tracks 1-13, 16-18 & 20 mono;
tracks 14, 15 & 19 stereo.
all tracks produced by denny cordell for straight ahead productions.
original sleeve art courtesy of henry scott-irvine.
Reviewtracks 1-10 were the mono lp, regal zonophone lrz 1001 q.v. remastered in 1997 from an original first generation production master. the original lp was ready for release summer 1967, but was delayed by essex music & straight ahead productions until january 1968 as part of the negotiations in placing their whole artists roster with, as it turned out, emi;
tracks 11 & 12 were the original first single, deram dm 126, no.1 for six weeks straight in the summer of 1967;
track 13 (with 9) was the stunning follow-up, regal zonophone rz 3003 9/67, which only made #6 in the charts - a tastecrime seldom equalled in the mid-sixties: it's doomy, gloomy and magnificent; what more did the record-buying public want?
(as it happens, what the "serious" side of the r-b p now wanted was lps and not singles any more; and lps that were more-or-less coherent albums, rather than unprogrammed assembleges of totally unrelated songs. procul or their managers, were slow on the uptake, and it wasn't until the third lp they achieved this feel of the whole album being more than the sum of its parts);
tracks14-20 are bonus alternative takes & mixes, stages on the way to the released versions, and make for further interesting listening rather than "essential (re-) discovery";
but i'm glad to have them.