Honeybus - I Can't Let Maggie Go - Various Songs (1966-1968)
It's really shocking how badly Honeybus was treated by their record company. They existed from 1967 to 1973, and had a big Top Ten hit in Britain with "I Can't Let Maggie Go." They were critically acclaimed, and had three talented singer-songwriters in the band. Yet, despite that, the record company only allowed them to record ONE studio album, "Story," in 1970. And in terms of archival material, they continue to be badly served, with many quality songs still unreleased.
So thank God for the BBC! Luckily, this band was well liked by the BBC and had quite a few sessions with them despite only having that one hit. As a result, versions of many of their unreleased songs exist, usually with very good sound quality. This album has seven songs where the only version that exists is the BBC one. Happily, five of those were released on the "She Flies like a Bird" anthology mentioned above. Even so, they're all good songs, and the band might have had much more success if they'd been able to use them to flesh out a studio album at the time.
The first two songs are also rare. They are the A- and B-Sides to the only single by the Anteeeks. (Yes, that's with three e's in a row.) This band was basically an early version of Honeybus, though there were some personnel differences. Crucially, it contained Pete Dello. He wrote both songs. He also wrote the band's one hit, "I Can't Let Maggie Go." Plus, he wrote "Do I Figure] In Your Life." It wasn't a hit at the time, though it should have been. It has since been covered by many artists, including Dave Berry, Joe Cocker, Ian Matthews, and Paul Carrack.
But the band had a lot more than just two good songs. This album is solid through and through, in my opinion. I believe all the songs are originals, except for "Goin' Back," by Carole King and Gerry Goffin.
Oh, speaking of "Goin' Back," that reminds me to mention that the seven songs from the BBC suffer from the usual problem of BBC DJs talking over the music. And, as usual, I edited the songs to fix that. But "Goin' Back" had an even worse problem: a chunk of the middle was missing. Only part of the first line of the second verse was there. In fixing the song, I considered just repeating the first verse where the second verse should go. But I decided instead to just skip the second verse entirely. Each chorus has different lyrics, and I'm so familiar with the famous song that it didn't feel right to me to have the words of the first verse lead into the words of the second chorus.
There's one bonus track here, "Lilly." It's another original song unique to a BBC performance. But sadly, the sound quality isn't up to snuff with the others, thus the bonus track status.
By the way, the band did a lot of songs in the "chamber pop" style where strings were used, although they could rock on occasion as well. For the chamber pop songs, the BBC had a small orchestra on hand to play live. So I'm pretty sure that most or all of the songs were done live, despite the strings on some of them.
I really like this album. If you haven't tried Honeybus, this is an excellent place to start, since it contains their two best known songs. Right after the time period here, the end of 1968, the band would suffer a blow when their main songwriter at the time, Pete Dello, would leave the band. But here, they were firing on all cylinders. It's a real shame that they didn't have more success and that they weren't even allowed to release a full album.
I have one last comment to make. I've found references to some BBC performances by the band that I don't have. If you have songs like "Warwick Town," "Looking Down," "Incredibly Bad," and "Follow the Plan," please let me know. I'd like to post an album of just the band's BBC sessions, but I want to wait until I find those other songs.
01 I Don't Want You (Anteeeks [Pete Dello & Ray Cane])
02 Ball and Chain (Anteeeks [Pete Dello & Ray Cane])
03 Delighted to See You (Honeybus)
04 The Breaking Up Scene (Honeybus)
05 [Do I Figure] In Your Life (Honeybus)
06 Throw My Love Away (Honeybus)
07 Arise Sir Henry [Edit] (Honeybus)
08 Maxine's Parlour [Edit] (Honeybus)
09 Like an Old Time Movie [Edit] (Honeybus)
10 I Can't Let Maggie Go (Honeybus)
11 Tender Are the Ashes (Honeybus)
12 Girl of Independent Means (Honeybus)
13 How Long [Single Version] (Honeybus)
14 Goin' Back [Edit] (Honeybus)
15 Ain't That Just Bonny for You (Honeybus)
16 Francoise [Edit] (Honeybus)
17 She Comes to Me [Edit] (Honeybus)
Lilly (Honeybus)
https://www14.zippyshare.com/v/lm6zt1XN/file.html
Normally, for an album like this, I prefer to have something that shows the members of the band. I went looking to see what the cover of the "I Can't Let Maggie Go" single looked like. There were several versions, and one had the photo you see above, with a literal interpretation of the song title. It's corny, but I like it as an example of the style of the era, so I used that one. I'll be posting other Honeybus albums where I can show what the band members looked like.
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