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ONE FINE MORNING

Lighthouse

Jazz Rock/Fusion


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Lighthouse One Fine Morning album cover
3.59 | 31 ratings | 2 reviews | 19% 5 stars

Excellent addition to any
prog rock music collection

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Studio Album, released in 1971

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Love Of A Woman (5:52)
2. Little Kind Words (4:15)
3. Old Man (5:35)
4. Sing Sing Sing (3:22)
5. 1849 (6:12)
6. One Fine Morning (5:14)
7. Hats Off (To The Stranger) (3:37)
8. Show Me The Way (2:25)
9. Step Out On The Sea (5:04)
10. Sweet Lullaby (4:56)

Total time 44:32

Bonus Tracks on 1993 Repertoire Records CD:
11. One Fine Morning (single edit) (3:21)
12. Take It Slow (Out In The Country) (3:05)
13. Sweet Lullaby (single edit) (4:04)

Line-up / Musicians

- Bobby McBride / lead vocals, percussion
- Ralph Cole / guitar, backing vocals
- Paul Hoffert / piano, vibes
- Louie Yacknin / bass
- Skip Prokop / drums, percussion, backing vocals
- Don Dinovo / viola
- Dick Armin / cello
- Pete Pantaluk / trumpet
- Howard Shore / saxophone
- Larry Smith / trombone, backing vocals
- Keith Jollimore / sax, flute, backing vocals

With:
- "The Maltese Moon" / percussion
- "The Edmonton Hawks" / percussion
- Jimmy "Teeth" Ienner / bass vocals

Releases information

ArtWork: Brad Johannsen

LP GRT 9230-1002 (1971, Canada)
LP Vertigo 6342 010 (1971, Germany)
LP Evolution 3007 (1971, US)
Different LP reissues

CD Repertoire Records REP 4374-WP (1993, Germany) W/ 3 bonus tracks

Thanks to easy livin for the addition
and to Quinino for the last updates
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LIGHTHOUSE One Fine Morning ratings distribution


3.59
(31 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(19%)
19%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(52%)
52%
Good, but non-essential (16%)
16%
Collectors/fans only (6%)
6%
Poor. Only for completionists (6%)
6%

LIGHTHOUSE One Fine Morning reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by Easy Livin
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin
4 stars One fine album

In retrospect, it seems surprising that this superb album came so early in the career of Lighthouse. A change of record label and the arrival of new lead singer Bob McBride combined with the appointment of producer Jimmy Lenner all gave the band the sense of direction the so needed so badly. "One fine morning" is a supremely confident album, filled with tight jazz rock based songs.

"Love of a woman" kicks things off in fine upbeat style, the brass section driving McBride's strong vocals forward. McBride's style is similar to that of Blood Sweat and Tears' David Clayton-Thomas, although his voice is usually slightly gruffer. "Little kind words" belies that gruffness though, this tastefully soft track having a delightful melody and some fine harmonies. The arrangement on this track is particularly striking.

"Old man" sets out as a fairly conventional pop based song before the brass section lifts the pace, introducing a lengthy instrumental workout for the entire 11 man line up. "1849" tells the tale of a wagon train headed for the California gold rush in that year.

Two singles were taken from the album appearing consecutively here. The title track "One fine morning" is a wonderful BS&T like fast paced number. The song has strong harmonies and a great feel good atmosphere, with superb guitar work driven ever higher by the brass arrangement. "Hat's off (to the stranger)" also has a BS&T feel, but focuses on the slower big production sound.

"One fine morning" is an excellent collection of jazz rock songs. The album does not contain the improvisations or extended soloing of previous releases, these being replaced by an altogether tighter approach. As such, the prog aspects are less obvious here than on other Lighthouse releases. That aside though, the music is supremely melodic, and the performances of the extended line up uniformly excellent.

The Repertoire records CD re-release contains three additional tracks. Two of these are simply single edits of tracks on the album. The third, "Take it slow (out in the country)" is a single edit of the opening track from the following "Thoughts of moving on" album.

The Vertigo release of the album came complete with a superb Roger Dean illustration of a Lighthouse formation.

Review by FragileKings
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars I'm not sure which cover is the original one, but the Prog Temple reissue CD I have sports a Roger Dean (like?) creation both on the front and back. A very phallic protrosion juts skyward with several oriffices in the top. In a way, I think the cover here on PA suits the music better.

This is Lighthouse's fourth studio album and it features new lead vocalist Bob McBride as well as a leaner line-up, down to 11 members. The initial concept for Lighthouse was a rock band that included both brass and strings, and the roster first included 13 names. By this album, only seven of the original members remained, but the music here would make this album the band's most succesful, even scoring them a #24 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. with the title track, which also reached #2 in Canada.

Comparisons to Blood, Sweat and Tears are easy to make, but I'm not so familiar with that band's music and so I feel there are more similarities to Chicago, mostly because the brass gets featured on every song while the strings (violin, viola, and cello) don't seem to appear very often. Either that or they are lost in the mix. Because of the upbeat and grooving and swinging nature of the a few of the songs, I can't help but think about the soundtrack to the movie version of "Hair". In one song I can picture everyone with the arms outstretched and palms to the sky, singing in unison while their bell-bottoms sway.

The album has a decent blend of music with upbeat, brass-blasted songs to slower, mellower tunes where the strings crop up. It's a period piece for sure sounding very 1971, which you can hear in songs like "Sing, Sing, Sing" and "Show Me the Way" as well as the title track. I'll admit that this is not the kind of album I will usually buy; however in my quest to discover Canadian prog of the seventies, it was inevitable that Lighthouse would have to come into my CD collection. Not that this is a solid work of progressive rock. By and large, this is an album of three to four-minute songs in standard format. One may wonder what this band could have achieved had they done something like Uriah Heep's "Salisbury". Instead the songs are pretty normal for 1971, I guess, except that there are so many instruments played in the one band. I think that the guitars and drums are used mostly for rhythm and piano for colour while brass is for punch and strings for that gentle touch when needed. The vocals have that powerful white soul holler though often a chorus of voices sings the refrain and even lines in the verses.

It's more or less an album like what you'd expect from such a large band and it is well-put together. Punchy songs are followed by more mellower pieces and mellow songs are followed by something more uplifting. The finale "Lullaby" is a beautful number with acoustic guitar, flute and strings and the brass comes in for some emotive lines delivered nobly and wonderfully by the trumpet. It's a song I had to let play to the end tonight when I arrived at my house after walking home from the train station, so enchanting was the music.

Well, I'm not likely to rush out and order another Lighthouse album any time soon, but giving this one my full attention in preparation for the review, I think I came to appreciate it more. Not overly progressive but active music with a lot of great sounds.

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