Wednesday 16 February 2011

Gypsy - s/t and In the Garden (1970/71)

Some albums just appear at the wrong moment. The music might be excellent, but when it does not get enough attention, it is all over. Some years are so crammed with excellent records, that some very good music might hardly be noticed. 1970 was such a year, and the album almost nobody now ever heard of is the eponymous debut album of Gypsy. They were the house band for eight months in the 1969-1970 season of The Whiskey A Go Go in West Hollywood. A five piece band with multi-instrumentalists and three singers. They sure must have been a very good live band.

The first album was a double album, and a single taken from it (Gypsy Queen part I and II) even entered the Billboard top 100. The new name of the band (they were the Underbeats), the titles of the album and the single, it all feels very planned as if marketing was certain they had found future superstars. They were wrong. The post-hippie psychedelic, proto-prog sound, with strings added later by the producer, two lead guitars, sometimes sounding like CSNY, then like Santana: it is sometimes beautiful and exciting but it lacks focus.


I really think they would have struck it big with a better producer. But the first album is still very, very good, and so is the second (except for a rather boring drum solo).

CD's are rather difficult to find. Here in Europe they were reprinted on the for me obscure (German) Walhalla label, and I have only found one shop in Munich that still sells them. They made two more albums, but I have not yet seen them for sale. Rips with cues and partial scans (from a torrent) - use the code of the month.
  • Gypsy - 1970
    • Gypsy Queen - Part One / Gypsy Queen - Part Two / Man Of Reason / Dream If You Can / Late December / The Third Eye / Decisions / I Was So Young / Here In My Loneliness / More Time / The Vision / Dead And Gon / Tomorrow Is The Last To Be Heard
  • In the Garden - 1971
    • Around You / Reach Out Your Hand / As Far As You Can See (As Much As You Can Feel) / Here (In The Garden) Part One / Here (In The Garden) Part Two / Blind Man / Time Will Make It Better
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12 comments:

  1. Val17 February 2011 at 10:23

    goeden dag mijn vriend, inderdaad prachtig deze group, neem aan dat uw post in lossless is?
    het "systeem" met de code is best leuk, maar niet iedereen wil het "vinden"...
    maar best eenvoudig en minder werk dan wij doen in Between Hell and Heaven geef ik toe!!!
    verheugd er een blogger bij te hebben die mooie muziek aanbied
    kussen
    Val

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  2. Val17 February 2011 at 10:27

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jim_Spyropoulos17 February 2011 at 14:42

    You rock Mr :) I had the second gypsy album but the first is pretty rare especially to find in lossless . Thanks a lot great band really deserved more

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  4. Hotroder19 February 2011 at 06:05

    Hey Mr Ooijer, am i missing something? can't seem to download. is it the link "the action" - says no longer exists. if not, what can i do?

    ReplyDelete
  5. MrOoijer19 February 2011 at 16:57

    Hi Hotroder, yes, you'll get that error message. Now look at the page address. It has three stars. replace those stars with the code of the month. Press Enter. Okay?

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  6. Hotroder20 February 2011 at 01:04

    Thanks for the info regarding the links,
    tricky.
    D/l the "Gypsy" albums,no problems,i have the second on vinyl but the first is rare.
    So thanks Mr Ooijer for the flac.

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  7. Eric20 February 2011 at 18:48

    Thanks, I have the vinyl myself.
    Bassist Willie Weeks was latterday drummer Bill Lorden's friend and room mate back then.
    Lorden went onto Robin Trower's band.

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  8. Makntak3 March 2011 at 04:31

    Many thanks Mr Ooijer!

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  9. beebyte17 June 2011 at 01:47

    BIG thanks for the Gypsy Mr Ooijer! You Seem to be the only person who has this posted on the net The LP itself is utterly rare and is a FANTASTIC listen!

    Do you happen to have "Antithesis" from 1972 or the 1978 "James Walsh Gypsy Band" LP to share?

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  10. gordy27 June 2011 at 10:38

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  11. gordy27 June 2011 at 14:12

    Yeah Code of the mouth expected
    Passionata bless the small
    Baby sandwich soaped for comfort
    Slipp'ry Sliding Ten Feet Tall

    It took many tries, but I finaly figured month/code rigmarole...Thanks for this Gem!

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  12. alexrun333310 November 2011 at 05:38

    Hello, Mr Ooijer
    I'm from Ica, Perú, South América.
    Links are dead.
    Please, I like Gypsy 70's album, çause I was 14 years old then. It's part of my life.
    Please maybe the links work again?
    Thank you very much.
    Alejandro Ramos

    ReplyDelete

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