Strange Pleasures - Further Sounds Of The Decca Underground

Product Details

Artist : Various Artists
Format : Box set
Binding : Audio CD
EAN : 0600753053478
Label : Decca - Pop
Number of Discs : 1
Product Group : Music
Release Date : 2008-05-05
Running Time : 228minutes
UPC : 600753053478

ASIN : B001494PMA

Track Listings for

Disc-1
1. In The Beginning - Genesis
2. Turn Into Earth - Al Stewart
3. Red Sky At Night - The Accent
4. Vacuum Cleaner - Tintern Abbey
5. Secret - Virgin Sleep
6. Twilight Time (Evening) - The Moody Blues
7. Some Good Advice - Bill Fay
8. Michaelangelo - 23rd Turnoff
9. The Sounds - Ten Years After
10. Baby I Need You - Curiosity Shoppe
11. Like A Tear - World Of Oz
12. Down At Circe's Place - Touch
13. Under The Rainbow - The End
14. Opening - The Deviants
15. I'm Coming Home - The Deviants
16. Northern Hemisphere - East Of Eden
17. Magician In the Mountain - Sunforest
18. Jenra - Davy Graham
19. The Best Way To Travel - The Moody Blues
20. I Will Be Absorbed - Egg
21. Bad Scene - Ten Years After

Disc-2
1. If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You - Caravan
2. Gypsy - The Moody Blues
3. Garden Song - Bill Fay
4. Atmosphere - Denny Gerrard
5. Skillet - Galliard
6. Sharing - Satisfaction
7. J L T - T.2
8. The Time Is Near - Keef Hartley Band
9. First Reminder - Clark Hutchinson
10. Practically Never Happens - Ashkan
11. Harpo's Head - Stud
12. Contrasong - Egg
13. Marcus Junior - East Of Eden
14. Winter Wine - Caravan

Disc-3
1. Things Ain't Working Out Down At The Farm - Thin Lizzy
2. I'm Coming On - Ten Years After
3. Space Shanty - Khan, Steve Hillage, Dave Stewart
4. Cosmic Bride - Zakarrias
5. Time Of The Last Persecution - Bill Fay
6. Waterloo Lily - Caravan
7. Ballad For The Queen Of Outer Space - Pete Brown
8. Steal The World - Darryl Way's Wolf
9. Spring's Sweet Comfort - The Parlour Band
10. Crying Won't Help You Now - Chicken Shack
11. Sarah (Version 1) - Thin Lizzy
12. Triplets - Principal Edwards
13. Marie Antoinette - Curved Air
14. New York Ladies - Michael Chapman

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Customer Reviews

such enterprising music! (2008-07-18)

the ambition of most of these bands is quite breathtaking. it's a shame punk came along because it's totalitarian philosophy not only killed off the bad, but much of the good too. still at least john lydon admits he was a big prog fan now.

Calm down and dont get excited (2008-07-04)

I already own many Caravan, Moody Blues and Ten Years After albums. These bands I feel are some of the better known and respected artist's to appear on this follow up to Legend of a Mind. Therefore I purchased this compilation, as I did the last, to explore the music of artists I missed in the late 60's and early 70's.With Legend I was not disappointed, however I feel this time I have been slightly let down. Some of the bands featured this time fail to hit the mark, however a few tracks do stand out amongst the pack.I dont regret buying it, but would have been happier paying less for it..

Teenage spirit (2008-05-31)

I'll give this 5 out of sheer nostalgia. Most of the bands/solo singers on this fab compilation notably Stud, Ashkan, Caravan, Egg, Principal Ted and Keef Hartley were the bedrock of my teenage to university years record collection. All those LPs are long lost to second hand music shops so it is great to find bits of them again to help me decide whether to seek out the albums again. Although a bargain at £12.98 this will end up being an expensive purchasive as I certainly will seek out the full albums as I did after discovering its predecessor,Legend of a Mind, which re-ignited my interest in the more obscure music of this wonderful period. The only personal downside is the large number of duplications from my current CD hoard. In spite of having 19 tracks on other albums this has still been well worth buying. The excellent remastering means that the 7 tracks from Decca's Psychedelic Scene that light up CD 1 sound almost like different numbers. In spite of the 5 stars I have a couple of quibbles eg the triple selections from Moody Blues, Caravan (brilliant), TYA and Bill Fay and doubles from Thin Lizzy etc reduce the scope for showcasing even more bands. My other quibble is that, having described Clark Hutchinson's A=MH2 in the excellent booklet,as a "stunning debut" the compiler chose a short unrepresentative track from their third album Gestalt. I recall A=MH2 as being brilliantly excessive but in need of a producer, but at least I can now track it down and avoid yet another duplication. Overall a great package with excellent production values.

Strange maybe, but lots of pleasures to be had! (2008-05-28)

This follow up to 2003's "Legend Of A Mind" is an even tastier proposition than that first box set. That is a true indication of the quality of material which Decca released back in the late 60's, early 70's. This is another 3 CD's packed with some real gems from the early days of progressive rock. Of course such compilations are going to be hit and miss, but there is nothing here that is less than interesting. There will be plenty here that even the fervent prog rock aficionado won't have heard before. Where else will you here such wonders as Tintern Abbey or Principal Edwards for instance. There are choice cuts from the obvious culprits like The Moody Blues, Caravan and Genesis. But it's the comparatively less well known acts such as Egg, East Of Eden, Darryl Way's Wolf and Touch that shine and were really what labels like Deram were all about. Highlights for me are Egg's "Contrasong", East of Eden's "Marcus Junior" and particularly "J L T" by T2, whose "No More White Horses" (best known as being covered by Swedish prog supremos Landberk) was also a highlight of "Legend Of A Mind". The sound quality of most of these tracks is nothing short of exceptional. A credit to the producers and engineers of the day and Paschal Byrnes remastering. The packaging by Phil Smee is very classy indeed, with each CD enclosed in a mini LP style sleeve. The 48 page booklet is packed with archival photos and thoroughly detailed notes by compiler Mark Powell. This might be a budget priced box set, but there is nothing cut price about the quality of the music and presentation. A class act!

Legend of a mind: part 2 (2008-05-12)

Decca have done it again, with a second 3 CD box set as a follow-up to 'Legend Of A Mind'. 'Strange Pleasures' also comes with copious notes and illustrations in a fat little booklet - and the current price at Amazon.UK (mid May 2008) is a real bargain at less than 13 quid. In the intervening 5 years, the Eclectic label (now Esoteric) have released a number of gems from the Decca/Deram archives, so now you might cynically said 'Strange Pleasures' is cheap sampler from some of those reissues (remastered for the most part) albums - but you can't go too far with that thought. Simply there is a lot of material which you will only find on 30 or 40 year old vinyl.Whilst 'Strange Pleasures' is equally good or better than some of the competing labels' efforts to jump on the 'Legend Of A Mind' bandwagon, this isn't quite as good or balanced as 'Legend'. The compiler has again selected more than one track from the better known bands, so we once more get a couple of Caravan tracks (which IMHO are good choice), but the two TYA tracks are far less memorable, and two Moody Blues are disappointing. Elsewhere we are taken back to forgotten recordings (e.g. minor hit singles) which smack of pop rather than underground. There are number of other obscurities i.e. bands forgotten or never heard of, (even by the few of us old enough to have been around when first released): these are a mixed blessing. Some lack music creditability for this type of sampler, as not being strongly representative and/or weak musically. However, the good news, there are others I'm most pleased to see here: the early brass rock of Satisfaction (I complained at their absence from `Legend'), the Taste spin-off Stud (experimental rock of 1970, parallelling Patto or Skid Row at the time), Darryl Way's Wolf (the first example of John Etheridge's guitar with violin, here with band leader Way) and too an echo from Decca's 1969 sampler 'Wowie Zowie', Touch's "Down At Circe's Place". I must comment as a devoted Touch fan, the biography of the band in the booklet is the best and most detailed I've read. But I also note that between the CD sets `Legend' and `Strange Pleasures', these still have not completely duplicated those tracks found on `Wowie Zowie' - does the compiler have some problems with straighter jazz and some blues rock?Because of some poorer/less satisfactory choices than before, I felt especially with the first album of this set that I had to wade through 2 or 3 undistinguished tunes before getting back to a track that wowed me. So I guess in the end, once you are familiar with this recording you will become selective in choices, with the weak tracks destined never to be played again. Rating: 3.5 stars having previously marked 'Legend of A Mind', a superior set, 4 stars. Admittedly I have to reassess the star ratings I've given to couple of those competing box sets issued since 2003. In particular, 'Strange Pleasures' is a box set for those with fond memories of the period, or might use this as evidence(?)of musical changes occurring 1966 to 1975.

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