IRRESISTIBLES Baxter Williams 1968 FREAKBEAT Psych HEAR

$

62

Artist : Les Irresistibles

Tracks : A Side : Baxter's First Step / Here She Comes / Slave To Freedom / My Year Is A Day / Baxter's Blues / Fade Away

B Side : Baxter Williams / To Experience / Lands Of Shadow / Baxter's Last Step / Gotta Find Another Girl / The Break Through

Label & Year : CBS 1968 Og french press S 7 – 63458

Format : 33 rpm LP

Audio : EX++ / M-

Visual : Sleeve is EX (opening side's edge is a little worn in places) Label is VG (writings see pictures).

Comment : Here's a review i found on the net (i wouldn't have written better about this record !)

« I can’t help think that if the Bee Gees had ever written a concept album like S.F. Sorrow or Tommy, it would have ended up sounding a lot like this 1968 rarity from Les Irresistibles, called The Story of Baxter Williams.  Oh sure, I know what you’re saying – you’re saying “Hey, Odessa was a concept album, wasn’t it?” but if it was, its concept was lost on me, and besides, what self-respecting concept album comes wrapped in flock paper?  At least here you get a nice cover (well, sorta) and you know what the concept is right from the start.  It’s a life story, only this time it’s Baxter Williams instead of Tommy Walker or Private Sorrow.   And if that ain’t a concept, then Billy Joel can drive.

 And so you can imagine how grandiose and beautiful The Story of Baxter Williams must sound, which is exactly what you’ll have to do if you don’t have a turntable, because this incredible popsike treasure has YET to be reissued in the handy little 5-inch compact disc format.  Which is an even bigger shame when you realize that there are about a half million Matchbox 20 CDs out there that really shouldn’t even exist.  Songs like “My Year is a Day” and “Lands of Shadow” (both released as singles, by the way) are pure popsike masterpieces, big orchestrated baroque manna from Heaven for the Fading Yellow crowd.  This whole album is full of big sweeping choruses and grand arrangements, and it sure sounds like the French CBS label gave ‘em a big budget.  Along the way, Les Irresistibles even drop in a few heavier fuzz-psych numbers, like the nifty little garage punker (okay, by Bee Gees standards) “To Experience,” which sounds like it coulda been released by some tiny little record label out of Des Moines in late ’67.  And “Baxter’s Blues” ain’t blues at all, thank God, but a jazzy little lounge romp with some more of that big distorto fuzz guitar.  Go ahead and find some of that in your Bee Gees collection.

 I bet if The Story of Baxter Williams was released on the British Morgan Blue Town label, it’d probably be worth hundreds today.  But it only came out in France, and who looks for big budget orchestrated popsike concept albums in France?  No one, that’s who.  Turns out Les Irresistibles weren’t even French – they were an American band who were known as Arch of Triumph (and sometimes the Beloved Ones) back here in the States, where they could only eke out a single release of “My Year and a Day.”  And yet despite all their lies and deception, The Story of Baxter Williams remains one of baroque pop’s finest concept albums – if not the only one – sorta like if the Left Banke covered Tommy after buying a fuzz guitar and a 30-piece orchestra.  Maybe you’d like it better if it had a flock paper cover? »

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