BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST
SONGS FOR YOU
(1968-1997)
What Happened to Barclay James Harvest ? Why the hell did they change from Harvest label (which is named so thanks to them) to Polydor ? Never have any band suffered from such a change.
In the beginning, back in 1968, BJH was a symphonic pop band like no other... nearly like no other. Their major influences were the Beatles and Procol Harum. Those two influences would be later unarguable with songs like Titles or Poor Man's Moody Blues. Their two first albums are must-haves and then progressively, the inspiration is leaving the band.
In fact, nearly no BJH albums are bad but that lack of inspiration after 1978 (XII album) is really dominent. For that reason, the albums are a bit more homogenic and then boring. So let's have a huge interest to those ones who have really captured my interest and maybe yours ! In my opinion, The best era is until 1973 (or even 1974) with their 4 (or 5) first albums. This is the Harvest era. From the fifth studio album (Every One Is Every Body Else) the band joins the Polydor label and begins a deep pop carreer. The songs you'll find here are really great songs where you will find the delicious talents of harmonists that showed our four english men.
Since 2000 BJH has splited into 3 bands : 'BJH Through The Eyes Of John Lees', 'BJH Featuring Les Holroyd' and 'Wooly Wolstenholme's Maestoso'. It's useless dealing with Lees or Holroyd surdimensioned ego. BJH has now become from a 1968 band with a great future, a band with nearly no past. No past except those 30 great songs.
CD1 :
1. Brother Thrush
2. Taking Some Time On
3. The Iron Maiden
4. Dark Now My Sky
5. She Said
6. Song For Dying
7. Mockingbird
8. Vanessa Simmons
9. Ball And Chain
10. The Poet
11. After The Day
12. Breathless
13. Summer Soldier
14. Child Of Man
CD2 :
1. Medicine Man single version
2. Moonwater 2002 remix
3. Paper Wings
4. Carzy City
5. For No One
6. Song For You
7. Suicide
8. Leaper's Song
9. Fact: The Closed Shop
10. The Streets Of San Francisco
11. Sperratus
12. Life Is For Living
13. Fifties Child
14. Victims Of Circumstances
15. Lady Macbeth
16. Spud-U-Like
1. Medicine Man single version
2. Moonwater 2002 remix
3. Paper Wings
4. Carzy City
5. For No One
6. Song For You
7. Suicide
8. Leaper's Song
9. Fact: The Closed Shop
10. The Streets Of San Francisco
11. Sperratus
12. Life Is For Living
13. Fifties Child
14. Victims Of Circumstances
15. Lady Macbeth
16. Spud-U-Like
My BJH TOP3 :
1. Once Again (1971)
2. Barclay James Harvest (1970)
3. Baby James Harvest (1973)
My BJH BOTTOM3 :
1. Sorcerers And Keepers (1993)
2. Ring Of Changes (1983)
3. Face To Face (1987)
2 comments:
BJH were in fact dropped by EMI, because album sales were constantly dissapointing them. The orchestral sound was dropped because touring with an orchestra bankrupted them! Polydor in many ways rescued them in 1974, and enabled them to record "Everyone is Everybody Else" an album which has ranked amongst the bands most consistently popular works amongst fans.
BJH's careers then have had 4 phases. (i) EMI/orchestral and folk 68-73(ii)Polydor/Prog-rock 74-8 (iii)post-Woolly Pop 79-97 (iv) split into three separate projects.
Of those Woolly's maestoso mantains the experimental diversity of the early years, John Lees barclay James Harvest keep the 70s prog alive while Les Holroyd enjoys the 80s/90s pop sound.
www.bjharvest.co.uk contains a short biography that addresses many of these questions, while a biography of the band by Keith and Monika Domone describes the history in detail.
A fans discussion group www.bjharvest.co.uk/forum has many debates about the band's 'best' era!
cheers
Thanks for those many informations that may interest anyone who wants to lend an ear to BJH's work.
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