THIS IS THE US ORIGINAL PRESSING on VERTIGO 'Swirl' label. GATEFOLD COVER [UNIPAK STYLE]. The cover is in VG(+) condition, normal wear BUT discolouration/wear on spines/corners, mild creases on edges/corners, surface ringwear, drill-hole, left spine is fully readable; INSIDE PANELS in VG+ condition but surface ringwear; please for details see photos. Vinyl is in VG+ condition (some clicks, especially at the start) and plays wonderfully.

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JIMMY CAMPBELL

This obscure folk-rock artist from the late '60s left a track record of a few albums and a handful of obscure single releases, including the languid "Lyanna" and the demanding "Don't Leave Me Now." Campbell first came to prominence as a singer/songwriter on the folk club scene. He signed a contract with the interesting Fontana label, which released much cutting edge folk-rock and psychedelic music. He recorded one album and three singles for them before switching dizzily to the Vertigo label. The resulting album took a proud place in this label's catalog, right between the largely forgotten Dr. Strangely Strange and the grandly remembered Paranoid by Black Sabbath. It was definitely Campbell's most famous album, entitled Half Baked with just a note of derision. The album's title track is in turn the most well-known cut by this artist. The label had high hopes for the song, which was also included on The Vertigo Annual compilation, one of the first wave of promotional collections featuring new artists. There must have been optimism that the song's success would carry the album as well, since the latter was pressed in enormous quantities considering the relatively unknown status of the artist. When the single never took off, the label and the world in general was left with many, many Half Baked albums, carrying the artist's commercial failure forward into the misty world of record collecting, where the album has never become particularly collectable because of the large number of copies originally pressed. His next move was to form the group Rockin' Horse, whose 1971 album for Philips is in contrast something collectors look for, but hardly ever find. The band continued without him, making another self-titled LP for RCA. Campbell did one further solo album before calling it quits.

"HALF BAKED"

tracklist: please, for tracklist see pictures

1971    LP     VERTIGO RECORDS     VEL-1000  

PRINTED IN USA      ORIGINAL  PRESSING  ON  VERTIGO " Swirl" LABEL

GATEFOLD SLEEVE [UNIPAK STYLE]

Barcode and Other Identifiers

Barcode: none

LABEL: VERTIGO -  SWIRL LABEL - BLACK TEXT

Catalog on cover: VEL-1000

Catalog on labels: (Side B only): VEL-1000

Matrix / Runout (Side A, Stamped/Etched): VEL 1000-A- M1-I-I  P.R.

Matrix / Runout (Side B, Stamped/Etched): VEL 1000-B- M1  P.R.

On label (Side B only): rim text "Manufactured and Distributed by Mercury Record Productions, Inc."

Produced by Don Paul

On Inside Panels: Tracklist + Lyrics + Credits

On Back Cover: Vertigo Records Manufactured and Distributed by Mercury Record Productions, Inc.

grading

RECORD VG+ but (please, read above description)

 SLEEVE VG(+) but (please, see pictures and read above description)

Prior to the 1970 release of Half Baked, Jimmy Campbell had been making interesting but uneven music for about five years that always seemed to hint at the breakout of a standout talent, but never quite seemed to deliver all the way on that promise. This, his second album, was very much in that continuum -- it had too much of worth to dismiss, but wasn't quite the sort of thing that demanded attention. Campbell's assets remained undimmed, those being a winning way with a meditative folk-pop melody, a likably shaky voice, and an overall engaging persona of a fragile, sensitive, somewhat reticent soul. Here, however, that fragility at times verged on solipsistic eccentricity (occasionally accented by similarly eccentric chamber pop orchestration), particularly on "In My Room" (in which Jimmy resides "with its broken door, the posters on the wall of Hitler, John, and Paul"), the jaunty yet desolate romantic ballad "Dulcie (It's December)," and the title track, which starts with him croaking "If I'd have known what would happen, I would have stayed in bed," and gets more despondent from there ("If anyone calls, say I'm dead"). Occasionally, the poetic loner sensibility threatens to tip into something more worrisome and suggestive of unhealthy withdrawal, especially on "Will Not Mind," whose hollow and creepy whimsical romantic optimism is one of the closest parallels you'll hear to Syd Barrett's solo work. When Campbell tries to rock out, the results are pretty pedestrian, and much less distinguished. That leaves about a little more than half a pretty good album here, and the sense of listening to a talented recluse with hints of the kind of genius possessed by Barrett (or the early Bee Gees at their eeriest), but not quite enough follow-through to get placed on the same plan…(AllMusic)