THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,627) Philamore Lincoln — “The North Wind Blew South”
Two score and fifteen years ago, Epic brought forth, upon this continent, new “absolutely superb . . . lush, orchestrated psychedelic folk that washes over you when you hear it” (Gabriel_II), “dreamy but majestic” (James Allen, https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-north-wind-blew-south-mw0000842098), conceived in Nottingham (but not even released in the UK!), and dedicated to the proposition that the north wind blows south.
As to this ‘70 LP by Nottingham’s Philamore Lincoln, James wAllen writes:
Given its release date, [the LP] sounds like it could have been sitting on the shelf for a couple of years, as the wispy, Donovan-like psych pop that takes up much of the album feels more like 1968 than 1970. . . . [O]verall, Lincoln’s gentle vocals and breezy delivery perfectly suit his songwriting (he penned every tune here himself) and producer James Wilder finds just the right arrangement for each track, making this a bit of a lost classic of the U.K. soft-psych world.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-north-wind-blew-south-mw0000842098
Beachbeatle1 enthuses:
Beautiful obscure baroque-psych-pop gem of soft folky material & a few rockers emerging in the twilight of the peace and love generation. . . . [A] terrific album whose gifted song writing & arranging breathy vocals simple drum and bass foundations & haunting string arrangements accentuate this eclectic LP. Look out for Jimmy Page playing lead guitar on several tracks . . . . A rare ornate beauty.
RDTEN1 adds:
[The LP contains a] consistently interesting mix of genres including folk . . . country . . . and plenty of pop-psych moves. . . . [Lincoln] . . . had a knack from penning radio-friendly hooks that combined a variety of then-popular genres. Virtually every one of these ten tunes had commercial potential. . . . The album was also interesting from a marketing standpoint in that it was released in the US and Canada, but not the UK. Epic released the two Lincoln singles in advance of the album and their failure to sell may have convinced the label there was no market for the album in the UK.
https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/philamore-lincoln/the-north-wind-blew-south-1/
And Gabriel_II:
[The] album specifically contains a decent number of famous names in terms of session musicians, most notably Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin contributing a guitar solo on “You’re The One”, not too long before he became famous. After the two Paladin releases, Lincoln . . . became disillusioned with the music industry and never really went back to it. . . . The record does try out a few different sonic palettes though, and I think this experimentation is fine for the most part. Generally it sticks into one of three categories: psychedelic folk, solid baroque pop song-writing, and two tracks that are much more like blues rock jams. Those two tracks . . . are not terrible tracks, but they don’t suit Phil’s style in my mind. . . . Considering Phil did all the flute playing and string arrangements too, it just comes off as an incredibly fascinating record with some of the best moments in psychedelic folk as a genre.
https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/philamore-lincoln/the-north-wind-blew-south-1/
As to Mr. Lincoln, David Wells tells us that:
Philamore Lincoln was born Robert Cromwell Anson . . . In Sherwood, Nottingham. He started playing drums in his mid-teens before joining the RAF, where he played in a band . . . . It was at this juncture that Anson began to call himself Phil Kinorra in honour of his three favourite jazz drummers – Phil Seamen,Tony Kinsey and Bobby Orr. After leaving the RAF, Kinorra worked in summer shows and variety acts before coming down to London at the beginning of 1960 as part of an R&B band . . . . By early 1967, Julien Covey and the Machine had settled down to a line-up [with] Kinorra on vocals . . . . Linking up with Island label producer Jimmy Miller, Covey and the Machine cut a great single, ‘A Little Bit Hurt’ . . . . Released in May 1967, [it] attracted a lot of support from the pirate radio stations and was popular in the club discotheques, but didn’t quite make the transition to national chart success. . . . According to press reports at the time, Julien Covey and the Machine were offered a five-year deal by Island, but the group split in the autumn of 1967, at which juncture John Moorshead joined the Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation. After a brief reunion with Graham Bond, Anson/Kinorra/Covey then underwent yet another musical metamorphosis and change of name, reinventing himself as Donovan style psychedelic folk troubadour Philamore Lincoln. Using this name, he released a September 1968 single for the NEMS label, ‘Running By The River’ b/w ‘Rainy Day’. [The A-side] was a beguiling slice of folkadelia . . . . When NEMS collapsed in 1969, a number of its acts transferred to CBS, who had distributed the label. The excellent ‘Rainy Day’ was resurrected . . . but there were plenty of new songs that attained the same heights. . . . The North Wind Blew South failed to garner much attention, and Lincoln’s next act was to produce the self-titled, May 1971 debut album for the progressive rock band Paladin, who included two of his former Julien Covey and the Machine colleagues . . . . After that, though, the Philamore Lincoln trail goes cold.
https://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2013/05/philamore-lincoln-north-wind-blew-south.html
Here are Headless Heroes with a cool cover:
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