"[Jimmy Campbell's] music is a secret that's waiting to be told." Word |
Jimmy Campbell, poet laureate of Liverpool, had taken a serious left turn from the Psychedelia of the 23rd Turnoff into the working-class-Nick Drake-isms of his acoustic solo work... A catharsis of adult themes, and rather depressing to listen to, he then he took an even stranger course, one which today would be applauded as a masterly ironic yet evocative concept yet in the early 1970's was seen as an amazingly perverse course. Recruiting lifelong pal and ex-Merseybeat Billy Kinsley, he formed Rockin' Horse. The serious adult themes stayed intact, like a Mike Leigh film set to music, but the music itself shifted to the sound of live Mersybeat as they had played it as kids, the girl group and R&B-isms, and the soaring yet cheerfully hit and miss harmonies of a time when anything seemed possible for young scousers, intended to project the realities of how it all panned out for the city, and many of those youngsters... by God, it worked! Depicting the sound of a city full of hope, but singing of a time when the hope had become a bit jaded, of course, the critics didn't understand, and the utterly hideous and alarming original Hipgnosis sleeve must have put off the majority of buyers, making this brave and amazing experiment in serious pop one of the rarest UK albums and a cult amongst people in the know. Now Rev-Ola re-presents this seminal moment in Liverpool musical history, complete with it's attendant singles sides and tracks from long deleted samplers. With copious notes, an interview with Billy Kinsley, and scads of unpublished pictures, this is the classic that should have been, back now in a time when people will get it - Jimmy, you were right all along!
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