BLONDE ON BLONDE

BLONDE ON BLONDE were a British Psychedelic Rock band from Newport in South Wales, who were named after the 1966 album of the same name by Bob Dylan. There was also a short-lived Pop duo of the same name in the late 1970's, featuring two well-known British glamour models, so they're unlikely to be confused with the four hippyish male musicians in the Welsh psychedelic band. Blonde on Blonde released three far-out albums during their brief moment in the spotlight:- "Contrasts" (1969); "Rebirth" (1970); and "Reflections on a Life" (1971). The CD reissue of the first album "Contrasts" - with its creepy arachnophobic image of a huge spider crawling up the back of a naked girl - added two bonus tracks to the original twelve songs on the album. It's time to check out Blonde on Blonde's first album now, so light a joss stick and prepare to take a psychedelic trip back in time to those incense and peppermint flower-power days of the late 1960's.

It's all aboard the magic bus for a "Ride with Captain Max", and what a wild psychedelic ride it is! This song is a veritable potpourri of acid-drenched guitar leads, gloriously combined with gentle acoustic guitar passages. This absolutely fabulous groovy sixties song is flying as high as a kite as these uplifting lyrics reveal:- "How can you fly so high? So high up in the sky, I wish I could fly so high, Up there with you in the sky." ..... There's no need for any illegal substances though when you can just get high by listening to great music like this. It's time to get back on board the magic bus again for the next stop on our magical musical mystery tour: "Spinning Wheel". This guitar and sitar song sounds as Indian as curry and poppadoms, but it's still Quintessentially English (or Welsh) at heart, featuring a simply stunning sitar solo that radiates 1960's flower-power like a bright ray of sunshine. This is sonic nirvana for the soul! If you've ever suffered from insomnia, then you'll be able to relate to the next song: "No Sleep Blues". It's a jingly-jangly, country-tinged 1960's Pop song that barrels along relentlessly at a brisk pace, sounding like an express train rattling rhythmically down the tracks. Despite the title, the song has a buoyant feel-good groove to it, so you're unlikely to sleep through this bright and lively number. It's time to say "Goodbye" now, because that's the title of our next song, even though we're not yet halfway through the album. As you can probably guess from the title, "Goodbye" is a bittersweet ballad where the broken-hearted vocalist sounds like he's nearly in tears, having just been dumped by his sweetheart. proving that all is NOT fair in love and war. Oh dear! The best songs are often written as the result of broken relationships though, and that's the case here as this is a lovely 1960's melody from the Golden Age of Pop. When love goes sour, you need friends, and our broken-hearted singer is reaching out now with "I Need My Friend", another wild psychedelic excursion along the hippy trail onboard the magic bus. It's back to nature for the heartfelt plea of "Mother Earth", a gently charming Folk-Rock song to close out Side One in fine style, in an album that really IS turning out to be a wondrous album full of "Contrasts".

The next song will sound VERY familiar, because it's a very accomplished version of the Beatles' classic "Eleanor Rigby", given the Blonde on Blonde jangling guitar treatment. There's also the sonorous sound of a trumpet to be heard throughout the song, although one suspects it's a cleverly-disguised keyboard "voice". Either way, it's a rousing good way to open Side Two. This particular rendition of "Eleanor Rigby" has an altogether happier vibe to it than the original melancholy Beatles' version though. When it comes to great Rock albums, this long-lost treasure chest full of good solid songs really makes the grade, and "Conversationally Making the Grade" is the title of our next song. It's another rip-roaring sonic boom of keyboard prog with some wild psychedelic guitar riffing thrown in too. This music is a blast! We're in the "Regency" suite next for a brief neo- classical harpsichord piece which J.S. Bach would have been proud of. This leads us gently into "Island on an Island", a lovely nautical-sounding Folk song that dances merrily along on a wave of flutes, acoustic guitars and gorgeous multi-part harmonies. There's a beautiful ballad on the way with "Don't Be Too Long", which is a complete contrast to the heavier psychedelic numbers on Side One, and it's a welcome diversion too, featuring a vibrant acoustic guitar and with the singer in appealingly fine voice. This is probably one of the best 1960's Pop songs that no one's ever heard of, and if you're lucky enough to rediscover this long-lost hidden gem from the tail-end of the 1960's, then I'm sure you'll agree. We're off to meet the beautiful "Jeanette Isabella" now for the final song on this marvellous album that's a constant Liquorice Allsorts box of contrasts. And what a gloriously uplifting piece of music it is too, featuring scintillating sitars and acid-soaked electric guitars. The song does have a slight melancholy air to it, but the music is just sublime!

"Contrasts" is exactly what it says on the label. The album is a whole kaleidoscope of constantly changing psychedelic rainbow colours, featuring mainly Psychedelic Rock songs on Side One and with a whole psychedelicatessen of musical styles to select from on Side Two. There's something here to suit everyone's tastes in this veritable smorgasbord of great music, and there's a pleasant surprise in store too with nearly every song when you never quite know what's coming up next. They say that blondes have more fun, and Blonde on Blonde definitely sounded like they had fun making this magnificent album of "Contrasts".

Most likely you go your way and we'll go ours

If it was not for the fact that their albums came a little too late, Welsh band Blonde on Blonde would probably be listed on this site under the "Proto Prog" category. Their music certainly has psychedelic content, but it lacks the sophistication generally associated with genuine prog, even in its infancy. "Contrasts", the band's first album, dates from 1969, and thus just about falls within the proto prog period (defined retrospectively of course). It is an album of short tracks, the longest being around 5 minutes, but the band still manage to explore some interesting and at the time adventurous styles and sounds.

The opening "Ride with Captain Max" (no relation!) for example has some fine lead guitar and a dynamic arrangement, while the following Beatlesesque "Spinning wheel" (not the BS&T song) combines eastern sitar sounds with pop harmonies.

The inclusion of three cover versions, two written by the Incredible String Band's Robin Williamson plus a Beatles song, betrays a band still unsure of its own song writing talents, but performance wise little is left behind in the cupboard. To be fair, the covers are more accurately described as interpretations, the ISB certainly never sounded like this, and "Eleanor Rigby" is barely recognisable at times, especially the intro.

Elsewhere, "Mother earth" displays more overt prog leanings that the majority of the tracks, with organ and guitar supporting an anthemic vocal. The short harpsichord instrumental "Regency" is pleasant if a little out of place while "Island on an island" prolongs the folk feel in a soft regency ballad, complete with recorders and lute.

Overall, an enjoyable album, but one which only flirts with the very edges of prog. The music is performed with admirable competence, and the album offers the promise of greater things to come.

This would be Ralph Denyer's only album with the band, his duties being assumed by David Thomas for the following "Rebirth". Denyer would however go on to form the superb one album band "Aquila" (also listed on this site).

'Rebirth' appeared in 1970 as a somewhat belated proto-prog album according to (my) prog standards. Provided with early psychedelia moments sounding like a mid 60's output sometimes. Anyhow - the musicianship is on a high standard. Great remarkable bass work like on November for example. Singer David Thomas holds an expressive voice.

The grooving Heart Without A Home contains some nice and even weird guitar attendance and is one of the best songs here. And then I have to recall the long track Colour Questions which sees them excellently jamming. On the other hand some songs like Castles in the Sky and Time Is Passing are sinking into the pop territory with retro references to the beat music.

This is not a bad album, although it does not really appeal to me. Good listenable songs with a folksy touch in parts - 2.5 stars.

This record is really puzzling. I appreciate highly the two first longplayers of this group, but it feels that on this third record their sense of style, judgment and spirituality is lost. It's also bizarre, that on this record are maybe the few most experimental moments of their career, as an islands between really dull hillbilly songs. The few complete listen troughs left as pleasant memories as some exotic disease, and the only reason not going for a one star is the musicians good ability to play. Blonde on Blonde seem to have similar career in quality like Culpeper's Orchard; Two great records and a one last letdown. I would recommend to listen Contrasts if you like early 1960's sounds or Rebirth if you dig more proggier 1970's post-psych style.

Real Progressive Rock

If you were wondering what Progressive Sounded like before King Crimson, well here's the answer.

OK, I take that back.

Here's an answer.

Blonde on Blonde took the popular styles of the time (and one or two of their favourite bands), chucked them into a pot and pepped it up a bit - not with virtuoso playing, complicated time signatures, classical references or side-long suites (I don't even get the feel of a concept to the album, except that side 1 contrasts with side 2 in terms of overall style), but with energy that compressed the influences until a new and progressive style popped out.

This is not music that radically changed the status quo (although it does sound a little like the early outings by Parfitt and Rossi's outfit), but music that drew a thick line underneath what had been achieved in music in the late 1960s (which was a huge amount, so this was no mean feat), and raised questions about what else could be done with it. It didn't sit in a corner trying to blend in with everyone else, it was trying out new approaches to the old stuff, with a bit of a swagger, but without some of the preposterous excesses of the times, as if it was trying to cut the crap and get on with the job of doing something different in its own terms.

You would think that they would be making some kind of social statement, considering the album they took their band name from, but I don't really get that from the lyrics - I get more of a musical statement of intent from this album, as well as a great collection of highly and sometimes surprisingly enjoyable 1960s tunes.

Ride With Captain Max starts out a bit of a typical 1960s number, with Mod overtones - think of a highly energetic and less quaint Kaleidoscope or the Small Faces and you're part way there. There's also a smattering of heavy blues a la Yardbirds or even Cream - but it's the Who-like energy that is most noticeable. This drops to a fairly typical sounding acoustic guitar-driven psych song passage, which in turn gives way to a much more boisterous and darker heavy rock passage. Back to the acoustic guitar, and the lyrics get a restatement, with a cross-rhythmic percsussion section, and back to the hi-energy. This structuring approach reminds me of a simplified version of the Clouds. There's no mistaking the catchy rock-pop flavour of this song though.

Spinning Wheel is a grin-inducing sitar-driven affair, with a catchy and simple little melody over an oom-pah bass that gets rather irritating after a while - but you can see the intent here, to conjour up the spinning wheel image, and empahsise a kind of Raga flavour at the same time. There is no let up in the energy.

No Sleep Blues is an entertaining interpretation of the Incredible String Band song, full of angelic slide guitar, tempo change, and such a connection with the original spirit of the piece, that if the ICB had ever rocked up, this is probably what they would have sounded like.

Goodbye reminds me even more strongly of the Clouds, although with the organ taking a more back seat role, and classical music merely hinted at with tinkling harpsichord lines.

I Need My Friend shows a return to heavy blues rock, with some nice twists, hints at the style of the Spencer Davis Group - but infused with some original melodic ideas and a real feel of the changeover in rock style from the late 1960s to the early 1970s.

Mother Earth is altogether a more sophisticated composition, still in a heavy blues rock vein, but with a more progressive atmosphere overlaying the repetitive riffs of the parent form. The chorus seems designed to be sungalong in a stadium, while the breakdown before the instrumental carries an late-night bar-gig intimacy about it.

What a contrast for the B-Side - the cover of Eleanor Rigby starts with an almost unrecognisable introduction, and replaces the string quartet with an insistent acoustic and gentle percussion - and a trumpet. With this interpretation, you'd think that the song had been written by the guys on Blonde on Blonde themselves. Your mileage may vary, but there's so much to like in this version that I'd be hard pushed to say whether the original was better than this or not.

Next up, back to 1960s psychedelia, with a large dash of Small Faces, Cream and all manner of other popular bands, making for something that you'd think would sound a bit cheesey and derived - but instead, thanks to the high-energy so typical of this album, creating a style that is original and yet a product of the times simultaneously. The instrumental catches you unawares, with its simplicity and ever-shifting strands of sonic goodness.

A folk flavour infuses the short instrumental Regency, giving the feel of an interlude in a greater whole, with some really nice counterpoint providing excellent movement.

The folk feeling continues in the intro to Island on an Island - pity the recorder is almost a quarter of a tone out of tune, but here it does lend an authentic (if occasionally painful) flavour to a song that conjoures up images on a Celtic shoreline in a summer twighlight in the fabric of the music.

Don't Be Too Long maintains the folk feel, spinning a tale of separation.

The original album ended with Jeanette Isabella, another song that could have been written by Clouds, with lush Hammond backing filling in the space around the guitar nicely, as the pleasantly faintly hoarse vocals tell the story.

The bonuses are nice inclusions that fit in well with the rest of the material, Country Life also sounding uncannily like the Clouds, All Day and All Night heavy in sitar, recalling the Beatles' early use of the instrument, like a Hi-Energy Within You Without You.

Many, many times better than Yes' debut of the same year, in terms of overall energy, arrangement variety and vocal quality - this album is an authentic representation of what was being called Progressive Rock in 1969, before the release of King Crimson's debut, although not really what we'd think of as Prog Rock now.

Many of the essential elements are here - yet at the same time, it can be quite hard to hear how this differs from a lot of the psychedelic pop rock music of the time, from our 21st century viewpoint - apart from an almost indescribable quality.

I think that quality lies in how the several genres (folk, blues, psych and rock) are fused together with a fresh energy, that successfully heralds in, and provides a missing link to the Progressive Rock that was about to explode on an unprepared world. The one thing it really lacks is the improvisational feel of jazz - but there are brief moments of this, buried in the songs themselves.

Recommended, especially to historians - but a great listen for anyone, and indisputably part of the foundation of Prog Rock, albeit a small corner compared to, say Pink Floyd or the Beatles.

I guess this is a 3.5 starrer, really ;o)

Probably one of the first group willing to openly yell their influences by naming themselves after an artiste's album, in this case Bob Dylan's Blonde On Blonde, you won't find much open and flat out Dylan splattered out on the course of this album or their other two. This Welsh psych-rock quartet formed in 68 and still has a very much 60's sound. Although their debut album was released on the legendary Pye label, and appeared on the first Wight Festival, and the band became a regular fixture on some TV show, but al of this failed to produce much fame and sales. Having found a new record deal, but losing Ralph Denyer and Richard Hopkins, BOB didn't managed to finish their second album on time, even though David Thomas and Richard John came in as replacement. So Rebirth, the band's second album was finally released in November 70 (18 months after the debut) and the album's sound was quite dated by then. With a slightly/vaguely "prog" artwork, BOB mostly revolved around the drummer/guitarist duo of Hicks and Johnsion, but newcomer Thomas had more than his space to write music and his voice is sometimes close to Cressida's Angus Cullen.

Indeed it was either gutsy or quite clumsy to release a typical late 60's psych-rock sound when the whole industry was renewing its standards almost every month. BOB's psych hovers between Byrds, Moody Blues, tripped-out Rolling Stones (the lengthy sitar-laden Circles) and more of typically 60's sounds. I must say that I don't find much on BOB's three albums to call particularly progressive, finding many group more precocious being a lot more inventive: even the fuzz guitars sounded clumsy, the sometimes interesting interplay being blues-derived (the 12-mins Colour Questions, where they're slightly more actual-sounding ala Steamhammer or Cressida). The album-closing Release might jusrt be my preferred peace.

As if BOB's career had not been held back enough it appears that the group took another break and changed again their line-up (but keeping D Thomas) before finally releasing (late 71) their third (and final) album Reflections On A Life, which found itself directionless, musically outdated and the group wouldn't survive this new failure, with most members abandoning the music business forever. Some would call Rebirth the group's best moments, and I won't dispute it, but let's be honest: even their best moments simply didn't cut it.

The times they are a-changing

During their brief existence from 1967 to 1971, Blonde on Blonde recorded just three albums. The first of these, "Contrasts" took the best part of two years to be released, but this album followed relatively quickly just over a year later. In between the first and second albums, lead vocalist and guitarist (and de facto band leader) Ralph Denyer left the band, to be replaced by David Thomas. (see the entry for Aquila on this site for details of Denyer's subsequent activity.) Given the major setback of Denyer's departure, and the difficulty the band had in coming up with material for "Rebirth", the omens were not good for the second album. It is therefore pleasing to report that this release is generally acknowledged to be the band's finest album.

Given that this album dates from almost 40 years ago, it may seem odd to talk about it as sounding "dated". The fact is though that even in 1970, there was a retro feel to the music here. The sound is that of the period around the summer of love in 1967, replete with psychedelic lyrics and colours. Take for example the opening "Castles in the sky", a song which was released as a single. The high pitched vocals of David Thomas and the harmonised ah-ah backing vocals might have achieved instant success had they been recorded just three years earlier, but to paraphrase another Dylan title, "The times they (were) a-changing".

Of the eight tracks in total here, five follow the relatively simple psychedelic pattern of "Castles in the sky". They are certainly enjoyable, and sound like genuine proto-prog, the only problem being that by late 1970, prog had enjoyed its own birth. That is not to say there is not some good stuff to be found there. "Heart without a home" is a great 5½ minute romp, with superb use of stereo (a sadly forgotten skill) and some really dirty lead guitar. "Time is passing" is a great piece of retro-pop, reminiscent of the style of Gary Puckett and the Union Gap.

That leaves us with three tracks which actually constitute well over 50% of the album. The first of these, "Circles", continues the psychedelic atmosphere but in a far more complex and acidic way. There are nuances of the longer tracks of the Doors here, the track weaving through constant changes in tempo and melody. Once again, the lead guitar work is superb, even when it is shunted off into a single channel leaving just the drums in the other! While it all feels a bit disjointed, there is a definite appeal in the way the constituent parts make up the whole.

The longest track on the album is the 12 minute "Colour questions". This monster sets off at lightning speed, sounding like an alternate take of Love Sculpture's interpretation of "Sabre dance". Thomas soon steps in to bring some sort of order in the vocals, but even these are less structured than on the short tracks. The verses alternate with wild guitar segments which once again challenge the stereo separation to the full, while good old mellotron drifts in and out.

The final track is actually a combination of two shorter tracks to form an 8 minute piece. "You'll never know me/Release" is a more orthodox number, but features some exquisite piano.

In all, an album which will appeal to those who enjoy the psychedelic music of the late 1960's more than those who seek the pioneering prog of the early 70's. While there are a few twists and turns here, including a couple of fine long tracks, this is essentially the sound of proto-prog recorded after the event.