The Last Five Years

by Joe Viglione The late Rick Grech was given a unique retrospective by his label RSO Records, much like the rare 1971Winwood double LP on United Artists. The big difference being that the re-called U.A. package on Winwood had a lavish 8 page photo/essay spread written by Bobby Abrams, while Grech's single LP contains one photo page with very little information on where the material came from. Eight of the nine songs are written or co-written by bassist Rick Grech, the one hold-out being Steve Winwood's "Sea Of Joy." Now listen up history buffs, because AMG is the first publication to see this nugget/musical myth in print. When the late Jimmy Miller was at the residence of this writer (who represented the producer for many years) looking over the vast collection of his work, he smiled when seeing "Sea Of Joy" on a "Best of" Rick Grech. Let me paraphrase Mr. Miller as best as possible "The best of Rick Grech? It's Jack Bruce playing bass on "Sea Of Joy"!" According to archivist John McDermott in the Blind Faith Deluxe Edition, the song is "highlighted by Rick Grech's striking violin work", that being true, Sea Of Joy is certainly a key track on a Grech compilation - but Jimmy Miller was absolute that Jack Bruce is performing on some of the Blind Faith material. Is this truly Cream meets Traffic? Perhaps only Jack Bruce, Steve Winwood, Ginger Baker or engineer George Chklantz know for sure, but it certainly adds some intrigue to a much revered song and album.