Spooky Tooth?

[Enid]

My other half has done this for Universal and that is why we couldn't license the other albums, it is rather gorgeous , I've seen the mock ups and I love the Art album, one we always wanted to do !!

I wish Steve Wilson would re-mix Broke My Heart, Witness, and The Mirror. That's some wish. I wish you would re-mix their recordings. It may be the muffled sound that annoys me, because the songs are beautiful and they need that extra, special.. attention to be even further appreciated. "This Time Around" needs more treble and volume on the high-hat and cymbals and a better balance on the vocals. "Cotton Growing Man", "Old As I Was Born" , "Wildfire" and "Moriah" have to be EQ-ed on the Repertoire release and even then, it's crying for a re-mix. Individual tracks of instruments need to be mixed properly. The repeated vocal line of "The Mirror" that contains an echo/delay effect needs to be enhanced properly. "See the light, see the light" would sound so much better if it were re-mixed to sound more along the lines of a Pink Floyd production...(if that makes any sense?), and in point if various sections of their music containing female back up vocal harmony were to be a bit more enhanced ...it would come across just as beautiful as the female vocals produced in Pink Floyd recordings. Witness desperately needs a fine re-mix. If you notice..."Dream Me A Mountain" has more clarity than the rest of the album. Witness needs that boost and clarity through an actual remix of individual tracks raised on the board and experimented with for good measure. Spooky Tooth would be more appreciated for their diversity and dynamics if they received a remix.

[Enid]

The Mirror seems to be their most disliked album. I saw the band in 74' when they opened for Frampton's Camel and Mahavishnu Orchestra at the SPECTRUM in Philadelphia P.A. They played the best tracks from The Mirror and proceeded to play material from The Last Puff, Spooky Two, Witness, and Broke My Heart. It was magnificent and the sound was mixed BEAUTIFULLY ..just as I stated it should have been mixed on the studio albums and it never was. They were very tight as a unit and it's a shame it wasn't recorded or filmed.

[Digital_Man]

I listened to a little bit of "Ceremony" on youtube yesterday. That is some weird ass s**t.

[grego]

Ceremony is not entirely theirs, it's Pierre Henry's music at most.

[jcleary]

I have one album by them, I think it's called The Mirror (their last album). I dig it. It's very R&B-ish.

If there ain't no Mike Harrison there ain't no Spooky Tooth!!

[Galactic Bulldozer]

Out of 10 from UNoWho

6.50 Ceremony
6.74 The Mirror
6.98 The Last Puff
7.04 You Broke My Heart So I Busted Your Jaw
7.08 Witness
7.14 It's All About...
7.28 Supernatural
7.68 Spooky Two

Get the box set, put them on to a i-pod and listen to them randomly and come back in three month and tell us your favourites.

NP Peter Hammill - The Great Experiment

[Galactic Bulldozer]

If there ain't no Mike Harrison there ain't no Spooky Tooth!!

Someone might say he couldn't reach the high notes...

[Progbear]

If there ain't no Mike Harrison there ain't no Spooky Tooth!!

As much as I like Harrison, I have a soft spot for The Mirror. Then again, I’m a big fan of Mike Patto, and the title song has a nice proggy flavour to it that I find appealing. It also has the best cover of any Spooky Tooth album, ever. No, it’s not Two, but I still enjoy it.

[spacefreak]

As much as I like Harrison, I have a soft spot for The Mirror [...] the title song has a nice proggy flavour to it that I find appealing.

Yes, the title song is one of their greatest moments for me as well.

It also has the best cover of any Spooky Tooth album, ever.

QFT.

[Scrotum Scissor]

Then again, I’m a big fan of Mike Patto

One of the truly unheralded heroes of British underground rock in 1969-75. As idiosyncratic as Roger Chapman or Ray Russell or whoever, but less known overall. The s/t Patto album is altogether probably one of the most original UK "proto-prog" records.

[mogrooves]

I recall an album called "broke my heart so I busted your jaw" I don't recall liking anything on that album.

....and Kellie's absence didn't help.

[Progbear]

One of the truly unheralded heroes of British underground rock in 1969-75. As idiosyncratic as Roger Chapman or Ray Russell or whoever, but less known overall. The s/t Patto album is altogether probably one of the most original UK "proto-prog" records.

I was reminded of Family when I first heard the first Patto album, but they go off on their own blues-rock-meets-free-jazz direction that is uniquely theirs. I’m a big fan of Ollie Halsall’s, too. That second Tempest album is one of my favourite hard rock albums out there, and I’m glad the first one (which has grown on me) didn’t put me off checking that one out.

[spacefreak]

I’m a big fan of Ollie Halsall’s, too.

Ollie Halsall (RIP) was a damn good guitarist. I remember that he had been considered as a replacement for Mick Taylor, when the later left the Rolling Stones.

[Scrotum Scissor]

the first Patto album, but they go off on their own blues-rock-meets-free-jazz direction that is uniquely theirs. I’m a big fan of Ollie Halsall’s, too. That second Tempest album is one of my favourite hard rock albums

Patto were as "properly progressive" as Family, Back Door, Third Ear Band, Comus and other groups who were part of the "pre-symph" days of the genre - when the latter implied an emphasis on the virtues of creativity, innovation and vision (as opposed to "exact sound").

Agree about the Tempest. and about Ollie, of course; the unlikely link (Unlikely Link - band name up for sale!) between the Hendrix-anarchic freeblowers and the disciplined technicians of the Fripp-towards-McLaughlin school. Halsall was awesome.

[yoyiceu]

I do llke all Spooky Tooth albums, as well as Art and the first couple of Gary right solo albums. The first four (five if you include Art) had Luther Grosvenor on guitar in his pre Mott the Hoople 'Ariel Bender' days and he's a great guitar player, somewhat in a anarchic Jimmy Page mould. The rest had a pre Foreigner Mick Jones on board. Wright was/is a great singer and songwriter and Mike Harrison one of the great british vocalists.
Art, It's All About and To are all top notch and somewhat psychedelic, Ceremony was an interesting experiment ith Grosvenor going apeshit on a cuple of long tracks; The Last Puff is kind of a Mike Harrison solo record that includes one of the best Beatles covers of all time (I'm the Walrus) while the Mick Jones albums prefigure Foreigner, but perhaps with better songwriting: Jones even said that in Lou Gramm he got a singer who cold combine both Harrison (gruff Joe Cocker like vocals) and the falsettoed Wright, who later went to fame with Dreamweaver.
The set also includes a 1972 concert of the Mick Jones band, long available on bootlegs, and lots of extra tracks.

[Fox]

You Broke My Heart So I Busted Your Jaw is one of the best titled tunes in history!

[progeezer]

Yeah, how's your jaw, Fox??

Will understand if this spooky setback leaves you long in the tooth.

There, back on the tracks......

I have posted before that one of my many cover bands back in the middle ages did "Waiting On The Wind".

[Trane]

Surprisingly to me, I had heard most Spooky Tooth albums - except the debut and the last one (Mirror), though I just just heard that last one just now


Don't own any of them (never did), but I'd always wished I did a CD-r dynamite compilation from those albums...

[jkelman]

I bought the box for a combination interest and research. I remembered some of their stuff but actually find myself liking more than i expected.