Search - Michael Chapman :: Growing Pains

MC - the first fifteen years

J. W. L. Smits | Heerlen Netherlands | 08/30/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Most people consider Michael Chapman's albums from the first half of the seventies as his best work, so there must be some humor in the title Growing Pains, which provides an overview of the first fifteen years (1966-1980) of his musical career. The sixteen tracks are divided evenly in studio and live tracks and all tracks of this nearly 74-minute cd haven't been available before, neither on vinyl nor on cd. The first four studio tracks from Fairview, Hull predate his first official album Rainmaker at least two years, the last four tracks are from 1980, but for me they are much more interesting to hear than his 1980-album Looking for Eleven, although there's a distinct move to pop to be heard here also. The live recordings are from 1969 and 1971 and include MC-classics like It Didn't Work Out, Wrecked Again, Naked ladies & Electric Ragtime and a beautiful interpretation of Tim Hardin's Reason to Believe. There's also an almost 15-minute version of A Scholarly Man. The collection shows the development of MC in his most interesting years. It's a safe investment to get to know this excellent guitar player and singer, as it is all material that wasn't published before, and fits nicely besides BBC Sessions 69-75, a magnificent live-set. At last the interest in Michael Chapman seems te be growing and this record could do a good job in making it grow faster. Highly recommended and file under whatever you want to."