THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,206) Barclay James Harvest — “Mother Dear”
This “incredibly beautiful” (VianaProgHead, https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=3380) song off their ’70 debut is “a Poe-like Gothic mystery (about dream-like figures in black or white) as an acoustic, string-laden gem first penned in ’67”. (Brian Banks, https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2018/05/barclay-james-harvest-barclay-james.html) It “combines moving visionary lyrics (okay, childish lyrics, but then again they have an excuse – the song is written from a child’s point of view) with a charming acoustic folksy rhythm and magnificent background orchestration – portentous, majestic, yet never descending into Hollywoodish sappiness.” (George Starostin, https://starlingdb.org/music/barclay.htm)
As to the LP, Jason writes:
[T]heir outstanding debut was . . . . absolutely dynamite . . . . The whole album is absolutely wonderful, finding some kind of middle ground between the Move, psychedelic era Pretty Things and late 60’s Procol Harum. A genuinely fantastic album that is not to be missed, pitched half way between the psych and prog eras.
Barclay James Harvest “Their First Album”
Dave Thompson adds:
[It] was one of the unsung classics of the late ’60s, a post-psychedelic pop album that posits a peculiar collision between the Bee Gees’ vision of classic grandeur and the heftier sounds leaking out of the rock underground. Add Norman Smith’s epic production . . . . [and] Barclay James Harvest ranks among the finest albums of the entire early prog boom.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/barclay-james-harvest-mw0000463399
As Jason says, BJH was “[o]ften labeled the ‘poor man’s Moody Blues[]'”, but “were one of England’s most unappreciated, hardluck underground bands throughout the 60’s and 70’s.” (http://therisingstorm.net/barclay-james-harvest-their-first-album/)
Bruce Eder tells us more:
Barclay James Harvest was, for many years, one of the most hard luck outfits in progressive rock. A quartet of solid rock musicians — John Lees, guitar, vocals; Les Holroyd, bass, vocals; Stuart “Wooly” Wolstenholme, keyboards, vocals; and Mel Pritchard, drums — with a knack for writing hook-laden songs built on pretty melodies, they harmonized like the Beatles and wrote extended songs with more of a beat than the Moody Blues. They were signed to EMI at the same time as Pink Floyd, and both bands moved over to the company’s progressive rock-oriented Harvest imprint at the same time, yet somehow, they never managed to connect with the public for a major hit in England, much less America. The group was formed in September of 1966 in Oldham, Lancashire. Lees and Wolstenholme were classmates who played together in a band called the Blues Keepers; that group soon merged with a band called the Wickeds, which included Holroyd and Pritchard. They became Barclay James Harvest in June of 1967 and began rehearsing at an 18th century farmhouse in Lancashire.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/barclay-james-harvest-mn0000125465#biography
BJH did become more commercially successful as the 70’s discoed on. But that is for someone else’s blog!
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
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The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 750 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
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Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! / Off the Charts: 60s Rock Revelations😊 