Blossom Toes - We Are Ever So Clean

After initially releasing a couple singles as The Ingoes, Blossom Toes (Brian Godding - guitar, vocals, keyboards, Jim Cregan - guitar, vocals, Brian Belshaw - bass, vocals and Kevin Westlake - drums, percussion) signed to Giorgio Gomelsky’s new label Marmalade Records, tweaked their lineup a little, changed their name and released two outstanding albums, We Are Ever So Clean and If Only For A Moment.  While they definitely didn’t get the appreciation they deserved when they were first released, Esoteric has done an outstanding job on these two new three CD box sets with each album being remastered and including a multitude of bonus tracks (twenty-seven on the debut).  In addition to these two reissues, Esoteric has also released a two CD box set containing a remastered version of Worker’s Playtime, the sole release from B.B. Blunder, a band featuring three members of Blossom Toes following the demise of the band.

When it was released in 1967, Melody Maker referred to We Are Ever So Clean as “Giorgio Gomelsky’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, and while at times the comparison to The Beatles isn’t totally off base, it is by no means a clone, and over the years it has gained the respect it deserves (Record Collector magazine placed it at number on their list of the “100 Greatest Psychedelic Records”).  The psychedelic side of the band is evident right out the gate with opening cuts “Look At Me I’m You”, which is pure psychedelic bliss, full of swirling guitars, feedback, outstanding harmonies (one element of their sound that is very reminiscent of The Beatles throughout a lot of the disc) and horns, and “I’ll Be Late For Tea”, a little more straightforward psychedelic rocker.  The quirkier side of the band comes to the forefront on “The Remarkable Saga Of The Frozen Dog”, which somehow works it’s way into an earworm with it’s marching band beat, strange, almost spoken word lyrics and a barking dog.  “Telegram Tuesday” is a fairly straightforward midtempo pop tune where the harmonies really shine, taking us to “Love Is”, an absolutely gorgeous tune that in a perfect world would have been a huge hit with its very baroque feel driven largely by piano, flute and a string section.  "What Is It For” opens with mariachi sounding horns and strings leading into gorgeous orchestral chamber pop. The quirky side of the band is back for “People of the Royal Parks”, a bouncy pop tune that is reminiscent of the offbeat Ringo-led Beatles tunes.  While by no means a prog song “What On Earth” is a psychedelic pop tune with prog-like dynamics and an explosive horn section, which leads into the bouncy, sunshine-y psychedelic pop of “Mrs Murphy’s Budgerigar” and “I Will Bring You This And That”.   “Mister Watchmaker” is another beautiful laid back tune in the vein of “Love Is”, that is bursting with acoustic guitars, horns, piano and strings.  Opening with a chiming guitar a la The Byrds, “When The Alarm Clock Rings” then melds that with a more psychedelic groove and horns. The band’s quirky side is very evident with the waltz-like “The Intrepid Balloonists Handbook, Volume 1”, but this time around the band is a little too quirky for their own good and the tune is only good for a listen or two before it gets old.  Having said that they redeem themselves quickly with the sunshine pop of “You” complete with some vibes and a little cowbell.  Closing out the album is “Track for Speedy Freaks (Instant LP Digest)”, which basically just smashes snippets of the whole album into a minute and twenty-three seconds.  The first disc also includes the first four bonus tracks starting with the album outtake “Everybody’s Talking”, a catchy jangly rocker with some outstanding folk-like harmonies that is more stripped down than anything on the album, and a cover of Dylan’s “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight”, that was released as a non-album single after the album was released, and has a really cool, lazy country groove at first and then a little doo-wop at the end.  The other two tracks are an instrumental version of “Look At Me I’m You” and an early version of “I’ll Be Late For Tea”.

Disc two contains eight tracks recorded live at Philippe’s Club in Stockholm on August 26, 1967, which was a little over one month before the release of We Are Ever So Clean.  Ironically, due to the effects, horns and string arrangements, the songs on the album were too difficult to perform live, so there was only one album track amongst the eight.  Instead the band played a set of more straightforward rock tunes consisting of originals not found on the album and a handful of covers, many of which were stretched out to over seven minutes.   Opening the show was the hard driving rocker “Listen To The Silence”, an original that would show up later on their sophomore release, followed by a cover of Captain’s Beefheart’s “Electricity”, which as expected gives them a chance to show a bit of their more offbeat side.  A couple more unreleased originals are up next, with the slow, bluesy rocker “Captain Trips” and “Love Us Like We Love You”.  “The Remarkable Saga Of The Frozen Dog” is the only album cut in the set, and while it maintains all the quirky charm of that version it is quite a bit heavier and is extended to almost ten minutes.  Next up are two more covers, an almost nine minute version of Shawn Phillips’ “Woman Mind”, a slow, meandering bluesy rocker with a feedback drenched closing and a bluesy, jam filled take on Howlin’ Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightning”.  Closing things out “First Love Song” another original that is a really nice bluesy tune with a bit of an Allman Brothers vibe.  The sound quality here could be pretty much described as the equivalent of a decent bootleg, but it is nice to have a chance to hear the band in a live setting and hear the difference between that and the album. 

The final disc contains fifteen more bonus tracks consisting of demos and BBC sessions.  Kicking things off are three demos, the straight-ahead rocker “Collects Little Girls”, the more midtempo “Hometime” and “Looking Up I’m Looking Back”.  Next are five cuts taken from two different BBC Radio One “Top Gear” Sessions.  First up from October 23, 1967 are live versions of three album tracks, “Mister Watchmaker”, “What On Earth” and “The Remarkable Saga Of The Frozen Dog”, followed by a session from March 25, 1968, where they played the cover of Dylan’s “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” (preceded by a short interview with Jim Cregan) and “Love Is”.   These are really solid performances that show that they could do a really good job performing these tracks live.  Of note is the lighthearted performance on the Dylan cover, which is even more country than the studio version.  Closing out the disc are seven more demos, three of which are different recordings of the ones at the beginning of the disc.  While “Collects Little Girls” is fleshed out a little with some nice piano, the other two are not that different from the earlier versions.  “Backstreet” the first of the remaining four cuts is an interesting midtempo track consisting primarily of vocals, piano and guitar that is reminiscent of early Harry Nilsson.  “Ever Since A Memory” is a breezy, easygoing track enhanced with vibes and “Going Home” is  stripped down with strings and some flute.  Closing out the box set is “Penny And The Pennies”, a really pretty tune built around vocals and acoustic guitar.  Also included is CD booklet that contains fully restored album artwork, an essay on the band and exclusive interview with Brian Godding and Jim Cregan.  

(Esoteric Recordings)