strawbs

man I do not know the individual albums well enough to vote but you are otm as fuck. I was at a recording studio in 2008 and there was a strawbs disc sitting around and I was like "always curious about these guys but never heard 'em" and played it through the monitors and was like ARE YOU SHITTING ME, THIS IS WHAT I ACTUALLY WANTED FROM PROG

had a similar moment w/the band Reniassance who didn't seem...idk...cool enough in my prog-loving days? but whose good stuff now sounds excellent to me

A Collection of Antiques and curiosities may be a live lp but is pretty significant. It has Rick Wakeman becoming near hypnotically repetitive in a Terry Riley/Darryl Hooper manner on at least one track Where is This Dream Of Your Youth.

From The Witchwood the other Wakeman lp is also very good.
I think the one factor that might put people off is the unique voice of whoever that is, Dave Cousins? Which might be an acquired taste.
Those 2 lps are pretty proggy folk rock. I think the 2 before are less proggy but still pretty folk rocky. The band's earliest roots were in bluegrass. After Witchwood they become proggier and also have the one big hit with Part of the Union which appears to be lefty bashing.

HAven't reallly heard tehm after Grave New World.
Would love to get a physical copy of the Recollection set which is an archive release of a turn of the 70s concert. Most of the bootlegs you find are from 72 or later, at least in my experience

Grave New World was one of a very few records I'd spin on my dad's vinyl player - it's good, and its Christian pastoralia is seductive, but it doesn't quite bring the eco-gnostic intensity of Renaissance imo - it's more stout yeoman lifting and tilling of the land, and that's fine. Can't vote - never heard another thing by them.

'Part of the Union' and the presence of Wakeman have put me off all this time, but maybe I'll finally give them a whirl.

for reasons i can't really explain, strawbs bassist john ford, writer of "part of the union," is a frequent performer at a nearby library (port washington long island). in addition to "union" he also wrote one of the strawbs' prettiest, most beatles-esque tunes, "heavy disguise." he's had an interesting career, jumping on bandwagons and taking the piss all the way, from psych pop (elmer gantry's velvet opera) through prog and pop (strawbs, hudson/ford) to punk (a late 70s outfit called the monks, who released the unfortunate "nice legs shame about the face"). in concert he's charming and self-deprecating, still with that mop of hair. i think it's always irked dave cousins that ford wrote and sang their biggest tune. i wouldn't hold ford's (and wakeman's) politics against the rest of the band. they were outsiders passing through the family tree.

anyway, i came aboard around grave new world, bursting, hero and heroine. so one of those, probably, though they all have their moments. wonderful little band.

"nice legs shame about the face"

oh god, i'd forgotten about that abomination

is a collection of antiques and curios original stuff a la time fades away, and should have been included? (i really don't know all that much about these guys; started the thread to learn)

I think most of JACOA&C is new material.
I like Wakeman as a sideman around this time anyway I think.

i think bowie agreed with you!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

lol probably would have voted for dragonfly

Thank the system for this update, because Strawbs are probably one of the longest running cult bands short of Magma that I'd never heard but always wanted to hear, and now that I'm hearing it I'm really enjoying its hermetic little weird prog folk world.

yes okay after years and years of hearing about these guys I gave 'em a listen and what do you know, they're pretty friggin great

Grave New World (1972) 0

no

hey it got 3rd place

frogbs <3 strawbs

'queen of dreams' is one of the greatest songs ever maybe

i don't think i've ever heard this band, saw plenty of lps in passing. pretty psyched to listen now, based on these comments...

is Dave Cousins the most unexpectedly horny vocalist of all time? I mean this is like...progressive folk or something, pretty much no sensual qualities whatsoever, not to mention the band itself doesn't exactly exude an ounce of sex appeal. and yet they'll have songs called "The Flight of the White Dove" which will feature lines like "We never made love/but I oft dreamt of masturbating on her ample breasts"

Richie Unterberger, reviewing his memoirs, Exorcising Ghosts: Strawbs & Other Lives, notes "there are more saucy rockers-on-the-road stories than you’d expect given the Strawbs’ somber image". I saw him give a reading from that book in the afternoon before a concert to a couple of dozen people, one of whom was a middle-aged "rocker chick". Afterwards, she approached him and I overheard, "Hey Dave... remember me... at the Windsor Arms in '77?"

john ford turns in yet another killer set at the port washington public library. maybe it's one of the few places he plays? the previous show listed on his fb page is was in 2019. the library guy was videotaping it; i'll post the link if they put it up. for me it was the first indoor show i've seen since covid. it's a library; what could go wrong?

i should search this out myself really -- i thought it was on marcello c's blog somewhere but if it is i haven't located it -- but anyway i read a while back that wakeman's beloved arrangements on hunky dory were basically written up and dropped in by someone else bcz RW was hors de combat 🍻

stylistically this wd make sense: not only are they good not bad and RW is reliably the opposite (SITO) but also it just isn't the kind of shapes he makes even when his imagination is spurred (never)

however i also possibly dremt this bcz i hate him so

john ford turns in yet another killer set at the port washington public library.

and yet another one!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGLCX_3ik00