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This was Caravan’s 3rd album, where the band had developed a unique keyboard based sound that few others have been able to emulate since.
It was made without the use of any synthesizers, an instrument that was just starting to feature heavily in the prog-rock music of the time, instead concentrating on David Sinclair’s masterful keyboard skills and his trademark organ sound was to be the driving force on the whole album.
Nine of the ten tracks are catchy and loaded with substance induced lyrics and humour, and the other is a long, mainly instrumental twenty-two minute piece. The music is refreshing, highly infectious, beautifully constructed and brilliantly executed.
The lyrics are whimsical in nature and create a certain surreal imagery that works well with consistently mellow tone of the music, a feel only interrupted by occasional instrumental outbursts where the keyboards really let rip with some of the finest free-flowing soloing you’ll ever hear.
Like the images portrayed on the excellent cover art, the overall theme of the album quite vividly paints an image of a sunny and carefree society where everyone drinks cups of tea, smokes “punkweed” and walks around with a permanent smile on their face. It’s total escapism – a record you play on a warm summer’s day, turn up loud and open the windows for everyone to enjoy, but above all, it’s great fun!
‘In The Land Of Grey & Pink’ was my first experience of the Canterbury music scene, and what an introduction is was, as what was to become one of the best (if not THE best) albums that Caravan ever produced, still entertains me as much in 2007 as it did back at the time of its original vinyl release on the Deram label in 1970.
This was Caravan’s 3rd album, and for it the band had developed a unique keyboard based sound that few others have been able to emulate since, and that was without the use of any synthesizers, an instrument that was just starting to feature heavily in the prog-rock music of the time.
David Sinclair is a masterful keyboards player, and his trademark organ sound was the basic driving force on this album. He managed to avoid the excesses of the early 70’s prog-rock players, and preferred to use a number of brass and woodwind instruments to make alternative leads instead a conventional up-front lead guitarist, but Pye Hastings still gets adequate breaks to showcase his electric guitar skills along the way on this album. The use of organ, piano, flute and sax as lead instruments was a brilliant combination of sounds for this album, with the additional use of the Mellotron embellished the overall sound just perfectly, adding to the fantasy feel of the project.
Pye Hastings had written most of the material for the fist two Caravan LP’s, but for this one he took a back seat and handed the reigns over to Dave and Richard Sinclair for most of this album, and although all the band members are still credited with writing duties, it led to a definite favouring of a more keyboards with wind instruments approach.
Pye Hastings had also handled most of the vocal duties on the earlier Caravan albums, but for ‘Land Of Grey & Pink’, Richard Sinclair had proved to be a unique and outstanding vocalist, and together with his excellent bass playing, he later took his talents on to work with another giant of the 70’s Prog / Canterbury scene: Camel, and at this point it’s worth noting that fans of early Camel and Hatfield & The North will enjoy this record too.
The original vinyl album featured four average length songs that were catchy and loaded with substance induced lyrics and humour, and one extra long, mainly instrumental track that took up the entire 2nd side of the LP. The music is refreshing, highly infectious, beautifully constructed and brilliantly executed. The lyrics are whimsical in nature and create a certain surreal imagery that works well with consistently mellow tone of the music, and that feel is only interrupted by occasional instrumental outbursts where the keyboards really let rip with some of the finest free-flowing soloing you’ll ever hear.
Like the images portrayed on the excellent cover art, the overall theme of the album quite vividly paints an image of a sunny and carefree society where everyone drinks cups of tea, smokes “punkweed” and walks around with a permanent smile on their face.
It’s total escapism – a record you play on a warm summer’s day, turn up loud and open the windows for everyone to enjoy, but above all, this album is great fun!
Going through the tracks in more detail: songs like 'Golf Girl' and 'Love To Love You' are full of humour in the lyric department, with the former being a light and silly tune with more than a few double entendres as it bounces along and entices you to just let go and enjoy the moment, as the Mellotron-lead instrumental breaks away and carries you off on a wave of pure joy and happiness – The prefect antidote to a bad day at the office!'Winter Wine' is a personal favourite, and a classic piece of Caravan music if ever there was one.
The track is built around a lovely melody, and has a totally relaxed feel, with Richard Sinclair’s light and airy voice delivering a fine fantasy lyric. It is the most symphonic of the tracks on the album and features a lengthy and superb organ solo, before returning to the main melody line and lyric.
The title track is similar in feel to ‘Golf Girl’, but with a more adventurous arrangement. The lyric is more surreal, but equally entertaining, and pertains to things more “substance” based, again with an excellent extended instrumental break in the middle from that distinctive Dave Sinclair organ sound.
'Nine Feet Underground' is possibly Caravan's "magnum opus" - a long, mainly instrumental piece split into eight sections, and it is an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink type of epic that is dominated by Dave Sinclair’s legendary fuzz-organ, with masses of extended jamming and soloing throughout. It is a quintessentially English, perfectly balanced composition full of melancholy and nostalgia that weaves through the various themes with a mainly rock feel that occasionally wanders into the world of free-form jazz, but the band keep it tight all the way. The track ends with a blatant tribute to Cream with the riff from ‘Sunshine Of Your Love’ repeated several times over. This is a track that begs repeated airings, and that’s when the real rewards start to kick in, as you get something new from every play.
This remastered version has much improved sound and stereo imaging than the original production, although the original vinyl version always sounded particularly stunning. This CD has had five suitable bonus tracks added, three of which are early versions, or parts of songs that appeared on the finished album: ‘I Don’t Know It’s Name’ (alias "the word”)’ is a previously unheard Caravan track that fits the feel of ‘Land Of Grey & Pink’ absolutely perfectly, and features another fine airy vocal from Richard Sinclair and more exquisite organ work from David Sinclair.
'Aristocracy' is early version a song that later appeared on the follow-up release: ‘Waterloo Lily’ in a somewhat different guise, and features Pye Hasting on the vocal.
‘It's Likely To Have A Name Next Week’ is basically an instrumental version of the classic ‘Winter Wine’ with Dave Sinclair humming a vocal here and there.
‘Group Girl’ is an early version of ‘Golf Girl’ with different lyrics, and ‘Disassociation / 100% Proof’ is a new mix of the final two passages on ‘Nine Feet Underground’.
Musicians line-up: Richard Sinclair (bass / acoustic guitar / vocals), Pye Hastings (electric & acoustic guitars / vocals), David Sinclair (organ / piano / Mellotron & harmony vocals), Richard Coughlan (drums & percussion), Jimmy Hastings (flute / tenor sax / piccolo) and David Grinsted (cannon / bell / wind).
Track List:
01. Golf girl (5:05)
02. Winter Wine (7:46)
03. Love To Love You [And Tonight Pigs Will fly] (3:06)
04. In The Land Of Grey And pink (4:51)
05. Nine Feet Underground: (22:40)
i. Nigel Blows A Tune
ii. Love's A friend
iii. Make It 76
iv. Dance Of The Seven Paper Hankies
v. Hold Grandad By The Nose
vi. Honest I Did!
vii. Disassociation
viii. 100% Proof
06. I Don't Know Its Name (6:12) * Bonus Track *
07. Aristocracy (3:42) * Bonus Track *
08. It's Likely To Have A Name Next Week (7:48) * Bonus Track *
09. Group Girl (5:04) * Bonus Track *
10. Disassociation / 100% Proof (8:35) * Bonus Track *