Gone to Earth (Barclay-James-Harvest-Album)

Occupation

See below

Gone to Earth is the ninth studio album by the English rock group Barclay James Harvest, which was released in September 1977 by the label Polydor. The title is borrowed from the hunter language and means that the fox has reached the construction.

The recording was shot from March to June 1977 in Strawberry Studios in Stockport instead. Eight of the nine songs were written by John Lees and Les Holroyd. Keyboardist Woolly Wolstenholme contributed the song Sea of ​​Tranquility.

Best-known songs

The most popular song of the album, Hymn (English for hymn ), has already been written by Lee in the early phase of the band, proposed in the summer of 1971 for the album Barclay James Harvest and Other Short Stories and rejected and often misinterpreted as a Christmas song. In fact, the song is but directed against the dangers of drug use and dedicated to musicians who died from drug Jimi Hendrix, Paul Kossoff and Janis Joplin. Especially the end of the 1970s and in the 1980s it was a frequently played titles on German radio stations. The written by Lee's song Poor Man's Moody Blues is an ironic response to many critics voices that had Barclay James Harvest called " Moody Blues for the poor". The melody is a reference to the Moody Blues Nights in White Satin titles. Both Hymn and Poor Man's Moody Blues are one of the most popular and most played songs in concerts by Barclay James Harvest and their successor band John Lees' Barclay James Harvest and Barclay James Harvest Featuring Les Holroyd and are also on the live album " Live Tapes " represented by 1978. Hymn is also on the successful live album Berlin - A Concert to hear for the People of 1982. 2001, the song was covered by the group Hymn Gregorian.

Singles and new releases

The songs and Hymn Friend of mine were released as singles. However, they could not place in the singles chart itself. Both single versions can be found on the CD version of Gone To Earth, which was re-released by Polydor / Universal on June 2, 2003. Furthermore, were the hitherto unpublished title song (or Please Give Me One More Chance ) Our Kids Kid (this is the B- side of the single Hymn ) and a live version of the song Medicine Man taken from 1971 as bonus material.

Album cover

Designed by Maldwyn Reece Tootill original album cover ( LP ) is cut in the middle. On the outer shell of the outline of a tree and the logo of Barclay James Harvest are seen. The inner shell shows on the front a owl in front of the setting sun as well as the lyrics. On the back of the band members, the title list and an owl against the moon are shown.

Charts

In England, where Barclay James Harvest was never able to achieve high Hit Parade courts, Gone To Earth came out to position 30 in the charts. In Germany, the album peaked at number 10 and remained 197 weeks on the album sales charts. Thus, it is behind My Fair Lady by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe (242 weeks), Greatest Hits by Simon and Garfunkel (242 weeks), The Beatles 1962-1966 by The Beatles (297 weeks), Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd (312 weeks) and Best Of Andrea Berg ( 337 weeks ) at the position 6 of the longest -placed in the German album charts albums.

Reviews

Dave Connolly wrote in Allmusic: Rarely has the band in the studio sounded pleasant and the result on the album is just as attractive as it was during the recording. The reviewer of the journal titles Sounds called the Poor Man's Moody Blues a ' striking self-assessment " for this " superfluous saccharine LP ".

Song List

Original album, 1977

  • Hymn (Lees ) - 5:06
  • Love Is Like a Violin (Lees ) - 4:03
  • Friend of Mine ( Holroyd ) - 3:30
  • Poor Man's Moody Blues ( Lee ) - 6:55
  • Hard Hearted Woman ( Holroyd ) - 4:27
  • Sea of ​​Tranquility ( Wolstenholme ) - 4:03
  • Spirit on the Water ( Holroyd ) - 4:49
  • Leper 's Song (Lees ) - 3:34
  • Taking Me Higher ( Holroyd ) - 3:07

Album re-release, 2003

In addition to the songs of the original album, the album re-release of 2003, five bonus songs includes:

  • Song (Lees ), previously unpublished - 5:05
  • Our Kid 's Kid (Lees ), B - side of the single Hymn - 4:00
  • Hymn (Lees ), single edit, previously unreleased - 4:26
  • Friend of Mine ( Holroyd ), Single Version - 3:01
  • Medicine Man ( Lee ) Live EP version - 11:53

Occupation

In Gone to Earth, only members of Barclay James Harvest without guest musicians can be heard:

  • John Lees - vocals, guitar
  • Les Holroyd - vocals, bass guitar, guitar, keyboards
  • Stuart " Woolly " Wolstenholme - vocals, Mellotron, Keyboards
  • Mel Pritchard - drums, percussion
Record label Polydor Records Genre Rock music John Lees (musician) Gregorian (band) Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd album) Singing Electronic keyboard
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