THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
921) Paper Bubble — “You’re Feeling Sleepy”
A hypnotic baroque lullaby. A response to the Beatles’ “I’m Only Sleeping” or S&G’s “Feelin’ Groovy”?
David Wells says that Paper Bubble’s first album Scenery (see #626) was composed of “elegiac, post-psychedelic baroque pop soundscapes . . . tailor made for [the band’s] honeyed vocal harmonies and melodic ambitions.” (liner notes to Paper Bubble Behind the Scenery: The Complete Paper Bubble) On the other hand, Richie Unterberger dismissively calls Scenery “somewhat precious British folk-pop-rock” (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/paper-bubble-mn0000995908/biography) and Vernon Joynson calls it “a pleasant, inoffensive collection of orchestrated, mildly psychedelic pop songs”. (The Tapestry of Delights Revisited). Well, I agree with Wells!
Unfortunately, as Steve Burniston tells us, “[d]espite some impressive songs . . . fine vocals and most of the future Strawbs backing them, the album sunk on release.” (http://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2019/10/paper-bubble-behind-scenery-complete.html?m=1) Lee Connolly ponders Scenery‘s marketing:
Scenery hit the streets in March 1970, issued . . . in both mono and stereo and inexplicably in two different coloured shades of blue. Who knows? It may just have been a printing error but as time goes by you’d like to imagine it was a marketing wheeze well ahead of its time to get fans to buy two copies. What Decca did resist however was the release of a single from the LP thus making radio play a rather difficult promotional outlet for the release. The LP did not otherwise appear to make a mark on the world.
liner notes to the CD comp Paper Bubble Behind the Scenery: The Complete Paper Bubble
As to PB’s history, listen to Jazz, Rock, Soul:
Paper Bubble began with a musical partnership between two singing guitarists from Shrewsbury, Shropshire, Terry Brake and Brian Crane. They eventually added bassist Neil Mitchell and hit the local folk circuit. In nearby Oswestry, they supported the Strawbs, an up-and-coming act whose co-founders, singing guitarists Dave Cousins and Tony Hooper, offered the trio a publishing deal with Strawberry Music. In 1969, Paper Bubble signed with Deram, the underground division of Decca. Cousins and Hooper produced their album and offered musical backing with three hired hands: bassist John Ford and drummer Richard Hudson (then of Velvet Opera) and keyboardist Rick Wakeman. Paper Bubble released Scenery in March 1970 on Deram. It features 11 Brake/Crane originals . . . . Deram issued no singles from Scenery. Mitchell left mere months after its release. Meanwhile, Hooper and Cousins — wanting the Scenery ambience for their own band — enlisted Wakeman, Hudson and Ford as official Strawbs.
https://jazzrocksoul.com/artists/paper-bubble/
As to PB’s unreleased 2nd album Prisoners, Victims, Strangers, Friends (from which today’s song is drawn) and its aftermath, Lee Connolly writes that:
[The album was recorded at] Olympic Studios in London during October 1970. The tracks were recorded basically as a live performance with the vocals merely as a guide to be recorded again at a later date. Events overtook the sessions with not only presumably sales figures for Scenery coming in to Decca dictating no follow up LP option would be picked up, but also the unifying of Brake and Crane’s backing band. For as Brian relates, Dave Cousins has subsequently freely admitted that what he was hearing was what he wanted for himself. At the time Dave Cousins and Tony Hooper were still performing with just a bass player. In an interview with ZigZag magazine published in 1975 Cousins confirmed that six months later [post Scenery] . . . Wakeman, Hudson and Ford joined Cousins and Hooper officially and recorded two albums as the Strawbs . . . . And so . . . Prisoners, Victims, Strangers, Friends was shelved . . . .
liner notes to Paper Bubble Behind the Scenery: The Complete Paper Bubble
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