THE BEST OF BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST (1977)

In the late 70s, Harvest decided to capitalize on the success enjoyed by BJH after leaving their namesake label. This compilation LP gives us a taste of the good and the bad from the group. Many fine album tracks are present, like "Mockingbird", "Medicine Man" and "The Iron Maiden", and several surprisingly strong old singles, "Poor Wages" and "Brother Thrush". But too much from both departments is missing, while some very tepid singles ("Rock and Roll Woman", "Child of Man", and "The Joker") unfortunately see the light of day here. Taken on its own merits this is definitely worth 3 stars. But given the plethora of available retoolings out there, I cannot give more than 2 stars, the interesting sleeve notes notwithstanding. For collectors and analog snobs only.