1st CD edition of Vashti Bunyan's first album from 1970.
Tracks 1 to 14 from the original LP edition.
Tracks 15 to 18 are bonus tracks:
- Love Song: B-side of 'Train Song' single produced by Peter Snell (1966)
- I'd Like To Walk Around In Your Mind: unreleased acetate produced by Mike Hurst for Immediate Records (1967)
- Winter Is Blue: unreleased acetate (1966)
- Iris's Song (Version 2): John Bunyan's tape (1969)
karlrichard, Aug 19, 2008
I was introduced to Vashti Bunyan's music soon after I heard about Nick Drake. While their music is obviously on a par with one another's (in more ways than just the fact that they are both predominantly guitar and vocal based), I would say that Bunyan's style is somewhat warmer, more tender, caring (like the nurturing of a doting mother), and softer on the mind than Drake's own.
This fact is reflected by her leaving the hustle and bustle of London behind her in the late 1960s, as she travelled on a pilgrimage to the north of Britain, with only a green gipsy like wagon, a horse called Bess, a dog named Blue and Robert. She was obviously more connected to/in tune with the earth than Drake would have been, and this really comes through beautifully in her musical style... But either way, these two artists were amazing song writers, which is probably the reason why Joe Boyd (legendary producer and founder of Witchseason Records) showed equally as much interest in both their music.
All these songs were written over two summers and one winter of traveling, beginning in 1968. After a chance meeting with Derroll Adams (the renowned American Folk musician), who encouraged her to display her talents to the world by telling Bunyan not to "hide her light under a bushel", she took these songs to Joe Boyd, who's interest in them grew steadily the more he listened to them... A year later Boyd recorded Just Another Diamond Day, inviting Robin Williamson (of the Incredible String Band) along with Dave Swarbrick and Simon Nicol (from the Fairport Convention) to accompany Vashti on some tracks.
The album was then released in the late 1970s (to little attention, much like Drake's own music) and a career in recording industry was abandoned by Bunyan in favor of further horse journeys and complete obscurity. However, over the years (again, as with Drake's own music) all the recordings have succeeded in finding their own way to the notice of music collectors.
No wonder that the master tape of the album lay in a London warehouse for thirty years before being unwisely taken across the city in an underground train (high electric currents in trains have been known to wipe them clean) and getting wet in a raging thunderstorm, but luckily survived almost intact. The bonus tracks on this CD are rarities that lifted from well-travel vinyl, acetate demos, and home recorded tape as the masters have long since vanished.
This release in particular is my personal favorite of all her releases. Touchingly real and warmly inviting, it seems to sum up the beauty of life as it must have been here in the UK before electricity graced our lands... Using old standards (Lily Pond is done to the standard of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star) and soft invoking melodies, her lyrics are a moving and heart felt narrative of late sixties dreaming.
No surprise then that the title track was recently used in a mobile phone commercial to depict the great New York City Blackout of 1977...
4.7/5 (