Rare Bird: Sympathy CD Track Listing

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Rare Bird Sympathy (1976)
This Compilation Originally Released 1976\n''Rare Bird'' LP Originally Released 1969\n''As Your Mind Flies By'' Originally Released 1970\n\nCD Edition Released July 16, 1990 \n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: (''Sympathy'') Rare Bird's unpolished but sturdy brand of early progressive rock was built on their heavy keyboard implementations, as they were one of the few bands to produce music without the employment of an electric guitar. Using only a couple of keyboards, a bass guitar, and drums, Rare Bird represented the simplest form of synthesizer prog, but their music ranged anywhere from busy and rambunctious to light and delicate sounding. Sympathy is a compilation that takes five songs from their 1969 self-titled debut album and four tracks from 1970s As Your Mind Flies By and unites them conveniently on one disc. Starting off with the modest, elementary organ runs in "Sympathy," the album moves on to more layered pieces like "Bird on a Wing" and "What You Want to Know," highlighting the sometimes strained vocals of Steve Gould. Hippie-esque grooves and portions of '60s psychedelia surface time and again throughout the music, but are soon drenched with the electronic surge of Graham Field's organ. Without the complexity or the multi-layered intricacies that other progressive bands were fusing into their music, Rare Bird stuck to a format that singled out the workings of each instrument so that overlapping very rarely occurred. As a result, their inherent musical methods were easy to appreciate as this type of raw prog began to deteriorate among a busier-sounding group of bands like Emerson, Lake & Palmer and King Crimson, as well as the advent of German progressive music and Krautrock. Sympathy is a fine example of this band's unembellished style of progressive rock. -- by Mike DeGagne\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: (''First Album'') This debut featured an organist and an electric pianist, but no guitarist, resulting in a moody Hammond-heavy album from a band that would later become more progressive and varied in its sound. "Beautiful Scarlet" shifts easily from histrionic soul to offhanded slow-four interludes, and the instrumental "Iceberg" shows off the organist Graham Field and the rest of band's chops well. The whispered vocals and weird background noises of "God of War" achieves the kind of creepy gloom appropriate to an era of carpet bombing and napalm. Indeed, the production and instrumentation of this album makes it very much of a period piece, though certainly not in any derogatory sense. -- Paul Collins\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nNice compilation album, March 28, 2004\nReviewer: BENJAMIN MILER (Eugene, OR United States)\nBut remember: if you already own their first two albums, that is their self-entitled debut and As Your Mind Flies By, you probably don't need this compilation. The Sympathy compilation was actually released in 1976, not 1990 (1990 was the year it got issued on CD), on the Charisma Perspective label. Charisma Perspective was simply the label's compilation division, who had a habit of only covering two albums. And Rare Bird was no exception. They only recorded two albums on Charisma, which this compilation obviously covers. So you get material from the original 1969-70 lineup of vocalist/bassist Steve Gould, drummer Mark Ashton, and keyboardists Graham Field and David Kaffinetti. For their debut, you mostly get their shorter, more "pop-oriented" pieces like "Sympathy", "You Went Away", and "Bird on a Wing". Exception being "Beautiful Scarlet", being more progressive. It would have been nice the compilation included "Iceberg" or "God of War" to show the more progressive moments of their debut. For As Your Mind Flies By, you get "What You Want To Know", "I'm Thinking" and the aggressive "Hammerhead". Plus you get an excerpt of "Flight". All this music showed how effective this band was with two keyboardists and no guitarists. Of course they would move on to Polydor, this time with a lineup change that included guitars, with a few more albums under the belt. But it's with this compilation that demonstrates what the original, guitar-less Rare Bird was all about.\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nre: Rare Bird's Sympathy, May 10, 2000\nReviewer: Glen Doucet (East Coast, Canada)\nI wish to comment on the review for the Rare Bird album, Sympathy by your critic.\nI have not listened to the CD so I cannot comment on the sound quality of the CD, but I do have the original vinyl album on the Charisma label.\n\nThe compilation album is a good example of the early Rare Bird music. The music is extremely imaginative and the talents of Gould, Field, Kaffinetti and Ashton are outstanding. \n\nThe combination of drums, bass and two keyboards made for a unique sound that to my knowledge has not been used since. If someone else has heard of this unique combination in music please let me know.\n\nCompare the music of Rare Bird to what was being played by the mainstream musicians in the late 1960's and early 1970's and you can see why I say their music was unique, innovative and atmospheric.\n\nI was first turned onto Rare Bird when I purchased Epic Forest in 1973 and I have been hooked on them ever since. The Epic Forest album is completely different from the first two albums.\n\nI do disagree with the critic's review of Rare Bird and the album (Sympathy) but everyone is entitled to their opinion and also entitled to express it as I think most critic's reviews are based on their personal preferences.\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nNICE BUT TOO BRIEF, December 28, 1999\nReviewer: A music fan\nThis American compilation contains only 9 songs - 5 from their first album and 4 from their second. Total running time is a bit more than 40 min. The best example for this British keyboard dominated prog rock band was the early GENESIS. Note that RARE BIRD began on the same label and with the same producer as GENESIS did beginning from their TRESPASS release. Although this is a good compilation it is too brief and bear in mind it was released in 1990, so the sound quality leaves much to be desired. I would recommend their original 1998 releases with far better sound quality and presenting the original album covers. It might not be OK even for casual fans 'cause it does not contain tracks from their third EPIC FOREST album which is quite different from their first and second albums.\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nDecember 1, 1999\nReviewer: A music fan\nThe critics from Emap are way off base here. This first Rare Bird album is simply exceptional. It is enchanting, inventive and melodic. It ranges from heavy to almost jazzy-blues soft at points. The vocals of Steve Gould are captivating, and the keyboards of Graham Field and David Kaffinetti are virtuoso. Mark Ashton turned in some unique percussion work on this one as well. This group was simply incredible in their musicianship and songwriting abilities, and it is unfortunate this lineup lasted but two albums. If you buy this one, you will want them all. As Your Mind Flies By and Epic Forest (with a new lineup) are fantastic. Epic Forest is an overlooked gem--simply incomparable. You will be hooked by the depth of the music.\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nRare Bird Soars, August 3, 1999\nReviewer: A music fan\nThis Rare Bird CD contains a wealth of artistically wonderful music! It includes all the songs from their especially creative and engaging first album and the best songs from their second album. I was prompted to reply by the incomprehensible Emap review provided above. Sound samples are unlikely to do the music justice. Listen to all of Beautiful Scarlet and then decide. Other gems await. The first Rare Bird is one of those "rare" albums from the late 60's that haven't lost any of their ability to enchant.\n\nHalf.com Details \nProducer: John Anthony, Rare Bird
This rock cd contains 9 tracks and runs 41min 9sec.
Freedb: 7309a309
Buy: from Amazon.com

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