Wednesday, May 23, 2007

GENE F. STEIKER & LARRY S. CHENGGES-Straywinds,LP,1973,USA

Most of us have a record or two that we believe in our hearts we are the only person to ever "get". For me, this record is utter magic and sits in a stack of well under ten records I won't put up on the block because I just can't be without them. The Grudzien is in that pile, so is the UK mono White Album. "Straywinds" is a whole lot closer to Grudzien than The Beatles. Two guys in a cavernous and empty auditorium (the natural echo here is phenomenal). One plays acoustic piano, the main instrument, the other some percussion and some clean electric guitar, very quietly. This is, in fact, a seriously quiet record. There are a few vocal parts that are sung, but the majority of this is spoken poetry with piano accompaniment. There is a naiveté and innocence here that I think is a common thread in my private stash of keeper records. This is as fragile a record as may have ever managed to get itself pressed and issued into the world. While the first side is heavily echoed vocals over sparse instrumentation (on tracks like "In Green Pastures" "Some Old Town" My Dreams, My Love"), the second side opens with "Beyond Forgetting." Under the right circumstances someone could play this track and, at the end, ask for $1,500 and get it. A distorted and electronically effected vocal shouts over an electric piano and acoustic guitar bed. Still subdued but otherworldly and impossibly strange; I have never played this for someone and not had to scrape their jaw off the carpet. Like most of our secret records, this comes with the added knowledge that this will be reissued only after everything else is and so it will remain that little treasure just for us.Certainly not for everyone, and perhaps more a relic from the psychedelic age than psychedelic itself!
From:Lysergia.com
Trippy stoned,freaked out folky narrations .Mindblowing!

As requested!
get it here

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

I LOVE YOU!!!
Thanks so much for responding to my request -this is unbelievable!

Anonymous said...

a little request:
The Parasite Of The Western World - Substrata (1980)

thank you for your wonderful work
keep on sharing

frank4

Anonymous said...

thanks for this post - is this the complete LP though? At 28 minutes it seems quite brief... just wondering. Sounds great!

Anonymous said...

Thank you! Beautiful...

Anonymous said...

Very Current 93.

Anonymous said...

i really love this.....thanks!

Anonymous said...

Wow, this record is amazing...
simply amazing...
IT leaves this weird feeling in ur chest. I Cant explain it.

please more of this artist!!!


AMAZING BLOG

kevin said...

Thanks for this, it's remarkable. The weird loner/outsider vibe reminds me of Ron & Shirley's album "Rock & Scroll"

Anonymous said...

stunning...beautiful..but. could i have the exact tracklist?
poseur

Rainy Day Sponge said...

Now I know where Tom Carter's & Pip Proud's album (2002) came from.
Great!!! Thanks!

Milton Parker said...

I can even see how this might have been a difficult record to share online, the temptation might have been to keep it personal. But thanks for sharing it, it's magic.

Anonymous said...

Hi Larry-
It's nice to see that you've followed your heart-and doing what you always loved. I still remember the good times spent at MCCC. Linda and I had great times-I still have your two poetry books-published by Violet Love Publishing. Linda and I still connect-and will always be 'best friends' -
Good luck-keep writing great poetry!

Alex M said...

Thank you very much! Good to know there's people like you in this world. Keep on keeping on!

Anonymous said...

Thank you for posting this album! I like it very much.

Anonymous said...

would love to hear "Straywinds" - unfortunately the rapidshare link is down. would you mind re-up?
thx
eric from berlin