As par for the course, in coordinating the Rare Mod series
of unreleased or hard to find sixties recordings, I routinely secure clearances
with the musicians who played on them, record business stuff; a simple
signature on an A4 sheet of paper, permission to release the track. Damian
Jones, who sources much of the Rare Mod material, obtained an acetate of Hoochie Coochie Man, the intended debut
single that was subsequently shelved, by highly respected sixties blues band
The Artwoods; a big deal. I needed an Artwoods moniker quickly.
Damian found the phone number for Artwoods' guitarist Derek
Griffiths; I called to discuss the track. Derek said he was happy for us to
include Hoochie Coochie Man on our
compilation, Rare Mod 4, as he reminisced about bands, the sixties and his
reluctance to sort through several old boxes of junk at his partner’s
insistence, a house move necessitating the clear out. I joked that I’d be
interested in any old records or tapes that he might discover in his boxes.
‘Well,’ he said, ‘there’s a taped version of the Eddie Floyd track Big Bird, but that’s not sixties, its
1970.’ ‘Really,’ I said and booked a session in a mastering studio the
following week with Derek and his cardboard box of treasure.
Seven days later, whilst pouring through twenty or so
un-marked reel-to-reel tapes in the studio, with the Eddie Floyd track yet to
materialise, I noticed a red tape box with blue biro pen scrawled across the
back Artist - Satisfaction. Date -
28.4.71. ‘A jazz-rock album,’ Derek explained, ‘a cross between Blood Sweat And Tears and early Chicago but without organ. Hammond organ
smothers the horns.’ The studio engineer carefully cued up the forty-year-old
quarter-inch tape and pressed play. As we listened, arms goosed, neck hair
bristled, we fell silent, it was a trip. Derek endeavoured to shed more light.
‘It’s a concept album, written on the road about the road, but it was never released,’ he said. ‘Do you like it?’
This album is a lost gem, a forgotten chapter from the
British Rock Chronicles, a diamond in the rough. As the blues scene, hip
bruised from the exaggerated swagger of the swinging sixties, limped into the
vagaries of Prog-Rock, Satisfaction
sought a loftier path, beautiful in its clarity. Three Ages Of Man marks the three influences fused within the
group’s musical DNA. Strong and inventive jazz arrangements, a horn section at
its creative peak. The acoustic testament of melodic song writing, hearts
rinsed from the treadmill of touring. And finally, a solid rock ’n’ roll
foundation that betrays the early blues roots of its players. This album is a
journey that ends where it begins, tour madness, ecstatic melancholy and the
soaring highs that thrill and counter the heady abstractions and repetition of
life on the road.
History may come to thank Derek Griffiths’ partner, she who
insisted that he clear out his box of old tapes. A lost concept album, from the
combined talents of some of Britain’s most influential R&B musicians, might
arguably elevate that cardboard box to Holy Grail status; only time will tell.
What became of the
version of Big Bird? We found it in
the same cardboard box; it’s also on Rare Mod 4.
Richard Searle (Acid Jazz Records)
