Search - Rare Bird :: 1st//Somebody's Watching

Two different lineups & a double gem of a CD

Pierre from Colorado | 08/16/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This import CD is a great value as it combines legendary Rare Bird's eponymous album from late 1969 and the group's fourth album from 1973, Somebody's Watching. By 1973, Rare Bird had gone through essentially two band changes from the original members. Thus the two halves to the CD have very different styles. Rare Bird features a unique double-organ sound, is rather heavy, atmospheric and at times almost surreal-sounding. It simply is stunning for a band's debut. Somebody's Watching finds the band a bit softer with more guitar influence, although by no means dominant. There is a bit more pop/jazz flavor to many of the tracks, led of course by the reworking of Morricone's For a Few Dollars More in the guise of Dollars by Rare Bird. This song breathes life into the album. Turn Your Head is a catchy and melodic tune, while Who is the Hero and High in the Morning are songs written by contributors to the group over a period of several years and allow the group's musicality, skill and subtleness to be evident. Somebody's Watching is a bit more commercial and popish than previous Rare Bird efforts, but it is contains several gems which grow on the listener. And it requires careful listening to grasp all the well-crafted and meaningful lyrics and musical nuances. For the money, you get two Rare Bird classics consisting of about 78 minutes of great music. Sound quality is very good."

One of my best from that era.

Pierre from Colorado | United States | 03/29/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I found the 1st album on an 8-tracks cassette back in the early 70s. I paid just a couple of bucks in a sale and didn't know anything about that group. Just wanted to buy some tape to play in the car. But man, what I discover when I listen to it was one of the best album in that genre. So I started to look for it on LP. Couldn't find it. No store could order it for me. They couldn't find it in their catalogs. Ever since CD came along I try my best to find it, without any success. Of course by now the 8-track tape was gone (they didn't last very long). Recently I finally found 19 cuts on Napster and have been living on that until I found those import on Amazon. I wish I would have tought of coming here earlier. My favorite song is "Beautiful Scarlett". It remind me a lot of Cream, Blind Faith, Yes, ELP, Triumvirat and, at a later time, Asia. This is a keeper for the age. I have yet to hear any recent group that come anywhere close to that quality of musical talent. I have a feeling that today's musician are more after money than the pleasure of the Art."

Great debut and a good fourth album

BENJAMIN MILER | Veneta, Oregon | 05/29/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Rare Bird started off as one of the earliest rock bands to feature keyboards but no guitar (Lee Michaels took that concept even further by including only organ and drums in his setup). The truly amazing thing about Rare Bird was the band was formed in October 1969, and their debut was released in December 3, 1969, just two months after their formation. It's amazing how they were able to pull that off. After all, it usually takes a band a year or two after formation to get an album out. Their debut was a historic album for it marked the very first album ever released on the Famous Charisma Label (what it was called then), this is the same label that also gave us the likes of Van der Graaf Generator/Peter Hammill, Genesis, Lindisfarne, Monty Python, etc. The album also received a US release on the ABC/Probe label, but it featured a totally different cover. As this album came out not too long after In the Court of the Crimson King and Colosseum's Valentyne Suite, you can tell that, with the longer numbers on this album, that the prog rock scene has finally arrived with full force. Rare Bird's music featured the powerful vocals of Steve Gould, future Spinal Tap guy David Kaffinetti on electric piano, Graham Field on organ, and Mark Ashton on drums. "Sympathy" was the hit on the album (at least a hit on Continental Europe) with lyrics that are perhaps even more relevant now than it was in 1969. There are several great progressive numbers including "Beautiful Scarlet", "Iceberg" and "God of War". "God of War" seems a little untypical for Rare Bird, with a more dark and sinister atmosphere than I'm accustomed to from these guys. I liked the whispered spoken dialog. These progressive songs are nothing short of masterpieces, some of the greatest prog I have ever heard. My complaint with them is they sound too short. Songs like "God of War" could me much longer and still be killer. The album also includes several great, shorter pieces like "Bird on a Wing", "Melanie", "Times", etc. "Times" sounds a little out of place, for the first half of the song, the band was trying to have a more 1950s vibe going on. Then the second half is much more progressive territory with great organ work. I find this album a bit underrated in light of their followup, As Your Mind Flies By, but it's a great album and a great way to start the Charisma label.



As for Somebody's Watching, that one was their fourth album, from 1973, their second for Polydor. Apparently by the time they came to Polydor, they temporarily broke up previously, with Graham Field teaming up with ex-King Crimson and future Greenslade drummer Andy McCulloch to form Fields (who had an album released in 1971 on CBS), and Mark Ashton playing with tons of other artists (that I'm not familiar with). When they came back together, the band now consisted of just Steve Gould and David Kaffinetti, with brand new musicians, this time with guitarists. Their first Polydor album, Epic Forest might as well be another band calling themselves Rare Bird. Steve Gould's vocals seemed to be greatly reduced, and they went for a more mellow, West Coast-influenced sound, influenced by the likes of Crosby, Stills & Nash (even some of the vocals sound like Graham Nash), with a stronger acoustic bent, sound little like the two albums they did for Charisma. Still it's a great album. With Somebody's Watching, they added ex-Van der Graaf Generator bassist Nic Potter, and the band went for a slightly funkier sound, such as the title track and "Third Time Around", with David Kaffinetti including some clavinet on some of the pieces, especially "Turn Your Head". "Who is the Hero" and "High in the Morning" are another one of those examples of this new version of Rare Bird having a more West Coast-influenced sound, while "Turn Your Head" is a nice piece despite much of the song simple repeats "Turn your head around" over and over. Then there's "Dollars", where they do Ennio Morricone's theme to Sergio Leone's well-known Spaghetti Western, For a Few Dollars More (w/Clint Eastwood), and then do an extended and wonderful jam afterwards. While I feel Somebody's Watching is not quite as strong as Epic Forest, it's still quite good. I'd give four stars to Somebody's Watching, but a full five for their debut, and since I can't do four and a half here for the 2 for 1 CD set, I'd have to give it the full five. Regardless, this is a great way to hear the original and second version of Rare Bird."