Sweet Thursday (album)
Encyclopedia
Sweet Thursday is the self-titled debut, and only, album by the late 1960s British rock band Sweet Thursday
. Its chance of success was cut short by the almost-immediate failure of the record label.
in London. It is notable for featuring keyboardist Nicky Hopkins
(who worked with The Rolling Stones
and The Who
among many others) and Bluesbreakers alum Jon Mark (who would go on to form the group Mark-Almond
). It was produced by Hugh Murphy, who later became known for his work with Gerry Rafferty
. Recording and engineering was done by Barry Sheffield.
The album was originally released in the US in August 1969 on Tetragrammaton Records
(catalogue T-112). (The band had signed with that label in November 1968, and the copyright on the label was from 1968.) Radio commercials were used to promote the album and Tetragrammaton's other releases. However, by late 1969 Tetragrammaton was already headed for financial failure and bankruptcy (by legend, the same day the album was released).
Sweet Thursdays release history outside the US is less clear. It may have been originally released on Fontana Records
in the UK. An initial European release in 1970 on Polydor (catalogue 2310051) appears to have been made, that featured an alternate album cover depicted a torn-off calendar page resting on a bed of leaves.
The album's style mixed typical mid- and late-1960s British rock elements such as R&B, blues, and psychedelia. The piano and organ based arrangements and slightly abstract lyric narratives also showed a pronounced debt to Bob Dylan
's Blonde on Blonde
. All but one of the album's songs were written by group members. Allmusic's Bruce Eder views "Rescue Me" as one of the better tracks, showing the influence that the group members had had, like many others in the British R&B scene, from playing in Zoot Money's Big Roll Band
and the Cyril Davies All-Stars
. Eder says that the band's songwriting is largely unmemorable, while Billboard
magazine wrote in 1973 that the album "offers a strong mix of rock, ballads, and folky material, with strong vocals and instrumentals running throughout." In 1970, the St. Petersburg Times
saw the group as "smooth" and the record worthy of inclusion in its "Unusual Albums" section.
The moody, evocative ten-minute track "Gilbert Street" was the album's centerpiece and generally acclaimed as its best track. Written by group friend Pat Gunning and named after a short side street in London's Mayfair
area, the mid-tempo number, built around acoustic guitar and organ, describes a complex quest for a mysterious lady in blue. The fuzz guitar-laced refrain directs one to the Central line
and the Bond Street tube station
in order to reach this point. The song became a turntable hit when it was played on American progressive rock radio
, such as by Scott Muni
on WNEW-FM in New York.
Sweet Thursday never released another record.
The album was reissued on Great Western Gramophone – a joint venture label formed between Jerry Heller
, a manager, and Clive Davis
, an executive of Columbia Records
– in the US in 1973 (catalogue KZ 32039). By now the album had attracted enough underground interest that the label took out a full page ad in Rolling Stone
magazine to announce the re-release. During the second quarter of 1973, college radio stations such as WHUS-FM and WVOF
in Connecticut, WVBU-FM
in Pennsylvania, and WTUL-FM in New Orleans all reported adding the album to their playlists. Great Western also released "Jenny", backed with "Dealer", as a single from the album. Also in 1973, it was re-released for Line Records, a label in Germany (catalogue LLP 5044, 6.24350 AP).
Over the years the album, and others from Tetragrammaton, was subjected to vinyl bootlegging and CD releases of questionable legality. An April 1998 CD release from M.I.L. Multimedia became the first clearly legitimate one. The original Tetragrammaton LP has not been a big item on the collector's market, fetching only $20 by the mid-2000s.
Side Two
Sweet Thursday (band)
Sweet Thursday was a short-lived late-1960s English rock band.The group included famed session keyboard player Nicky Hopkins, who had worked with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jeff Beck, and many others; folk guitarist, singer, and past session man Alun Davies ; and singer, guitarist, composer...
. Its chance of success was cut short by the almost-immediate failure of the record label.
History
The album was recorded at Trident StudiosTrident Studios
Trident Studios was a British recording facility, originally located at 17 St. Anne's Court in London's Soho district. It was constructed in 1967 by Norman Sheffield a drummer of former 1960's group The Hunters and his Brother Barry....
in London. It is notable for featuring keyboardist Nicky Hopkins
Nicky Hopkins
Nicholas Christian "Nicky" Hopkins was an English pianist and organist.He recorded and performed on noted British and American popular music recordings of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s as a session musician....
(who worked with The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
and The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
among many others) and Bluesbreakers alum Jon Mark (who would go on to form the group Mark-Almond
Mark-Almond
Mark–Almond were an English band of the late 1960s and early 1970s, who worked in the territory between rock and jazz.In 1970 Jon Mark and Johnny Almond formed Mark-Almond...
). It was produced by Hugh Murphy, who later became known for his work with Gerry Rafferty
Gerry Rafferty
Gerald "Gerry" Rafferty was a Scottish singer songwriter best known for his solo hits "Baker Street", "Right Down the Line", "Days Gone Down", "Night Owl", "Get It Right Next Time", and with the band Stealers Wheel, "Stuck in the Middle with You". Rafferty was born into a working-class family in...
. Recording and engineering was done by Barry Sheffield.
The album was originally released in the US in August 1969 on Tetragrammaton Records
Tetragrammaton Records
Tetragrammaton Records was an American record label, founded by artist manager Roy Silver, Bruce Post Campbell, Marvin Deane, and comedian Bill Cosby in the late 1960s. The name references a term for the un-nameable name of God....
(catalogue T-112). (The band had signed with that label in November 1968, and the copyright on the label was from 1968.) Radio commercials were used to promote the album and Tetragrammaton's other releases. However, by late 1969 Tetragrammaton was already headed for financial failure and bankruptcy (by legend, the same day the album was released).
Sweet Thursdays release history outside the US is less clear. It may have been originally released on Fontana Records
Fontana Records
Fontana Records is a record label which was started in the 1950s as a subsidiary of the Dutch Philips Records; when Philips restructured its music operations it dropped Fontana in favor of Vertigo Records. In the seventies PolyGram acquired the dormant label....
in the UK. An initial European release in 1970 on Polydor (catalogue 2310051) appears to have been made, that featured an alternate album cover depicted a torn-off calendar page resting on a bed of leaves.
The album's style mixed typical mid- and late-1960s British rock elements such as R&B, blues, and psychedelia. The piano and organ based arrangements and slightly abstract lyric narratives also showed a pronounced debt to Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's Blonde on Blonde
Blonde on Blonde
Blonde on Blonde is American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's seventh studio album, released in May or June 1966 on Columbia Records and produced by Bob Johnston. Recording sessions commenced in New York in October 1965, with a plethora of backing musicians, including members of Dylan's live backing...
. All but one of the album's songs were written by group members. Allmusic's Bruce Eder views "Rescue Me" as one of the better tracks, showing the influence that the group members had had, like many others in the British R&B scene, from playing in Zoot Money's Big Roll Band
Zoot Money's Big Roll Band
Zoot Money's Big Roll Band was a British rhythm and blues, soul and jazz group formed in England in early autumn 1961.-History:An early line-up had Zoot Money as vocalist and Al Kirtley on piano but in the band's best-known form Money himself played Hammond organ. Bassist/vocalist Paul Williams...
and the Cyril Davies All-Stars
Cyril Davies
Cyril Davies was one of the first British blues harmonica players and blues musician.-Biography:Born at St Mildred's, 15 Hawthorn Drive, Willowbank, Denham, Buckinghamshire, near London, he was the son of William Albert Davies, a labourer, and his wife Margaret Mary...
. Eder says that the band's songwriting is largely unmemorable, while Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
magazine wrote in 1973 that the album "offers a strong mix of rock, ballads, and folky material, with strong vocals and instrumentals running throughout." In 1970, the St. Petersburg Times
St. Petersburg Times
The St. Petersburg Times is a United States newspaper. It is one of two major publications serving the Tampa Bay Area, the other being The Tampa Tribune, which the Times tops in both circulation and readership. Based in St...
saw the group as "smooth" and the record worthy of inclusion in its "Unusual Albums" section.
The moody, evocative ten-minute track "Gilbert Street" was the album's centerpiece and generally acclaimed as its best track. Written by group friend Pat Gunning and named after a short side street in London's Mayfair
Mayfair
Mayfair is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster.-History:Mayfair is named after the annual fortnight-long May Fair that took place on the site that is Shepherd Market today...
area, the mid-tempo number, built around acoustic guitar and organ, describes a complex quest for a mysterious lady in blue. The fuzz guitar-laced refrain directs one to the Central line
Central Line
The Central line is a London Underground line, coloured red on the tube map. It is a deep-level "tube" line, running east-west across London, and, at , has the greatest total length of track of any line on the Underground. Of the 49 stations served, 20 are below ground...
and the Bond Street tube station
Bond Street tube station
Bond Street tube station is a London Underground station on Oxford Street, near the junction with New Bond Street. Note that the street-level entrances are approximately 200 metres west of New Bond Street itself...
in order to reach this point. The song became a turntable hit when it was played on American progressive rock radio
Progressive rock (radio format)
Progressive rock is a radio station programming format that prospered in the late 1960s and 1970s, in which the disc jockeys are given wide latitude in what they may play, similar to the freeform format but with the proviso that some kind of rock music is almost always what is played...
, such as by Scott Muni
Scott Muni
Scott Muni was an American disc jockey, who worked at the heyday of the AM Top 40 format and then was a pioneer of FM progressive rock radio.-Biography:...
on WNEW-FM in New York.
Sweet Thursday never released another record.
The album was reissued on Great Western Gramophone – a joint venture label formed between Jerry Heller
Jerry Heller
Jerry Heller is best known for managing West Coast rap group N.W.A. and rapper Eazy-E. He is co-founder and CEO of Ruthless Records. Heller managed War, Average White Band, Marvin Gaye, Michel'le, A.L.T...
, a manager, and Clive Davis
Clive Davis
Clive Davis is an American record producer and music industry executive. He has won five Grammy Awards and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer. From 1967 to 1973 he was the President of Columbia Records. He was the founder and president of Arista Records from 1975...
, an executive of Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
– in the US in 1973 (catalogue KZ 32039). By now the album had attracted enough underground interest that the label took out a full page ad in Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine to announce the re-release. During the second quarter of 1973, college radio stations such as WHUS-FM and WVOF
WVOF
WVOF is the student-run college radio station at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut. As of August 2008, the station has been a partner with Connecticut Public Radio and carries Connecticut Public Radio and NPR programming.-History:...
in Connecticut, WVBU-FM
WVBU-FM
WVBU-FM is a college radio station broadcasting an alternative rock radio format. Licensed to Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, USA, the station is currently owned by Bucknell University. WVBU calls itself “The Voice of Bucknell University”, and is Bucknell’s only student-run radio station...
in Pennsylvania, and WTUL-FM in New Orleans all reported adding the album to their playlists. Great Western also released "Jenny", backed with "Dealer", as a single from the album. Also in 1973, it was re-released for Line Records, a label in Germany (catalogue LLP 5044, 6.24350 AP).
Over the years the album, and others from Tetragrammaton, was subjected to vinyl bootlegging and CD releases of questionable legality. An April 1998 CD release from M.I.L. Multimedia became the first clearly legitimate one. The original Tetragrammaton LP has not been a big item on the collector's market, fetching only $20 by the mid-2000s.
Track listing
Side One- "Dealer" (Jon Mark) – 5:43
- "Jenny" (Mark) – 3:46
- "Laughed at Him" (Mark) – 5:10
- "Cobwebs" (Brian Odgers) – 3:23
- "Rescue Me" (Mark) – 3:41
Side Two
- "Molly" (Odgers) – 3:04
- "Sweet Francesca" (Mark) – 3:57
- "Side of the Road" (Alun Davies) – 4:50
- "Gilbert Street" (Pat Gunning) – 10:22
Personnel
- Alun Davies: Acoustic and electric guitars, vocals
- Jon Mark: Acoustic and electric guitars, vocals
- Nicky HopkinsNicky HopkinsNicholas Christian "Nicky" Hopkins was an English pianist and organist.He recorded and performed on noted British and American popular music recordings of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s as a session musician....
: Keyboards, organ, piano - Brian Odgers: Bass, woodwinds, flute
- Harvey Burns: Drums, percussion