Strawbs

OK guys last week I was challenged in my tastes about the Strawbs which I found highly over-rated, so I am back

I admitted that my reviews were poor , so I spent the WE relistening to these albums (I had to borrow them from a friend) and I rewrote most so now I can actually feel ready for arguments. Let's stop at H&H album because I think everyone agrees they are not good after that album (anybody with a bit of lucidity can hear that in a second) no matter how much of a fanboy one can be.

Let's consider that a good album is three stars , an outstanding album is four star and a masterpiece is five stars. That masterpieces are few and rare and there should only be one per group unless we speak of the Big 7  prog giants.

I left Dragonfly review untouched and FTWW is a new review

Three phases I'd like to talk about:

the pure folk era (pre Antiques And Curios) and including Sandy Denny stuf, which I have not heard - I'd like some pointers and advice

the folk prog era ( from Antiques to GNW - the essential Strawbs) some real superb moments but never a masterpiece

the commercial phase ( after GNW - so called progressive but majorly flawed) where I score all the points I need to win this match and please do not get me started on Ghosts and Deep Cuts, - why not Deadlines while we are at it?

STRAWBS Dragonfly
Review (Permanent link) by Hugues Chantraine @ 2:43:48 AM EST, 4/16/2004
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 —  This is the real strawbs that everyone of us should know - the folkgroup . Full of delicate harmonies, simple acoustic melodies, but unfortunately not well recorded but nothing shameful either. Dragonfly is mainly two acoustic guitars and a stand-up bass and sometimes a cello (although the bassist could have used a bow on his bass) so it sounds very pastoral. Side 1 has just song format numbers that manages not to bore you but keep your attention. On the other side , the highlight is the almost 11 min Lady Of The Lake that starts as a usual number like the rest of the album but soon evolves slowly into an epic on which all of the guests appear not the least the arrival of a drummer and Wakeman in his first appearance (he will be very present in Antiques and Witchwood) to finish this number of epic manner

STRAWBS Just a collection of Antiques and Curios
Review (Permanent link) by Hugues Chantraine @ 11:11:34 AM EST, 3/1/2004
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 —  3,5 stars really!!!

Bringing in a whole new line-up after the uneven Dragonfly, and most notably young academy student Wakeman , but also ex- Velvet Opera rhythm section Ford and Hudson, The Strawbs took a dramatic turn towards rock but retained all of their previous folk heritage.

This album is rather a mixed-up affair and could be called schizophrenics as it seems it cannot make up its mind between shorter tracks (folk-cultured) and more adventurous jam-band-style rock with much longer tracks. Clearly the rhythm sections hints at the second option and it just looks/sounds like Wakeman (whom had participated to one or two other tracks in the preceding Dragonfly album and especially on the lenghty closer) seems much more comfortable with them two, than with original members Hooper and leader Cousins. Constantly oscillating between such two different styles ruins the continuity of an album, but in this case (a live album and is transitory one too), it must be forgiven. To my tastes it is clearly the rock influences that win this set (and although the rock bit will take another two albums before winning the match and game), as is clearly shown in the 12 min+ Where Is This Dream Of Your Youth where Wakeman takes the spotlight and pulls in one of his best solos of his career (Yes will not give him that long a spotlight until GFTO) even if it is live and improvised.

Although this album’s schizophrenic nature is a bit awkward and may be uneasy to the progheads, it is IMHO, the most representative of the full Strawbs palette. Certainly one of their classic album and one of those that typifies the boundaries between folk and rock always on the fringe of both styles.

STRAWBS From the Witchwood
Review (Permanent link) by Hugues Chantraine @ 2:32:30 AM EST, 2/21/2006
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 —  3,5 stars really!!!

Rare enough to actually mention, this album has an unchanged line-up compared to its predecessor Antiques And Curios. One of the things this album achieves clearly is to confirm/consolidates the transit stage of the group from a folk unit to a rock group and the good thing about it is that they are very progressive about it, not just in the speed of the change.

With this album, the three recruits that came in become even better established even if Wakeman will leave after this one, the other two will provide the rhythm section for all of the classic Strawbs album.

Certainly the most endearing track is the folky title track with its absolutely marvellous and magic ambiances, while the follow-up 30 days uses a lot of sitar but unfortunately this makes the track rather aimed at 60’s psych/folkheads rather than us progheads. Flight seems to be coming from a Jefferson Airplane or Spirit album. And guys, this is a bloody compliment!!! Hangman and The Papist is one of the cornerstone of The Strawbs and maybe the best example on how Wakeman was able to transform this group into something really special - while they left him a chance to because you can feel him being restrained with his organs just mixed a tad too low to stop him from stealing the show. Wakeman just explodes in the following Sheep and clearly what we had seen in Antiques was now all too clearly evident, raw talent just waiting to be exposed. Again in Canon Dale his KB are being purposely under-mixed and by the tile the sitar comes in the track is unfortunately lost even if Rick does attempt to bring it back and almost succeeds a tour-de-force. Shepherd’s Song is yet another excellent moment (again greatly aided by Wakeman’s gorgeous piano and hints of mellotrons in the ending crescendo too) of folk meeting rock. Roses is rather musically unspectacular but shines in its own folk harmonics way. Just too bad the album ends with such a down such as the country- ish (this is relative but it is striking with the rest of the album) Beside You. Not that bad, but clearly out of context on this album.

Curios, this album and the following Grave New World being the three key albums from the Strawbs, I would suggest starting out with this one if you are new to them.

Rightly so Wakeman being at the top of his game with his inspirations clearly being kept down by the rather too tight-walled sound of The Strawbs, he will leave for Yes and its CTTE masterpiece and will reach the apex with his first stupendous and superlative solo album (only the fourth or fifth of his young career), where he shines brighter than the sun. Soon however, the man will find a stardust-sprinkled cape, buy himself an over-inflated ego and acquire one of the tackiest tastes around that brought shame on prog for decades to come with his stupid symphonic journeys/epics and his ridiculous prog-on-ice shows. A superfast shooting star shining like the sun and exploding into a supernova all into two years time; Whoever said that time stood still?

STRAWBS Grave New World
Review (Permanent link) by Hugues Chantraine @ 11:14:29 AM EST, 3/1/2004
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 —  3,5 stars really!!!

A concept album (if memory serves me well: the hope for a better world ensuing the conquest of America), from the previously mainly folk-influenced Strawbs, this is also widely regarded as one of their best, and from their middle period, I must say I quite agree with it being their best – at least their most ambitious and paradoxically I find also their less pretentious, mostly due to the inspired songwriting. With Wakeman having left (his role in the band was never that capital especially in the writing dept but he was clearly being restrained also), ex-Amen Corner keyman Blue Weaver comes in and one of his most noteworthy additions is the plastering of mellotrons and he uses them by the truck-full on certain tracks.

Opening mellotrons-laden track, is a sure pleaser with most progheads, but I tend to find it a bit too repetitive and even slightly over-staying its welcome but this is a relatively minor flaw. A short acoustic solo acoustic track ensues and comes in one of the most noteworthy and experimental track, Queen Of Dreams with its reverse recorded beats and sitar playing and even hinting at early Popol Vuh or Tangerine Dream in its middle part. Unfortunately a bit too disjointed, this ambitious track is clearly the highlight of the first vinyl side. Another short acoustic guitar solo track (Ford-written) accompanied by baroque-sounding horn section leads into the mellotrons over-loaded New World (still fairly close to orgasmic-sounding, thougjh ;-) before exiting with a reprise of the earlier acoustic theme.

A capela and harmonium staring Flower is a rather charming start (even reminding you of their earlier period) and the scorching Tomorrow shows these guys can also be a powerhouse while remaining melodious. This is The Strawbs at their best outside their debut. However after the short acoustic theme linking tune comes a rather out-of-place cabaret sing along track that ruins the album’s continuity. The returning sitar of is It Today Lord? is unfortunately less welcome than on the first side, it is also a bit too out of context. And the Journey’s End closes the album is an out-of-breath fashion.

Clearly an album that exemplifies The Strawbs perfectly, with great tracks and ideas but simply too few of them per albums to have them qualify as one of the higher league groups. Starting out from the gates at 100 MPH, they simply had run out of steam by the fourth quarter of the album. Still, this album is not far from one of the best examples of what they could do best, but the album stands as one of their last one to be really folk-influenced. And certainly their last good one.

STRAWBS Bursting At The Seams
Review (Permanent link) by Hugues Chantraine @ 11:15:28 AM EST, 3/1/2004
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 —  With this album, deception can only be around the bend, as The Strawbs have taken yet another turn, this time heading to commercial radio-friendly tracks: Lay Down (on this album) then Part Of The Union. This album has a definitely country-ish sound (hinted with the closing track of Witchwood) and this fact never sits well with this writer.

Right from the opener, you know that you will not find the delicate folk harmonies that made us fly in the previous three albums, and we are stuck with obtrusive (and obstructive;-) country rock feels, needless hard rock tracks and unjustified string arrangements. Even though Weaver over-floods the opening track middle section with mellotrons, he cannot save it with its Gabriel-Moody Blues verse-chorus bit. The tracks of the first side of the vinyl are all of the same mould I just described except for the rather short The River, which is slightly folkier. The harder-edged Down By The Sea (also with Trons) is again not far from ultra early Genesis and Moody Blues, but it hardly saves the day and over-done string arrangements, but it might just be a rare highlight.

The second side starts with the two-part Tears and it is the other highlight on this album, with its lush mellotrons (tons of Trons ;-), but again Genesis-inspired and it does feel a bit forced, especially with its Greek folk dance second movement before Gabriel and Banks (Eeehhmmm!!!…. I mean Cousins and Weaver;-) re-enter the track. The follow-up is rather insignificant but remains charming especially of the awful country hit single to come: Lay Down. It should just that, but if you want to hear mellotrons-laden country rock, this is worth a good laugh: it almost works too. Closing track Backside (slightly Spanish-sounding backtrack) is actually better than the average of the album it stands in: this is a change, for The Strawbs had gotten us used to closing-up poorly their albums.

But trouble lay ahead as both Ford and Hudson will leave, with Weaver following and forcing Cousins to rebuild the group from scratch with Hawken (Renaissance), Coombes and Cronk coming in as well as Lambert. The end of an era with this album, but the apple had been rotten for a while (my guess was when Wakeman left). The Further The Strawbs keep going, the more they lose their soul and the more they sound passe-partout and like others: sad.

STRAWBS Hero and Heroine
Review (Permanent link) by Hugues Chantraine @ 11:17:54 AM EST, 3/1/2004
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 —  Let’s face it, can we still call this a Strawbs album. Only Cousins remains from the disastrous (artistically because commercially it was their best but their fortunes had crossed the Atlantic and were veering towards country rock) BATS album and even ex-Renaissance Hawken with its Trons orgies will not save the day. With the abandon of their folk days and with every album passing, The Strawbs are sounding more and more like second league BJH, Camel, Rare Bird and also-ran Fruup etc… Worse, they sound like Genesis and Moody Blues wannabes. But at least for this album, they will drop a bit their country rock sound they had acquired - Hawken is classically trained and probably did not care for those influences.

The mini-suite’ has some moments but progheads will like it mostly because it is a mellotrons orgy, but if you take those away the track is just average and the honey-dripping lyrics are sickening. This lyric problem is actually ruining the whole album because of a weak excuse of a concept about love and the passing of the seasons. Sad Young Man (written by newcomer and drummer Coombes) is one of the better tracks and this alone should give you an idea on the quality of Cousins composing abilities by now. Two tracks sound like they were recorded by a lumber-jacking Status Quo if it was not for one or two tricky time sigs. The Strawbs keep on the Gabriel-Moody Blues verse-chorus, and by the fourth track they piano-organ duo (lifted from Procol Harum) is like flogging a dead horse. The title track is rather above average compared to the rest of the album, but again I suspect the Trons to be the culprit. Short, pastoral and folky Midnight Sun is breath of fresh air and brings you back to their early days, but this is unfortunately offset by the country-ish follow-up (mostly due to the harmonica) and the closer is also noteworthy. The rest of the tracks are best left un-mentioned.

If I am a bit harsh with this period of The Straws, it is to prove a point, that most of the mid-70’s Strawbs albums are NOT classics and rather deceiving for the demanding proghead. If you are of the other persuasion, then these will likely appeal to you. For me, by now, they were long history by this album as they had completely lost their soul. In the 90’s The Strawbs have become little more than a country rock band as their DVD shows. How the mighty have fallen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easy Livin wrote: You stopped one album too soon Hugues. If you look at the reviews pages, you'll see that "Ghosts" is one of the highest regarded albums by the Strawbs. I'd certainly recommend that you try it! I enjoyed your review of "From the Witchwood", I think from what you say you could have erred on the upper side with the star rating there.  Clearly the early folk influences of the band are important to you, and you resent the band's move away from that type of music (as did Tony Hooper). I think your reviews of BATS and H&H reflect (labour?) that resentment. For me they are fine albums though.

I knew you'd be the first one to take the bait Bob( I saw yopu were on line when I was ready with that opening thread), but I owe it up to you to have thought about re-writing those reviews.

Is Ghosts anymore different than H&H? Not in my opinion

I almost gave FTWW four stars but then I felt I should've given Antiques And Curios the same, So I chose 3,5 stars

I do resent their move away from Folk prog a bit mostly because they started to to sound like someone else. Had they managed to sound like Strawbs during BATS, H&H and Ghosts, I probably would've liked those albums!  I have no problems with groups changing styles as long as they remain themselves and here was not the case.

^^^^

As long as it does not have that insufferable country sound present on BATS ( I do state that H&H does not have it) but we know that "country thang" comes back in later records

Tony Fisher wrote: You have clearly listened and you don't like what you hear that much. Your reviews are (as ever) well constructed and lucid. I totally disagree with your conclusions, but it's just a question of personal taste. I love the Strawbs and consider every album from From The Witchwood to Ghosts to be 4 or 5*. Even on Bursting at the Seams (when they briefly went consciously for commercial success) tracks like Tears and Pavan, Flying, Down By The Sea and Lady Fuschia are superb prog. And as to your final statement about second class, Camel, BJH and Strawbs are far, far better bands (IN MY OPINION!!!) than King Crimson, VDGG and ELP. I suspect a certain Andrea Cortese might just have something to say on this, since he and I appear to be the biggest Strawbs fans on the site!

Again you seem to get me wrong (I thought I was careful in writing it out, though but this can always be tricky as all judgment of values) >> I was talking of second league and not second class bands. We have another thread about the big 5 or 7 and Jethro Tull being included or not as being clearly in your premier football league (Man UTD, Liverpool ,  Arsenal etc...) and Camel and BJH being somewhere like QPR or Wolverhampton>> not the same financial or "artistic" powers. This was not a judgment of class. And in between those two "categories" are groups like Caravan, Gong, Soft Machine etc... which would come up like Leeds, Tottenham, Newcastle or Everton

Radiohead being Chelsea, the new rich kid on the block

BTW, I am not that big a football fan, so some of these smaller teams might be ahead of bigger ones, and I would not know it

I think Andrea will be quite pleased with a few of my reviews (Curios, Witchwood and GNW), but he will most likely disagree with the later two

^^^^^

Hi Andrea

you should've read the gibberish I wrote in my early reviews. Some of them were a single sentence and were meant to be read successively from album to album. It was funny when I wrotethem , but as long as that comment was theonly one on the page. It quickly became obsolete, as soon as other reviews came in

BATS should simply not be above four stars. No way can this be called a masterpiece even if there is three good track on it

The two "hits" are country rockers and there is almost as many other weak tracks.

I do agree that H&H is better than BATS, but no more than one half star

But you are right this melodic prog like BJH is simply boring me the shreads. It sorts of predates some of the neo-prog of the mid-80's

I might just give Ghosts another shot, but It will be a vinyl from the Library and I fear for my stylus (and for my musical integrity)

This is a really stupid topic.  The reviews at the beginning are only written from a standpoint of slamming the band.  If the originator (Sean Trane or whatever his real name is) doesn't like Strawbs, then he should keep it to himself.  Rattling off a bunch of nonsense and bad-mouthing a band simply to start arguments is something you'd expect from a little kid.

Strawbs were a great band.  If you can't handle their greatness, then find a nice corner somewhere and mumble to yourself as if you lost your mind...

Flip_Stone, if we all liked the same things, and always agreed with each other, things would be very dull around here. The topic was not started in order to slam the band, it was intended to allow those who enjoy the music of the Strawbs to talk about it, and for those who do not to explain why they don't. That is essentially what this foruum is all about.

Hugues has stimulated some interesting disucssion in this thread, and in many others.

(This is not an "Admin" post)

^^^^^^

Thanks for the early Strawbs tip That stuff is not that easy to find either in stores, but I am a bit wary of ordering it on the Web before hearing it

I will re-listen to Tears and pavan again just to make sure but the Pavan part sounds suspisciously like Syrtaki dancing folk to my ears. Let you know on this and bring corrections if necessary

And As I said, I will rent the Ghosts vinyl

I will also post my fave tracks too!

^Here goes my faves so far (since I have not heard the debut and yje Denny days)

From Dragonfly: Lady Of The Lake

From JACOAAC: Dream Of Youth  and Antique suite

From FTWW: Witchwood, Sheep, Shephard's Song and Hangman and the Papist

from GNW: Queen Of Dreams and Tomorrow

from H&H: Midnight sun

I will give some mentions to other tracks from weaker albums (IMHO of course)

Tears and Pavan, Down By The sea >> from BATS

Autumn suite and Hero And Heroine >> frpm H&H

This is about right but I should leave space for Ghosts - I am sure this will give a good track or two

For me, the real problem with Strawbs is that they never made a completly great record. There are always one or two weak tracks in every LP.