Pearls Before Swine (band)
| Pearls Before Swine | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| origin | Melbourne, Florida , United States |
| Genre (s) | Folk-Rock , Psychedelic Folk |
| founding | 1965 |
| resolution | 1974 |
| Founding members | |
| Tom Rapp † (1965–1974) | |
| Wayne Harley (1965-1969) | |
| Lane Lederer (1965-1968) | |
| Roger Crissinger (1965-1967) | |
| former members | |
| Jim Bohannon (1968) | |
| Jim Fairs (1969) | |
| Elisabeth Rapp (1969–1972) | |
| Mike Krawitz (1971) | |
| Gordon Hayes (1971) | |
| Jon Tooker † (1971) | |
| Morrie Brown (1971) | |
| Robby Merkin (1971) | |
| David Wolfert (1971) | |
| Art Ellis † (1971–1974) | |
| Bill Rollins (1971–1974) | |
| Harry Orlove (1971–1974) | |
Pearls Before Swine (abbreviation: PBS ; German: Perlen vor die Säue ) was an American folk-rock band that is classified as psychedelic folk or acid folk . The band was founded in 1965 by Tom Rapp , who was the only permanent member of the group and began a solo career in 1972. Between 1967 and 1971 the band released six albums.
history
With some school friends Tom Rapp founded the band Pearls Before Swine in Melbourne (Florida) in 1965 . The name comes from the Sermon on the Mount :
"Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine , read they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you."
"You should not give the holy things to the dogs and you should not throw your pearls in front of the swine, so that they do not trample them under their feet and turn around and tear you apart."
In 1967 her first album, One Nation Underground , was released, which sold surprisingly well with up to 250,000 copies. The follow-up album Balaklava (1968) is widely regarded as the best of the group.
After switching from ESP-Disk to Reprise Records , the next albums These Things Too (1969), The Use of Ashes (1970), City of Gold (1971) and Beautiful Lies You Could Live In (1971) were less experimental.
Tom Rapp's first solo album, Stardancer , was released on Blue Thumb Records in 1972 , followed by Sunforest the following year. In 1976 Rapp withdrew from the music business, graduated and worked as a lawyer. In 1998 he played live again at the Terrastock Festival in Providence ( Rhode Island ), together with his son Dave's band Shy Camp. In 1999, A Journal of the Plague Year was his first album in more than two and a half decades.
In the same year Birdman Records launched a PBS retrospective called Constructive Melancholy . Water Music Records released a CD box with the four albums from 1969-71 under the title Jewels Were the Stars in 2003 and a year later the double CD The Wizard of Is with previously unreleased live and demo recordings by the band. In 2005 ESP released the double CD The Complete ESP Disk Recordings with the first two PBS albums. 2008 appeared on WildCat Recording Live Pearls with concert recordings from 1971.
Discography
Studio albums
- One Nation Underground (1967, ESP disc)
- Balaklava (1968, ESP disc)
- These Things Too (1969, recapitulation)
- The Use of Ashes (1970, recapitulation)
- City of Gold (1971, recapitulation) (Thos. Rapp / Pearls Before Swine)
- Beautiful Lies You Could Live In (1971, Reprise) (Tom Rapp / Pearls Before Swine)
- Familiar Songs (1972, recapitulation) (Tom Rapp)
- Stardancer (1972, Blue Thumb) (Tom Rapp)
- Sunforest (1973, Blue Thumb) (Tom Rapp / Pearls Before Swine)
- A Journal Of The Plague Year (1999, Woronzow) (Tom Rapp)
Live albums
- Live Pearls (recorded 1971, released 2008, WildCat Recording)
Compilations
- Constructive Melancholy (1999, Birdman) (CD compilation with tracks from the Reprise albums 1969-72)
- Jewels Were The Stars (2003, Water) (4-CD box of the four Reprise albums)
- The Wizard of Is (2004, Water) (double CD with live and demo recordings)
- The Complete ESP-Disk Recordings (2005, ESP-Disk and WildCat) (the two ESP albums on one CD)
Singles
- Morning Song / Drop Out! (1967, ESP disk)
- I Saw The World / Images Of April (1968, ESP-Disk)
- These Things Too / If You Don't Want To (1969, reprise)
- Suzanne / There Was a Man (1969, recapitulation)
- The Jeweler / Rocket Man (1970, recapitulation)
- Marshall / Why Should I Care? (1972, Blue Thumb)
Web links
- Pearls Before Swine at Allmusic (English)
- Official Tom Rapp / Pearls Before Swine website
- Article about Tom Rapp and Pearls Before Swine
- Lahri Bond: Tom Rapp & Pearls Before Swine ( Memento from September 15, 2003 in the Internet Archive )
- Article by Mark Brend
- Washington Post article