JACK BRUCE/SONGS FOR A TAILOR 583 058 (-69) UK

One of the hardest things with writing these notes is keeping it down. That's almost impossible with a record like this - classic songs, top crew, piece of rock history, genre transitional with an important background story - all inviting to a very long novel. And we don't want that so this is me being brief. It's like a prefect blend of Cream and Colosseum with just a pinch of Mountain. Two of the songs - "The Clearout" and "Weird Of Hermiston" were written by Bruce 1967 for "Disraeli Gears Cream", but then rejected. To my ears the whole album sounds a lot like his later stuff for Cream in songwriting and atmosphere. Produced by Felix Pappalardi who also contributes precussion and back ground vocals on one track each. The musicians (check list below) belonged to the creme of the UK prog scene back then, with connections to Colosseum, John Mayall, Alexis Korner and Nucleus. I like about everything on it, especially "Theme For An Imaginary Western" (later covered by Colosseum, Mountain and Greenslade) and "Rope Ladder To The Moon" (of which at least two cover versions exist with Colosseum). The critics weren't 100% positive at release, but it sold pretty well with #6 in England and #55 on Billboard. First US on ATCO (SD 33-306). Premiere UK had label as shown here and laminated fold/out cover. (CÄRÄ*)