You Can All Join In - The Story Of The Best Rock Sampler LP Ever

mojoworking's picture
Submitted by mojoworking on 6 December 2012 - 4:37am

This piece originally appeared in a 1996 issue of Record Collector magazine as part of a much larger feature on Island Records. I was prompted to write it after seeing a short article in the debut issue of Mojo magazine which attempted to name everyone pictured on the Hipgnosis-designed cover of the famous 1969 Island sampler LP You Can All Join In.

It was a brave effort by the fledgling mag which nevertheless fell at the first hurdle, with almost a third of the people wrongly named, or left unidentified. Stranger yet was that for their piece Mojo mag had consulted Patrick Campbell-Lyons of the Island band Nirvana who not only appeared on You Can All Join In but was pictured on the sleeve himself!

After that I became determined (if not obsessed) to come up with a definitive list of everyone on the sleeve. This was made all the more difficult because several people are only partially visible over on the left of the picture. Then I had a stroke of luck. During the project I’d amassed several copies of You Can All Join In and one of them, a Dutch pressing, showed about an extra half-inch or so of the picture on the left and this was all I needed to fill in the gaps. Suddenly here was Richard Thompson (then with Fairport Convention), Clive Bunker (Jethro Tull) and Chris Mercer (then with Wynder K. Frog) and the puzzle was magically complete.

A complete, accurate list had never been published before that 1996 issue of Record Collector and along with my hand-drawn line diagram of the characters as they appeared on the sleeve (see below), it was subsequently lifted wholesale by Wikipedia and now pops up all over the interweb.

I initially posted a short version of the list at the bottom of tiggerlion’s excellent Hendrix thread, but it’s kind of an orphan there, especially as the thread has gone into the twilight zone of a second page, where few ever venture. So here's the full-fat version for all you Island Records obsessives out there. Some of the references are a little twee and dated now ("Beazer Homes League", anyone?) so I hope you'll bear with me in that regard.

YOU CAN ALL JOIN IN

If you are of a certain age and took even a fleeting interest in what was quaintly termed ‘underground’ rock music as a teenager the chances are that you've owned at least one copy of You Can All Join In at some point during the past 40 years.

Along with Nice Enough To Eat and Liberty's splendid pair of Gutbucket compilations this was among the first of the many sampler albums which began to appear at the tail-end of the 60s. Offering stunning value for money at a mere 14s/6d (72½p) for twelve tracks (this at a time when a full-price LP retailed for around 32s/11d [£1.65]), not only did YCAJI and its ilk provide a low-cost opportunity to hear tried and tested music from Island's Premier League of bands (Tull, Traffic, Free etc), but they also enabled interested parties to check out some of the kick-and-run merchants down at the Beazer Homes League end of the scale (Tramline, Wynder K. Frog et al) at considerably less financial risk.

The Americans, in typical advertising agency speak, called samplers LPs of this kind 'loss leaders' and invariably flogged them mail-order for one dollar apiece via adverts on the inner sleeves of early 70s Warner Bros albums and the like. Britain, meanwhile, quietly sold them over the counter for considerably more than a dollar. The principle, however, was exactly the same: after being initially attracted to the sampler by one or more of the big names on offer, you'd be so impressed by some of the lesser-known bands that you'd immediately rush out and buy one of their albums, full-price. That was the theory, anyway.

Almost as important as the music in this case, of course, was that distinctive and much-discussed YCAJI sleeve. Many have tried but until now (this was written in 1996) no one has ever succeeded in correctly naming everyone pictured on the cover. One spectacular failure worthy of note was Patrick Campbell-Lyons' effort in the debut issue of Mojo magazine. Considering the Nirvana mainman was actually present at the time (he's the P.J. Proby lookalike at No.9), his attempt was woefully incorrect (9 wrong out of 27! A case of one Camberwell carrot too many on the day, perchance Pat?).

So, who exactly was present on that fateful winter's morning in 1969 when the cream of Island's roster gathered in Hyde Park? By referring to the accompanying diagram and key, everyone on the cover can be identified quickly, simply and - more importantly - accurately.

A word, however, regarding those musicians partially visible on the extreme left of the sleeve. Above Chris Mercer's head (No.23) can be seen a brown coat collar, together with a similarly-coloured clump of hair. These belong to a then considerably more hirsute Richard Thompson (No.13) - and not Paul Kossoff as is sometimes claimed. Now, go up still further and immediately above Thompson's head, directly to the left of Neil Hubbard (No.2), can be seen a small amount of darker hair of almost Brillo Pad-like texture. Sadly, this is all that is visible of original Jethro Tull tub thumper Clive Bunker (No.1).

There has, over the years, been much speculation as to who was positioned out of camera range further to the left. Various names have been mooted including: John Martyn (possible), Blodwyn Pig (unlikely), and King Crimson (extremely unlikely indeed, since they weren't even signed to Island at that point!). No, it's far more likely that these stragglers were the remaining members of Spooky Tooth, along with, possibly, various representatives from Tramline. Paul Kossoff meanwhile, as the only member of Free not accounted for, was probably safely tucked up in his Golborne Mews bed at that unsociable hour of the morning.

Then there's the sorry tale of nearly-man Ian A. Anderson (he's the bearded, bespectacled, fur-coated figure at No.16 who was dropped from the label, without a release to his name, shortly thereafter). If his Mojo account of how he lost his Island contract is to be believed, the erstwhile folk blues practitioner (now editor of fRoots magazine) was unceremoniously given the bum's rush due to an unfortunate clash of names with a certain similarly-monikered Jethro Tull frontman. Stranger things have happened, admittedly, but Ian A.'s version of events seems a little paranoid all the same.

YOU CAN ALL JOIN IN - KEY TO DIAGRAM

1. CLIVE BUNKER (Jethro Tull)
2. NEIL HUBBARD (Wynder K. Frog)
3. GARY WRIGHT (Spooky Tooth)
4. GLENN CORNICK (Jethro Tull)
5. BRUCE ROWLAND (Wynder K. Frog)
6. MARTIN BARRE (Jethro Tull)
7. MICK WEAVER (Wynder K. Frog)
8. IAN ANDERSON (Jethro Tull)
9. PATRICK CAMPBELL-LYONS (Nirvana)
10. ASHLEY HUTCHINGS (Fairport Convention)
11. ALEX SPYROPOULOS (Nirvana)
12. CHRIS WOOD (Traffic)
13. RICHARD THOMPSON (Fairport Convention)
14. IAN MATTHEWS (Fairport Convention)
15. STEVE WINWOOD (Traffic)
16. IAN A. ANDERSON
17. JIM CAPALDI (Traffic)
18. MIKE HARRISON (Spooky Tooth)
19. MARTIN LAMBLE (Fairport Convention)
20. SIMON NICOL (Fairport Convention)
21. HARRY HUGHES (Clouds)
22. REBOP ANTHONY KWAKU BAAH (Wynder K. Frog)
23. CHRIS MERCER (Wynder K. Frog)
24. SIMON KIRKE (Free)
25. PAUL RODGERS (Free)
26. BILLY RITCHIE (Clouds)
27. ANDY FRASER (Free)
28. IAN ELLIS (Clouds)
29. SANDY DENNY (Fairport Convention)

Track Listing:

Side One
1. A Song For Jeffrey – Jethro Tull – (Alternative mix, original version from This Was) (ILPS 9085)
2. Sunshine Help Me – Spooky Tooth – (from It’s All About Spooky Tooth) (ILPS 9080)
3. I’m a Mover – Free – (from Tons of Sobs) (ILPS 9089)
4. What’s That Sound – Art – (from Supernatural Fairy Tales) (ILP 967)
5. Pearly Queen – Tramline – (from Moves of Vegetable Centuries) (ILPS 9095)
6. You Can All Join In – Traffic – (from Traffic) (ILPS 9081T)

Side Two
1. Meet on the Ledge – Fairport Convention – (from What We Did on Our Holidays) (ILPS 9092)
2. Rainbow Chaser – Nirvana – (from All of Us) (ILPS 9087)
3. Dusty - John Martyn – (from The Tumbler) (ILPS 9091)
4. I’ll Go Girl – Clouds – (from Scrapbook) (ILPS 9100)
5. Somebody Help Me – Spencer Davis Group – (from The Best of the Spencer Davis Group) (ILPS 9070)
6. Gasoline Alley – Wynder K. Frog – (from Out of the Frying Pan) (ILPS 9082)

Comments

was the first sampler album I actually bought, I'm thinking. "Iconic" cover image of Jerry Goodman, and very enjoyable sequencing.

Sides 1&2 were rocks music, side 3 more introspective singery-songwritery, and side 4 bluesy.

Burt Kocain | 6 December 2012 - 5:27am.

...though it seems that they were beloved of sampler LP compilers and sleeve designers at the time. 'Underground' 70' anyone? No, me neither...

Colin H | 6 December 2012 - 5:49pm.

I used to have a copy of this in the early 80s. Loved it, and this track in particular. Here it is again to warm us all up. A bit scratchy, but hey!...

Rob C | 6 December 2012 - 6:07am.

The Rock Machine Turns You On appeared in 1968 and may have been the very first rock sampler LP of its type.

A companion LP Rock Machine I Love You (also 1968) quickly followed.

mojoworking | 6 December 2012 - 6:28am.

to hear Rock Machine I Love You, sadly. I was only about 13 but steeped in the 60s and bought TRMTYO in a small Headshop off North St in Guildford. It's still there I believe, although I haven't been back in years. A very special shop for me. I got my copy of 'The Doors' and 'Piper..' there as well.

Rob C | 6 December 2012 - 6:48am.

wasn't quite as good as the first one. In later years the two were combined for a CD release, but some artists (Dylan, Roy Harper etc) were left off. What a swizz! It kind of defeats the purpose, really.

Here's that track listing in full for both Rock Machine LPs:

The Rock Machine Turns You On:

Side 1
1. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight - Bob Dylan - from the LP John Wesley Harding
2. Can't Be So Bad - Moby Grape - from the LP Wow
3. Fresh Garbage - Spirit - from the LP Spirit
4. I Won't Leave My Wooden Wife For You, Sugar - The United States of America - from the LP The United States of America
5. Time of the Season - The Zombies – from the LP Odessey and Oracle
6. Turn On A Friend – The Peanut Butter Conspiracy – from the LP The Great Conspiracy
7. Sisters of Mercy – Leonard Cohen – from the LP The Songs of Leonard Cohen

Side 2:
1. My Days Are Numbered – Blood, Sweat and Tears – from the LP Child Is Father to the Man
2. Dolphins Smile – The Byrds – from the LP The Notorious Byrd Brothers
3. Scarborough Fair / Canticle – Simon and Garfunkel – from the LP Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
4. Statesboro Blues – Taj Mahal – from the LP Taj Mahal
5. Killing Floor – The Electric Flag – from the LP A Long Time Comin'
6. Nobody’s Got Any Money In The Summer – Roy Harper – from the LP Come Out Fighting Ghengis Smith
7. Come Away Melinda – Tim Rose – from the LP Tim Rose
8. Flames – Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera – from the LP Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera

Rock Machine I Love You:

Side 1
1. More and More - Blood, Sweat & Tears - from the LP Blood Sweat & Tears
2. Stoned Soul Picnic - Laura Nyro - from the LP Eli and the Thirteenth Confession
3. Stop - Mike Bloomfield & Al Kooper - from the LP Super Session
4. You Ain't Goin' Nowhere - The Byrds - from the LP Sweetheart of the Rodeo
5. Somebody to Love - Grace Slick and The Great Society - from the LP Conspicuous Only in its Absence
6. Brandenburg Concerto No 3 in G Major, 2nd movement - Walter (later Wendy) Carlos from the LP Switched-On Bach
7. Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye - Leonard Cohen - from the LP The Songs of Leonard Cohen

Side 2

1. America - Simon & Garfunkel - from the LP Bookends
2. My Name is Jack - John Simon - from the Original Soundtrack recording You Are What You Eat
3. See To Your Neighbour - The Electric Flag - from the LP The Electric Flag
4. The Tihai, excerpt - Don Ellis and his Orchestra - from the LP Shock Treatment
5. Turtle Blues - Big Brother and the Holding Company - from the LP Cheap Thrills (listed on the cover/record as Ball and Chain)
6. Time - Dino Valente - from the LP Dino Valente
7. Ain't That a Lot of Love - Taj Mahal - from the LP The Natch'l Blues

mojoworking | 6 December 2012 - 7:42am.

Rock Machine I Love You is a quite patchy in comparison, as for the latter cd combination, to leave those artists off seriously compromises the whole affair.

Rob C | 6 December 2012 - 7:52am.

is not nearly as essential as the first. As for the CD release, I can only think they couldn't licence certain tracks. But in that case, why bother? It's not really the same record at all.

On the CD they added tracks by It's A Beautiful Day and The Flock which weren't on either of the original two Rock Machine LPs.

mojoworking | 6 December 2012 - 8:01am.

I went on to own...
John Wesley Harding
Moby Grape's Wow
The United States of America
Zombies' Odessey and Oracle
S&G's Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
Taj Mahal
Tim Rose
I've also got albums by Spirit and Cohen after hearing them on Rock Machine first.
Fan of The Byrds from the start but Dolphin Smiles is a great track.
So TRMTYO, as a marketing exercise, certainly worked on me.

aging hippy | 6 December 2012 - 9:14pm.

I owned on vinyl and cannot remember name of - but it was a triple album I believe. It had usual suspects BS&T, Laura Nyro and Spirit on it. Plus a lady called Genya Ravan who I've never heard of before or since but made a splendid racket as I remember - sort of rock/soul number.
Anyone jog my memory on this album?

Finisterre59 | 8 December 2012 - 5:49pm.

this one?

ruff-diamond | 8 December 2012 - 6:45pm.

& 10 Wheel Drive also featured on a Polydor sampler I owned. Taste had a track on it, as well as a band that made a dreadful racket called The Savage Rose. I can't remember anything else from it.

Carl Parker | 8 December 2012 - 7:10pm.

That's the one! Many thanks Ruff-D. And thanks for the Genya info Carl. I'm seeing an old mucker of similar vintage to me for a pint shortly and we can bore each other senseless with this kind of stuff. It's going to be great!

Finisterre59 | 8 December 2012 - 8:33pm.

All of these appeared in my seminal, literally, early teens, as I salivated and more to lap up the weird and wonderful of the "underground". To this day the evocative names of, particularly, the american bands on FYHWR, like Its a Beautiful Day, can lead me to unsuitable latter day purchases of disappointing material, the sampled tracks being inevitably the best and cheryy picked e'er so well.
A related shout to the CBS tendency to print the names and pictures of others on their catalogue on the record inner sleeves, again causing a need to search out this exotica. Never understood why more labels didn't take up this oppoetunity, as one was always led to read the damn things, having exhausted the lyrics on the main sleeve. Strangely the only other label that took this opportunity seemed to be the much maligned CM distribution of Harrogate, to this day betes noirs of many a folkie, as they have and jealously keep the rights to many a long since deleted treasure, refusing to release. (Worth a story in its own right here some day, maybe? One of you journo guys must know the tale??)

retropath2 | 6 December 2012 - 6:39am.

do a great folk rock compilation ? I've seen the cd box in Yeovil library, but I didn't get it out as I have nearly all the tracks concerned. Maybe I should. It's not always about familiarity with the material, but the way it's compiled, and if it's done lovingly and with taste, it's a whole listening experience in itself.

Rob C | 6 December 2012 - 6:51am.

Island folk rock compliations on CD, but none of them dates as far back as the sampler LPs of the late 60s/early 70s. In those days the folk rock tracks were lumped in with everything else because it was all new music at the time.

Unless you're thinking of Electric Muse from 1975? Originally a 4/LP box, it later appeared as two 3/CD box sets with very different tracks.

mojoworking | 6 December 2012 - 7:49am.

This is it, along with 'Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal'. They're recent comps I see, prompted by the long overdue folk/prog revival.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Island-Records-Folk-Box-Set/dp/B00265BCWC/ref=sr...

Rob C | 6 December 2012 - 7:55am.

Rob and it is very good. If you pm me I will gladly burn it for you. Let me know.

SteveT | 6 December 2012 - 5:04pm.

but I've ordered them from the library. Thanks for the offer though, Steve. Very much appreciated.

Rob C | 7 December 2012 - 12:57pm.

I know what you mean - earlier this year I bought two Hot Tuna cd's based on a rose coloured memory of them back in the day. They are okay but lack the magic I thought they had. Either that or my memory failed me. However I was chuffed to hear Its a beautiful Day feauture on the last Amorphuous Androgynous cd - those guys know how to recall the 60's and still make them sound exciting.

SteveT | 6 December 2012 - 5:01pm.

Which did you get? Last years "Steady as She Goes" I thought really rather good, but there is certainly a lot of 70s/80s live retreads knocking around of "varying" quality. If you like accoustic stuff, Jormas 2 noughties solo LPs, basically picking and drawling, are rather good, especially Blue Country Heart.

retropath2 | 6 December 2012 - 5:17pm.

and Burgers. Good but not brilliant - I remember an album that had a lot more of the violin playing of Papa John Creach - these two albums seem more Blues orientated al la Canned Heat. I remembered the songs but I recall another album and dont know which one it was. As I cant remember the date from last week hardly surprising!!

SteveT | 6 December 2012 - 9:36pm.

was another good one, my (belated) introduction to Nick Drake, King Crimson and Mott the Hoople on one record. Also had Quintessence and Heavy Jelly as obscure post-psych bonus points.

pessoa | 6 December 2012 - 7:40am.

Release Date - November 1969

Side one:

1. Cajun Woman – Fairport Convention – (from LP Unhalfbricking)
2. At the Crossroads – Mott the Hoople – (from LP Mott the Hoople)
3. Better By You, Better Than Me - Spooky Tooth – (from LP Spooky Two)
4. We Used To Know - Jethro Tull – (from LP Stand Up)
5. Woman – Free – (from LP Free)
6. I Keep Singing That Same Old Song – Heavy Jelly – (From Island 7" single)

Side two:
1. Sing Me A Song That I Know – Blodwyn Pig – (from LP Ahead Rings Out)
2. (Roamin' Thro' The Gloamin' With) Forty Thousand Headmen – Traffic – (from LP Best of Traffic)
3. Time Has Told Me – Nick Drake – (from LP Five Leaves Left)
4. 21st Century Schizoid Man - King Crimson – (from LP In the Court of the Crimson King)
5. Gungamai – Quintessence – (from LP In Blissful Company)
6. Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal – Dr. Strangely Strange – (from LP Kip of the Serenes

Another piece I wrote in 1996:

Although lacking some of the obvious eyecatching appeal of You Can All Join In, the sleeve of Nice Enough To Eat was also not without its share of visual delights - the surreptitious concealment of a few suspicious-looking capsules among the alphabet biscuits and Smarties was a particularly nice touch, for example.

Musically speaking though, it was no contest. In terms of value for money (it was another 14s/6d [72½p] special), NETE easily matched its illustrious predecessor and, the two Liberty label Gutbucket compilations aside, just about every other sampler album you care to name. Tull, Fairport, John Martyn, Free, Traffic and Spooky Tooth were represented yet again, naturally, but this time there were several new names to ponder as the second wave of Island signings began to make its presence felt.

Accordingly, Nice Enough To Eat was probably the place where most late 60s record buyers first chanced upon the music of King Crimson, Nick Drake, Mott The Hoople, Blodwyn Pig, Dr. Strangely Strange and Quintessence. Not only that, but it was also almost certainly the first - and last - time they would encounter the mysterious Heavy Jelly.

The Heavy Jelly saga is a long and, at times, extremely tedious one and only certain aspects of it need concern us here. Briefly, after a 1968 Time Out magazine hoax album review of a non-existent band named Heavy Jelly had stirred up considerable interest, the race was on to produce a real record by an actual group of that name. Needless to say, Island got there first in January 1969 with the single I Keep Singing That Same Old Song. This incarnation of Heavy Jelly (there were, ultimately, at least four different versions of the band) was, in fact, none other than UK psych/pop merchants Skip Bifferty and the epic eight minute-plus A-side was the work of their bass player Colin Gibson.

Just to complicate things a little further, the version of I Keep Singing That Same Old Song which closes Side One of NETE features a somewhat different mix to the single. Most obviously, the opening guitar figure - played acoustically on the 7" - is tackled on an electric for the album version. Not only that, the manic glissando piano onslaught (stand up producer Guy Stevens?) towards the end is noticeably louder than on the 45. Although another single and full album credited to 'Heavy Jelly' later appeared, despite the claims of various rock reference books, this was a completely different band with no connection to either Island or Skip Bifferty.

As befits this pair of classic sampler LPs, You Can All Join In and Nice Enough To Eat were later issued on one CD as the cunningly-titled Nice Enough To Join In. In order to fit both albums onto a single disc though, three tracks from NETE were jettisoned (Tull, Fairport and - presumably because the Island no longer handled their material - King Crimson). Curiously, the album sides were also been reversed. YCAJI, however, remained unaltered and unmolested on CD.

mojoworking | 6 December 2012 - 8:36am.

they are alphabet sweeties, and they were majorly yummy. Haven't seen them for years.

*cue thread longing for the return of Spangles etc etc etc*

Vulpes Vulpes | 6 December 2012 - 7:17pm.

'Nice Enough To Eat' is a very important record to me. It was one of a few records that made all the difference to me in my youth. It put me on a path to explore a whole range of rock and prog. This is on my desert island discs list and would be the record I would keep.

Baskerville Old Face | 7 December 2012 - 9:56pm.

...El Pea fondly.

mojitojoe | 6 December 2012 - 8:06am.

due to the stupid design, holding the two LPs between three sheets of clear, unflexible PVC and kept in with a little strip of foam. Doh. Probably only bettered by the sandpaper-covered Durutti Column album and the Stones' bloody zipper for guaranteeing to destroy either the contained album or the one next to it on your shelves, or both.

Vulpes Vulpes | 6 December 2012 - 7:20pm.

The Island sales pitch around the foam strip (Colosseum Live also had this design) as I recall was that it was meant to clean the albums as they went in and out of the plastic sleeve.

Not a concept fully thought through, if you ask me.

Carl Parker | 6 December 2012 - 11:14pm.

Nothing like scraping a bit of hard plastic "foam" across the grooves to clean a record. Also, you had to extract the disc by gripping it with your fingers (like girls do) to keep the "foam" in contact with the vinyl. Also, any stray bits of grit or grease the "foam" accidentally picked up would be re-deposited on the next scrape.

Burt Kocain | 7 December 2012 - 2:32am.

whose name is inscribed delicately in the top left hand corner of the back of my copy, and who presumably owned it before me (I bought it second-hand in Catapilla Records, Exeter, sometime in the early 70s), was a girlie who bucked the trend, and kept the discs in separate covers (probably nicked from her brother's Status Quo LPs) and well away from the evil scratchy foam strips. I just hoicked the albums out of their sleeve to take these photos, and goodness me they used a lot of vinyl when they pressed these babies! What a line up the sampler had, too:

Vulpes Vulpes | 7 December 2012 - 1:07pm.

Never heard that about the foam strips as a cleaning aid, but in theory it makes perfect sense because the LP has to brush against them on its way in and out of the PVC sleeve.

Trouble was, if the record was left undisturbed on the shelf for a decade or more, the chemical composition of the foam usually broke down and fused itself to the edge of the record itself. In some cases it even ate into the vinyl, so there was no way back from that.

If that weren't bad enough, the PVC inner sleeve invariably made the records go cloudy and in turn they always tore free of the staples holding them to the spine of the outer sleeve.

Back to the drawing board on that one, I think.

mojoworking | 7 December 2012 - 2:55am.

Vulpes Vulpes | 7 December 2012 - 1:01pm.

And very cheaply.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51slGL8sKDL._SL500_SS500_.jpg
There are a few now and similar, I believe, Steve T having exhorted their virtues in the old place.

retropath2 | 6 December 2012 - 8:31am.

Anyone found any good free mp3 samplers? I was looking at Amazon yesterday and downloaded the Zimbalam and Sunday Best ones - the Fat Cat one's worth a miss . The Sunday Best one has David Lynch, Skinny Lister etc.... http://www.amazon.co.uk/MP3-Music-Download/b/ref=sa_menu_mp3_str0?ie=UTF...

Count Grassi | 6 December 2012 - 5:14pm.

Feat. Tower of Power. graham central Station. The Doobies. Utterly of its time, none the worse for that. The back cover has more flares than an impromptu Guy Fawkes party with the Royal Navy . 59p!

Moose the Mooche | 6 December 2012 - 5:13pm.

I was just prodding my brain about this and also recalled Bumpers and The Greasy Truckers Party - I only remembered the latter of these for the contribution of Man - which schoolboy wouldnt titter at a title of Spunk Rock? I was amazed to read the wikipedia article on the album that there were a number of tracks by Brinsley Schwarz. I could have sworn I hadnt heard them until just before Graham Parker and Elvis Costello broke onto the scene in 1977. As Greasy Truckers was released in 1972 I am obviously wrong. I blame the weed, man.

SteveT | 6 December 2012 - 5:22pm.

UA/Liberty sampler, 1971. Slightly suggestive title designed to pull in adolescent boys - check. Blues rock - check. Prog - check. Never-to-be-heard-of-again singer-songwriters - check.

Great sleeve, and not a bad album. And there's Cochise, whose album cover had memorable mammaries.

Moose the Mooche | 6 December 2012 - 6:49pm.

Inevitably, with a few track changes, but mostly intact. The Colin Scott album that's featrured on both the LP and CD sampler also got a separate CD re-release on, I think, Sunbeam, about 3 years ago.

Vulpes Vulpes | 6 December 2012 - 7:23pm.

...I don't know if you saw it but I did wonder aloud a while back on someone else's thread if it wasn't time for you to post the entirety of your Island Records saga as a feature here. Oh, go onnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!

Anyway, has *anyone* ever heard anything by Tramline, Art, Nirvana or Wynder K Frog which *wasn't* on YCAJI or another Island sampler?

'El Pea' and 'Bumpers' were particularly good ones in that several tracks or mixes were exclusive. Certainly, I recall one Quintessence LP track was several seconds longer on (I think) 'El Pea', while of course an otherwise unavailable live version of 'Jesus, Buddha...' appeared on (from memory) 'Bumpers'. Likewise, there's a different version of Sandy Denny's 'Late November' on 'El Pea'. I think there's several other oddities... all of which I'm sure you know, Moje! Apologies if my memory is no good.

But surely the real mystery with YCAJI is this: 'Why isn't Mojo Working in the shot?' That's what all 60s/70s Great Event chroniclers have been puzzling over for years. And yet the answer is surely (almost) hidden in plain sight, when one simply asks 'Who took the picture...?'

Let's enjoy a bit of that live Quintessence track, from St Pancras Town Hall, 1970:

Colin H | 6 December 2012 - 5:39pm.

Cheers Colin. I think the full Island feature might be a little too unwieldy to post in one hit (it ran over 35,000 words and 6 issues of Record Collector after all). It's more fun discussing the albums one at a time, anyway.

Before El Pea there was of course Bumpers. It was the last pink label Island sampler and, as you say, it contained many oddities and discrepancies.

BUMPERS

Release Date 1970

Will the compilers of Bumpers please step forward and take a bow! As an exercise in sheer, blind, inept genius, this one sure takes some beating. And, when you consider that a high percentage of the tracks here differ markedly in some way from the officially released versions, this oft-ignored double album sampler (original 1970 price 29s/11d [a shade under £1.50]) begins to look like one of prog rock's best kept secrets. In fact, so numerous and complex are the discrepancies, red herrings and outright cock-ups lurking within the only pink label double album, that a track-by-track run through seems the only sensible way to sort it all out:

SIDE ONE:

1. TRAFFIC - Every Mother's Son - Apart from a slightly longer fadeout and a discrepancy in the composer credits (Jim Capaldi is mysteriously uncredited on label and sleeve), no real differences are apparent here.

2. BRONCO - Love - At this stage the first Bronco album was still some months away, so the Bumpers sleeve notes were jumping the gun somewhat - not to mention completely wrong on both counts - when they claimed that Love was "from ILPS 9134 - Bronco". When it eventually appeared (as ILPS 9124), Bronco's debut was, in fact, titled Country Home. ILPS 9134, of course, was subsequently allocated to Nick Drake's Bryter Layter.
Due to an extended fadeout, the Bumpers version of Love runs for 12 seconds longer than the officially released track. Spookily, Country Home actually features a track entitled Bumpers West!

3. SPOOKY TOOTH - I Am The Walrus - Although probably the same take as the version on The Last Puff album, the Bumpers track features different lead guitar overdubs amid a somewhat heavier mix.

4. QUINTESSENCE - Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Gauranga - This is where it starts to get weird. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the self-titled second Quintessence album, from whence this track purports to have come, a studio-recorded effort? If that's true, then why in the name of Buddha is the Bumpers track an unavailable-elsewhere, full-blown live version?! Not only that, but listen out for an absolute corker of a mistake when, following Allan's guitar freakout (second chorus, on the word Gaur-anga) bassist Shambhu unleashes a beauty of a bum note which leaves the hapless vocalist Shiva all at sea in an off-key nightmare! Great stuff. Quintessential, in fact!

SIDE TWO:

1. MOTT THE HOOPLE - Thunderbuck Ram - Very little change here, although a subtly different mix lends the Bumpers version a slightly more strident feel.

2. JETHRO TULL - Nothing To Say - Not nearly as powerful as the Benefit version, the Bumpers track appears to have lost something in the transfer. Otherwise, the title says it all.

3. JIMMY CLIFF - Going Back West - Another case of premature ejaculation by the Bumpers compilers, it seems. To quote the sleeve notes, Going Back West is taken "From ILPS 9133 - Jimmy Cliff released Autumn '70". Well, not only does said catalogue number relate to John & Beverley Martyn's Road To Ruin, but the mooted eponymous Jimmy Cliff LP appears to have been abandoned somewhere along the way. A self-titled album (minus this track) had already appeared a year earlier on Trojan, but this is obviously not the record referred to here. In fact, Cliff would not release an album for Island between 1967's Hard Road To Travel and Another Cycle in 1971.
True to form, Going Back West actually runs for eleven seconds longer than the 5:32 claimed on the Bumpers label. A somewhat shorter version of the song (4:27) eventually appeared on the 1975 double LP compilation The Best Of Jimmy Cliff.

4. BLODWYN PIG - Send Your Son To Die - Although the label claims 5:35 for this track, it actually runs for only 4:35 - which is, in itself, an eleven second increase on the Getting To This LP version! Assuming that both versions are identical takes and (probably) originate from the same mix, how then do we account for the extraneous eleven seconds? Simple - the Getting To This track runs a little faster than the Bumpers version, making the song sound quite different and, of course, explaining the time difference. Composer credits on the label read 'N. Abrahams', thus turning Mick into 'Nick', presumably?

5. DAVE MASON - Little Woman - Quite why the (then) non-LP B side of Mason's February 1968 solo single Just For You was included here (some two and a half years after its original airing) is anyone's guess. Since the A side was credited to Traffic when it appeared on Last Exit, there's even an outside chance that this could be them too - although it must be said that both songs certainly have the feel of solo, multi-tracked efforts. Little Woman and Just For You ended up on Mason's 1972 double LP compilation Scrapbook.

SIDE THREE:

1. JOHN & BEVERLEY MARTYN - Go Out And Get It - Aside from Bumpers' all-too-familiar habit of mis-timing the tracks (this one is listed at 3:15, some 9 seconds longer than its true length), there are no other major discrepancies here.

2. KING CRIMSON - Cadence & Cascade At 3:30, Bumpers understates the timing of Cadence & Cascade by no less than 13 seconds. Mind you, even at its true length of 3:43, that still leaves a whopping 53 seconds shortfall between this and the full In The Wake Of Poseidon version! An early fade-out can be blamed for the truncated Bumpers track, a theme which Fripp took even further on the 1976 compilation The Young Person's Guide To King Crimson when he lopped a further seven seconds off poor old Cadence....
Also worth noting are the horribly remixed cymbals and hi-hat on the Bumpers version.

3. IF - Reaching Out On All Sides - If's self-titled debut LP claims a time of 5:14 for this track, whereas Bumpers plumps for 5:35. Both are incorrect since the true time is actually 5:40. All versions sound identical, however. Incidentally, on the original album and single, this song is referred to as I'm Reaching Out On All Sides.

4. FREE - Oh I Wept - Apart from Paul Kossoff losing an 'f' from his name on label and sleeve, what else is different here? Only a totally alternate Paul Rodgers' vocal track, that's all! And as if that weren't enough to make Bumpers an essential purchase, the bass guitar parts are also noticeably different.

5. NICK DRAKE - Hazey Jane - When Bryter Layter appeared in late 1970, it contained two individually-numbered versions of Hazey Jane. Perversely, Hazey Jane II (Side One, Track 2) precedes Hazey Jane I (Side One, Track 5) in the Bryter... running order. Although not numbered as such, what we have here is, in fact, version one.

SIDE FOUR:

1. FAIRPORT CONVENTION - Walk Awhile - No changes here.

2. CAT STEVENS - Maybe You're Right - Now, this is a strange one. It appears that during the tape transfer or re-mastering stage, something went horribly wrong with Maybe You're Right. On Mona Bone Jakon this track is in the key of G throughout. The Bumpers version, although starting off in G, slows down and switches to F# around two thirds of the way through! This would account for the distinctly off-key piano figure and eleven second time discrepancy. Whatever the reason, the results are dreadful!

3. RENAISSANCE - Island - Everything here, including (for once) the track timings, is correct.

4. FOTHERINGAY - The Sea - While both Bumpers and the Fotheringay LP claim a time of 5:25 for this track, 5:30 is actually closer to the truth.

5. CLOUDS - Take Me To Your Leader - Despite Bumpers' bold claim that Take Me To Your Leader originates from "their (forthcoming) Chrysalis album to be released Autumn '70", this track was never issued elsewhere in the UK, either on LP, or 45. What's more, there was no "Autumn '70" album, since Clouds' second LP (Watercolour Days - Chrysalis ILPS 9151) would not appear until the spring of 1971.
Take Me To Your Leader had, in fact, already been aired on the US-only Clouds' album Up Above Our Heads.

mojoworking | 6 December 2012 - 11:33pm.

...casual listener where that album was concerned?

(Great stuff, as always. More from the MW vaults as and when you feel like it...)

Colin H | 7 December 2012 - 1:10am.

...everyone doesn't listen to records with the kind of insane attention to detail seldom seen outside of autism? You surprise me sir.

Thanks Colin, I'll see what else I can find that might be of interest to the Afterword cognoscente.

mojoworking | 7 December 2012 - 5:07am.

That said 29/11 Double Album. I went into a record shop with my younger brother and sister. We had 10/- each to spend on whatever singles took our fancy. I persuaded them that we could buy this Bumpers collection as we would get more tracks for our dosh. I still have it; it opened up my eyes to fab music that has stayed with me through the years. I have most tracks on various CDs now but would love a CD of this release. I will reissue it myself if tonight's win on the Euromillions is much larger than Tuesday's £2.70. Marvellous.

Beany | 7 December 2012 - 5:57pm.

For you Beany.

Strangely, many people tried to remove the original price stickers on albums back then with inevitable sleeve damage.

mojoworking | 7 December 2012 - 9:54pm.

They were great ways to discover new music back in the late 60's.
Rock Machine Turns You On was arguably the best - It certainly got me interested in Spirit and Leonard Cohen. It is probably very difficult for anyone born since the 80's to comprehend quite how important they were to me as a teenager trying to find 'diferent' music.
I seem to recall that after rock Machine and Rock Machine I Love You C.B.S. put out a double sampler called Rockbuster.......

daff | 6 December 2012 - 5:40pm.

...forget the title, a double LP with a slab of atonal Tony Williams Lifetime on it. At least, it sounded atonal then. In fact, I think it was this - which now sounds surprisingly melodic:

Colin H | 6 December 2012 - 5:46pm.

The New Age Of Atlantic
www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=12204
Some great stuff on this including classic Delaney & Bonnie and John Prine.

Bumpers
www.oatridge.co.uk/bumpers.htm
This was at a flat I used to stay at in my college days. Strangely I always thought the Bronco (ft Jess Roden) contribution on this was Bumpers West, a track I've adored, but haven't heard, for about 40 years.

aging hippy | 6 December 2012 - 6:27pm.

Now there's a statement you don't hear to often. But they do feature on this:

Is it a sampler? In respect of it being a showcase album for NWOBHM then I believe it is.
Volume 2 wasn't too shabby either.

Other Samplers of personal satisfaction:
A Bunch Of Stiffs
http://www.discogs.com/Various-A-Bunch-Of-Stiff-Records/release/1416413

Live Stiffs
http://www.discogs.com/Various-Stiffs-Live-Stiffs/master/105954

Rigid Digit | 6 December 2012 - 7:47pm.

Thanks Mojo, great thread, I still have RMTYO, YCAJI & NETE on vinyl, they were probably my most played vinyl in the late `60`s early `70`s wonderful times.

Baron Harkonnen | 6 December 2012 - 7:56pm.

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