Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Barclay James Harvest
Label: EMI Records
Released: 1972
Rating: 3.5/5
“Baby James Harvest”, the fourth studio album from British symphonic-leaning art rockers Barclay James Harvest, was originally conceived as a double concept album split into four parts, with each of the band’s four members getting their own space to show off their musical ideas. The ambitious project soon fell through, though, thanks to label pressure and a lack of time and money. The band called “Baby James Harvest” a “schizophrenic album”, since they were working separately in two different locations while recording it. Woolly Wolstenholme, the keyboardist and main writer of the symphonic arrangements (and also the key factor that pulled the band toward progressive rock), went off to London to record his own orchestral composition, while the rest of the band holed up in another studio and got on with their own ideas (most of them leaning more toward classic/hard rock). Although Woolly recorded a few symphonic arrangements with the band on some tracks after coming back from London, this time bassist/vocalist Les Holroyd played quite a lot of them too. Another important change from the previous albums is that the band recorded most of the album (except for the closing “Moonwater”) without their orchestra, so their hard rock side pushes to the front a bit more again. Maybe it’s precisely this lack of cohesion between the members (which you can hardly notice, mind you) that’s to blame for the album falling slightly short of its predecessor “And Other Short Stories” (1971) in mood and as a whole.
Opening hard rocker “Crazy (Over You)” is a fairly simple but energetic creation by Les. Besides singing, Les also played mellotron and organ on it, while the piano parts were recorded together with Woolly. What you definitely have to single out is the Celtic-flavored main motif, adorned with a melancholic interplay of John’s guitar riff, drums and mellotron that sounds unmistakably British. The symphonic arrangements and mellotron are laid over the central guitar motif with real delicacy. On this track you can clearly hear the band’s influence on later British hard rock and even heavy metal bands. The romantic ballad “Delph Town Morn” is a classic John creation that expresses his longing for the town of Delph, where he lived while the album was being recorded. The main peculiarity of this track is that it’s probably the only song in the band’s history with orchestral arrangements for brass, written by choirmaster Brian Day. That’s exactly its main charm, and the reason it’s always interesting to hear.
The epic “Summer Soldier”, John’s peace-minded critique of the Northern Irish conflict (though it could apply to any conflict in the world), is without a doubt the best piece and the only classic on this album, one the band kept playing live for a while. After the opening militant screams, gunfire and an atmosphere of all-out war paranoia, the track opens with a gorgeous acoustic guitar arrangement, played in perfect harmony by John and Les, joined by Woolly’s delicate orchestral arrangements. John’s vocal carries a heavy dose of melancholic pathos throughout, expressing pain and disappointment. In the middle section you can hear a solid wah-wah solo, before the booming of church bells crashes in brutally. The best part in terms of the intensity of the symphonic arrangements comes in the second half (after a brief lull), where beautiful, melancholic mellotron arrangements kick in that even lean toward early King Crimson (and that’s no exaggeration). These symphonic arrangements blend wonderfully with John’s weeping guitar passages, and together they create an indescribable melancholy. In my opinion this is the peak of the band’s use of that instrument, and one of their rare pieces that I’d call symphonic progressive rock. A very beautiful peace epic and definitely the centerpiece of the album.
Unfortunately, the band always had a flaw: on almost every album they also came up with some strange, rather mediocre number, usually letting the horses loose right after the album’s best moment. Here that means the dreadfully average bluesy hard rocker “Thank You” (also released as a single), created as the band’s dedication and thanks to everyone who worked with them during the recording of the album. That fact alone says plenty about it being a more-or-less unserious and even jokey piece. The lyrics are accordingly catastrophic (endless thanking of friends and collaborators). All of it is laid over a rather tasteless boogie woogie rhythm that’s closer to some southern rock band than to BJH. If it weren’t for the fairly good passages on John’s guitar and Mel’s mighty drum fills in the instrumental section, I’d say this is one of their bigger flops. Those two things improve the whole thing enough that the song as a whole is even listenable. Les’s “One Hundred Smiles Out” is a gorgeous ballad about some space race and an astronaut lost in space (a popular lyrical theme the band would come back to several more times over the years), longing to return to his home planet. This time Les delivers an excellent vocal performance, backed up by excellent symphonic arrangements on piano, slide passages on guitar and solid rhythmic transitions. An effective mix of melody and melancholy that radiates longing in full.
The closing, gorgeous symphonic epic “Moonwater” is Woolly’s solo masterpiece, in which he once again showed off his love of classical music. Here it’s his bow to the figure and work of the legendary composer George Gershwin, as it strongly recalls some of his pieces. Woolly recorded the orchestral arrangements together with his longtime collaborator, conductor Martyn Ford, who led a 60-piece orchestra for the composition. It’s a track of grand, epic orchestral proportions that also features Woolly’s gentle vocal. The mighty, dramatic arrangements radiate indescribable beauty and tenderness, and you can picture the arrival of spring, nature waking up, or a lush sunrise. A completely classical composition without a shred of rock in it, which makes it the peak of their dabbling with orchestras and classical music, even though it’s essentially a Woolly solo creation.
This time the reissue is teeming with bonus tracks, but rarely is any of them worth a special mention. Most of them show the desperate, almost pathetic attempts of EMI, the band’s label at the time, to land the hit single they so badly wanted, which in the end came out of nowhere. The folk/hard rocker “Child Of Man”, which was also released as a single, is a typical John sermon straight out of the Bible. Leaving the pathetic lyrics aside, it’s a fairly solid combination of delicate guitar slides and a lively rhythm. The dull blues rocker “I’m Over You” sounds even more pathetic, if that’s even possible. Wooly’s “When the City Sleeps” is in my opinion the most interesting of all the bonuses, as it has an atypically dark mood on piano and symphonic arrangements, plus Woolly’s sarcastically tinged vocal. The instrumental “Breathless” is a fairly fun pop/glam rock attempt at a hit single, with lots of handclaps and a boogie rhythm, very much in the style of T. Rex or the like. There’s also the previously unreleased alternative version of “Thank You”, as well as the single version of their classic “Medicine Man”. “Rock And Roll Woman” (also released as a single) is a rather commercially minded, uninteresting hard rocker, played in a way that makes it clear the band’s heart was somewhere else while they performed it. “The Joker” is yet another dreadfully average, commercially minded hard rocker, interesting only for its solid guitar passages and some of the arrangements, while nobody would probably miss the BBC version of “Child Of Man” if it weren’t on there. The last bonus track is a newly arranged version of “Moonwater”, which Woolly decided to re-record in 2002, although I think the original sounds better.
Even though I think “Baby James Harvest” is a very solid and relatively overlooked album, on release it was in a way a major disappointment, both for the band and for their label at the time, EMI, or rather its subsidiary Harvest, since it didn’t bring the commercial success and breakthrough they wanted so badly. On top of that, the costs of a huge tour with an orchestra that year nearly made the band collapse in on itself. For these reasons EMI ended its relationship with the band, which later turned out to be a big mistake, since BJH went on to enjoy considerable commercial success in central Europe (especially in Germany) in the second half of the 70s. After signing a new deal with Polydor, the band filled up with fresh energy and came back with one of the best records in their history. A new creative period began for BJH then, while “Baby James Harvest” marked the end of their early, Celtic-romantic era, when through orchestral arrangements and acoustic pastoralism they sang of the beauty and mystique of rural landscapes, forests and moors.
Lineup
John Lees – vocals, guitar, special effects
Les Holroyd – vocals, bass guitar, keyboards, mellotron, guitar
Woolly Wolstenholme – keyboards, mellotron, bells, vocals (6)
Mel Pritchard – drums, percussion
60-piece symphony orchestra, conductor – Martyn Ford (6)
brass band, direction and arrangements – Brian Day (2)
Production
Barclay James Harvest
Track list
1. Crazy (Over You) (4:09)
2. Delph Town Morn (4:43)
3. Summer Soldier (10:23)
4. Thank You (4:23)
5. One Hundred Thousand Smiles Out (6:04)
6. Moonwater (Poco Adagio) (7:22)
Running time: 37:04
Bonus tracks from the reissue (2002):
7. Child of Man (single B-side, April 1972)
8. I’m Over You (single A-side, April 1972)
9. When The City Sleeps (single B-side, September 10. 1972, under the pseudonym “Bombadil”)
11. Breathless (single B-side, September 1972, under the pseudonym “Bombadil”)
12. Thank You (alternative version, Old Grey Whistle Test soundtrack)
13. Medicine Man (single version – released October 1972 as B-side of Harvest HAR 5058)
14. Rock and Roll Woman (single A-side, May 1973)
15. The Joker (single B-side, May 1973)
16. Child of Man (BBC Session 15th March 1972, previously unreleased)
17. Moonwater (2002 remix – previously unreleased)
