Customer Reviews

Elyse

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This LP fell into my hands in the 60's; a friend listened to 'Deed I Do' over and over for an hour and it saved his relationship; the album, in spite of its pessimism, is a stunner and deserves more rememberance...

This is a great record from the folk-rock period of the later half of the 1960s. It also happens to be the first recording ('Houses') of Neil Young using his now famous "Old Black" 1953 Gibson Les Paul combined w/ the 1959 Fender Deluxe. Its the beginning of that signature sound right here.

....I'm gonna give it five stars, just because it's ridiculous it's now rated only one. This is a very decent well crafted folk-rock album.

Intriguing at the first listen and an absolutely hypnotic side once heard again, this introduction to Elyse Weinberg should start things happening to the girl on a powerhouse level. Expect the side to score with FM outlets and spread rapidly through the teen top forty marketplace. Haunting vocal and arrangement. Flip: "Simpleminded Harlequin" (2:22) (Peyotyl, BMI - Weinberg)

CB review 17 May 1969:
ELYSE - Elyse Weinberg - Tetragrammaton T-117
Elyse Weinberg delivers a selection of rock ditties, many of which have elements of baroque music. ("Meet Me At The Station" uses a harpsichord effectively.) The artist wrote eight of the 12 tunes and co-wrote 3 others. Singing in ringing tones which soar vibrantly through such melodies as "Band Of Thieves," "Deed I Do" (a current noisemaker for the songstress), "Simpleminded Harlequin," and "Mortuary bound," Miss Weinberg could obtain favorable response to this set.

CHER released an excellent version of "Band Of Thieves":

CHASTITY'S SONG
(Band Of Thieves) 3:03
Atco single 45-6684
CB review 14 June 1969:
Getting funkier than she's sounded in a long time, Cher delivers a powerhouse side that should set her in the programming spotlight with top forty and underground stations (not necessarily in that order). Brutal, forceful blues band backup gives the side dynamite potential. Flip: "I Walk On Guilded Splinters".

This reissue is long overdue!! I have owned the LP version of this for thirty years or so(found it in a cut out bin for less than a buck) and absolutely love it!! I have played this for friends and told everyone to buy it if they ever came across a copy. So now it is on CD so hopefully more people will hear it. Elyse Weinberg's only recording so far as I know, this could be classified in the similar style of Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Bert Jansch,etc. Elyse's voice is sort of like Dylan,kind of hoarse and rough but full of emotion. Her lyrics are very intelligent and the music is well played. Elyse plays 6 and 12 string acoustic and is backed on some tracks by a full electric band who sound something like Dylan's backing bands on Blonde on Blonde or Highway 61. Colin Walcott(an excellent jazz musician who would later form OREGON) plays sitar and tabla on some tracks. Elyse does a fine version of a Bert Jansch song "deed I do" which I don't think Jansch ever recorded. Evidently there are two bonus tracks on this CD which were not on the original LP. One apparently has Neil Young on it. I am unaware of the vintage of these two tracks. But I highly recommend this recording to anyone who loves good folk rock from the late sixties or any era.

I don't take the time to review albums very often but I can't allow any artist as talented and unique as Elyse to get reviews as low as one star. This debut (and only LP) is unique, beautiful, melancholy and at times very bleak. Everything I love about late 60's folk. I love Neil Young to no end and I didn't even know that he was a credit on the track "Houses" until after I had purchased the album.

Sad hippie music for those who crave it like I do.

First, for the benefit of those clowns who ask where Neil Young is on this album, printed very clearly on the leaflet is written under track 13 "Neil Young on guitar". It's tragic that these idiots have dragged the star-rating of this masterpiece down. As for the quality of it, well, there's not a lot to compare it to, Buffy Sainte-Marie's "Illuminations", but not much else. Women respond differently to psychedelics than how men do, but this ranks right up there alongside "Sgt Peppers" or "Forever Changes" or pretty much anything else. If you can't love it you're dead.

If Neil is playing the instruments and not singing on this, then this isn't worth it. Who is Elyse? I recommend this to someone who likes Elyse, not Neil Young.

What the hell is this, and what does it have to do with Neil Young?????

Great. A new Neil Young CD I thought and clikked on this. What I got was a reissue of a record from 1968 with a lady called Elyse. Under other circumstances the CD might not be too bad but this is not what I wanted. The voice remind me of somone called Melanie (I think) who made some records long ago. And then there are some accustic guitars and strings. Neil Young in fact plays guitar on 1 (one) track, but I think it is a bit farfetched to call this a Neil Young CD.