WHEN YOU'RE DEAD - ONE SECOND

I’d like to say that this is one of those hidden gems from the early progressive music days that have finally surfaced on an off-label prog CD reissue. But that would be only half true. This is available on CD (Wahalla), but I can’t say this is a hidden masterpiece or anything. It is a decent enough album, but there’s not really anything to make it stand out from any number of other similar and just as forgotten bands from the same era.

The nucleus of The Ghost formed around former Velvet Fogg guitarist Paul Eastment, accompanied by multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Shirley Kent who would go on to a solo career as a British folk and jazz singer. I have one of her solo jazz albums from just a few years ago and can testify that she is the real-deal as far as being a professional and talented musician.

But this is from the very early days. This is a pleasant album to listen to, but it is remarkably uneven, especially the first half of the tracks. “Hearts and Flowers” and “Time is My Enemy” have an almost Fairport Convention kind of thing going on for example, including the very dated but pleasant hippie-harmonizing vocals of Kent and Eastment. But “When You’re Dead” and “In Heaven” are fully developed and guitar- driven psychedelic works in the finest tradition of The United States of America, Jefferson Airplane, and all the rest of the west-coast flower-power kids. So it seems like the band is really trying to find a sound that works for them, rather than taking a sound and direction they already shared and trying to develop it. Just seems a bit contrived, which I suppose it was.

By the second half of the album the band settles into a very folk-influenced sound with farfisa organ, simple vocal harmonies, acoustic guitar, and tambourine. I loved this kind of music back when I was a little kid, but it hasn’t aged all that well with time, much like many of the old earth-mom types from that era. Most of them are either dead, or feeble and slightly shell-shocked today. That was a fascinating time to be alive, but survival comes through adaptation, and this stuff didn’t survive for a reason. That said, “Indian Maid” has some nice psychedelic guitar on it (I believe this was also the band’s only single); “The Storm” is the best showcase of Kent’s very Grace Slick-like vocals; and “For One Second” showcases how well the farfisa could complement psychedelic guitar in the hands of capable musicians.

But that’s about it. The rest of the album is pretty forgettable stuff, and a couple tracks are just plain weak and boring. I won’t point out which ones because it would be disrespectful of the work as a whole and there’s no point. In all this is a little better than collectors-only, not quite really good. But three stars is okay, with a disclaimer that if you don’t have a taste for dated-sounding psychedelic and/or late 60’s west- coast American folk, you probably won’t like this one much.

peace