Gravy Train - Strength Of A Dream (The Gravy Train Anthology) (2006)
EAC Rip | FLAC (tracks, cue, log, scans) - 898 MB | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 307 MB
2:07:01 | Prog Rock | Label: Castle Music
EAC Rip | FLAC (tracks, cue, log, scans) - 898 MB | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 307 MB
2:07:01 | Prog Rock | Label: Castle Music
In the late '70s and early '80s guitarist Norman Barratt brought his undoubted guitar hero skills to Christian music as part of the Alwyn Wall Band and with his own outfit The Barratt Band. At the time I can remember much talk about his mainstream band Gravy Train who had been signed to the Vertigo and Dawn labels. As their albums weren't easily found back then, this CD re-release is the first time I've tracked down his earlier music. At first glance, you might think that 'Strength Of A Dream: The Gravy Train Anthology' would be a best of collection spanning all their releases when in fact it is their third and fourth albums with assorted singles and b sides. What you get is the 'Second Birth' and 'Staircase To The Day' LPs and an interesting journey seeing how the band developed between those two releases from 1973 and 1974.
Gravy Train were always an attractive live draw on the flourishing rock scene of the '70s and their style of prog rock still sounds interesting today. 'Second Birth' drew many comparisons to Jethro Tull mainly because of the flute of JD Hughes which is very prominent. It is interesting approaching this album the wrong way round having heard his later music first because I can identify that a song like "Second Birth" has the seeds of what would become "Voice In The Night". In fact the second disc contains a couple of Barratt band classics in their earlier Gravy Train demo form. Bonus cuts like "Nowhere To Run" and their final single "Climb Aboard The Gravy Train" also show the band going in a slightly funkier direction. Musically undoubtedly this is a band of extreme talent that simply failed to break through commercially, not an unusual story in the '70s when the UK was awash with accomplished rock bands. Interestingly Barratt's faith surfaces here and there lyrically and yet never seems to have been an issue. In the extensive sleevenotes he comments that it often led to interesting post gig conversations. Fans of '70s rock and particularly prog rock should definitely investigate. As for me, I'm off in search of their other albums.
Reviewed by Mike Rimmer
Tracklist
CD1
1-1 Morning Coming
1-2 Peter
1-3 September Morning News
1-4 Motorway
1-5 Fields And Factories
1-6 Strength Of A Dream
1-7 Tolpuddle Episode
1-8 Second Birth
1-9 Goodtime Girl
1-10 Climb Aboard The Gravy Train
1-11 Sanctuary
CD2
2-1 Starbright Starlight
2-2 Bring My Life On Back To Me
2-3 Never Wanted You
2-4 Staircase To The Day
2-5 Going For A Quick One
2-6 The Last Day
2-7 Evening Of My Life
2-8 Busted In Schenectady
2-9 Never Seen Your Face
2-10 Nowhere To Run
2-11 Playing In The City
2-12 Playing In The City (Alternative Version)
2-13 Not The Way
2-14 The Stealer
Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009
EAC extraction logfile from 6. August 2010, 17:45
Gravy Train / Strength Of A Dream, The Anthology
Used drive : HL-DT-STDVDRAM GH20NS15 Adapter: 2 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 667
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Installed external ASPI interface
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -A tukey(0.25) -A gauss(0.1875) -b 4096 -V -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" %s –sector-align
TOC of the extracted CD
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Range status and errors
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Peak level 97.7 %
Range quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC 61031815
Copy OK
No errors occurred
End of status report
Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009
EAC extraction logfile from 6. August 2010, 19:23
Gravy Train / Strength Of A Dream, The Anthology (Disc 1)
Used drive : HL-DT-STDVDRAM GH20NS15 Adapter: 2 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 667
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Installed external ASPI interface
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -A tukey(0.25) -A gauss(0.1875) -b 4096 -V -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" %s –sector-align
TOC of the extracted CD
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Range status and errors
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Filename C:\Users\Aurélio\Music\Rutracker.org\Gravy Train\Gravy Train - Strength Of A Dream, The Anthology (2006)\Disc 2\Gravy Train - Strength Of A Dream, The Anthology (Disc 2).wav
Peak level 97.7 %
Range quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC A6D753D5
Copy OK
No errors occurred
End of status report
EAC extraction logfile from 6. August 2010, 17:45
Gravy Train / Strength Of A Dream, The Anthology
Used drive : HL-DT-STDVDRAM GH20NS15 Adapter: 2 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 667
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Installed external ASPI interface
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -A tukey(0.25) -A gauss(0.1875) -b 4096 -V -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" %s –sector-align
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 5:55.16 | 0 | 26640
2 | 5:55.16 | 8:37.50 | 26641 | 65465
3 | 14:32.66 | 4:01.69 | 65466 | 83609
4 | 18:34.60 | 5:11.59 | 83610 | 106993
5 | 23:46.44 | 7:01.57 | 106994 | 138625
6 | 30:48.26 | 4:20.68 | 138626 | 158193
7 | 35:09.19 | 3:15.07 | 158194 | 172825
8 | 38:24.26 | 4:02.64 | 172826 | 191039
9 | 42:27.15 | 6:44.44 | 191040 | 221383
10 | 49:11.59 | 4:11.16 | 221384 | 240224
11 | 53:23.00 | 5:40.31 | 240225 | 265755
Range status and errors
Selected range
Filename C:\Users\Music\Rutracker.org\Gravy Train\Gravy Train - Strength Of A Dream, The Anthology (2006)\Disc 1\Gravy Train - Strength Of A Dream, The Anthology (Disc 1).wav
Peak level 97.7 %
Range quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC 61031815
Copy OK
No errors occurred
End of status report
Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009
EAC extraction logfile from 6. August 2010, 19:23
Gravy Train / Strength Of A Dream, The Anthology (Disc 1)
Used drive : HL-DT-STDVDRAM GH20NS15 Adapter: 2 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 667
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Installed external ASPI interface
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -A tukey(0.25) -A gauss(0.1875) -b 4096 -V -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" %s –sector-align
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 4:31.24 | 0 | 20348
2 | 4:31.24 | 5:53.10 | 20349 | 46833
3 | 10:24.34 | 4:05.03 | 46834 | 65211
4 | 14:29.37 | 7:38.47 | 65212 | 99608
5 | 22:08.09 | 5:19.37 | 99609 | 123570
6 | 27:27.46 | 5:39.03 | 123571 | 148998
7 | 33:06.49 | 3:02.31 | 148999 | 162679
8 | 36:09.05 | 8:19.03 | 162680 | 200107
9 | 44:28.08 | 3:57.35 | 200108 | 217917
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14 | 62:48.63 | 5:10.00 | 282663 | 305912
Range status and errors
Selected range
Filename C:\Users\Aurélio\Music\Rutracker.org\Gravy Train\Gravy Train - Strength Of A Dream, The Anthology (2006)\Disc 2\Gravy Train - Strength Of A Dream, The Anthology (Disc 2).wav
Peak level 97.7 %
Range quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC A6D753D5
Copy OK
No errors occurred
End of status report