Eyes Of Blue - The Light We See - The Recordings 1969-1971

Before forming Eyes Of Blue, the five members of the band were in two different Swansea area bands. John “Pugwash” Weathers, Raymond “Taff” Williams and Wyndham Rees were in Chuck Stallion and The Mustangs and Phil Ryan and Gary Pickford-Hopkins were in The Smokestacks, before they eventually also joined The Mustangs.  After starting off playing rock, R&B and the blues, they slowly moved more in the direction of Tamla Motown Soul.  They also started writing their own songs and playing them live.  After winning the Melody Maker National Beat Contest in 1966, they were given a record deal with Deram, a new subsidiary of Decca, as part of their prize.  The label tried to make them a bubblegum band and told them what songs they would record and even had them use a session guitarist.  They ended up releasing two singles for the label, but the band didn’t like them (they are not included here) and when they didn’t sell much, the label let them out of their contract.  Following that they got a residency at the Speakeasy Club, where they met a lot of industry people.  Through these connections they met American record producer and label executive Lou Reizner, who started managing them and signed them to a licensing deal at Mercury Records.  In 1969 they released two albums and then in 1971 released a third, but under the band name Big Sleep.  Now all three albums, along with a couple bonus tracks, are available in the box set The Light We See - The Recordings 1969-1971.

With production handled by Reizner, their debut album Crossroads Of Time was a promising start.  It consisted of seven originals written by Francis, along with covers of tracks from The Beatles and Love, and two songs written for them by the now legendary Graham Bond, another person they connected with through Reizner.  The title track, written by Bond, opens the disc and is a really strong track that shows their prog influence.  It’s a rocker with some Bach influenced organ but also breaks out into some soulful sections (Bond later recorded a version that was a little faster and didn’t really have the prog element).  The next track, “Never Care”, jumps back and forth from bubblegum pop to circus like swirling psychedelia.  It's a bit disjointed and doesn’t work very well, but they turn things around quickly with the powerful “I’ll Be Your Friend”, which is slow and soulful with some great vocal harmonies.  With a little distortion on the vocals, their cover of Love’s “7 + 7 Is” sticks pretty close to the original.  “Prodigal Son” is one of the more interesting tracks here, starting off as a pretty straight-forward rock tune, but about halfway in it explodes into proggy psychedelia with a slight Middle Eastern vibe that then evolves into a West Coast sound that has a hint of The Grateful Dead.  Following the somewhat nondescript, slower psychedelia of “Largo” is Bond’s “Love Is The Law”, a slower, very soulfut song with some really nice organ fills.  With its layered vocals and organ, their quite unique cover of The Beatles’ “Yesterday” at times sounds more like a hymn being performed by a rock band.  Backed with some really nice jazz drumming, “I Wonder Why” is a slower soulful blues tune.  “World Of Emotion” is a catchy, upbeat, organ driven pop tune with an infectious beat, while album closer “Inspiration For A New Day” and instrumental “Q III” (a bonus track here taken from a 1969 single B-side) are a couple of strong bluesy rockers. 

Reizner once again produced album number two, In Fields Of Ardath, but there was a major change as Wyndham Rees was no longer in the band.  Also, unlike on their debut, the writing this time was more of a band effort, and they were more aware of what could be done in the studio and therefore provided alot more input into the production.  They were also more determined to be even more experimental this time, including things like sitar and backwards tapes.  The album opens with the nine-minute plus “Merry Go Round,” a dramatic, keyboard driven, ever-changing prog masterpiece, that is most likely their finest recorded moment.  Following “The Light We See,” a nice midtempo bluesy rock track highlighted by the guitar solo at the end, is “Souvenirs (Tribute To Django)”, the first of three covers on the album.  Originally composed by Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli, their take on the instrumental is quite creative, starting out acoustically and then slowly transitioning throughout the song before ending as bluesy electric rock.  Following “Ardath”, a slower, largely acoustic track that’s kind of laid-back and dreamy, is “Spanish Blues”, another song written by Graham Bond, that had been previously recorded by the Graham Bond Organization on their debut album.  The midtempo cut is a really strong cover that’s blues rock with a jazzy funk groove that really lets the whole band spread their wings.  The experimental side of the band comes through again on “Door (The Child That Is Born On The Sabbath Day),” a seven-minute song with an early prog vibe with lots of shifting styles and a short, spoken word piece at the end.  Completely shifting gears, “Little Bird” is a super catchy, simple little pop tune with more strong vocal harmonies that has a bit of a Beatles feel.  The explosive, hard charging “After The War” is a powerhouse blues rocker that is another standout track.  The laid-back, kind of dreamy, instrumental “Extra Hour” sounds like it would be the perfect background movie music and “Chances” is a stripped down, acoustic tune with a very West Coast singer songwriter sound.  The final track is their cover of the instrumental “Apache” (their version was released as “Apache ‘69”), a song that was a hit for The Shadows.  Here it sounds more like a jam session and less like an actual song, and while it appears to have been an album cut, it’s listed here as a bonus track saying it was a single.  Interestingly, when it was release as a single, they released it under the band name The Imposters.  

When Fields Of Ardath didn't sell much, Mercury dropped them.  At this point Reizner got them a deal with the label Pegasus and with him as producer once again, they recorded a new album called Bluebell Wood.  He also suggested they release it under a different band name, so they became Big Sleep, but by the time the album was released in July 1971 the band was already over.  While it varies greatly stylewise, this is the album where all the pieces really seemed to come together.  The album opens with “Death Of Hope,” a laid-back, very theatrical song with gorgeous string arrangements and sparse instrumentation.  At first, “Odd Song” continues this laid-back pacing and has some beautiful harmonies, but then picks up the pace in its second half with rock guitar and an almost rockabilly / country beat.  “Free Life” kicks things into gear with six and a half minutes of psychedelic prog rock, full of great guitar work accompanied by organ and Weathers’ heavy drumming.  Equal parts prog (especially the organ and drum) and blissful Beatles-esque pop, “Aunty James” is a whimsical tune with massive hooks.  Probably the most full-fledged prog song on the album, “Saint and Sceptic” has lots of tempo shifts along with medieval flavored baroque string arrangements and big vocal choruses, while the eleven-and-a-half-minute title track continues down the prog path, ending with about four minutes of what sounds like the band jamming.  Moving in a completely different direction, “Watching Love Grow” is a pretty little soulful pop ballad.  That brings us to the album’s last track “When The Sun Was Out,” which is not necessarily a bad song, but really doesn’t fit here at all.  It harkens back to the high energy R&B singalongs of The Beatles in their early days and almost sounds like something they just threw down really quick to fill out the album at the last minute.  Rounded out with a very informational booklet, The Light We See is a solid box set that gives Eyes of Blue and Big Sleep some much deserved recognition. 

(Esoteric Recordings)