Quote:
Originally Posted by sharksfan2000
Hjort has something to say about almost everything  |
You know I'm getting to like that bible of yours as a go-to reference for the PGFM era. A lot of minutiae not always easy to find elsewhere. I always appreciate that kind of attention to details.
Hjort lists "Albatross" being recorded at CBS Studios on 6 October, and possibly further work being done on it there during the week of 14-18 October.
Ah now we have the precise date. That dating makes sense of course. Important too, as Albatross was the beginning of everything that the Mac would ever be. To me that track, coming when and how it did, created a focal point for everything the Mac was to become, right up until the present. This was the beginning of Green stepping out and away from the blues and embracing a far greater reach, and it was also the beginning of some of their strident blues fans questioning the "integrity" and "purity" of the Mac machine (well before TPO and KH). English Rose and Then Play On simply took this fusion that much further, and laid the groundwork for the rock and pop tendencies that followed (helped mightily by Kirwan's injections during their formative years). Albatross also gave them their first and only #1 chart hit (UK), until Dreams came along some seven years later (USA). [Moz take note]
Great to see the TPO session dates confirmed to boot, and so many from what make up the The Vaudeville Years. Top notch.
Hjort does mention Green recording for a solo album with Martin Birch at De Lane Lea in early May, but that these recordings were never finished and never released.
Peter and Danny were in the midst of putting together an instrumental project, that is often accredited to one or the other - and sometimes both. This was to have been the follow up to the Then Play On production, and had barely gotten off the ground. Whether lyrics were going to be added later to some of this material I do not know, but it was something of a compromise package partly embracing where Peter was wanting to go with more free form, and Danny's desire to keep things a bit more reined in. Those tapes may still exist somewhere, but have yet to see the light of day. They may have disintegrated by now for all we know also, or been misplaced to parts unknown.
There certainly could have been more recording dates than Hjort lists...and possibly Dawson includes some dates that were postponed or cancelled? I don't know the sources for all the info, but presumably Dawson was using his notes or journals and Hjort was using studio logs...but there are bound to be inaccuracies in all of this.
Showing wisdom beyond your years my friend. That always goes without saying in such reconstructions, even when the parties involved strive to be accurate. Always best to have multiple sources though, to help keep the other(s) honest and more in check. As for Dinky, he was right there alongside Vernon, Ross and Birch as a consultant for many of those early projects (English Rose, Then Play On and Kiln House to name three).
Great find by Norton btw.
