Light Year for...Jazz-Rock/Fusion?

Hello all, after discussing this band with Meltdowner on the `What Albums Did You Listen To Today?' thread, I'd like to propose to the Archives a vintage San Francisco based female fronted band called Light Year, who released one long-lost album `Reveal The Fantastic' in the Seventies that has recently been re-released for the first time on CD by the Green Tree Records label. Actually...I'm not sure if it was unreleased until now?



Apparently there was a previous thread about the band, which said the following:

"Light Year was formed in 1974, when drummer Zak McGrath joined forces with his friend and colleague, pianist Cornelius Williams, with the idea of putting together a band to play new music. They recruited Randy Sellgren (Mingo Lewis-Flight Never Ending) to play guitar. John Yu, the bass player, brought Doug Johnson to play percussion (vibes, marimba, hand drums and other bells and whistles). The singer Sharon Pucci joined later to complete the ensemble.

The band was fortunate in having a fledgling manager, Sandy Einstein, who later went on to success with Journey and Mr. Big. Einstein’s energy and persistence secured Light Year gigs at the best clubs in the Bay Area, as well as the reviews reproduced on this site, despite the definite oddness of their music. The one thing the band could not achieve was a record contract.

Light Year was, as a rule, admired by the public and reviled by club owners. They were also championed by such notable groups as The Tubes and The Sons of Champlin, who would persuade reluctant impresarios to let Light Year open for them. One exception was Todd Barkan of the well-known jazz spot Keystone Korner, who liked them and booked them on Monday nights--one of the few unsigned groups to play Keystone. But most clubs refused to book them more than once.

Their big “showcase” gig at the Starwood in Los Angeles was marked by record executives exiting the club en masse with their hands over their ears. Without a contract, and with the scarcity of gigs and money fraying their psyches, the band broke up after less than two years."


Phew! Got all that?!

The playing is absolutely blistering, impossibly foot-tappingly catchy, very groovy and hard-rocking, lots of jazz-fusion flavours, and the female singer, Sharon Pucci, has an amazing bellowing voice, and she might just be a little insane as well - but in a good way! Definitely sounds of Cos/Zao/National Health because of the singing around jazzy-rock moods.

Check out the only Youtube below:

Opening track, `Giant Babies' (and sure enough, the lyrics are about just that!



If a group decides to look into them, I have the physical CD so can provide more tracks as well as the info from the CD booklet.

Listening to it now, I've thinking jazz/-fusion might be the go to first? Have a spin of that tracks and see if you agree?

Thanks for your time, Michael.

Took me some time to search for it in our thread but I found out they were rejected in April 2012.

Thanks, Historian, for the info!

Honestly...Amen, David! I can't work out for life of me why on Earth they would have been rejected...the album is overloaded with fusion playing. Admittedly, there's barely that one single Youtube clip, so I wonder how much of the album was actually heard.

100% absolutely they belong on the Archives!

Perhaps Eclectic might be the next closest?

Thanks again, David!

It is a BLISTERING album!! Deserves a place somewhere on the Archives, as well as some good exposure! I'd write a rave review for it in a heartbeat!

Hey I just stumbled this thread, I always thought Light Year was on PA, I could swear I saw a review for it sometime 

Superb album!! it really cooks!
Although it does go in a few mild directions, I think it's perfect for JR/F.

Going on that little I've heard so far, I feel compelled to support the inclusion of this band under JR/F.

Well I think if they were already rejected they can't be evaluated again by the same team (in case they haven't released anything new).

I assume that obscure contemporary bands who break up after one album are submitted and accepted. Encyclopedia Metallum (Metal Archives) has bands that only recorded demos included in their archives. I thought that was the whole point of archives. If it helps, Randy Sellgren (the guitarist) went on to record on the Mingo Lewis record "Flight Never Ending". I have to say, this whole thing doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.