Last Autumn's Dream (Dig) [Import, Limited Edition, Original recording remastered]

Jade Warrior | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 26, 2007)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import, Limited Edition, Original recording remastered
• Label: Repertoire
• ASIN: B000NDDUP6
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #70,679 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Winter's Tale

2. Snake

3. Dark River

4. Joanne

5. Obedience

6. Morning Hymn

7. May Queen

8. The Demon Trucker

9. Lady of the Lake

10. Borne on to the Solar Wind

Editorial Reviews

Limited edition Japanese pressing of the 1969 album has been fully remastered and features the original tracks plus 2 bonus tracks. There's really not much difference between this and their debut album: if you like one, you'll like the other. It's perhaps more fully produced than their maiden effort, the standout being the ballad 'Poem'. Air Mail. 2005. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blow Some Wild Seeds With Demon Truckers & Snakes, September 9, 2001

By 

TUCO H. "H. TUCO" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Last Autumn's Dream (Audio CD)

What a bizarre Hippie album this is, and yet how utterly, completely unique and unlike any other band does this group sound! Tired of endlessly predictable '70s sounds? Get this CD (it's worth the steep price despite its short single-album length) and get hit by a fresh wind of incense. This band is on the one hand very familiar sounding and easy to get into and on the other way more original sounding and uncategorizable than the relatively prog-rock sounding Van der Graaf Generator.

That's why the tag of 'progressive rock' is not quite accurate I think, because, though musically & philosophically sophisticated and accomplished, these guys have more in common with Tomita, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Traffic and Black Sabbath (depending on which tune or which part of any particular tune you're listening to) than bands like ELP, Yes, King Crimson, or Genesis. For one thing they almost never use any, even remotely 'classical-sounding' scales in their music, though their melodies are beautiful and often elaborate. They have a weird mix of Japanese music, East Indian Music, mellow folksy Hippie acoustic music, and hard-rock that works for them, and creates its own slightly corny poetry. Some of their mellower tunes might remotely sound like early King Crimson stuff like "Moonchild," but then on the very next tune you might have a section with a guitar soundscape with Indian Tabla percussion backing that sounds sort of like Fripp & Belew on Discipline's "Sheltering Sky." This is 1971, folks! This band is one bad mofo that just can't be pigeonholed.

And I do agree that the late Tony Duhig was one of the great guitar players of the '70s, brilliant, fresh and original sounding with a definite dragon's bite is what the man's playing is for sure, though you're not going to get any long self-indulgent 'jams' here, just dense, super-cool, comprehensive musicianship with occasional flourishes of wild abandon (as on the hilarious tune "Joanne, gonna have a party" where he sounds like a whammy-bar crazed mixture of Tony Iommi & Carlos Santana powered by a Jet Engine!).

I love this album, it's just plain magical, the sort of record they just don't make anymore, because this type of culture barely exists nowadays. How else can you explain the fact that almost every great hippie band of the early '70s that's still around is a mere shadow of their awesome former selves, turning out endlessly mediocre & sometimes even downight embarrasing product?

So, in order to experience real music again, we have to dig into the past for stuff we may have missed and that's how I came to the great and relatively little-known "Jade Warrior"; that is, I searched what other people had written about the band right here on Amazon, bought based on the trust I put in the reviewers' tastes being similar to mine without being able to listen to samples, and I was more than satisfied; I wouldn't be writing this review if I wasn't. Like so many great '60s and '70s bands, Jade Warrior is the sum of all its faults and the overbearing enthusiasm and passion which synergizes those faults into a brilliant quality missing from most of today's bands.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best album ever, October 16, 2000

By 

"robfox" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Last Autumn's Dream (Audio CD)

I have a collection of over 1000 titles, and this one is arguably at the very top for me. I say arguably because I have one or two others I like just as much. Who says only one can be at #1? I have been listening to this album for more than 20 years and still have not gotten tired of it. Each song is an entity unto itself - on any other album each would be designated the best - here are all the best together. It begins softly, builds to a grand crescendo, then rocks like nothing else, then gets spacey, then rocks some more, then there is a piece I can only describe as layers upon layers of sound. That is the first half. The second half is more jazzy yet rocks at the same time. The album ends on a note of magnificence. Strong imagery fills every song, both musically and lyrically. My favorite verse, from Lady of the Lake: In a robe of starlight spun by poet's hand/Bringing hope to those who journey through your land/Seven rings adorn your fingers, on the water incense lingers/Willingly I sing at your command. Yeah, it was 1972, but the lyricism of this passage rings through the decades. The music greatly enhances these words - they both fit together perfectly. In some ways it is sad that a dispute over the direction of the band split the original lineup. We have enjoyed a more jazzy Warrior since then, and they have not produced anything bad, ever; still, I can't get enough of this stuff. When was the last time you just sat and listened to an album all the way through without getting up? That happens to me almost everytime I listen to it. Poetic, mystical, raucus, jammin', slammin,' and groove-infested all at the same time. I think I'll play it now.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A True Work of Art from Tony, Jon, Glyn, David & Alan, June 27, 2001

By 

Doug Vencill (Independence, MO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Last Autumn's Dream (Audio CD)

First, my thanks to Gary for alerting me to the better quality of these newly-remastered recordings. I own the German Line imports and trust me & Gary on this: they are travesties, and the people at Line should be ashamed of themselves. And thanks to both Gary and robfox for saying so eloquently what I've always believed...that these guys are probably from another planet. I have never heard any other band on earth come close to the sound of Jade Warrior. To say they were and are ahead of their time is an understatement of astronomical proportions. I can still remember the first time I heard LAST AUTUMN'S DREAM at a friend's house...I recall being distracted from the game we were playing by the beauty of "Morning Hymn," the jazziness of "May Queen," the bordering-on-heavy-metal-dance-floor vivaciousness of "Demon Trucker," and last but not least, the priceless, dreamy/ethereal atmospheres of "Lady of the Lake" combined with the concluding instrumental majesty of "Borne Onto the Solar Wind." And that was just side TWO! I had to hear it again, and again...and the next day I beat a path downtown to find a copy of the album. The rest, as they often say, is history. In the reviews I've read of this particular album of theirs, no one has mentioned the vocal magic of Glyn Havard. When I first heard this album, I thought he sounded remotely like Ian Anderson (which I hope he would consider a compliment). I was saddened when the original line-up ended, and sadder to hear that Glyn did not leave the band on good terms. To say that I like the old Jade Warrior more than the revamped jazz/world/new age/instrumental Jade Warrior would be inaccurate; to me, it's like apples and oranges. But I digress. The bottom line is this...If you are a fan of the true sound of the progressive rock of the 70's, and like your music to be daring, avant-garde and even a little dangerous in some spots, this is the band for you. Their talent and potential knew no limits, and it was a sad, sad day when we lost Tony Duhig back in 1990. As Jon stated on the inner sleeve of BREATHING THE STORM, "he was one of a kind and is irreplaceable." It has been a few years since their last album, DISTANT ECHOES, so let us hope that Jon and the new Jade Warrior will remain with us for many years to come...there are, I believe, enough of us hardcore JW fans who will always rally behind them as the JW banner is carried on into the 21st century. They are truly a band of gifted musicians who deserve to evolve and thrive for years to come. And to David Duhig: David, I hope you read this and will contact me again, as I have lost your address. My best to you, and to Camilla and Anthony Duhig. Peace........Doug