Gone to Earth (Barclay James Harvest Album)

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Gone to Earth
Studio album by Barclay James Harvest

Publication
(s)

September 1977
(original album),
June 2, 2003
(revised CD re-release)

Label (s) Polydor

Format (s)

LP, MC, CD

Genre (s)

skirt

Title (number)

9 (1977) / 14 (2003)

running time

39 min. 50 sec. (Original album)

occupation see below

production

David Rohl, Barclay James Harvest

Studio (s)

Strawberry Studios, Stockport

chronology
Octoberon
(1976)
Gone to Earth Live Tapes (Live)
(1978)

Gone to Earth is the eighth studio album by the English rock group Barclay James Harvest , which was released in September 1977 on the Polydor label . The title is borrowed from the hunter's language and means that the fox has reached the burrow.

The recording work took place from March to June 1977 at Strawberry Studios in Stockport . Eight of the nine songs are penned by John Lees and Les Holroyd . Keyboardist Woolly Wolstenholme contributed the song Sea of ​​Tranquility .

Most famous songs

The most famous song of the album, Hymn (English for hymn or hymn ), was written by Lee's already in the early stages of the band in the summer of 1971 for the album Barclay James Harvest and Other Short Stories proposed and rejected, often misinterpreted as Christmas carol. In fact, the song is directed against the dangers of drug consumption and dedicated to the musicians Jimi Hendrix , Paul Kossoff and Janis Joplin who died of drugs . It was a popular title on German radio stations, especially in the late 1970s and 1980s. The song Poor Man's Moody Blues , also written by Lee, is an ironic reaction to many critics who had called Barclay James Harvest " Moody blues for the poor". The melody is a reference to the moody blues title Nights in White Satin . Both Hymn and Poor Man's Moody Blues are among the most popular and most played tracks in concerts by Barclay James Harvest and their successor bands John Lees' Barclay James Harvest and Barclay James Harvest Featuring Les Holroyd and are also on the live album "Live-Tapes" represented from 1978. Hymn can also be heard on the successful live album Berlin - A Concert for the People from 1982. In 2001 the song Hymn was covered by the group Gregorian .

Singles and new releases

Two singles were released from the album Gone to Earth (with A / B sides): Hymn  / Our Kid's Kid and Friend of Mine  / Suicide? . The single versions of Hymn and Friend of Mine are included in the CD version of Gone To Earth, which was re-released by Polydor / Universal on June 2, 2003 . This re-release also included the previously unreleased title Lied (or Please Give Me One More Chance ), the song Our Kids Kid (this is the B-side of the single Hymn ) and a live version of the 1971 song Medicine Man .

Album cover

The original album cover ( LP ) designed by Maldwyn Reece Tootill is cut out in the middle: It looks like an animal's den, from where it can watch the landscape outside. The outer shell shows the outline of a tree and the Barclay James Harvest logo. The inner cover shows an owl in front of the setting sun and the lyrics on the front. On the back are the band members, the track list and an owl in front of the moon.

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Gone to Earth
  UK 30th 10/01/1977 (7 weeks)
  DE 10 December 15, 1977 (197 weeks)

Charts

In the United Kingdom , where Barclay James Harvest never reached high chart positions , Gone To Earth came to 30th place on the album charts. In Germany, however, the album rose to 10th place and remained in the album sales hit parade for 197 weeks. It stands behind My Fair Lady by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe (242 weeks), Greatest Hits by Simon and Garfunkel (242 weeks), 1962–1966 by The Beatles (297 weeks), Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd (312 weeks) weeks) and Best of by Andrea Berg (337 weeks) for the 6th place of the placed the longest in the German album charts albums.

Reviews

Dave Connolly wrote on Allmusic: Seldom has the band sounded better in the studio and the result on the album is just as delightful as it was during the recording work . The reviewer for Sounds magazine called the title Poor Man's Moody Blues an "apt self-assessment" for this "superfluous saccharine LP".

Song list

Original album, 1977

page 1

  • Hymn ( Lees ) - 5:06
  • Love Is Like a Violin (Lees) - 4:03
  • Friend of Mine ( Holroyd ) - 3:30
  • Poor Man's Moody Blues (Lees) - 6:55

Page 2

  • Hard Hearted Woman (Holroyd) - 4:27
  • Sea of ​​Tranquility ( Wolstenholme ) - 4:03
  • Spirit on the Water (Holroyd) - 4:49
  • Leper's Song (Lees) - 3:34
  • Taking Me Higher (Holroyd) - 3:07

New album release, 2003

In addition to the songs from the original album, the 2003 re-release includes five bonus songs:

  • Song (Lees), previously unpublished - 5:05
  • Our Kid's Kid (Lees), B-side of the single Hymn - 4:00
  • Hymn (Lees), single edit, previously unreleased - 4:26
  • Friend of Mine (Holroyd), single version - 3:01
  • Medicine Man (Lees) Live EP Version - 11:53

occupation

On Gone to Earth only the members of Barclay James Harvest can be heard without guest musicians:

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e f g h i j Portfolio: Gone to Earth , on bjharvest.co.uk
  2. Song of the day. Barclay James Harvest - Poor Man's Moody Blues ( Memento of the original from April 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , from January 19, 2011, accessed on September 13, 2015, from Seite3.ch @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.seite3.ch
  3. a b Gone To Earth , album info and CD review, 2007, on cd-lexikon.de
  4. Charts DE Charts UK
  5. Sounds. Plates 66-77 , Zweiausendeins, Frankfurt am Main 1979, p. 1526

Web links