Methuselah - Matthew, Mark, Luke And John - Expanded Edition

Methuselah initially got their start in late 1964 / early 1965 as the beat/R&B band The Dimples.  Not long after forming they got a residency at The Jazz Workshop in Ashby, as did the band The Imps.  Over the ensuing years, band members came and went and with some members of The Imps (and their later incarnation The Craze) joining, the lineup was finally solidified with John Gladwin (lead vocals), Terry Wincott (guitar, vocals), Greg Tomlinson (guitar, vocals), Craig Austin (bass, vocals) and Stuart Smith (drums).  At this point they started moving from their blues heavy songs to also include Tamla and soul and released a single at the end of 1966.  Not long after the single's release, Tomlinson and Smith quit the band and were replaced by guitarist Geoff Eaton Tindle and drummer Steve Cox.  With this new lineup they started shifting stylewise again, incorporating influences of psychedelia and the burgeoning California sound.  They changed their name to Gospel Garden and released another single.  More member changes followed with Cox and Tindle leaving the group to be replaced by drummer Mick Bradley and guitarist Les Nicol, and they also moved in more of a rock direction.  All of this was followed by the name change to Methuselah when their management told them the one they had wasn't commercial enough.  The band then entered the studio with Brill Building songwriter Kenny Young (co-writer of "Under The Boardwalk") and Steve Rowland (one half of their management at Double-R) co-producing what would become their sole album Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  Even though they were signed to Elektra, the album ended up only being released in the US and didn't sell much.  Its release was also delayed and by the time it was released the band had split in two with Austin, Nicol and Bradley playing more free-form jam sessions as a trio (a la Cream and Hendrix) and Gladwin and Wincott playing mellower acoustic music as The Amazing Blondell.  All of this meant sales were lackluster and resulted in it being counterfeited a few times over the years.  Now this newly reissued version has been remastered from the original master tapes, and also includes seven previously unreleased outtakes and alternate mixes from those sessions.  While not necessarily religious, the album definitely has plenty of biblical references starting off with the four-song suite that is the album’s namesake.  “Matthew” kicks things off strongly with its late sixties/early seventies era California sound vocal harmonies and heavy psychedelic guitar work, a sound that continues with “Mark”, which at times is even heavier, but also has some more laid-back psychedelic sections.  “Luke” picks up that laid-back psych sound and adds a little bit of jazz and more strong vocal harmonies.  With a bit of blues thrown in “John” is more of an acid rocker that brings back the heaviness again exploding with screaming guitars.  “High In The Tower Of Coombe” is an interesting, kind of quirky medieval tune driven by a military like marching beat.  Complete with handclaps, “Methuselah” is spirited and upbeat, but with slow and dark choruses.  Driven by a funky, R&B groove, “My Poor Mary” is a super infectious change of pace, followed by the straight-ahead hard rock of “Fireball Woman” and “Fairy Tale”, a ballad with a little rock edge.  The album closes strangely with their bizarre cover of the nursery rhyme “Frère Jacques” that is definitely the album’s weak point.  It starts with them singing in a sing songy falsetto and then shifts into an extended soft-jazz instrumental before coming back around to a choral falsetto section.   Kenny Young, the aforementioned co-producer also contributed the song “Don’t Ask Me And I Won’t Lie”, a really catchy midtempo rocker that ended up not making the album, but is now included here as the first of three outtakes and also here in a mono mix.  The other two outtakes are a soft jazz version of “You Are My Sunshine” that’s in the same vein as their version of “Frère Jacques”, and “Put Me Down Easy”, a heavy blues rocker  Rounding out the bonus tracks are an alternative mix of “Fireball Woman” and mono mixes of “Fairy Tale” and “Frère Jacques.”   Also included here is a very detailed twenty-eight page CD booklet that highlights the band’s history as well as what happened after they broke up.  Grapefruit has once again brought a well-deserved, largely ignored band to light.  

(Grapefruit)