cd review & track guide

Disc One : [mp3 audio clips in brackets]

Track By Track Guide by Tim Joseph (abridged from cd sleeve notes)
Tracks Reviewed by David Browne

FORTUNE TELLER
• Taken from the band's first demos, recorded on May 24th 1964 a year before Gillan joined. Glover is on bass.

My first impression was shock at the excellent sound quality; sharp and clear. It's not representative of the whole collection, but it's some start! This must be Roger's earliest released recording. The song is polite when compared to The Who's version on 'Live At Leeds', but very attractive nonetheless. Sheila Carter comes across as a real star even at this early stage, great singing and tasteful keyboard work.

GOT MY MOJO WORKING take two
• Between July 64 and March 65 the band did a number of rehearsals and demos. Here Harvey Shield* - leads an uptempo version of this blues classic.

Again, sharp sound quality, and a tight performance from the band. We've just had confirmation from Harvey Shield that it was he, and not Andy Ross on lead vocals!

MOHAIR SAM........[mp3 audio clip]
• After Ian Gillan joined (he's on all the remaining tracks on CD 1), Episode Six were offered a deal with Pye. This demo was done in late 1965 for a possible single. It shows a very professional sounding band indeed. Another track from the session appears on CD2.

Tremendous performance. The harmonies and backing are very much in the mold of early Mamas & Papas. This really should have been their first single instead of the weedy Hollies composition. Ian Gillan's earliest released recording, and an excellent track.

LOVE, HATE, REVENGE
• Although "Love Hate Revenge" was the band's fourth British single, the version is an acetate of the American version cut in Jan 1967. With a totally different guitar part, it makes an interesting comparison. Perhaps with a bit more of this psychedelic treatment a producer could have really taken the band forward.

The recording is very bassy, but is an enjoyable listen, and a great track. The British single version is better, for some reason the vocal chants in the mid section were replaced by an electronic drone for the US release.

I CAN SEE THROUGH YOU
• This version of the band's sixth single was recorded for the BBC on Oct 30. 1967 and featured John Kerrison on drums, who had just joined the band. Glover's mini masterpiece again shows what the band could achieve given sympathetic engineers.

A big dip in recording quality, I'm assuming this was included because a/ the song is an absolute gem, and b/ this is a superb 'live' sounding performance, brilliantly sung and a with psychedelic organ sound straight from Pink Floyd's 'Piper At The Gates Of Dawn'!

STAGGER LEE
• The first of three tracks recorded for the BBC on Jan 30.1968 (the others are on CD2). These are the first band versions ever released. "Stagger Lee" has Ian finally showing the direction he would later move in.

Scary stuff! A gentle opening gives way to a throat shredding scream from Ian, and a very powerful vocal. The actual song is reminiscent of 'Running Bear', which Ian often threw into Black Night during Deep Purple's 1987 tour. The sound quality is up on the previous track (and stays up for the rest of CD1), but is still an off-air recording.

MY LITTLE RED BOOK
• The first of three songs taped for the BBC on April 8. 1968 (the others are on CD2). Episode Six also did a studio version at Pye which remained unissued until the Sequel CD in 1991.

Not my favourite song ever tackled by Episode Six, but this punchy version is way better than that on the Sequel CD. (Chronologically the music is already overlapping with Deep Purple's earliest days.)

QUE SERA
• The old Doris Day standard - not that there's much resemblance - recorded for the BBC on Jan 30. 1968. What Ian thought about recording material like this is unknown, although he does sound to be enjoying himself.

Ian Gillan sings Doris Day in his Elvis voice? Do me a favour.. That said, it's very energetic, and as usual with Episode Six it's imaginative, with a Spanish feel not a million miles from what Deep Purple introduced to Hey Joe.

LITTLE ONE
• The band's seventh single, recorded for the BBC, July 1.1968 to
promote the release.

The song has never been one of my Episode Six favourites, the single being softened up too much with poppy brass. This is different! Just the band bashing it out, clean and tight with superb heavy guitar in place of the trumpets. Yes!!

ALWAYS SOMETHING THERE TO REMIND ME........[mp3 audio clip]
• Was this a phase Ian was going through - first Doris Day and now Sandie Shaw? Recorded for the BBC on Jan 30. 1968.

All 'what the f..??' prejudices aside, this is great stuff. A superbly emotive vocal, lifted even further by Sheila's incredible backing harmonies. Add about a hundred-weight of heaviness and you'd end up with an early approximation of 'Perfect Strangers'.

SUNSHINE SUPERMAN (+ Hard Days Night)
• The first of two tracks recorded live for Pop North on Aug 22.1968. And what a performance! The band tear into this Donovan number as though their lives depended on it. Great vocals from Ian, with
the rest of the band managing to fit "A Hard Day¹s Night" into the
proceedings. Superb!

Energetic, and brimming with vocal and instrumental ideas, but to my ears a bit of a mess. I prefer to hear songs performed one at a time, and even then not these two!

ORANGE AIR
• Although a version of this track (written for The Fifth Dimension) appeared on RPM's deleted Radio 1 Club CD, this is the definitive version and one of their finest moments. Recorded for the BBC, Oct 28. 1968, this is sheer perfection.

A grower. For anyone receptive to sophisticated sixties pop music there's an abundance to enjoy.

CAN'T BE SO BAD
• Another BBC track as The Episode from August 22.1968. As with
"Orange Air", although a version appeared on the RPM Radio 1 Club CD, this performance cuts it to bits. Yet again, had this Moby Grape cover been a single, it might have given the band the hit
they so richly deserved.

Episode Six as Fleetwood Mac, with a great vocal performance from Sheila, and ace beefy guitar work. The chorus then arrives and it's pure west coast pop, all bah-bah-bah vocal harmonies... Weird, but great.

MR. UNIVERSE........[mp3 audio clip]
• The first of two recordings done for the BBC in November 1968. Written by Ian and Roger, Gillan fans will recognise some of the lyrics which he re-recorded in 1979 for the title track of an album by his own band. One of the band's heaviest numbers.

Mr.Universe (a single b-side) is my favourite Episode Six recording, and contains one of Ian Gillan's most explosive vocal performances. This session version comes close (some feat!), but I'll stick with the original.

I HAD A TALK WITH MY MAN
• The second track done for the BBC in November 1968 allowed Sheila a vocal showcase. Very few singers would be brave enough to try this live on radio these days.

Attractive blues track spiced up with a touch of jazz, I much prefer it to the material on Sheila's solo single.

TEMPTATION........[mp3 audio clip]
• For me the band's finest cover of all. Recorded for the BBC on 7th January 1969, this old standard is turned by the band into something else again. Great harmonies, great rhythm, great EVERYTHING. Turn it up and play it ten times in a row. If only they'd done a studio version. A lost Number One, for sure.

Fantastic. Very sophisticated pop/rock. Listening to this it's easy to see why Ian Gillan was so enamoured of Deep Purple mk1's cover versions..

ALONE AGAIN OR
• Recorded for the BBC on 27th January 1969. The first of two (three if you count "My Little Red Book") songs by Love. It seems strange that Episode Six could get covers of this band onto daytime radio when the originals were ignored.

Again fantastic in its own right, and with more shades of mk1 Deep Purple.

A HAZY SHADE OF WINTER
• Recorded for the BBC on 27th January 1969 featured a song which had proved a surprising flop for Simon & Garfunkel. Ian seems more familiar here with the lyrics than he did on the Radio 1 Club performance where he invented a part about the sky falling down! This version is slightly less frantic than there, presumably because this is a studio take rather than a live one.

Great riff, and perhaps the rockiest track on CD1. The lo-fi sound quality doesn't help, but it's still an enjoyable listen.

MOZART VS THE REST*........[mp3 audio clip]
• This sequence, from the band's live appearence on the Radio 1 Club in Cardiff on March 24. 1969 captures the essence of the
programme. Mozart provoked a huge response when they first performed it on the show and it was soon out as a single and became a firm live favourite, performed no less than nine times on various shows, but this remains the best of the lot.

Very similar to the single version, but even more frantic. Great background yells and hollers from Gillan and a fabulous performance from guitarst Tony Lander.

STONES MEDLEY SATISFACTION / PAINT IT BLACK*
• Like Sunshine Superman, The Stones medley again shows the remarkable ability of the band vocalists to cope with a complex arrangement - you try singing 'Satisfaction' while someone stood next to you belts out 'Paint It Black'! Recorded live on 24th March 1969 for the Radio 1 Club.

Oh God, they're at it again.. another 'two-fer'. This is better than the Donovan / Beatles effort, recorded live with everyone firing on all cylinders. This track shows what a terrific live band Episode Six would have been to witness.

MORNING
• Sadly the tape boxes don't tell us the origin of the next five tracks.
Sheila Carter feels they may be home demos done in early 1969 when they were planning their album, although there is a chance they were recorded for a radio session April 22. 1969.

"Morning", first heard on Dusty Springfield's 1968 album 'Definitely Dusty', is especially strong, handled with conviction by Sheila. Note Mick Underwood¹s great drum pattern.

Another great performance from Sheila, almost turning it into Steeleye Span-style folk rock. She deserved fame after Episode Six every bit as much as Gillan and Glover.

I AM THE BOSS
• A Gillan original, one showing the lyrical sense of humour he would use to great effect in Deep Purple on tracks like "Anyone's Daughter".

The lyrical style later emerged again in the Cher Kazoo project. Too daft for my tastes. Mind you, it took me years to get used to 'Anyone's Daughter'...

I¹LL BE YOUR BABY TONIGHT
• If you (like me) hold to the theory that Dylan's songs almost always sound better covered by someone else then here's further proof. The original was on Dylan's album 'John Wesley Harding'.

NIce, but not essential, a fairly straight reproduction of the original.

SOMETHING'S GOTTEN HOLD OF MY HEART
• Sheila shows her true capabilities. Also note Ian's "Child In Time"-like screams! The track had been a hit for Gene Pitney in 1967.

Absolutely fantastic. An emotional tour de force, with the band giving the backing track the full Vanilla Fudge steamroller treatment, even threatening to become Led Zeppelin at one point. If Lord, Paice and Blackmore witnessed Episode Six performing material in this fashion, it's no surprise that the singer and bass player were snapped up pronto.

BEEN SUCH A LONG WAY HOME
• This stunning version of 'Been Such A Long Way' is a real treat, Gillan gives it everything.

And so we reach track no.25, with virtually every flavour of pop and rock music having been touched upon, and always with conviction. For me, the star of this final track is Roger Glover, riffing energetically with the lead guitar in the mid-section. Gillan almost steals the show with a screaming prototype for the Made In Japan ending of 'Strange Kind Of Woman'.

* Some tracks have previously been released on the Episode Six 'Radio One Club' cd in 1997. They have been remastered for inclusion on 'Cornflakes & Crazyfoam'.