Caravan - Caravan (Verve Forecast 1969) 24-bit/96kHz Vinyl Rip

For their first album, Caravan was surprisingly strong. While steeped in the same British psychedelia that informed bands such as Love Children, Pink Floyd, and Tomorrow, Caravan relates a freedom of spirit and mischief along the lines of Giles, Giles & Fripp or Gong. The band's roots can be traced to a British blue-eyed soul combo called the Wilde Flowers. Among the luminaries to have passed through this Caravan precursor were Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, and Hugh Hopper and Brian Hopper (pre-Soft Machine, naturally). By the spring of 1968, Caravan had settled nicely into a quartet consisting of Pye Hastings (guitar/bass/vocals), Richard Coughlan (drums), David Sinclair (organ/vocals), and Richard Sinclair (bass/guitar/vocals). Inspired by the notoriety and acclaim that Soft Machine encountered during the burgeoning days of London's underground scene, Caravan began a residency at the Middle Earth club. Additionally, the band was shopping a homemade demo tape around to local record companies. Before long, entrepreneur Tony Cox worked out a deal for them to record on the newly founded U.K. division of the Verve label. Caravan's self-titled debut is equally as inventive and infinitely more subtle than the Soft Machine's Volume One or Pink Floyd's Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Two of the album's best tunes – the ethereal "Place of My Own" was backed with the dreamlike "Magic Man" – were issued as the band's first single. Those tracks accurately exemplify the subtle complexities that Caravan would hone to great effect on later recordings. The same can also be said for album cuts such as "Love Song With Flute" and the extended nine-minute "Where but for Caravan Would I?" The latter title aptly exemplifies Caravan's decidedly less than turgid attitude toward themselves – a refreshing contrast from the temperamental and serious Art School approach adopted by Pink Floyd and the Moody Blues. Lindsay Planer AMG

Note: I have both the original Verve Forecast issue and the 1972 MGM re-issue. I auditioned both and the MGM re-issue sounds much better, so that is what is posted here.

Track Listing:

A1. Place of My Own

A2. Ride

A3. Policeman

A4. Love Song With Flute

A5. Cecil Rons

B1. Magic Man

B2. Grandma's Lawn

B3. Where But For Caravan Would I

Richard Coughlan - Drums
Pye Hastings - Guitar, Bass Guitar, Singing
David Sinclair - Organ, Singing
Richard Sinclair - Bass Guitar, Guitar, Singing
All tracks by Coughlan/Hastings/Sinclair/Sinclair
except B3 Coughlan/Hastings/Sinclair/Sinclair/Brian Hopper
Produced by Tony Cox
Recorded at Advision studio, London, October 1968