Farewell Aldebaran | |
---|---|
Studio album by | |
Released | June 16, 1969 [1] |
Recorded | Early 1969 |
Studio | Sunwest, Hollywood, California |
Genre | Psychedelic rock, folk rock |
Length | 34:33 |
Label | Straight |
Producer | Jerry Yester, Zal Yanovsky |
Farewell Aldebaran is a 1969 album by American musicians Judy Henske and Jerry Yester. Originally released on Frank Zappa's Straight record label, it contains an eclectic mix of songs in a wide variety of styles and is also notable for its early use of synthesisers. AllMusic describes the album as "a fusion of folk music, psychedelia, and arty pop, though that only scrapes the surface of the LP's stylistic complexity." [2] Although the album got some good reviews it failed to sell in large quantities, purchasers possibly confused by its eclecticism. [3]
Henske and Yester met while working in the West Coast folk scene in the early 1960s, Henske as an "eclectic and audacious" [2] solo singer recording folk, blues, jazz and comedy, Yester as a member of the Modern Folk Quartet. They married in 1963. A few years later, Henske's career was faltering as a result of ill-advised forays into cabaret while Yester had produced albums by Tim Buckley and the Association, and replaced Zal Yanovsky in the Lovin' Spoonful. [2]
The pair, with their newborn daughter, moved to Los Angeles in 1968. Henske shared a manager, Herb Cohen, with Frank Zappa, who suggested to her that she should put music to some of the verse she was writing. Yester, at this point, was working with Yanovsky on the latter's first solo album, and experimenting with new electronic and other sound effects. The couple combined to put together Farewell Aldebaran, drawing on a varied selection of their musician friends, and it was issued on Zappa and Cohen's new label. [1] [4]
The album was based on Henske's lyrics, many of which were verses written when she had a high fever: "an extraordinary group of literate song-poems setting oblique commentary on their life and her past against evocations of the fate of a fallen knight, a mare’s connection with the man who had stolen her, and the biography of a ship named Charity which yearned for a safe harbour." [4] At the time, Yester and Yanovsky were co-producing Pat Boone's album Departure, and over a six-month period they used Boone's own studio to record Farewell Aldebaran. [1] Musicians on the album, besides Yester, Henske, and Yanovsky, included David Lindley, Paul Beaver, Dick Rosmini, Larry Beckett, and Ray Brown. [5] [6]
The opener, "Snowblind", issued as a single, is a guitar-driven rocker that is enough in itself to establish Henske as a peerless rock vocalist and an able, witty lyricist. This is immediately followed by "Horses on a Stick", an almost parodic piece of "sunshine pop", Yester's polka harmonium reminiscent of a fairground steam-organ. Next is the sombre, spacious, marxophone-fractured "Lullaby" and then the melodramatic "St. Nicholas Hall", its satirical anti-clerical lyrics matched by choral samples from the Chamberlin keyboard. "Three Ravens", a sublime slice of baroque pop, fully orchestrated, based upon a Scottish folk lyric, is especially revered.
"Raider", which has been described as an "acid sea shanty", has a bluegrass feel created by bowed banjo and dulcimer backing a folksy-sounding but surreal lyric. "Mrs Connor" strays into jazz balladry, piano-led, as Yester details stark old age. "Rapture" is a highly atmospheric rock waltz with lyrics comparing the magic of love to the moment of death. The upbeat "Charity", sung by Yester to acoustic guitars and powerful vocal harmonies, tells of a sailing ship doomed to sail forever. Finally the title track, featuring electronically treated vocals and Moog synthesizer, is a unique piece of "space-rock" based upon an insistent bass drum, full of rushing, wailing and bleeping sounds as Yester intones "the comets cling to her, the fiery bride, she is the mother of the mark and the prize, the glaze of paradise is in her eyes, her mouth is torn with stars..." before the track fades into chaos. [5]
According to AllMusic reviewer Mark Deming: "What holds Farewell Aldebaran together is the strength of the songs and arrangements, where Yester brings together a striking range of sounds and moods, and makes imaginative use of mellotrons and early Moog synthesizers. Henske rarely sounded this nuanced and effective on record, mainly because Yester gave her musical landscapes that were big enough for her talent and personality." [2]
Overall, Justin F. Farrar of SF Weekly that Farewell Aldebaran was unusual even for a Straight release, calling it "a bizarre little collection of hard rock, baroque pop, AM-friendly pap, anthemic marches with vital social messages, and uptempo country-folk." He added that Henske and Yester "designed and constructed these tunes in the studio, creating massive musique concrète structures, with Henske's deep, muscular alto serving as their foundation. I mean, these are bombastic, no-room-to-breathe performances replete with intricately layered electronics and Yester's primitive use of synthesizer technology." [7] Deming described the album as "as a fusion of folk music, psychedelia, and arty pop, though that only scrapes the surface of the LP's stylistic complexity." He noted the eclecticism, noting the succession of "stomp-down primitivism" ("Snowblind"), "playful pop" ("Horses"), "tongue in cheek religious satire" ("St. Nicholas Hall"), the pretty "Three Ravens" and "the grand scale sci-fi finale of the title cut", contending that all the individual songs have their own characters. [2]
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [8] |
The album was not a commercial success, having been deemed "too eclectic and deliberately eccentric to find a place on radio". [2] However, in the UK, the album was broadcast by John Peel, who played "Three Ravens" on Radio One, and it gained a cult following over the years. [2] [1]
Henske and Yester went on to form a more conventional band, Rosebud, before they divorced and went their separate ways at the start of the 1970s. Farewell Aldebaran was bootlegged on CD by Radioactive Records in 2005, and was re-issued officially, with bonus tracks, on Omnivore Recordings in 2016. [6] [4]
The album cover is a solarised negative photograph of Henske, Yester, their daughter and cat posed in a garden; the back cover is a color positive of the same picture. The photograph was taken by Ed Caraeff.
All lyrics by Judy Henske, music by Jerry Yester; except where indicated
Side one
Side two
Zalman Yanovsky was a Canadian folk-rock musician. Born in Toronto, he was the son of political cartoonist Avrom Yanovsky and teacher Nechama Yanovsky, who died in 1958. He played lead guitar and sang for the Lovin' Spoonful, a rock band which he founded with John Sebastian in 1964. He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1996. He was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000 as a member of the Lovin’ Spoonful. He was married to actress Jackie Burroughs, with whom he had one daughter, Zoe.
The Lovin' Spoonful is an American folk rock band formed in Greenwich Village, New York City, in 1964. The band was among the most popular groups in the United States for a short period in the mid-1960s and their music and image influenced many of the contemporary rock acts of their era. Beginning in July 1965 with their debut single "Do You Believe in Magic", the band had seven consecutive singles reach the Top Ten of the U.S. charts in the eighteen months that followed, including the number two hits "Daydream" and "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?" and the chart-topping "Summer in the City".
Closing Time is the debut album by American singer-songwriter Tom Waits, released on March 6, 1973, on Asylum Records. Produced and arranged by former Lovin' Spoonful member Jerry Yester, Closing Time was the first of seven of Waits' major releases by Asylum.
Straight Records, self-identified simply as Straight, was a record label formed in 1969 to distribute productions and discoveries of Frank Zappa and his business partner/manager Herb Cohen. Straight was formed at the same time as a companion label, Bizarre Records. Straight and Bizarre were manufactured and distributed in the U.S. by the Warner Bros. Records family of labels, which also included Reprise Records. Straight recordings were distributed in the U.K. by CBS Records.
Play Me Backwards is an album by the American musician Joan Baez, released in 1992. The album was nominated for a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Recording. Baez supported it with an international tour.
Happy Sad is the third album by American singer-songwriter Tim Buckley, released in April 1969. It was recorded at Elektra Sound Recorders in Los Angeles, California and was produced by former Lovin' Spoonful members Zal Yanovsky and, coincidentally, his subsequent replacement Jerry Yester. It marked the beginning of Buckley's experimental period, as it incorporated elements of jazz that he had never used before. Many of the songs here represent a departure from the binary form that dominated much of his previous work.
Judith Anne Henske was an American singer and songwriter, dubbed "the Queen of the Beatniks" by producer Jack Nitzsche. Initially performing in folk clubs in the early 1960s, her performances and recordings embraced blues, jazz, show tunes, and humorous material. Her 1963 recording of "High Flying Bird" was influential on folk-rock, and her 1969 album Farewell Aldebaran, with husband Jerry Yester, was an eclectic "fusion of folk music, psychedelia, and arty pop".
Rosebud was the name of an American popular music group which released a single, eponymous album in 1971.
Jerome Alan Yester is an American folk rock musician, record producer, and arranger.
Cyrus Faryar is an Iranian-American folk musician, songwriter and record producer.
Craig Doerge is an American keyboard player, session musician, songwriter, and record producer, best known for his keyboard work with Crosby Stills and Nash, James Taylor, and Jackson Browne.
Snowblind or Snow Blind may refer to:
Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful is the third studio album and fourth overall by American folk rock band the Lovin' Spoonful, released in 1966 by Kama Sutra Records. It peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart.
Everything Playing is the fourth studio album and sixth overall by the Lovin' Spoonful, released in 1967.
Insight Out is the third album by the American pop band the Association and was released on June 8, 1967 on Warner Bros. Records. It was the band's first album release for the Warner Brothers label and it became one of the top selling LPs of the year in America, peaking at number 8 on the Billboard Top LPs chart and being certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. Critic Richie Unterberger has attributed much of the album's success to the inclusion of the U.S. hits "Windy" and "Never My Love", which reached number 1 and number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart respectively and were among the most-played records on AM radio during the late 1960s.
Aretha is the thirty-first studio album by American singer Aretha Franklin, originally released on October 27, 1986, by Arista Records. It is the third album with the Aretha title to be released by Franklin, following her 1961 album and 1980 album.
Steve Boone is an American bass guitarist and music producer, best-known as a member of the American folk-rock group The Lovin' Spoonful. Steve co-wrote two of the groups' biggest hits, "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice" and "Summer in the City".
The Lovin' Spoonful Anthology is a compilation album by the folk rock group the Lovin' Spoonful, released in 1990.
Emotion is the eighth solo studio album by American country pop singer Juice Newton. It was released by RCA Records in 1987 and was the last of Newton's albums to appear on the Billboard charts.
James Yester is an American musician. He is a member of the sunshine pop group the Association, who had numerous hits on the Billboard charts during the 1960s, including "Windy", "Cherish", "Never My Love" and "Along Comes Mary", among many others.