Sing Brother Sing (via Discogs)
I made a comment on Twitter yesterday, saying I’d listen to Gasoline Alley over In Rock any day. I got a response from Rob Chapman, whom I’ve mentioned here before for his writing, and his response referred to Sing Brother Sing by the Edgar Broughton Band, also released 3 June 1970. It is not an album I’ve ever previouly heard or, indeed, heard of. So I listened today, multiple times. Reader, it’s wonderful.
It is surreal, it is sleazy and it is weird. It is not musically sophisticated in terms of playing, though in many respects it is in terms of ideas, and yet it has a presence about it that I have not heard from another British band of the period during this project except, possibly, the Bonzos. And I swear I noted the similarities to Captain Beefheart before I did some research and found everyone else doing the same (in fact, my note for Old Gopher is ‘the unholy lovechild of Captain Beefheart and the Doors.’)
The lyrical content is surreal and off kilter in a very British way, as British as it could be for a three-piece band featuring two brothers from Warwick who’s mum was their roadie and driver.
Hello momma, are you there?
Would it be all right to turn on the light though I’m over sixteen?
And another thing, everything you taught me has been washed away in the flood I dreamed.
And that ain’t all.
There’s a moth on the wall, says his name is “MOTH” would you believe, didn’t like to knock, for I know how it is with poppa
I’m not sure Moth is friendly
Moth looks down at Peter from over his furry brow saying
It’s time to grow up, throw off puberty, take on your destiny in a man’
It’s on Spotify and YouTube and I commend it to your attention.
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