record labels were scrambling to sign anyone who looked like a musician hoping they might stumble on a million seller, these two albums, flawed as they might be, are essential to understand what was going on just outside the mainstream in the late 60s. An instrumental cover of Eleanor Rigby? Check. A sweltering instrumental called Walter Sly Meets Bill Bailey giving way to a short drunken vocal interlude before going back to business? Check. O, and one wherein the singer sounds like he was under water? Dream Starts takes care of that.
The original albums sounded quite muddy, so the refurbished sound is very welcome - never mind it brings out some of the what-the-fuck-were-they-thinking ideas as well. The tandem of Richard Hudson (drums, sitar) and John Ford (bass) got their sea legs on these albums - a musicians they could run circles around the others without even trying - and they would join The Strawbs soon after. (Elmer Gantry's) Velvet Opera became a footnote, but as any music fan knows, that is where the hidden gems are, although in this case some of them were made of glass.
Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera and Ride A Hustler's Dream are released via Think Like A Key Music.
"Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera" tracks:- Intro
- Mother Writes
- Mary Jane
- I Was Cool
- Walter Sly Meets Bill Bailey
- Air
- Lookin' For A Happy Life
- Flames
- What's The Point Of Leaving
- Long Nights Of Summer
- Dream Starts
- Reaction Of Young Man
- Now She's Gone
- Talk Of The Devil [From the short film Talk Of The Devil]
- Salisbury Plain
- Dreamy
- A Quick “B”
- Flames [Single Mix]
- Mary Jane [Single Version]
- Volcano
- And I Remember
- To Be With You
- Salisbury Plain [Extended Demo Version]
- Flames [Demo Version]
- Ride A Hustler's Dream
- Statesboro Blues
- Money By
- Black Jack Davy
- Raise The Light
- Raga And Lime
- Anna Dance Square
- Depression
- Don't You Realise
- Warm Day In July
- Eleanor Rigby
- Anna Dance Square (45rpm Mono Mix)
- Don't You Realise (45rpm Mono Mix)
- She Keeps Giving Me These Feelings
- There's A Hole In My Pocket
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