Читать книгу The Mojo Collection - Various Mojo Magazine - Страница 168

Record label: Straight

Produced: Jerry Yester and Zal Yanovsky

Recorded: February–March 1969

Released: June 1969

Chart peaks: None (UK) None (US)

Personnel: Judy Henske (v); Jerry Yester (k, Moog, g, banjo, zither); Zal Yanovsky (g, b); Ry Cooder (rhythm mandolin); David Lindley (bowed banjo); Solomon Feldthouse (dulcimer); Toxey French (d); Larry Beckett (d); Jerry Scheff (b); Joe Osborn (b); Dick Rosmini (g)

Track listing: Snowblind; Horses On A Stick; Lullaby; St Nicholas Hall; Three Ravens; Raider; One More Time; Rapture; Charity; Farewell Aldebaran

Running time: 33.48

Current CD: Code7 RRCD133.

Further listening: Judy Henske’s solo LPs, High Flyin’ Bird (1963) and Little Bit Of Sunshine (1965)

Further reading: www.tctv.ne.jp/members/msite/jerryyester/JHJY6901.html (fan site); www.judyhenskefan.com (fan site)

Download: Not currently legally available

Signed to Frank Zappa’s Straight label, former Lovin’ Spoonful member Jerry Yester and his singer/songwriter wife Judy Henske created a forgotten classic. Its 10 songs range from surreal rock (Snowblind) and spoof bubblegum (Horses On A Stick) to Arthurian folk rock (Three Ravens) and, on the title track, full-blown avant-garde composition, owing more to Stockhausen or Sun Ra than the pop psych of the Spoonful.

The couple got together in 1962 when Henske was in vogue as a pop singer with a distinctive, lusty voice and Yester was her accompanist. Jerry then joined the Modern Folk Quartet and Judy signed to Elektra where she made several albums with Herb Cohen as producer, scoring a hit with High Flying Bird (later recorded by Jefferson Airplane). When Jerry was invited to join The Lovin’ Spoonful the couple moved to New York and started writing together. When the Spoonful finally split, Cohen suggested they move back to California and record for Straight.

With help from Jerry’s Spoonful comrade Zal Yanovsky, they began to graft musical flesh onto the songs they’d written. Powerful opening track Snowblind was a testament to the skills of this experienced line-up.

‘We wrote the song kind of as we did it,’ reveals Yester. ‘I was playing rhythm guitar, Zal was playing lead, Judy was singing and Larry Beckett [ex-Tim Buckley] was playing drums. The whole thing just took shape in an hour.’ Another stellar moment is the closing, title track, which leaves pop and rock trajectories to enter another musical orbit.

‘I loved the idea of a huge asteroid burning up in our atmosphere and telling its story,’ says Jerry. Creating the apocalyptic voice of this imagined invader involved some unusual techniques. ‘For the voice of the asteroid, we put Judy’s voice through a series of ring modulators, took all the actual tone out and just made it all overtones.’

Despite some rave critical response, Farewell Aldebaran crashed to earth. Henske and Yester went on to form the short-lived Rosebud until their marriage collapsed and they went their separate ways.