Customer Reviews

Golden Classics Edition

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

For listeners who revel in progressive and classic rock (ELP, Yes, Doors, Santana, Tull, Beatles), this is as essential an album as "Brain Salad Surgery" or "Abbey Road." Please keep in mind that I only refer to the "Spaceship Earth" section of this re-release 2-album CD. In that glorious album, the talents of this band are magnified by the superlative writing and playing of guitarist Robert Yeazel- yes, keyboard whiz Jerry Corbetta was the leader/founder of the band, but Yeazel was to Sugarloaf as Steve Hackett was to Genesis- an integral composer whose writing inspired the group to realize an intense musical potential- just listen to the album and see for yourself! "Spaceship Earth" belongs on the same shelf as all the greatest classic and progressive rock albums. This is a must-buy that will truly please lovers of real music. Enjoy!

This cd contains both Sugarloaf's first lp entitled "Sugarloaf" and their second lp "Spaceship Earth". The two big classics are all here and in their entire extended versions "Green-Eyed Lady" and "Tongue-in-Cheek". "Tongue-in-Cheek" which is my favorite has some incredible guitar playing. Two lead guitars alternate and the outcome is fantastic. Also included as a bonus cut is "Don't Call Us..." which was their last and only hit. All in all this is classic early seventies rock. Highly recommended.

The recordings on this CD are pretty fantastic but SPACESHIP EARTH was an incredible album in its own right and does not deserve to be grouped together with the first Sugarloaf CD. What is worse is that one of the best songs from SPACESHIP EARTH, "Hot Water", was left off the CD. I own this CD but I nearly always prefer to listen to my original LP of SPACESHIP EARTH, which I consider to be among my favorite albums of the time period. Sugarloaf was Jerry Corbetta's band both before and after this LP but Bob Yeazel is the main singer and songwriter on many of the tracks on SPACESHIP EARTH. Corbetta is a virtuoso keyboardist but a pretty cheesy lyricist and singer. Yeazel lends hard rock credibility to this band. Get SPACESHIP EARTH on LP if you can. If not, you'll have to settle for the incomplete version contained on this CD along with tracks from the 1st Sugarloaf CD.

First of all, I love the albums 'Sugarloaf' and 'Spaceship Earth'.

I was really excited, years ago, when I first heard of this CD re-issue - that was until I looked more carefully at the tracklisting. Then I saw it was just a typical, botched job - completely marred by just one really cruddy decision.

If you didn't know any better, you would think this was a great deal - two LP's on one CD, plus the novelty bonus track "Don't Call Us..."

BUT - if you know the albums, you would immediately realize that "Hot Water" (the most absolutely rockin' track on 'Spaceship Earth') is completely missing! ARGH!

I don't know the total length of the CD, but I am guessing that they had to give "Hot Water" the axe, just to fit "Don't Call Us..." on as the "bonus" track!?

This was so close to being what could have been a perfect CD re-issue, but that one awful decision just really annoys me to no end, and I will never ever purchase this monstrosity - I would be way more satisfied ripping my vinyl to a digital format my own self, if need be.

RECORD LABELS - please, do not futz around with the integrity of the albums that we know and love! Please keep them intact!

Bonus tracks are nice, only as exactly that... a "bonus" - but not at the expense of one of the critical album tracks!

Now, for no good reason, I end up despising "Don't Call Us..." - not because there's anything wrong with it, in itself... but because it does not belong on this CD, and "Hot Water" does!

(Besides, "Don't Call Us..." was already available on the 'Best Of' CD!!!)

ARGH. So frustrating. Why? Why? Why?

If you liked the hit "Green-Eyed Lady" you'll love the 6:48 min uncut version. However the real mindblower here (other than "Green") is "Space- ship Earth" a truly classic LP. Recorded just a few months after the 1st LP, it picks up where Green Eyed Lady left off & expands upon that mysterious mood. All of Spaceship is far superior to the other stuff on album #1. The jazzy & hard rock touches remain, & unexpected musical ideas pop up everywhere. The title cut is an awesome instrumental with nice dual guitar & the band functioning as an interlocking & interacting unit. "Rusty Cloud" is an uptempo environmental tune with great lyrics & a fuzz guitar chorus. "Woman" has more great instrumental work & a nice bluesy vocal break, & "Mother Nature's Wine" may be the best song on the disc, capturing a very mysterious feeling. The harmony vocals on this disc (especially on "Woman" & "Mother Nature's")are so incredible they'll send chills up your spine. After these guys all pass on, they'll be turning in their graves wondering how they could have made one of the best classic rock LPs of all time only to have it go completely unnoticed. Strangely "Hot Water" which appears as a sort of superfluous tune on the original vinyl is sorely missed. It added a hard rock edge & it's absence interrupts the sequencing of the songs on the cd. If you liked Green-Eyed Lady - you want this!!!You won't be sorry.

Sugarloaf was one of those rare rock bands to come out of Colorado and have a national hit. Of course I'm referring to "Green Eyed Lady". That is truly one of the greats of classic rock, as far as I'm concerned, but I really get bothered when radio stations play the edited version. They also do an instrumental cover of "Train Kept a-Rollin'", which is still recognizable, despite the lack of vocals. There's a very lengthy, instrumental version of The Band's "Chest Fever" that just doesn't cut it compared to the original (the organ, for one thing, just isn't as powerful as what Garth Hudson had done on the original). I do like how Jerry Corbetta played some Bach on the organ before starting "Chest Fever", I thought that was cool. While I'm not a fan of the Band, I do like the original, especially that fuzzed organ. Why did Jerry Corbetta choose a standard Hammond organ sound for their version? Imagine Deep Purple classics that features Jon Lord's fuzzed Hammond organ, but with the fuzz removed. "West of Tomorrow" sounds like it had hit potential, and the band did everything to sound exactly like Three Dog Night, right down to the vocals. I swear that Three Dog Night could have had a hit with this song if they did a cover of it. "Gold & the Blues" is a pretty boring blues piece that just doesn't go anywhere. "Things Gonna Change Some" is mostly interesting for the odd meter, not unlike what Frank Zappa was known to do. I shouldn't be too hard on the album, although it does sound a bit messy at time,

Well, in 1971, they followed their self-entitled album with Spaceship Earth, and I have to say it was quite the improvement. The band now included Bob Yeazel, who did a majority of the songwriting. The band decided to drop all covers of other people's songs and focused entirely on band compositions. The album is a combination of prog rock, hard rock, blues, and country, and it works better than on their debut. The title track features some bizarre sound effects, before going in to prog rock overdrive. "Hot Water" is sadly not included on this two-for-one CD (because of lack of space), you need the LP. If you're familiar with the song, it shows the band more on the hard rock side. "Woman" is just a great song with nice vocal harmonies, while "Mother Nature's Wine" bears a passing resemblance to "Green Eyed Lady" in places, especially the drumming and organ work. Really, I happen to think Spaceship Earth is great, while their debut was a bit uneven.

Sugarloaf didn't have as much success as other hard rock bands, and were mostly known for two big hits- "green-eyed lady" and "don't call us, we'll call you". But like most forgotten bands of the early 70's, they actually have a lot more to offer.

I first want to say how happy I am they chose to put the long 7-minute version of "green-eyed lady" on this CD. The short version is the more popular one, and I was afraid they'd put that version on here instead. Thank goodness they didn't.

I feel like I'm experiencing a case of deja vu, since I had just reviewed a Blues Image double-album, and this Sugarloaf two-albums-on-one-CD deal is similar to the Blues Image package. They are both hard rock bands that like to throw in keyboard solos and guitar solos whenever they feel like it, and they both have singers who like to mix a bit of soul with the hard rock they create. Both the Blues Image and Sugarloaf were making music around the same time too, in the early 70's.

The first album, just called Sugarloaf, is very good, but weaker than the second album on here in my opinion. Some of the tracks on the first album are strange, but memorable, such as "west of tomorrow" which has a similar verse melody to the Hollies "he ain't heavy, he's my brother" and you feel a lot of emotion in the singer's voice. Actually there might be two people singing on this track, going back and forth, but it's possible that it could just be one singer doing some kind of studio trick. You also could say the verse melody is similar to Three Dog Night's "celebrate".

What else is on here? An instrumental and smokin' version of "train kept a rollin". I like that song a lot, especially Aerosmith's version, but here you have another heavy and good version. "medley: bach doors man/chest fever" is quite long, nearly 9 minutes in length, and it has parts that ramble and don't seem to go anywhere. But it does have some guitar parts and drum tricks you might enjoy.

"gold and the blues" is the weak point on the album (and the whole CD). It's an overlong blues rock song, and it feels like there's too much guitar playing. I know that's a strange complaint, but luckily there's some good keyboard work near the middle of the song to save it. Finally you have "things gonna change some" which is a wonderful speedy jazzy song with vocals like the Guess Who. The members of the Guess Who wouldn't be able to keep up with this, though. This song is intense for the entire 6 and a half minutes. They even throw in a surprising piano solo near the end, and it's wonderful. A very good album, but with some easy to notice flaws.

Spaceship Earth is the next album on this CD. The songwriting is better, and I think it's easier to listen to because the production is smooth yet really good like a Doobie Brothers album. I wonder if this band was listening to Yes at the time, because some of the guitar tricks found in classic Yes songs can briefly be heard here. Like in the title song, which reminds me of the speeding-up part on the second half of the Yes song "I've seen all good people". "spaceship earth" is a pretty good title song, but starting with the next song the album turns completely wonderful, all the way to the end.

As you probably know, they left off the song "hot water" on the original album, and in its place they put in the hit song "don't call us, we'll call you". I don't know if that was a good move or not, since I am not familiar with "hot water". As much as I enjoy "don't call us, we'll call you", it would've made more sense to just leave in "hot water". It's supposedly only 4 minutes long, so there would have been enough room for it if they took off "don't call us". But, you can look at this the other way; now you have a CD with the bands two biggest hits on it that's NOT a greatest hits album. But now it will bug me forever if "hot water" is a good song or not, because I probably won't ever be able to hear it.

Update: a nice man who read my review sent me "hot water" through email and I think it's a wonderful song, even better than "don't call us, we'll call you".

One thing I want to mention is how you can hear a similar vibe to "green-eyed lady" all through the second album. Moments of that song appear throughout Spaceship Earth, so if someone played this album for you and you weren't sure who the artist was, you'd be able to pick up on the "green-eyed lady" influence.

The rest of the songs on Spaceship Earth feature easy to like vocal melodies, country or boogie rock (like "rollin' hills" and "rusty cloud") and even some scattered moments of hard rock. But there's not nearly as much soloing (guitar or keyboard) like on the first album. There are some silly experiments like "woman" and "music box" which seem to indicate that Sugarloaf was listening to early Kinks and Hollies and wanted to create something that was similar to those bands. But all this stuff is good rock music if you ask me. If it wasn't for that darn overlong blues song on the first album I'd give it 5 stars.

I see many reviewers below don't care for this album and only care for the two bit hits. I think if you give it another chance you'll find something more to like. Two albums on one CD is a great deal, too.

Although this CD is a combination of two Sugarloaf albums, it is far worth it just for the magnificent "Spaceship Earth" LP contained therein (albeit minus one good song for space considerations). The songwriting (which on the "Spaceship" album came predominantly from guitarist Robert Yeazel), represents what I would consider early progressive rock, with a steady blues rock sensibility but with intricate timing changes and fancy guitar and keyboard footwork, along with classical, country/bluegrass (Dead-ish), Latin (Santana-ish), and countless other influences, along with a healthy sense of experimentalism (for 1971!). The first half of this CD, which is Sugarloaf's debut album is quite enjoyable and listenable, not to mention it starts with the knockout hit song, "Green Eyed Lady," but there is far more to this band than this one song. Keep listening past track 6, and starting at track 7 (the start of the "Spaceship Earth" LP), you'll hear the difference between the two albums immediately. Although unfortunately obscure, "Spaceship" is easily one of the best albums I have ever owned and still cherish, right up there with the best of art-rock and blues rock (i.e., Dark Side of the Moon, Abbey Road, Brain Salad Surgery, Fragile, the Doors, Led Zep). Buy it, you'll like it!!!!!

Never been that much of a Sugarloaf fan,but I thought this 2-lp's-on-one CD would be worth checking out.Only two tracks here I remember off hand were the six-minute "Green Eyed Lady"(sort of lengthy for an AM pop hit,don't you hate it when radio stations play this tune right before some ticket or CD giveaway?)and "Don't Call Us,We'll Call You".Some of the songs I did end up liking were "Things Gonna Change Soon",the Yardbird's cover "Train Kept A Rollin'" and "Rusty Cloud".Line-up:Jerry Corbetta-keyboards&vocals,Bob Webber-guitar,Veeder Van Dorn-rhythm guitar,Bob Raymond-bass and Bob MacVittie-drums.Should appeal to fans of the Guess Who,Three Dog Night,Rascals and America.

WOW!! What a terrific band!! You won't be sorry. This collection contains some of the best music of the seventies era. When most people hear of Sugarloaf, they only think of their 2 greatest hits, "Green-Eyed Lady" and "Don't Call Us, We'll Call You". While those 2 classic hits deserve their rightful place in music history, Spaceship Earth has so many other excellent songs to offer. Unfortunately, this band never reached the level it should have. How many other bands can have 2 hit songs that are still played constantly on the airwaves 30 years after they peaked? I had the good fortune of seeing Jerry Corbetta perform live with the 4 Seasons and he was awesome! What a great talent! You won't be disappointed in this CD or in this band. Its the best!