Misty - Here Again

On July 3, 1970, London's Misty released their debut single “Hot Cinnamon”, a catchy, faster paced tune that was a fairly complex meshing of pop and psychedelia with horns and a classical sounding keyboard passage in the middle.  When it was released their manager, Michael Grade, presented them to the media with the statement, “Yesterday was The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Cream, today is Led Zepplin (sic), The Moody Blues and Deep Purple; tomorrow will be Misty.”  While history has shown that statement never came to fruition, the single did get some airplay and they did record an album, but since the single failed to chart, the album unfortunately never made it past being an acetate.  In recent years the single has become a bit of a hot commodity among DJ’s with copies selling for £70 and £75 in 2020.  Keyboardist Michael Gelardi, also one of the primary songwriters, became aware of the demand for the single and thanks to having recently found the acetate that is the only surviving copy of the album, this previously unreleased album can now be heard by the rest of the world.  Overall, the music is an amalgam of everything from psychedelia and baroque pop to classical, prog and jazz (John Timm’s drumming is very jazz-oriented throughout), sometimes all within one song, like the opening cut “Witness For the Resurrection”, a very dynamic and experimental track that does an outstanding job of meshing all these elements together and making it work.  While the next cut “Here Again” is a very hypnotic psychedelic pop tune with a bit of prog, “A Question Of Trust” is really interesting, with a jaunty prog opening and then shifting into a full-blown prog tune with some hints of jazz.  The next couple of cuts, “Julie” and the laid-back, dreamy “I Can See The Stars” shift things back in a psychedelic prog direction, followed by “Harmonious Blacksmith”, an extremely infectious piece of blissful baroque pop.  Following the aforementioned single “Hot Cinnamon” is its flipside, “Cascades”, a really pretty, laid-back ballad.  The more experimental side of the band is back to the forefront on the next two cuts, “Animal Farm”, an all-out prog rocker with some jazzy undertones and a bit of funk, and “I Will Be There”, which is almost pure jazz.  “Lazy Guy” is another nice, simple, laid-back tune with some elements of baroque pop and horns, while “John’s Song” starts with some classical keys then moves into more of a proggy, psychedelic pop tune with a little more jazz.  Closing out the disc is “Final Thoughts”, a slower, more somber track with choral-like harmony vocals.  It’s a really interesting track that is different from anything else on the disc.  In addition to being quite experimental with their music, lyrically the band often dealt with issues that tended to be a bit off-limits at the time, touching on issues like suicide, the Vietnam War and dealing with an incurable illness, yet even with all that, the songs are very accessible and there are plenty of tunes here that if given the chance had the potential to be hits.  As an added bonus there are four tracks here from a TV appearance the band made on Border TV (a franchise that covered the English/Scottish border area).  Not long after the single's release, they made a 600-mile round trip to Carlisle to record two fifteen-minute shows.  Kevin Johansen, an avid record collector, recently recovered one of these shows, which is where the extra cuts found come from. They are a great footnote to this story and their performance showcases just how talented and tight the band was (hopefully the video footage will be released someday).  Unfortunately, the second show, which included performances of “Imagination Museum” and “Summer’s Here”, which were newly written and had yet to be recorded in the studio, has never been found.  In addition to giving this very deserving release the chance to finally see the light of day, Grapefruit has also include an outstanding booklet that does a great job of detailing the history of the band and the album and also has some great photos and memorabilia including several photos from that TV performance.  

(Grapefruit)