... AND OTHER SHORT STORIES

"Barclay James Harvest And Other Short Stories" is the third studio album of Barclay James Harvest that was released in 1971, such as happened with their previous studio album "Once Again". It represents their third album released to Harvest Records. With this album, essentially the formula is still unchanged. The classic Barclay James Harvest sound is in place, with harmonies and orchestra and the Mellotron and the stuff in general are all in place. However, in relation to their previous album, "Once Again", we can say that it represents a step back in relation to the prog rock music and even in its quality. The overall feel of the album is one of peace and tranquillity, emphasised by the use of the orchestra.

"Barclay James Harvest And Other Short Stories" has nine tracks. The first track "Medicine Man" written by John Lees is a John Lees' classic opener which was inspired by the Ray Bradbury's novel, "Something Wicked This Way Comes". It's a superb song to open the album with beautiful vocal performance and also with a fantastic and memorable orchestral arrangement. This is a song that represents one of the highest musical moments on the album. The second track "Someone There You Know" written by Woolly Wolstenholme was a song written about a failed love affair. It's a nice song with a very catchy melody, good guitar and keyboard works, inspired harmony, and the final result is a pleasant and romantic ballad to hear. The third track "Harry's Song" written by John Lees was inspired after the death of a much-loved family pet, a blue Amazon parrot. It's a simple song made to sound as a rocking number. It isn't a bad song, but I sincerely think it isn't a very inspired song and the final result isn't very convincing. John Lees wrote much better things in his career. The fourth track "Ursula (The Swansea Song)" written by Woolly Wolstenholme is another song written about a failed love affair, and represents a particularly traumatic time in his life. It's a simple and beautiful song with nice melody and a beautiful Mellotron work. It has a lovely poetry work, is very well played and is carefully arranged. After so many years it still remains nice, fresh and pleasant to hear. The fifth track "Little Lapwing" although the song is credited to Les Holroyd, John Lees wrote the lyrics and once more he returned at which seems to be one of his favourite themes on this album, birds for inspiration. This is an acoustic song composed in the vein of much of the songs of their eponymous debut studio album. It's a nice and simple song where Les Holroyd not only played bass but also performed almost of the musical instruments. The sixth track "Song With No Meaning" written by Les Holroyd is another song composed in the same vein of the previous. It's essentially a typical English pastoral acoustic song where Les Holroyd once again played almost all the musical instruments. It's another simple and nice song, slightly laconic and probably represents the weakest musical moment on the album. The seventh track "Blue John's Blues" written by John Lees is a song based in the point of view of John Lees about the music business and the position the band found itself at the time. It's the other song of the album written to sound as a rocking number. It's a nice rock song with some good guitar work, nice piano and John Lees rocking vocals, which shows a side of the band not revealed by them until that moment. The eighth track "The Poet" written by Woolly Wolstenholme is in reality a fantastic mini-epic orchestral piece. It's a small but at the same time a perfect and majestic piece that proves the skills of Woolly Wolstenholme as a brilliant composer and shows perfectly well his musical influences of the classical music. This is a great song that makes the perfect bridge to the next and the final song of the album and forms a terrific two part ending of the album. The ninth track "After The Day" written by John Lees is an apocalyptic song that shows John's vision of Armageddon, which literally closes the album in a great and very bombastic style. It's a great song with a fantastic guitar work and a majestic Mellotron work. It's truly a symphonic piece of music with an irreproachable orchestral musical arrangement. This is a song that represents a perfect way to close this very interesting and nice album of Barclay James Harvest.

Conclusion: "Barclay James Harvest And Other Short Stories" is a good studio album of Barclay James Harvest and is also very interesting too. It's true that it isn't as good as "Once Again" is, but it's as good or probably even better than "Barclay James Harvest" is, but it's definitely better than "Baby James Harvest". Relatively to "Once Again", it hasn't the same quality level and the brilliance of "Once Again" and it also doesn't include some of their best and most known tracks such as "Song For Dying", "She Said" and "Mockingbird". In relation to "Barclay James Harvest" it isn't as cohesive and balanced as it is, but musically it's one step ahead of it and is more progressive and has also three great tracks "Medicine Man", "The Poet" and "After The Day". Finally, it's better than "Baby James Harvest" because "Baby James Harvest" isn't also very cohesive and balanced and their tracks are in general weaker and only two of them deserve some special mention, "Summer Soldier" and "Moonwater". So, "Barclay James Harvest And Other Short Stories" is definitely not an essential purchase, by any meaning, but it's a good album for lovers of prog melodic music.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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