SLEEPING FOR YEARS (THE STUDIO RECORDINGS 1970-1974)

The British organ-heavy progressive/ hard rock band Atomic Rooster was sovereignly led by organist Vincent Crane who hired and kicked out other members as he saw fit. The group was formed in 1969 after the disbanding of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, in which Crane had been the primary composer. Drummer Carl Palmer continued the collaboration with Crane for one album before joining with Keith Emerson and Greg Lake, and the third original Rooster member was bassist-vocalist Nick Graham. This trio recorded the eponymous debut (1970).

This 4-cd box set released by Esoteric Recordings contains everything -- that is, five studio albums plus the singles -- the band recorded in their original timeline. There are plenty of Atomic Rooster compilations, undoubtedly many of them musically more up to the point. But although they drifted further away from prog towards soul and funk flavoured rock, I think it's exactly the constant change in both the line-up and the style that makes it very reasonable to have the all-inclusive package with lavish liner notes on the group's history. I borrowed this set from library, having never been very much into this band (I once had the third album "In Hearing of Atomic Rooster", the one with the Roger Dean cover art, but sold it away quite soon). In fact there are only one or to tracks per album that I personally have enough interest in for repeated listening. For the most part this hard rock band of a cult status leaves me pretty cold, and therefor my review is more about sharing information than evaluating the music itself.

"Atomic Rooster" (1970) -- its drawn cover art circulated here -- is generally seen less noteworthy than its classic follower "Death Walks Behind You" (1971) coated in the William Blake painting, in which the newly recruited guitarist John [Du] Cann took the vocal duties too. Vincent Crane replaced the missing bass guitar with his Hammond. I don't necessarily see the latter album anyhow better, but it rocks heavier which may be the reason for its classic status as a predecessor of metal. Anyway, one of my favourite pieces on this whole 4-cd set is the moody and delicate 'Winter' from the debut. I'm not fond of Cann's vocals, nor was Crane obviously, because on the third album he gave the post for Peter French. Bluesy 'Black Snake' was exceptionally sung by Crane himself; French (or someone) thought in the liner notes that the lyrics reflect perfectly Crane's troubled psyche. A great part of the interview-based liner notes deals with Crane as a problematic personality to work with. He died of a deliberate overdose of Anadin tablets in 1989, at the age of 45.

"Made in England" (1972) introduced the new vocalist Chris Farlowe who really can pour soul in his singing. Steve Bolton is the guitarist on this album, but he was also very temporary member. On "Nice 'n' Greasy" (1973), definitely the weakest and least proggy album of the five, the guitars are played by John Goodsall (later of Brand X fame), albeit using the pseudonym Johnny Mandala!

Only the lack of track lengths bothers me when evaluating the overall presentation of this box set. In theory I could give a higher rating, but since I don't much like most of the music here, let's make it three.