Collection
	Previously released material
	Released on 1981
	no chart information
	Find it at GEMM
1C 028-07 533 cover [high resolution photo]

T oday’s lesson is The Hasselhoff Effect, which states that any ratty atom can shed its ugly electrons and attract new ones in direct proportion to its proximity to Eastern Europe. Thus explained how Barclay James Harvest was popular in Germany (along with Dave Dudley and the immortal Heino). Collection is a budget German release of early material that Harvest had license to... maybe a little too much license. For a band that didn’t have many hits, Best Ofs abound, from volumes one through three to The Collection (an altogether different collection than this collection). So unless you find this for a few bucks in a used record store, don’t trouble yourself with adding this collection to yours. The song selection is pretty good, as I’ve developed a soft spot for their early work. I also enjoy David Bowie’s early records. There’s the same sort of innocence and ambition at play, the same sort of clumsiness and stiffness too. Barclay James Harvest were never a great band. Like Uriah Heep, they had moments when they were close, but like Heep they had trouble stringing those moments together on a single album. Thus the band benefits from the compilation format, a point that EMI/Harvest has taken to heart (presuming they keep their money in their shirt pocket). It’s made the BJH discography a jumbled mess of course, with the band’s back catalog constantly competing against each new release, but perhaps BJH is a band that shouldn’t work too hard to escape its past. The past (or a rediscovery of the past) is their future, and whatever small legend time assigns to them will pivot on a post-60s naivete that served as the soundtrack to a Utopian catnap.

1C 028-07 533 back cover

TRACK LISTING

1. CRAZY (OVER YOU)    (Les Holroyd)    4:05
2. MOCKING BIRD    (Barclay James Harvest)    6:34
3. URSULA (THE SWANSEA SONG)    (Mel Pritchard/Les Holroyd/Wooly Wolstenholme/John Lees)    2:50
4. SONG FOR DYING    (Barclay James Harvest)    4:57
5. MOTHER DEAR    (Barclay James Harvest)    3:15
6. THE JOKER    (Les Holroyd/John Lees)    3:26
7. BLUE JOHN BLUES    (John Lees)    6:45
8. ROCK AND ROLL WOMAN    (Les Holroyd)    3:09
9. THE SUN WILL NEVER SHINE    (Barclay James Harvest)    5:04
10. EARLY MORNING    (Barclay James Harvest)    2:29

CREDITS

Action Press -- photo

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