Reprinted from Green Man Review.
Family. Man, I can’t tell you how much I love this band. They were so…different. Everybody else was trying to play the blues, attempting to impose an American sound on their distinctly English personas. But Roger Chapman and Charlie Whitney went beyond that. Sure, they started by playing the blues, but soon found themselves writing original songs, and some of the most original songs ever heard. Family was not a big group. Did they have a hit single? Not in North America. Their original bass player (Rick Grech, who doubled on violin) left and joined Blind Faith. They were better known in the States because Chappo hit Bill Graham with a mic stand.
They were big in England, and in Germany. And this collection of six albums is being released to celebrate the fact that they’ve been gone for 30 years! England’s Mystic Records is to be congratulated for making this material available, and for adding bonus tracks (both studio and live) to the original albums as well as providing in depth liner notes. And they found a live concert too…something Family fans have been hoping for for decades.
They had already released two albums by 1970 — ’68′s Music In a Doll’s House and ’69′s Family Entertainment, which are not included in this reissue project. So Chapman and Whitney had some experience writing by the time of these albums. Charlie Whitney’s guitar work is excellent, starting from a blues base, but expanding on that to include folk and even jazz influences. Chappo has perhaps the most unique voice in music. He is not afraid to scream, to warble, to grate, to add vibrato, whatever it takes to get the song across. Add this to Rob Townsend’s solid drumming, Jim King’s sax and flute (later replaced by Poli Palmer who added piano), John Weider (or John Wetton or even Jim Cregan) on bass, and it was a band to remember.
A Song For Me begins with a flurry of acoustic guitar, then the horns, and then the vibrato soaked voice of Chappo, “Drowned in Wine”; an image that you can believe. Sometimes there’s a bit of a Tull influence with a flute and power chords. But this is unmistakeably Family territory. “Some Poor Soul” follows with soft chords, quiet vocals, wandering electric guitar, and before you know it…zoom, it explodes. Let’s not call it formula, because it doesn’t seem like a formula when they do it. It’s just Family matters. They own the airwaves when you play them. The rhythm section was always hot. They always had different instrumentation than their fellow bands of the era, and Chapman and Whitney’s songs were powerful and always interesting. The bonus tracks present outtakes and live versions of songs from each of these featured albums. The live renditions are even more fiery than the studio tracks.
1970′s Anyway offers the same band as A Song For Me on an album that mixes power chords, hard rock screaming and Family subtleties to great effect. The liner notes tell us that the title came from those times when the “conversation has just gone on a tangent, to the point of no return. The time honoured way back to reality was to utter the immortal line, ‘Well, anyway!’” Violinist Weider was fond of this approach, thus an album title! Should we read into it? Is this album a return to form? Was A Song For Me a tangent? Who knows what they were thinking; it was the early 70s and they were just recuperating from the 60s! Lots of stunning guitar work, and songs like “Good News–Bad News,” “Willow Tree,” “Holding the Compass,” and “Lives and Ladies.” The songs have an almost folk music sensibility about them. Lyrics about dogs and masters out together, misty shores and Leicester tailors, juxtaposed with the solid rock music. Three live bonus tracks are added.
Fearless was issued in 1971, in a multi-fold gatefold sleeve that served very little purpose except it looked “cool.” And Fearless was a term used by the band to refer to someone in the audience who was “going for it”…hanging from the rafters. It might also simply mean that someone was cool. This is the album that brought Family to a wider audience. It was the first album I heard, lo those many years ago. Not the first one I bought though! The music is perhaps a bit more haunted and varied than Anyway. Some long-time live favourites appeared here, such as “Sat’d'y Barfly” with its honky tonk piano, and “Between Blue and Me.” The bonus tracks include live versions and one of Family’s best tunes, “In My Own Time.”
On my first day at University in 1972, I bought Family’s Bandstand. I had read rave reviews of it in some music magazine, and found it in the University Bookstore. I ran over to the Library listening post and heard it first on their tinny headphones. It was revelatory. The first song is still one of my favourite songs of all time. The bridge especially excites…Chappo slides into it… “ooooOOOHHH Rolling and tumbling sure ain’t done me no harm.” “I got all my cards in one shoe,” indeed! But the album grows from there: “Bolero Babe,” “Dark Eyes,” the acoustic beauty of “My Friend the Sun.” John Wetton replaces Weider on this album. A bit of psychedelia slips into the mix.
Bandstand was a tough act to follow, and another change in personnel (Jim Cregan and Tony Ashton joining, Wetton and Palmer moving on), mixed with a feeling that some of their strongest songs had been overlooked, led to a change in sound. The title track of It’s Only A Movie bears the familiar Family sound, but songs like “Leroy” with its strings, and the obscure “Boots ‘n’ Roots” sound like a different group altogether. Live bonus tracks show that they were still capable of delivering the old Family juggernaut.
The sixth album in Mystic Records anniversary gift is one Family fans have been awaiting for years. Family Live is an hour of the 1971 group playing at London’s Rainbow. They play mainly material from that year’s releases (from Anyway and Fearless) and conclude with the much earlier “Weaver’s Answer.” It was a good night, and they are tight and exciting. They use the opportunity to stretch out, everyone gets to show off a bit, Poli Palmer’s keyboard solos, Charlie Whitney’s guitar, the potent rhythm section of Wetton and Townsend, and that unbelievable voice of Roger Chapman, make this long awaited release almost worth the thirty-two years it has taken for it to escape.
If you have a fond memory of Family, or a desire to discover something truly unique from the dark ages, Mystic Records is making it possible for you. I would suggest following my example and starting with Bandstand, and then working my way back and forward one at a time…you won’t be sorry. Here’s hoping that next Mystic reissues some of Chappo/Whitney’s follow-up group Streetwalkers material. Good stuff. Spike will love listening to it when he gets back from trying to write his first solo review.
(original release 1970, reissued Mystic Records, 2003)
(original release 1971, reissued Mystic Records, 2003)
(original release 1972, reissued Mystic Records, 2003)
(original release 1973, reissued Mystic Records, 2003)
(Mystic Records, 2003)
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