THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
879) Hard Meat — “A Song of Summer”
A perfect song for summer, a “breezy mid-tempo tune, [a] wonderful mixture of acoustic and electric guitars” (Kevin Rathert, https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2022/11/hard-meat-the-space-between-the-recordings-1969-1970-2022.html) from Hard Meat (see #379), “basically a [Birmingham] hippie outfit who played a brand of progressive rock”. (Vernon Joynson, Tapestry of Delights Revisited). “In my summer, I’m gonna sing my song. In the summer, I’m gonna sing it all day long.”
Wonderful song, wonderful album, but the band had an unfortunate name. Allegedly, “hard meat” means corn and hay fodder for animals. Yeah, well, I’ll leave it at that.
Fred Thomas tells us:
English group Hard Meat were part of Birmingham’s psychedelic scene of the late ’60s and early ’70s, and their sound bridged flower power psychedelia with early prog complexity and orchestral touches. The band only existed for a few years, but they stayed together long enough to record a self-titled debut full-length and sophomore album, Through a Window [from which comes today’s song] both released in 1970. Hard Meat was formed in 1969 by brothers Michael and Steve Dolan and drummer Mick Carless. That same year, they released their first single with Island Records, a cover of the Beatles’ “Rain” with Hard Meat original “Burning Up Years” on the B-side. . . . They toured the U.K. and the United States in support of their work. The group broke up in 1971.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/hard-meat-mn0001631663
Cherry Red Records adds:
In the late 1960s with the first flowering of the progressive rock and heavy rock movements, bands of both disciplines – and many straddling the two – began sprouting like mushrooms, some flourishing for decades and others a mere fleeting presence in rock’s back pages. One of the latter examples were the excellent Hard Meat, a progressive rock trio who recorded an unissued album intended for release on Island Records in 1969 and released two albums in 1970 . . . . Hard Meat came together in late 1968 and came to the attention of producer Sandy Roberton who in turn brought the band to Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records. The band issued a single ‘Rain’ (an excellent cover of The Beatles’ classic song) b/w ‘Burning Up Years’ on the label and subsequently recorded an album intended for release on Island. However, for various reasons, the band were dropped from Island’s roster and the excellent recordings failed to gain a release. In 1970 Hard Meat signed with the UK division of Warner Brothers and released their self-titled debut album soon after. The album and the band’s live performances in the UK and the USA (where they opened for acts such as The Flying Burrito Brothers) attracted enough critical praise and attention for a follow up album, the excellent ‘Through A Window’ to be released by Warner at the end of 1970. However, by the beginning of 1971 the band broke up leaving a legacy of two fine, but sadly commercially unsuccessful albums . . . .
https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/hard-meat-the-space-between-the-recordings-1969-1970-3cd-box-set/
Mark Evans of Red Shoes says:
I got to know Mick Dolan in 2011, when he produced our Red Shoes album “All The Good Friends” in 2012. And he played on some shows with us supporting the Strawbs. A lovely talented man, sadly no longer with us, he was full of wonderful stories about his time in bands and his early days with Hard Meat. Ended up working with Traffic, Mick Jagger, Show of Hands, Fairport Convention, both as a guitarist, recording engineer and producer. He’s much missed.
https://nowspinning.co.uk/hard-meat-the-space-between-the-recordings-1969-1970-cd-box-set-review/
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