SEALED LP: SONS OF CHAMPLIN: THE SONS

$

30

Sons of Champlin: The Sons

FACTORY SEALED LP

• Love of a Woman
• Terry's Tune
• Boomp Boomp Chomp
• Why Do People Run From the Rain?
• It's Time
• Country Girl
• You Can Fly
• Jesus Is Coming, Pt. 1 (*)
• Jesus Is Coming, Pt. 2 (*)

• John Palladino: Producer
• David Schallock: Producer
• Al Strong: Bass
• Bruce Walford: Producer
• John Dent: Mastering
• Andrew Lauder: Liner Notes
• Lockart: Artwork
• Ivan Nagy: Photography
• Jim Beem: Trumpet
• Pete Tytler: Art Recreation
• Bill Champlin: Guitar, Saxophone, Vocals, Keyboards
• The Sons of Champlin: Main Performer
• Geoffrey Palmer: Bass, Saxophone, Vocals, Keyboards
• Bill Bowen: Drums
• Tim Caine: Saxophone
• Terry Haggerty: Guitar, Vocals

• The Sons of Champlin's sprawling, double-LP debut album, Loosen Up Naturally, had its launch marred by the discovery of an obscenity in the cover art that resulted in a mass recall and ruined its commercial chances. They were also beset by internal strife, and when the time came to release their second album only six months later, they chose to de-emphasize the primacy of lead singer and main songwriter Bill Champlin by shortening their name to "the Sons" and also giving that name to the record. But their music remained essentially the same, a mixture of Champlin's thoughtful lyrics and gritty singing with Terry Haggerty's inventive lead guitar work and the two-man horn section of Tim Caine and Geoffrey Palmer. As usual, there was almost too much going on in the arrangements, which gave the songs touches of folk, rock, jazz, and psychedelia, often in the same song, as a couple of the tunes extended beyond ten minutes in length, changing tempo and feel in mid-flight. Clearly, this was a band that was accustomed to using its songs as frameworks for free playing in concert, but the bandmembers still hadn't quite figured out how that worked in the studio, and their arguments about musical direction could be heard in the music itself. Champlin remained the strongest presence in the band, but his songs (all of which were credited to the Sons communally) took a backseat to the group that was playing them any way it wanted to. The results could be exhilarating, if in a somewhat anarchic way. The 202 CD reissue on Acadia adds the group's first single and debut recording, only released as a promotional disc, "Jesus Is Coming," which appeared for the 1968 Christmas season and made some people mistake the Sons for a Christian group. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

• One of the last and more obscure bands to emerge from the late-'60s San Francisco psychedelic scene, the Sons of Champlin were relatively unusual among Bay Area bands for favoring heavily soul-influenced material and employing a prominent horn section. Their more introspective songs can recall the more subdued efforts of Quicksilver Messenger Service and Moby Grape, and their longer compositions boasted unusually complex song structures and tempo shifts. Revered by some collectors, their work hasn't aged as well as the best of their peers; the vocals weren't gritty enough to carry the R&B-based material and the ambitious longer tracks were prone to some half-baked songwriting and meandering jamming. Their first three albums (issued on Capitol between 1969 and 1971) are considered their best, though they recorded some other LPs in the '70s with shifting personnel. In late 1997, the Sons of Champlin reunited for a series of hometown reunion concerts, resulting in the release of their first-ever live LP a year later.

• This record came from a record store called "Phantasmagoria" which was located in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Phantasmagoria went out of business in 1978. I purchased most of their unsold inventory some years later when I owned "Music Madness" - a new & used record store in Catasauqua, Pennsylvania.
• Phantasmagoria used round colored stickers to indicate the price of the albums. They had a sign on the wall with the color sticker combinations for the customers to use so they knew the price of the albums. Most of the albums still have these stickers on them, and in some rare cases, the stickers are written on. Some of the records have prices on them. This is the price you would have paid for the record in 1978 if you would have bought it at Phantasmagoria. Please don't confuse these prices with their current value.
• All sealed albums are being sold as collector's items and cannot be returned due to manufacturer's defects. It may be almost impossible to replace many of the sealed albums that I am selling.

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