BABY JAMES HARVEST

'Baby James Harvest' was the band's fourth album, and the last one that they recorded for EMI as it was deemed that they had not provided enough commercial return on the label's investment. If only they had listened to the album they could have heard that here was a band that was truly starting to come into their own. The songs were all melodic and showed a band that was full of confidence, not afraid to explore new territories such as using a brass section (from the Syd Lawrence Orchestra no less) on "Delph Town More", and combining this with some 12-string guitars to great effect. This is to me the first album where BJH really showed what was to come with an album that is full of passion and one great song after another. About the same time as the album was released there was a song by a band called Bombadil, that did nothing in the charts even though it was a pastiche of many of the popular bands of the day. Perhaps in some ways that is a good thing as Bombadil were BJH in disguise, and even though "Breathless" is a fun song that is all (included as one of the bonus songs, taking the original release of 6 up to 16). "Rock and Roll Woman"/"The Joker" was the final single for EMI (both songs here as bonus numbers), and that could have been the end. But then Polydor stepped in and the rest, as they say, is history.

Originally appeared in Feedback #70, Oct 02