INVITATION

Back in the 1980s Earth & Fire was one of these mystery bands as I live in the US and my father owned To the World of the Future but he bought it not know anything about them and I liked what I was hearing (although "How Time Flies" was a bit overly-sentimental for my liking). It took until the 1990s to find out more about them. In 1996 I bought The Story of Earth & Fire and "Invitation" was one of the songs included. I later found out the band released a ton of singles, many not on their regular albums and "Invitation" is one of them. Released towards the beginning of 1971 it sounds like a transition between the more rocking Nederbeat of their debut and the more symphonic Song of the Marching Children. "Invitation" shows that. Great vocal harmonies and a truly wonderful chorus. Then you have the true original version of "Song of the Marching Children". This is the first time the band laid hands on a Mellotron, clearly an M300 model. Apparently the Phonogram Studios in Hilversum had that Mellotron (as Ekseption, Supersister and even the German band Frumpy recorded there and used that Mellotron). Also Jerney's voice sounds considerably different from the album version. The album version, released many months later greatly expanded on what was presented here so if you're familiar with that version, the original single version sounds like it was rushed with lots of parts taken out. I'm under the impression they were working on a concept but they only had enough material for three minutes or so Still it's a great piece but would later be greatly expanded on when their next album was being recorded. Really worth hearing and more great albums and singles to come (before they went downhill in the late '70s and early '80s).