July

by Steven McDonaldJuly has come to be highly prized, mainly for the presence of "My Clown," which is considered to be one of the great psychedelic singles of all time. Tom Newman, who went on to glory as the engineer of choice for Mike Oldfield, handles the vocals for the majority of the album (the exception being Chris Jackson's "Crying Is for Writers"), as well as the majority of the songwriting. Tony Duhig, who later moved on to start Jade Warrior and Assagai, provides guitars and a strong sense of Indian music, although the greater part of his participation is via warbling and groaning guitars, and a fortunately blazing solo in the midst of the otherwise painful "Crying Is for Writers." Very good psychedelia, for the most part, but a bit dated in places and heavily influenced by much of the music coming from the direction of San Francisco at that time. The first six cuts are perhaps the most essential, going by the original vinyl release: "My Clown" and "Dandelion Seeds" are delightful, while "Jolly Mary" is simply good fun. [Originally released in 1968, July was reissued on an import-only Japanese CD in 2005.]