TRIO OF TIME This World LP Condor JOHNNY KITCHEN/CHRIS LUCEY Songs Of Protest

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TRIO OF TIME : This World LP (Condor [Canada/USA] CST-2459) 196?

Original copy of this rarely-seen folk LP, which is of particular interest as a major part of the extraordinary story behind the Songs of Protest and Anti-Protest LP, credited to Chris Lucey and released on Surrey in 1966.

As documented in Acid Archives and elsewhere, singer-songwriter Chris Ducey (previously of "Chris and Craig" with Craig Smith of Maitreya Kali fame) recorded an LP for Surrey and artwork was prepared, after which it was discovered that Ducey was actually under contract elsewhere so the recordings couldn't be legally released (or something like that). Not wanting to waste the already prepared artwork, the label enlisted Bobby Jameson to write an entirely new LP of songs with the same titles, which was then released, credited to the non-existent "Chris Lucey", with artwork adjusted for the slight change in name.

That part of the story is reasonably well-known; less well-known is what happened to the original Chris Ducey recordings: they ended up being released (with song titles altered) on the LP offered here on the Condor label (which had both British Columbia and L.A. addresses), credited to "Trio of Time" ("Trio of "Tyme" on the back cover). Exactly how it happened we don't know, but no doubt it involved notorious budget-label wheeler-dealer Jack Millman, aka "Johnny Kitchen", who is credited as producer. Millman/Kitchen was definitely involved with a few of the other releases on Condor (Crazy People, Blues Train, Jack Millman & The Tempo Orchestra, etc), and according to the Ubiquity article linked below, he was also in charge of supplying them with recordings to release (apparantly "supplying" occasionally involved lifting unreleased tapes and changing song titles). The linked article also details connections between Millman/Kitchen and fellow Budget-label entrepreneur Randy Woods, head of Crestview, Mira, and (you guessed it) Surrey.

The recording is more of an early '60s folk-boom/harmony style than the hip folkrock sounds heard on the Lucey LP, but there can be no doubt about its origins -- every song has a refrain or lyric corresponding to the titles on the Lucey/Jameson LP, song-for-song, in order. In other words, the real titles of these songs are obviously the titles from the other LP. The refrain of the first track (called "Back Trackin" here) is "That's The Way This World Has Got To Be" (the name of the first song on the Surrey LP); the refrain of the second song ("The Hostile Folk") is "I"ll Remember Them" (the name of the second song on the Surrey LP); the refrain of the third song ("Downer Girl") is "She's the Girl From Vernon Mountain..." (the third song on the Surrey LP), and so on, all the way to the end. As on the Surrey LP, there is a second version of "That's The Way This World Has Got To Be" at the start of side two, this time called "This World".

It's also worth noting that this was apparently not the only time Millman/Kitchen engaged in this sort of activity: As detailed not long ago on the Acid Archives Updates Blog, the second "Victims Of Chance" LP (Goin' Home Blue), with Millman credited as producer, actually includes recordings taken directly from the 1974 Music Of The Santa Cruz Mountains compilation. Note that Millman was also the credited producer on the first "Victims of Chance" LP, which was released on Woods's Crestview label.

See:

http://ubiquityrecords.tumblr.com/post/2818936891/jack-millman-is-johnny-kitchen

See also :

http://www.lysergia.com/blog/

(Vicims Of Chance/Santa Cruz entry is on page 2)

See also:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Jameson