Grapefruit - Iveys and other artists

Treacle Toffee World - RPM 2008 (Sampler )

Tracks: 2. Listen to the Sky / 10. Fall of the Castle / 17. This Little Man + 14 other songs by other artists

Comments:

This third and final volume of Apple Music Publishing company recordings contains some real gems bound to please fans of the pop-psych era. Especially two bands on the sampler stand out, Grapefruit and Fire.

Grapefruit , led by talented songwriter Alex Young who is the elder brother of George, Angus and Malcolm, did release two fine albums on RCA, but the band only obtained modest success. Here the band is represented with three songs that easily stand up with the songs on their albums. "Trying to Make it to Monday" was an early contender for their debut single, but eventually "Dear Delilah" was considered a better choice, A lot of Easybeats sound in this one. "Castle in the Sky" is just as strong, though quite different. It's a demo of a fine ballad, recorded by the band to present to other artists - never inted fro a Grapfruit record. Third Grapfruit track is an alternate version of "This Little Man" form their first album. This version is simpler arranged and much better than the album version. Great song.

Fire, led by Dave Lambert, later of the Strawbs, are given the honour to open the CD and to supply the title track "Treacle Toffee World" This is very well deserved. "Father's Name is Dad" is probably the strongest recording on the whole sampler. The song really deserved to be a hit, and with the great title track on the B-side it's big wonder it didn't happen. Great production and a great Easybeats-inspired guitar riff - I wonder if Black Sabbath knew this song.The other two Fire tracks are also good, though not quite as memorable.

From the other artists there is good material too, though none really stand up with the two already mentioned. Rawlings and Huckstep's two contributions are both very good, and The Iveys' "Bittersweet Adieu" will please fans of Iveys and Badfinger - The other Iveys song is not very good - pretty lightweight. Recommended for fans of the late 60's pop-pscyh sounds.


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