Keith West-Excerpts From...Group & Sessions 1965-1974

Keith West - Excerpts From...Group & Sessions 1965-1974
CD (1995) Mp3 VBR
Included: CD Covers and this Info

Review by Richie Unterberger
Granted, this 24-track anthology will appeal almost exclusively to those with very deep British '60s/psychedelic collections, gathering bits and pieces from every stage of his career. It's also true that the best work West did is not actually on here, but on the eponymous (and only) album by Tomorrow, which is still easily available on CD. As a supplement to that Tomorrow album, though, this is pretty good, including rare 1965 singles by his pre-Tomorrow groups, Four + 1 and the In Crowd (respectable if a bit generic mod/R&B); a couple of previously unreleased BBC Tomorrow airshots of songs from their album ("Three Jolly Little Dwarfs" and "Revolution"), presented in somewhat harder-rocking versions sans elaborate studio production; the "Teenage Opera" and "Sam" singles; a rare 1968 single; and some unreleased cuts from the late '60s and early '70s, which show him drifting from psychedelia into a more singer/songwriter direction. Especially noteworthy are two unreleased recordings that Tomorrow wrote and recorded for Michelangelo Antonioni's film Blow Up; Tomorrow were apparently considered for the cameo rock band role that eventually went to the Yardbirds. Interesting odds'n'sods from an interesting career.

Biography by Richie Unterberger
If ever a "secret history" is written of British psychedelic rock, Keith West will surely have one of the leading roles. As the lead singer and principal songwriter of Tomorrow, he was a guiding force of one of the first and best British psychedelic bands, even if their one album (with a lineup that also featured Steve Howe in his pre-Yes days) was little heard beyond the London underground. West got his feet wet in the British Beat boom as singer in the obscure mod/R&B bands Four + 1 and the In Crowd, the latter of which evolved into Tomorrow after Steve Howe joined. While Tomorrow was still a going concern in 1967, West launched a simultaneous solo career, releasing a few solo singles (some of which also input from Howe) in the late '60s. The first of these, "Excerpt From a Teenage Opera," was an unexpectedly huge smash, reaching number two on the British charts during the summer of 1967.

"Teenage Opera," a convoluted story about the death of a grocer named Jack, was rather fruity in both lyrics and production (prominently featuring a too-cute children's chorus). But this ornately arranged slice of pop-psychedelia (with the accent heavily on the pop) had some moments of real grandeur, and has been said to have been an influence on Pete Townshend at a time when he was mulling over prospects for a rock opera of his own. The British press hyped the hit as part of a forthcoming full-length opera, but, in fact, nothing else had been written, and a projected double-album never materialized. West did release one more installment as a single, the even more rococo "Sam," a perhaps too-ambitious orchestral-psychedelic production that briefly made the British Top 40.

West's solo success hindered the career of the much less pop-oriented Tomorrow, who had yet to even release their album when "Teenage Opera" hit. Although West was far more interested in working with Tomorrow than staging whimsical pop-psych operettas, the difficulty in balancing the two concerns led to Tomorrow's premature demise in 1968. West did manage to release another solo single (unrelated to any operatic concept) and record some reasonably interesting unreleased material, which (as in his Tomorrow days) were frequently narrative character sketches of archetypically eccentric Brits. He hasn't done much recording since the early '70s, although he produced a few (unknown) bands, worked with his old partner Howe occasionally in the studio in the '90s, and produces music for television and radio commercials. He is one of the foremost cases of unrealized potential of the British '60s psychedelic scene.

Tracklist:
01. Time Is On My Side - Four + 1 - 1965
02. Don't Lie To Me - Four + 1 - 1965
03. That's How Strong My Love Is - In Crowd - 1965
04. Things She Says - In Crowd - 1965
05. You're On Your Own - In Crowd - 1965
06. I Don't Mind - In Crowd - 1965
07. Am I Glad To See You - Tomorrow - 1967
08. Blow Up - Tomorrow - 1967
09. Three Jolly Little Dwarfs - Tomorrow - 1967
10. Revolution - Tomorrow - 1967
11. Excerpt From "A Teenage Opera" - Keith West - 1967
12. Sam - Keith West - 1967
13. Shy Boy - Tomorrow - 1968
14. Colonel Brown - Tomorrow - 1968
15. On A Saturday - Keith West - 1968
16. The Kid Was A Killer - Keith West - 1968
17. The Visit - Keith West - 1968
18. She - Keith West - 1968
19. A Little Understanding - Keith West - 1969
20. Power And The Glory - Keith West - 1969
21. West Country - Keith West - 1969
22. Riding For A Fall - Keith West - 1972
23. Having Someone - Keith West - 197