Wednesday, July 16, 2008

The Humblebums - The New Humblebums (1969)


Personnel:
BILLY CONNOLLY A B C
TAM HARVEY A B
GERRY RAFFERTY B C

ALBUMS:
1(A) A COLLECTION OF MERRIE MELODIES (Transatlantic TRA 186) 1969
2(C) THE NEW HUMBLEBUMS (Transatlantic TRA 201) 1969
3(C) OPEN UP THE DOOR (Transatlantic TRA 218) 1970
4(-) THE COMPLETE HUMBLEBUMS (Transatlantic TRA 288) 1974
NB: (4) is a box set of (1)-(3). (2) and (3) reissued on one CD (Castle ESMCD 498) 1997. There's also a CD Humblebums (Line TACD 900551) 1989.

45s:
1 Saturday Roundabout Sunday/Bed Of Mossy Green (Big T BIG 122) 1969
2 Shoeshine Boy/My Appartment (Big T BIG 130) 1970
3 Coconut Tree/Shoeshine Boy (Big T BIG 520) 1972

This Glaswegian folk duo formed in the late sixties. Not surprisingly with Billy Connolly in their line-up they were known for their humourous songs. Their first album made quite an impact and after this Gerry Rafferty was asked to join them. They worked as a trio for six or seven months before Harvey was pushed out of the band. Connolly and Rafferty proceeded to record three more albums. The first of these, A Collection Of Merrie Melodies, was performed entirely on acoustic instruments, most notably the banjo and guitar and reflected Connolly's traditional folk inclinations. The New Humblebums contained some good material, particularly Please Sing A Song For Us and Her Father Didn't Like Me Anyway. It was more melodic than the debut and featured some fine melodic woodwind and brass arrangements. Open Up The Door veered more towards pop and the duo used session musicians to achieve a fuller sound. The album featured Barry Dransfield and Bernie Holland of Jody Grind. However, this created difficulties for the duo in reproducing many of their songs on stage. Under pressure from their record company to form a backing group the two of them agreed to go their separate ways... not a bad decision as Connelly became a successful comedian and Rafferty a successful solo artist after first joining Stealer's Wheel.

Tracks:
01 - Look Over The Hill & Far Away
02 - Saturday Round About Sunday
03 - Patrick
04 - Everybody Knows That
05 - Rick Rack
06 - Her Father Didn't Like Me Anyway
07 - Please Sing A Song For Us
08 - Joe Dempsey
09 - Blood & Glory
10 - Coconut Tree
11 - Silk Pyjamas
12 - Good-Bye-Ee!

2 comments:

bobbysu said...

thank you very much

Anonymous said...

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Please could reupload this post?
Thank you,
buckeye