Family and Traffic

 

No, that is not totally true because all through the late 70's, they were talked about in New York. They seemed to hit home with many fans of early Genesis. I remember quite often hearing conversations about the band as I waited in line to see Spooky Tooth or most obscure bands of the 70's. They were often mentioned in record stores along with bands like Gentle Giant. They held people's interest because of the diverse composition of the band. 'Music In A Doll's House" was quite like an early Genesis album while efforts like Fearless, Entertainment, Anyway and Bandstand had influences of folk, jazz, blues, and progressive rock music all in one affair. Sometimes it seemed as if they had no direction whatsoever and for that reason gained a reputation as simply an odd band.

As their song "Strange Band" spells it out for us, they were actually a very strange band for the time period. Maybe the song has zero connection to their personal life but, it really fits for the memory of Family. I love their usage of mellotron. The album covers were delightful. The violin playing on Music From A Doll's House reminds me of Simon House and one track in particular is reminiscent of a Hawkwind style. A track titled "The Breeze" and many others have a type of Genesis/Moody Blues feel. But they pretty much held their own regarding originality. You would hear those nice influences but from a band which was no doubt unique. Roger Chapman was a little too harsh or edgy sounding with his vocals but, other times melodic with the way he sang songs like "My Friend The Sun". I first heard them upon purchasing the Warner Brothers sampler...."The Big Ball". More at 11:00. 

 

Tour pairings back in the day were often ambiguous and/or ludicrous.  Yes/Allman Brothers, anyone?   On the good side, when I saw TYA, they were paired up with Grand Funk...both pretty much at the heighth of their careers.

 

Living locally to Leicester, when somebody says 'name a great Leicester band', almost inevitably Kasabian gets flagged up - I stick to saying Family and get blank looks; shame really.

 

I feel Family passed through the post-psychedlic /early prog stage relatively quickly and many of us just about missed them at the time. I also wonder if the departure of  Rick Grech to Blind Faith, there was a shift of the musical bias more in favour to Chapman/Whitney - e.g. less underground to more hard edge rock?  I feel Family  moved to writing and delivering  some great 3 minute rock pop songs in the early 70's especially appealing to the European audiences and singles charts. And many of those tunes could be extended to 15 minutes of jamming for live performances, without making prog epics..

 

Some of the UK critics didn't get on with Chappo bleat - which I think Paul Weller does ocassionally and so would like him to cover Family some time soon. The Sunday Times rock critic in the early 70's, Derek Jewel, once covered separate  gigs by Family and the Strawbs in a single review, stating these bands will get nowhere until those bands find alternative vocalists...................

 

Naughty. SWW's drummer made enough to buy a pub/nightclub (was called Jimmy Dean's with a replica of the Porsche Dean killed himself in, in the club's entrance) between here (Loughborough ) and Coalville. Always would talk drums when serving behind the pub's bar at lunchtime, usually slandering Ginger Baker......

 

In their early days they were far more experimental and such, and the albums are all a treat. I am particular to "It's Only a Movie" ... and I have all the Streetwalkers albums after and several Chappo solo's as well.

 

I think that as they discovered that he could sing some blues'y stuff really well, they also infused it with some amazing guitar work, and I have always thought that if you want to hear some really good rock music and really well defined and designed, their later stuff is amazing. Their John Wetton period might be considered weirder and more "progressive" but it is also not as good. It might be more entertaining and fun, but the rock music is not as solid as it became. This became a solid, power rock band with massive vocals and instrumentation.

 

It would be more accurate to say that early Genesis is reminiscent of Music From a Dolls House than the other way around, and that Chapman's Gabriel-like vocals on "Burning Bridges" from Fearless for example where more a reflection of how close Gabriel got to sounding like Chapman in those early days (compare how Gabriel's voice changes from the debut to how it sounds on Lamb and his solo career - the Nursery Cryme/Foxtrot period vocal styling is distinctly Chapmanesque in quality and timbre IMO).

 

Nice ... really nice Dean ... I had not made that connection before, but yeah ... totally totally totally true. I would also add a nod and a wink to Joe Cocker for the vocals.

 

I was thinking that it would be a hard stretch to get folks to enjoy listening to Red Card, or Streetwalkers these days and like "Chili Con Carne" ... not metal enough! ... not prog enough ... not this or that enough ... and look at the time these were done.

 

Had I a choice between Family/Streetwalkers or Traffic? I would take Family every day of the week and night! Traffic was way too pop music for my tastes and really not that original in my book. That's not to say that Stevie Winwood does not have nice things, that's to say that to my ear this is much more conventional stuff than Family ever was!