Caravan [Import, Original recording remastered]

Caravan | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 11, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import, Original recording remastered
• Label: Universal I.S.
• ASIN: B00005UT85
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,082 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Place Of My Own (Mono)

2. Ride (Mono)

3. Policeman (Mono)

4. Love Song With A Flute (Mono)

5. Cecil Rons (Mono)

6. Magic Man (Mono)

7. Grandmas Lawn (Mono)

8. Where But For Caravan Would I (Mono)

9. Place Of My Own (Stereo)

10. Ride (Stereo)

11. Policeman (Stereo)

12. Love Song With Flute (Stereo)

13. Cecil Rons (Stereo)

14. Magic Man (Stereo)

15. Grandmas Lawn (Stereo)

16. Where But For Caravan Would I (Stereo)

17. Hello Hello (Single Version)

Editorial Reviews

Remastered from the original master tapes for the first time. Features both the mono and stereo versions. 12 page booklet features previously unseen photographs and memorabilia and an interview with Pye Hastings. Plus the added bonus track 'Hello, Hello' (single version). 2002.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Top of the list of Caravan albums, January 3, 2005

By 

Laurence Upton (Wilts, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Caravan (Audio CD)

There was a burgeoning musical scene in Canterbury in the psychedelic era of the later sixties, much of which stemmed from a band called the Wilde Flowers. Groups to emerge from this original nucleus included Gong, Soft Machine, Kevin Ayers and the Whole World, Hatfield and the North and of course Caravan, now based in nearby Whitstable, who evolved out of the remaining members of Wilde Flowers during 1967 when they decided not to be a soul band anymore. They were signed to Verve Records in 1968 with a line-up comprising singer and principal writer Pye Hastings, the brothers Richard and David Sinclair and Richard Coughlan.

Their first album, Caravan, was released in October 1968, with the first two tracks, A Place Of My Own and Ride, extracted as a single the following January. It was in some ways a groundbreaking album that captured the whimsical and exploratory moods of the times with a sound that built on the changing styles of the contemporary underground and took them further.

Pye's brother Jimmy played on the dreamily evocative Love Song With Flute, never having heard the song and recording the flute solo on the first take. The following song, the stage favourite Cecil Rons (a disguised Cecil Rhodes?) is in contrast a rowdy powerful piece with a yelled chorus. Guitar and bass are swapped over on two songs so that Richard Sinclair can take over on lead vocal for his songs Grandma's Lawn and Policeman. The closing track was a complex nine-minute piece inspired in part by a melody written in Wilde Flowers days by then member Brian Hopper. Where But For Caravan Would I? was the precursor of the direction Caravan would take on future albums, alongside their other strengths.

On this edition both mono and stereo mixes of the album are included, and as a bonus track, the single version of 1970's Hello Hello, recorded for Decca as Verve/MGM had folded by this time, rounds off the CD

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine debut, January 15, 2006

By 

William M. Feagin "music dealer/geek" (Upstate New York, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Caravan (Audio CD)

This was Caravan's first album, recorded and released in 1968, and to this reviewer's mind and ears, it was one of the first real progressive rock albums along with Soft Machine's debut, released that same year. You've really got to hand it to the Canterbury proggers--they balanced seriousness and facetiousness extraordinarily well in their music; just listen to any album by Gong, Soft Machine, Caravan, Hatfield and the North, Egg, etc., and you'll never again think of prog as "grim-faced philosopher" music. (In fact, most prog bands, with the possibly exception of King Crimson--due to R. Fripp's overbearing studiousness--have a dry, subtle sense of humour that the uninitiated will miss on the first trip, but most others will pick up on easily, and laugh out loud at the underlying goofiness.) After all, how else could you approach a song with a title like "Where But for Caravan Would I?" And of course, "Love Song With Flute" sounds like a starving artist's first painting (think "Lawn Chair With Fruit" and you're in the ballpark).

Yet for all that underlying levity, this is a seriously good album throughout. The sonic differences between the mono and stereo versions are obvious--mono is a bit flatter and two-dimensional, whereas stereo has actual depth--but this is a minor complaint...not even really a complaint, just an observation. The addition of the single version of "Hello, Hello" is nice, as this reissue was put together somewhat after the reissue of the band's sophomore release, If I Could Do it All Over Again I'd Do It All Over You (1970), on which "Hello, Hello" first appeared as an album track. The liner notes give a nice account from Pye Hastings of the band's beginnings and their struggles to find a label (Island's Chris Blackwell hated Pye's singing voice and declined to sign them on that basis), especially after the UK branch of Verve/Forecast folded within a year of its establishment; luckily, Decca, who were distributing Verve in England, picked them up and they were able to continue forward.

Favourite tracks on here include "A Place of My Own," "Cecil Rons" (with its gonzo chorus) and "Where But for Caravan Would I?" Pick this one up; I did, and haven't regretted it for a moment. Neither will you.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars TWICE AT ONCE, June 24, 2011

By 

OLD GUY. - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Caravan (Audio CD)

You can hear this disc twice at once! Well, in one pass. Mono--the way they used to mix. Stereo--the way they came to mix. Lately, I've re-fallen in love with this time zone of music. For a while. You know--back before the Big Nonsense Radio and the Trillion Dollar Recording Contracts. This first Caravan record is quite quaint. A little trippy even. These are songs of endearing quality and though mixed a bit oddly, play around this house somewhat regularly. Place of My Own, Ride, Policeman--all good material leading up to everyone's fave--Love Song With Flute. Lovely harmonies, organ, beautiful flute, moving tempo--would sound great in a live set list today. Cecil Rons is a playful romp, Magic Man a lilting little tune in almost a Moody style. Grandmother's Lawn sounds like it was recorded in a gym. Saw many bands in the big gym in high school so it's familiar in that way. Where But For Caravan Would I? is the big nine-minute piece. Hearing it twice on this disc makes it even better. I prefer the stereo mix frankly. The purist mono thing never appealed to me that much--we were the New Happening Generation. Remember? Good for comparison I guess. Hi Fi stereo was the next big thing in my grandfather's Radio and TV Shop in the old hometown. These songs are accomplished, bright, agile, and creative. A good beginning to their long run of well-loved albums.