Grandfather - Dear Mr. Time (Progresseive Rock UK 1971)

Size: 143 MB
Bitrate: 320
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Ripped by: ChrisGoesRock
Artwork Included
Source: Japan SHM-CD Remaster

Melody Maker 1971: “As album conceptions become more ambitious, so standards of judgement become harsher. This one makes it. It’s an album to listen to. The ideas incorporated in the lyrics are imaginative. 

The music is carefully stitched into the fibre of the album. Although a large amount of instruments is used, there’s nothing that’s superficial. Most of the songs are written by Chris Baker (lead guitar). His lyrics are simple and effective.”

"Some of the best psych/prog rock came out of the UK in the 1970s. Dear Mr Time is a band that never made it big, but in my opinion they should have done. It's a concept album based around the life of one man. So yeh, maybe the idea is a little corny now, but, hey, this is from 40 years back. 

The musicianship and the vocals are excellent and a real variety of instruments is used - typical of the time. Nice guitar and keyboard work (mellotron?). Some gentle songs as well as some real riff-based rockers. Best tracks ? Your Country Needs You, Make your Peace, Light up a Light and the haunting Years and Fortunes. If you can find this on vinyl get it - it's a real collectors item and well worth a listen."

Highly sought-after on the collectors’ circuit for many years, the Dear Mr. Time album Grandfather is an obscure but genuinely impressive example of the British late psychedelic/early progressive rock sound, firmly in the same vein as the likes of the Moody Blues and early King Crimson. Originally released in February 1971 by the small independent label Square Records, it now finally receives a first-ever official reissue. 

Taken from the original master tapes, this definitive release adds a batch of home demos of similar vintage by the band’s guitarist and chief songwriter Chris Baker. It also tells the band’s story for the first time and includes many previously unpublished photos.

“As concept albums go, Dear Mr Time’s Grandfather could be a distant relative of S. F. Sorrow, being a WW1-based reverie upon one man’s episodic lifestyle. The very minute the brooding King Crimson flute and pious Moodies harmonies kick in on ‘Birth, The Beginning’, it is instantly apparent upon which side these Chelmsford challengers liked their bread buttered. 

Originally issued in a meager run of 1000 copies on the miniscule independent Square label in 1971, Grandfather may well wear its influences like peacock feathers – see also the ‘Schizoid Man’-derived stop-time riffing of ‘Your Country Needs You’ and ‘A Distant Moonshine’, and the ardent Graeme Edge-style spoken word passages in ‘On A Lonely Night’ – but it earns its own validity thanks to guitarist Chris Baker’s propensity for penning uncommonly pretty acoustic vignettes (‘Yours Claudia’, ‘Years And Fortunes). Besides which, you wouldn’t find the chuckling banjo and floppy boot stomp of the excellent single ‘A Prayer For Her’ on any King Crimson album.” 

• Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals – Dave Sewell
• Lead Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Backing Vocals – Chris Baker 
• Organ, Piano, Harpsichord, Lead Vocals – Barry Everitt
• Percussion, Drums – John Clements 
• Saxophone, Flute, Acoustic Guitar, Backing Vocals – Jim Sturgeon
• Vocals – Chris Baker (tracks: 03)

01. Birth - The Beginning  03:58
02. Out Of Time  04:30
03. Make Your Peace  05:22
04. Your's Claudia  02:53
05. Prelude (To 'Your Country Needs You?')  03:02
06. Your Country Needs You?  03:37
07. A Dawning Moonshine  03:48
08. Years And Fortunes  04:07
09. A Prayer For Her  02:53
10. Light Up A Light  03:25
11. On A Lonely Night  04:18
12. Grandfather  02:42

Bonus Tracks
13. Only Fooling  02:39
14. Henrietta Hall  02:03
15. Not Now At All  02:16
16. Victorian Blue  01:04
17. This Place Was Us Was Home  03:28

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