# Obscure LPs you can't help loving **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 19, 2003, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-lps-you-cant-help-loving/214117 "2003-11-19T15:41:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2003, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-lps-you-cant-help-loving/214117/21 "2003-11-20T19:50:57Z")
Stupid bloody javascript site with no separate URLs for different pages! [Here’s](http://www.borderlinebooks.com/uk6070s/albums/l_images/fe_01470.jpg) the damn cover art. (Not because this is important. It’s the principle of the thing) ---
**Author:** ![Frank\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Frank\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank_2)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-lps-you-cant-help-loving/214117/22 "2003-11-21T20:13:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RealityChuck \* > \*\ ***Hot Tuna** – a spinoff of the Jefferson Airplane with Jack Cassidy and Jorman Kaukonan playing great acoustic blues, joined by Will Scarlett on harmonica. The group was supposed to be named Hot Shit, but the record company got cold feet. > \*\* I have both of their Sweetwater albums and love listening to them (Jorma & Jack are great musicians, IMHO) For my obscure offering, [The Zodiac: Cosmic Sounds](http://www.discogs.com/release/198280). ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-lps-you-cant-help-loving/214117/23 "2003-11-21T21:49:47Z")
More relatively obscure Jefferson Airplane related Lps (although I never thought of Hot Tuna as being “obscure.” Low profile perhaps.): “Blows Against the Empire” by Paul Kantner & the original Jefferson Starship. At this point in the game, around 1970, Slick was preggers and couldn’t go out on tour. Kantner started out making a solo record in the downtime, and got Slick, David Crosby, Jerry Garcia, and just about every big name on the San Fransisco scene to make a guest appearance. he named the aggregate “Jefferson STARSHIP” in reflection of the science-fiction theme of the album (a bunch of post-Altamont disillusioned hippies hijack a starship and fly away to a utopian destiny in deep space.) For a record so obviously influenced by heavy hallucinogenic drugs, it holds together a lot better than most other “concept records.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Big\_Cheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@The\_Big\_Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Big_Cheese)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2003, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-lps-you-cant-help-loving/214117/24 "2003-11-22T03:44:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Merhouse \* > \*\*Oh, I should mention this CD is a Reunion Album. No, I’m not obsessed with Siegel-Schwall… nope, not me 😉 \*\* Ohhh, you’re gonna be jealous. I saw them a year ago at a special one-time reunion. I knew little about them, someone gave me a free ticket. It was a benefit for Jim Schwall, he was runing for mayor here(He was the 1st to drop out). They were great, the drummer was some real famous drummer too, real good, unfortunately I don’t remember his name. **Dean Friedman** - Dean Friedman **Dean Friedman** - Well, Well, Said the Rocking Chair. I love his writing. The latter is a classic, has ‘S&M’, ‘Ariel’ and ‘The Deli Song’ which some of you may have heard. **Equators** - Equators ska-like band in the late '70’s. **Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel** - Best years of our lives. See Me, make me smile. I still love that song. **Suburbs** - Music For Boys. New-wavish stuff from a Minn/St Paul band. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2003, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-lps-you-cant-help-loving/214117/25 "2003-11-22T08:39:55Z")
**Sparks** - _Indiscreet_. With classic songs like, “Pineapple”, “Tits”, “The Lady is Lingering”, “It Ain’t 1918”… Okay, it’s not that great an album, but as a kid I loved it. **Electric Light Orchestra** - _Eldorado_. A concept album heavily laced with strings and orchestral pieces, it’s uniformly excellent. This album shouldn’t actually be that obscure, since it spawned a handful of hits. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2003, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-lps-you-cant-help-loving/214117/26 "2003-11-22T15:01:23Z")
Oh, I could go on and on, but the record everyone should hear once in their lifetime is _Afterbirth of the Cool_ by the **Swollen Monkeys** , a horn band from the same town that gave us **The Waitresses**. That these folks did not go on to major success is one of the great modern crimes. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2003, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-lps-you-cant-help-loving/214117/27 "2003-11-22T15:14:11Z")
The Andrew Lloyd Webber/Alan Ackyborn original LP of \*\* Jeeves\*\*. I love this show, and the LP is worth a bundle. The Tim Rice/Stephen Oliver original LP of \*\* Blondel\*\*. I would stage this show if I had the means to do so. Excellent work. The Bjorn Ulvaeus/Benny Andersson French and Dutch LPS of \*\* ABBAcadabra\*\*. I’m glad I stumbled on these in a used LP rack. ---
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2003, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-lps-you-cant-help-loving/214117/28 "2003-11-22T17:06:39Z")
I love Ariel. Truly great pop radio song. Haven’t heard it in ages. ---
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2003, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-lps-you-cant-help-loving/214117/29 "2003-11-22T17:11:01Z")
I thought of another. The Allan Harris Band. I got it from a friend who did college radio in the mid 70s. It had Actress and On the Borderline as its two best tunes. And great tunes they were. As far as I know, no one has ever even heard of them. Any Dopers? ---
**Author:** ![Merhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Merhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merhouse)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-lps-you-cant-help-loving/214117/30 "2003-11-25T03:01:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Big Cheese \* > \*\*Ohhh, you’re gonna be jealous. I saw them a year ago at a special one-time reunion. I knew little about them, someone gave me a free ticket. It was a benefit for Jim Schwall, he was runing for mayor here(He was the 1st to drop out). They were great, the drummer was some real famous drummer too, real good, unfortunately I don’t remember his name. > \*\* Oh, man, consider me mondo jealous! Good to hear they are still around and as awesome as ever. Thanks for letting me know 😃 ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-lps-you-cant-help-loving/214117/31 "2003-11-25T05:54:52Z")
I can’t say I’ve ever run into another person who knows anything about **Deaf School** , a somewhat legendary, but otherwise obscure (read: no hits, no airplay) British group from the mid-'70s. Their first LP, _Second Honeymoon_ is one of my all-time faves by anybody. Their music was _so_ unlike anything on the charts at the time… it paid more homage to music-hall than concert-hall. It rocked in places, it was quaint in places, it was cinematic in places. It was _very_ British, but this group had a sound and feel all its own. _Second Honeymoon_ was issued in the period just before punk rock, but it owed nothing to that genre, and was the precursor of nothing. They didn’t spawn a host of soundalike groups. Their successive albums didn’t quite manage to capture what they’d achieved the first time out, which lends that ‘cult classic’ status to their debut. Two members of the group, Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, went on to produce a fair number of hugely popular post-punk Britpop records in the '80s. The group reformed at one point and made a live album, but it seems their time had passed. No matter, they achieved greatness, which is a major feat in and of itself - even if it didn’t lead to wealth and fame. I’d just finished transferring the LP to CD, meticulously removing every click, pop and other noise, then I discovered that it was available on CD from Japan, so I jumped on it. I don’t think there’s been a US issue. Too bad. ---
**Author:** ![Lars\_Aruns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c68b51/32.png) [@Lars\_Aruns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lars_Aruns)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-lps-you-cant-help-loving/214117/32 "2003-11-25T13:24:59Z")
And the “Give It A Spin” list continues growing… I might as well admit to liking **Electric Light Orchestra** too… I like _Eldorado_ a lot and _Out of the Blue_ quite a bit. I’ll also throw in **Olias of Sunhillow** by **Jon Anderson**. Folky, experimental, hypnotic… And titles like _Qoqaq En Transic_ and _Solid Space_ have their fascination, too. ---
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-lps-you-cant-help-loving/214117/33 "2003-11-25T14:36:47Z")
Feederz _Ever Feel Like Killing Your Boss?_ ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-lps-you-cant-help-loving/214117/34 "2003-11-25T18:01:44Z")
I **don’t** have the LP, but couldn’t pass up the chance to ask if anyone has the album by, or recalls a band called, **Fresh** from around 1971. If so, then you’ll know _Stoned in Saigon_. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![unclviny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e274bd/32.png) [@unclviny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unclviny)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-lps-you-cant-help-loving/214117/35 "2003-11-25T18:33:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lars Aruns \* > \*\*I’ll also throw in **Olias of Sunhillow** by **Jon Anderson**. Folky, experimental, hypnotic… And titles like _Qoqaq En Transic_ and _Solid Space_ have their fascination, too. \*\* Olias of Sunhillow is an incredible album that has some interesting trivia with it, when it was released it was the most expensive packaging ever for an album, if you have the album you see that it is a “double triple gatefold” cover and it was all hand drawn. I have the album and the cd (Japanese import), I don’t listen to the record anymore but I am going to keep it. unclviny ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-lps-you-cant-help-loving/214117/36 "2003-11-25T20:01:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AHunter3 \* > \*\*I have [this one](http://www.venco.com.pl/~wproj/encyklo/armag_d.html) ([cover art](http://www.borderlinebooks.com/uk6070s/tapestry.html)) which is considered pretty obscure, and I’m fond of it. \*\* Wow! Relf and Cennamo were in **Renaissance** , which I mentioned. I’ll add one or two more: **Child is Father of the Man** – Blood, Sweat and Tears. Their first album. Not like their better-known incarnation, this was a project of Al Kooper, who sings and does a lot of the songwriting (along with some great covers). Kooper left the group after the album, and their sound changed. **East-West** – Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Considered a seminal album in its time, with modern blues led by Butterfield’s harmonica and guitars by Elvin Bishop and Mike Bloomfield. Historical note: Butterfield was the first artist to put on his disks the words, “This record should be played loud.” 🙂 **Elephant Mountain** – Youngbloods. Best known as a one-hit wonder, the Youngbloods put out some great albums that seem to have become obscure these days. “Darkness, Darkness” is a great song, and the rest of the album holds up well. **Klaatu**. Another band killed by its promotional materials ( **Brinsley Schwartz** , mentioned previously is the classic\*). They were promoted as “Are they really the Beatles?” and the audience quickly turned, but their album was quite good in its own right. \*The promotors scheduled a big concert in NYC, and flew a crew of top rock journalists from London to NYC in a chartered plane to see it. The group had trouble getting visas in time, and had little chance to rehearse. The plane with the rock critics developed engine troubles, and took forever to get there. Most of the critics got roaring drunk and trashed the underwhelming show and the group so badly it never recovered. ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-lps-you-cant-help-loving/214117/37 "2003-11-25T21:32:10Z")
_Father Abraham in Smurfland_ – by the Smurfs. _Smurfin’ Beer_ was/is a classic. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-lps-you-cant-help-loving/214117/38 "2003-11-25T22:07:00Z")
I’ll offer two oddities they’ll have to pry from my cold dead fingers: Bob Martin: Midwest Farm Disaster realeased around 1971 A Gold Key Super-Hero song collection with such great songs as The Phantom and, also, Flash Gordon from the mid to late 60’s caching in on the Batman Fad. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-lps-you-cant-help-loving/214117/39 "2003-11-25T23:58:44Z")
“The Unforgiven” by the band of the same name, and “Rabbit Songs” by Hem. * * * She told me she loved me like a brother. She was from Arkansas, hence the Joy! ---
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-lps-you-cant-help-loving/214117/40 "2003-11-26T03:03:43Z")
Two more. Keith Emerson’s first band: The Nice. Ars Longa Vita Brevis and The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack. Great drug music. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-lps-you-cant-help-loving/214117.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-lps-you-cant-help-loving/214117.md?page=3)