Esoteric and shady. Naive or pretentious. You have to believe me how i have tried to understand this after me told this is something on the top. I remember listening to this at my friend's in early 70s, but was not impressed even then. Can't explain what it exactly is KC misses. The Crown? Everything seems to be at its right place...but is not. Artificial, pretentious daydreaming.... messy oratorio by some unknown cult. And the libretto is pure cat food. What bothers me most with this is: they (Fripp and Sinfield) seem to be absolutely serious with their "message". Whatever it was. At least bad poetry and boring twiddling driven by dragging, endless and pathetic sound of mellotron.
This is first time when i copy paste a review. I do it because this music is beyond my knowledge.The Kell Street Camp Meeting were a “Christian Revival” concept more than an actual group that featured Mouse & The Traps leader Ronny “Mouse” Weiss (lead guitar).
The musicians on this album also included Randy Fouts (piano-autoharp), Dave Floyd (bass), Paul Liem (drums), Uncle Snork (rhythm guitar-lead vocals), Bobby Tuttle (steel guitar), A.C. Green (harmonica), Perry Buck Stewart (mouth harp), Walt Robertson (tuning fork) and backed by a choir that included John Bass, Jim Batts, Yvonne Gary, Esther Broughton and others.
The album also featured a live audience who went by the name of Kell Street Joy Freek Audience that gave the impression of a “live” revival gathering. The album has that late sixties gospel feel and musically the group reminds me a lot of the Band. Great versions of a few standards such as “Farther Along”, “Great Speckled Bird” and “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” (Jack Dominilla)
According to the album’s liner notes:
“The Kell Street Joy Freeks don’t hardly exist, mostly. I mean we’re not a rock group that decided to do a hymn album for the bread. At first, there were two of us, me and Jim Batts, and we liked hymn, and some of our friends did, so they joined us, and after a while there were 30 of us, singing hymns in the living room.
So we hooked up with 10 or so other friends and went and did this album in Tyler, Texas. And there were Methodists there, and Catholics, Church Of Christ, Assembly Of God, Baptists, on like that, and atheists, and radical-middle-of-the-road agnostics, all housed in bodies of various hues.
We all got different things out of doing this album. Some of us did it for the music, and some for Jesus. All of us did it for the Joy in coming together, and we’re putting our album out to pass on our Joy, because Joy dies if you keep it to yourself.
So now some of us are talking about trucking out on the road with some friends. Maybe we’ll see you there.”
Peace, Children of Light
Uncle Snork
Listen to "Seven-Ate Sweet"! Albumin ensimmäinen puoli on enimmäkseen kantripitoista rokkia, joka toimii oudon hyvin jopa minulle, joka en yleensä niin kauheasti kantria kaipaa. Silloin tällöin se toimii ja Kaleidoscopen tapauksessa kyllä. Eka puoli on alkuverryttelyä ja levyä kääntäessä siirrytään saluunasta kadun toiselle puolelle hippibaariin soittamaan Cuckoota, joka tarjoaa kuulijalle astetta hapokkaampaa kamaa. Yli 11-minuuttinen "Seven-Ate Sweet" ammentaa mm. eurooppalaisesta kansanmusiikista. Paitsi Euraasia ja Kreikka, niin joissain kohdissa tulee mieleen pohjolakin. Hyvä kappale, jota en halua pilata kirjoittamalla siitä yhtään mitään sen enempää. Kuuntele itse. Part one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbgl97-Xs78 Part two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n_gudGI1iM&feature=related
San Franciscon -lahdella ollaan. Tuolla paikalla oli mukava käydä. RYMissä yhtyettä verrataan New riders of Purple Ageen. Kitaristi-laulaja Bob Weir on soittanut mm. Grateful Deadissa, joten sitä kautta löytyy vielä nimekkäämpi yhtymäkohta, jos sellaisia haluaa hakea ja niille sen suurempia merkityksiä antaa. Kingfish on niin lahtelaista niin lahtelaista...
