It’s quite hard to imagine that such a thing as a Great Lost Album could still exist, at a time when everything seems available. But amazingly, there are albums by Neil Young, Van Morrison, The Who, David Bowie and even The Beatles which cannot be bought as a new CD or as a legal download. Here, ...
EIRE APPARENT
Sunrise
(Buddha, 1969; Sequel, 1992)
The Hendrix connection – Jimi produced it, and plays on a number of tracks – has long made this a collectable. But, lifted by Ernie Graham’s fine songwriting, this Irish band’s sole LP deserves to be more than a footnote on the great guitarist’s discography. It is whimsical, sunshiney psych-pop of the post-Pepper type, with hints of Van Morrison here, maybe a little Love there, and remarkably free of the curdling blues-rock you might have expected from a long-term support act to the Experience. Lacking anything approaching a hit, it flopped in both the US and the UK, and a 1992 CD reissue has long since disappeared from view. Which is a shame, as both this and a 1971 self-titled LP (which is available) prove, in Ernie Graham the band possessed a should-have-made-it talent.
EXPECT TO PAY: Around £20 for the CD, over £100 for the original vinyl
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TAV FALCO’S PANTHER BURNS
The World We Knew
(New Rose, 1987; Triple X, 1994)
Having pursued the wild, hiccupping spirit of Memphis rockabilly as producer for The Cramps and on his own Like Flies On Sherbet, late Big Star legend Alex Chilton [see pp8-10] continued the quest in 1979 when he hooked up with Dada-inspired video artist Gustav Falco to form the Panther Burns. Rotating around the ever-present Falco, there have been countless manifestations of the band since, but, with Chilton back producing and playing, this was their definitive statement. The World We Knew was a wondrously sloppy, swampy and spooky collection of obscure, even mysterious covers – its blend of the Sun sound, rough-edged R’n’B and stomping Stax soul presenting an underground history of American rock’n’roll. Look out for the 1994 CD re-release, which adds the Jim-Dickinson produced “Shake Rag” EP – four booglarizing slices of Southern Fried, including the killer “Shade Tree Mechanic.”
EXPECT TO PAY: £30-£50
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ADRIAN HENRI, ROGER McGOUGH & ANDY ROBERTS
The Incredible New Liverpool Scene
(CBS, 1967)
Following the successful poetry anthology, The Liverpool Scene, published in 1967, featuring the work of Henri, McGough and Brian Patten, the three Liverpool poets were given the opportunity to record an LP, with guitarist Andy Roberts. Patten absented himself last minute, but Henri and McGough performed classic, comical, streetwise poems “Love Is”, “Tonight At Noon”, “Let Me Die A Young Man’s Death” in just two hours – and immediately after an ICA event – at Denmark’s Street’s Regent Sound, where the early Stones demoed. A hit, of sorts, the album spearheaded a revival in performance poetry further fuelled by a Penguin Modern Poets edition, The Mersey Sound. Legal wrangles and lost tapes notwithstanding, a CD release is being plotted.
EXPECT TO PAY: £40
