Customer Reviews

If Only For A Moment

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

 

 

Blossom Toes was a band I discovered by accident in a used record store. I bought what turned out to be a bootleg copy of an album that has become a favorite of my since I heard the explosive opening cut, Peace Loving Man. Even the noisy pressing couldn't hide the fact that this is as good a psychedelic hard rock album as anything a major band could have accomplished, especially when compared to Led Zeppelin, Cream or any of the other heavyweights of that era. Progressive song structures, excellent twin guitar interplay, and unpredictability make this album a true classic. "Love Bomb" is possibly my favorite tune, a 7 minute tale of how greed and war affect us all- the lyrics truly are timeless. This album, reissued for the first time since an early 90's Japanese pressing, sounds wonderful due to the excellent remastering and has bonus tracks as well. A very worthwhile purchase for any rock fan looking for a classic rock album that truly delivers on all levels.

After the delightful debut "We Are Ever So Clean", the Blossom Toes changed their naive-side and became a remarkable underground act with tighter arrangements...The avant-garde experimentalism is still intact and the lyrics reflecting the social buried-dream of the sixties coda are so perfectly ecclectic like little else in psychedelic-rock, yet not inaccessible...The magnificient spooky intro of "Peace Loving Man" and the linked "Kiss of Confusion" is so enduring in my memory as the first time I heard this, always discovering new things (new sounds) in these well-crafted songs; the fine "Listen To The Silence", an answer to Paul Simon's "Sound of Silence" delicacy (?) and the stunning couple of extended tracks, "Love Bomb" and "billy Boo The Gunman" or the sitar-driven joy of "Just Above My Hobby Horse's Head"... A CLASSIC!!! To everyone with an appetite for psychedelic music, this is a MUST (a nice pair!!!With "We Are Ever So Clean"!!!).

Jesus. What were these guys taking between albums? Their first, We Are Ever So Clean was quintesessential psychadelic whimsey brit pop, with all the post-Pepper trimmings.

If Only For A Moment is a COMPLETELY different story. This has some of the hardest rock of the era. "Peace Loving Man" rocks as hard and the riffs slam as heavy as anything of Led Zeppilin II. "Billy Blue" has knotty clusters that pre-date Physical Grafetti by six years.

Blossom Toes have some more subtle, jazzier material here, and also work with art rock time changes that were moving through the underground of the late 1960s English rock scene.

Both this band's albums are great, but for entirely differant reasons. Get both. It is like getting two bands for the price of one.

Here dear listener is one of the truly lost classic British psychedelic rock albums of the late 1960s. As the follow up to "We Are Ever So Clean" Brian Godding, Jim Cregan and crew are back and with a vengeance. From the opening notes of "Peace Loving Man" this album has classic, heavy, guitar driven psychedelic rock, British style written all over it. The album proper, contained in the first 8 tracks, is given the full treatment by reissue experts, Sunbeam Records. Joined by 7 luscious bonus tracks, 3 being non-lp single a and b sides, 3 being demos, and a live version of "Listen to the Silence." Filled to the brim, this is the Blossom Toes at their highest point. The band, having grown musically, present longer, more extensive and progressive, tracks than contained on their debut album. The guitar work of Mr.'s Godding and Cregan are outstanding. The songs are all well crafted and well executed. There is no fat to be trimmed here. The words "lost classic" are abused often in reference to albums of this period, 1969 in this case, but are certainly relevant and in fact quite necessary in the case of this cd. Sunbeam Records and remastering wizard Dave Blackman again present the sound in its best ever quality. The bonus tracks fill the disc to the maximum, thus giving you, dear listener, the maximum bang for your buck. Highlights of the cd itself are so numerous as to almost make the point mute. However, give "Love Bomb" the title track of the double cd Sunbeam Records release of the Blossom Toes live recordings, spanning the band's career, 1967-69. The song has killer guitar work, as does the entire cd for that matter, but it is exceptional on that particular number. There is none of the lighter weight pop psych to be found on this release. This is a well grounded, well seasoned band at its highest point. And Sunbeam, as always, presents the material in its finest light, in both sound quality and maximum quantity. If you purchase this cd first, be prepared to be a bit let down by the debut album's lighter more whimsical psp psych sound, but fear not, you will not be badly let down. "We Are Ever So Clean" contains more than enough of the promise followed through in this cd to warrant its purchase. I strongly suggest you purchase both studio cds, and the double live set as a package, and prepare yourself to spend a few hours with the Blossom Toes. If you are a fan of British psychedelia you will be well pleased with your purchase. Guaranteed.

Blossom Toes began life as a deliberately cute and "twee" little outfit. Band members even assumed playful "teddy-bear" monikers like "Wellington" and "Bartholomew". Whew. But, hey it was 1967.

As the musical winds began to shift, and psychedelia went out the window, Blossom Toes added a new drummer (Barry Reeves) and toughened their sound--still retaining a whimsical edge--for their second effort, "If Only For a Moment".

The musical signature here could best be likened to a "lighter and tighter" version of the English band Family... or, perhaps, what it might have sounded like if Free had played prog rock. "If Only for a Moment" is not a MOMENTOUS album. In a year of huge releases ("Blind Faith", "Tommy", "Abbey Road", "Court of the Crimson King", and on, and on...) it simply got buried. But it is a very solid and eclectic album, and it stands up well even today.

All the tracks are good, but here are the standouts: "Peace Lovin' Man" is a wonderful concoction of bombast, with Brian Belshaw doing a great imitation of the Big Bad Wolf vocally, and delicacy, with a chorus breaking into fluttery twin-guitar arpeggios. "Indian Summer" is calm and serene before shifting into raucous Celtic jigging. "Just Above My Hobbyhorse's Head" features Texas hippie Shawn Phillips (who lived with Blossom Toes in London for a short time) on sitar accompaniment. With Brian Belshaw again doing the vocals, the song sounds much like Kevin Ayers' inspired lunacy with Soft Machine.

Bonus tracks include a glimpse at the band's previous sound ("Postcard", daftly approximating 1968 Kinks), and some samples of Poli Palmer's brief contributions---some great vibraphone work, and a nice jazz ballad called "Everyone's Leaving Me Now". Palmer, as well as Jim Cregan, eventually left Blossom Toes and joined one of the line-ups of Family.

Blossom Toes was a unique and creative band. I strongly recommend you check them out.