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Topic ClosedSpooky Tooth & Curved Air!

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Tommy View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Topic: Spooky Tooth & Curved Air!
    Posted: June 19 2005 at 19:08
Just curious why these two bands don't get any recognition on this forum? These two great bands were the forefathers of prog rock, well before King Crimson [always baffles me why some think they were the original prog band] & The Nice came along. In fact Keith Emerson was a member of Spooky Tooth before joining The Nice.

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 19 2005 at 19:21
Never heard of Spooky Tooth but I rather like Curved Air. It amazes me how underrated the album "Phantasmagoria" is. It contains most of my favourite Curved Air material!
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 19 2005 at 19:21

Around these forums, you will find improper recognition of mediocre bands(Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree), but also absence of notice when it comes to excellent classic prog rockers, like Curved Air.

Air Cut is a great album, intense colorful soundscapes on 'Metamorphosis'. My favourite.

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 19 2005 at 19:24
Phew! I was beginning to think I was the only real prog lover on here!

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 19 2005 at 19:26
Originally posted by Tommy Tommy wrote:

Phew! I was beginning to think I was the only real prog lover on here!


Nah, there's quite a few of us... our posts get a little swamped at times, though.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 19 2005 at 19:27

Spooky Tooth was mentioned a few times on the forum, but not in depth. 

I love their second album Spooky Tooth (1968)! Great organ and drums, two fantastic soulful voices.

I like Curved Air as well, especially Phantasmagoria (1972)

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 19 2005 at 19:28
Autocorrection: their fantastic second album is called Spooky Two
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 19 2005 at 19:43
Spooky Tooth are a great band and like Curved Air, Wishbone Ash should be included on this site. Given time I am sure they will be added!!!
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 19 2005 at 20:48

I was a Spooky Tooth fan from way early in their career.  The final album with Gary Wright ("The Mirror") was freakin' awesome.  I never knew that Keith Emerson ever played for them - surprises me because I thought I knew everything in progressive rock's happenings in the 70s.  I just got onto ST's web site's history and here's what it says about Keith's Spooky adventure:

They auditioned Keith Emerson on keyboards and he joined until in Hamburg, Luther put a slimming pill in Keith's bottle of coca-cola. Halfway through the set Emerson could be seen, enthusiastically shaking his hammond organ backwards & forwards, fascinated by the war-like explosion sounds coming out of the amp! thus was born a seed of E.L.P... some months later Emerson left to form The Nice.

Too funny!  Someone then "broke his heart so he busted their jaw!"

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 19 2005 at 20:54
The band certainly have an interesting history of musicians. On the track 'Feeling Bad' from 'Spooky Two', the unmistakenly voice of one Mr Joe Cocker can be heard singing in the chorous!

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 19 2005 at 22:21
Curved Air is a fantastic band, on the poppier side of prog.  Ulta-Vivaldi is a great song.  In fact, their First three realeases (Air Conditioning, Second, Phantasmagoria) and Live are all fantastic albums with tight composotions.  (I haven't heard Air Cut (1973) with E. Jobson yet though).
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 19 2005 at 22:32

I must say that while I love the Spooky Two album (particularly the unforgetable Evil Woman) ... I wouldn't personally put them on the main site ... if we ever have a section for non-prog bands with prog leanings ... I think that would be more appropriate ... along with Wishbone Ash, Deep Purple, etc

Evil Woman is really excellent ... I've also seen a lot of reviews mocking the hysterical vocals but I love 'em

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 20 2005 at 02:53

I've mentioned "Spooky Two" several times recently - it's a fantastic album, and one that anyone interested in the history of prog or metal should check out.

I believe it was released in the UK in 1968, but only hit the US a year later.

It's fantastic mainly because it pre-empts just about anyone who was anyone in rock in the early 1970s, and shows a clear line from bands like Traffic, the Small Faces, Savoy Brown, Cream et al whilst providing the momentum for bands like Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Yes.

Some of the vocals in "Evil Woman" do suck quite badly - but it's still the best track on the album musically - can anyone say "Sweet Leaf" (Master of Reality)?

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 20 2005 at 03:37
Spooky Tooth are a band I've only just discovered, and I have to admit I'm hooked (although some of the falsetto vocals on the early tracks grate on one's ears after a while).

For a real eye-opener (ear-opener??), check out their version of "I Am The Walrus"; slow, grinding & dark - wonderful.

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 20 2005 at 04:53
Originally posted by Chris Stacey Chris Stacey wrote:

Spooky Tooth are a great band and like Curved Air, Wishbone Ash should be included on this site. Given time I am sure they will be added!!!


Here we go again - one album or  the few tracks, out of a large discography do not constitute  completeness as a prog rock band - which is evident with Spooky Tooth (Ceremony is as close as you get) and do we need to go over Wishbone Ash's limited creditials in the genre. Rock bands for sure... And how did Curved Air get tangled up the other two???

Such
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 20 2005 at 08:42
Gary Wright's Dream Weaver is PROG! Maybe not to
some, could be to melodic, accessible and not
singing about fairytales! Ronnie Montrose joins in on
one song. Live he was a one man show on the
keyboards, outstanding!

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 20 2005 at 12:07

In the book "Peter Frame:The Complete Rock Family Trees", he says that Keith Emerson was in the band called "Art" (AKA  "V.I.P.S.") for a few weeks. The band in 1967 changed their name to "Art" and recorded an album called "Supernatural FairyTales". They also appear in an album called "Hapshash and the Coloured Coat" ("they provided backing tracks"; I don`t know nothing about this album, if it is a soundtrack for a film or what).The line-up of "Art" was:Greg Ridley, Mike Harrison, Mike Kellie and Luther Grosvenor. When Gary Wright joined the band, the name of the band was changed to "Spooky Tooth", in October 1967.

I have listened to their "Spooky Two" and "The Mirror" albums. I like both albums. Peter Frame says that "Spooky Tooth" was released in March 1969, and "The Mirror" in October 1974.Both albums are available on CD.

"The Mirror" is available on CD but without the original cover. It was also released on CD with another title and cover, as "Comic Violence", and it also has the order of the tracks changed.



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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 20 2005 at 12:15
I only know Spooky Tooth from that song Judas Priest covered from them: "Better By You Better Than Me". That song is not prog, that's all I know.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 20 2005 at 12:17

If you are interested to see the original LP cover of "The Mirror":

http://tralfaz-archives.com/coverart/S/spooky_tooth.html

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 20 2005 at 16:05

Originally posted by Joren Joren wrote:

I only know Spooky Tooth from that song Judas Priest covered from them: "Better By You Better Than Me". That song is not prog, that's all I know.

How can you tell if you've never heard the original?

In this case, you're right, but the original is much better than the Priest version - and Stained Class is one of my favourite Priest albums .

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