FIVE DAY WEEK STRAW PEOPLE orig '67 psych LP The Attack
$
192
Favourite Auctions
To save auctions to your favourites, please login
If you don't have an account, please register
Description
ORIGINAL SUPER RARE UK pressing of this legendary 1967 pop psych masterpiece by the Five Day Week Straw People on the SAGA label. Yeah, this is CLASSIC UK toytown popsike, recorded in 4 hours and put together by former Attack frontman John Du Cann. This album took a while to get legitimate respect, no doubt due to the fact that it was pressed on the low-budget Saga label. Along with the Magic Mixture, it's definitely one of the best releases on the label, and can even hold its own with the Rainbow Ffollys and Velvet Operas of the time. Put the needle down anywhere and you can see the psychedelic mini's (cars and dresses) outside Granny Takes a Trip circa 1967 - this album has more Carnaby Street flair than Austin Powers' teeth. The title track is classic freakbeat, with echoed-out vocals and murky guitar, which probably has more to do with the low production budget versus sonic preference. Fans of the Smoke, The Creation and Tintern Abbey will find much to love here. "I'm Going Out" is heavier, crunchier psychedelia, while "Gold Digger" rumbles along with a nifty hook and an absolutely KILLER wailing lead guitar solo! It's hampered, or maybe strengthened depending on your opinion, by the same "unfinished" sound that the Rainbow Ffolly album had (which really WAS unfinished). But again, remember, this was all recorded in 4 hours at the Saga studios, and some would say this album has more charm and earthiness than the big-budget boys. When the budget and technology allows, the band does throw in a few trippy sonic touches - "Postman" starts out backwards, then switches abruptly forward with a rather poor edit. "Does It Rain" starts with a thunderclap followed by, appropriately enough, the sound of rain, then wafts along in a '66 Beatles waltz-time tempo. But the biggest production here is reserved for the biggest mindblower, the amazing "Sunday Morning", whose vocals are drenched in so much echo, they're barely decipherable, if at all. "Sunday Morning" starts out with the sound of children playing, surely found during the same raid on the BBC sound effects library that located the thunder and rain for "Does It Rain". This is followed by by a big smashing guitar chord, just like the opening to the Yardbirds "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago". It's an impressive intro for a shoestring budget, but the production on the vocals is far too echoey, and I can't make out a word of it. The guitarist makes up for it though, with a great freeform echoed-out jangly acid guitar that shimmers like moonlight on water and feeds back on itself. In the end, you're left with a wondrous little album whose songs are all top-notch in the grand British popsike tradition, but in the end, much like the Rainbow Ffolly album, you wonder just how incredible this COULD have been if it had gotten equally top-notch big label production. But for something laid down in 4 hours at a low budget studio, it's a bit of a miracle. Original 1967 stereo pressing on the UK Saga label. Cover's in VG+ shape with light creasing, and a 1-inch tear on the front cover out from the opening. Vinyl plays VG+ with occasional pops, not bad for this label. Winning bidder pays $4.00 media mail shipping in the US, $8 to Canada, and $14 air mail everywhere else. Paypal, Bidpay, cash, checks and money orders accepted. Please check out my other auctions for more obscure pop, psych and garage albums, and I will combine shipping on multiple wins.
