Читать книгу The Mojo Collection - Various Mojo Magazine - Страница 99

Record label: Columbia

Produced: Ron Richards

Recorded: EMI Studios, London; September 1967

Released: October 1967

Chart peaks: None (UK) None (US)

Personnel: Allan Clarke (v, g); Tony Hicks (g); Graham Nash (v, rg); Bernie Calvert (b, k); Bobby Elliott (d)

Track listing: Dear Eloise; Away Away Away; Maker; Pegasus; Would You Believe; Wishyouawish; Postcard; Charlie And Fred; Try It; Elevated Observations; Step Inside; Butterfly

Running time: 31.25

Current CD: EMI 5282452

Further listening: The Special Collection 3-CD boxed set (1997)

Further reading: www.hollies.co.uk

Download: iTunes; HMV Digital

By September 1967, the Indian Summer of Love was in full Technicolor bloom. If Sgt. Pepper psychedelia’s excesses had become public property, The Hollies – in particular Graham Nash – wanted in.

Butterfly, their fourth album of entirely self-penned songs in only two years (credited to the nucleus of Hicks/Clarke/Nash), represented all that was good and bad about British psychedelia. Although a typically well-crafted Hollies record, and blessed with their immaculate three-part harmonies, it features all the trademarks of its time – fairytale lyrics (Pegasus), stuff about being ‘high as the sky’ (Elevated Observations), full orchestral arrangements (Away Away Away) and, inevitably, Eastern instrumentation (Maker). High points include Nash’s intricate Dear Eloise and Butterfly itself, in spite of its ‘lemonade lakes’ and ‘candy floss snow’ (a lower point is Clarke’s embarrassing tale of two rag and bone men, Charlie And Fred). It is also largely Graham Nash’s record: he sings most of the leads and his wistful, winsome qualities prevail.

In the US the album was known as Dear Eloise/King Midas In Reverse and included Nash’s King Midas In Reverse, arguably The Hollies’ finest recorded moment but a relative flop as a single and left off the UK edition. It had been released against the advice of the group’s long-standing producer Ron Richards, who argued that it was too complex for Hollies fans. He was proved right.

Nash, however, wanted to reach beyond the limits of the band’s fanbase. He met David Crosby while attending a Mamas And Papas recording session in LA at the end of 1967, and the seeds of a new collaboration were sown. A follow-up to Butterfly was underway by March 1968 but was soon scrapped. Two new Nash songs (Marrakesh Express and Lady Of The Island) were not even attempted. For the rest of the year Nash’s relationship with the band was increasingly strained. The appeal of the seaside cabaret circuit and a mooted album of Dylan covers led him to leave the band on December 8, whereupon he went straight into rehearsals with Crosby and Stephen Stills. Meantime, The Hollies’ Greatest, their only Number 1 album, was still enjoying a 22-week run in the Top 10.