Sunday, June 17, 2007

Jigsaw - Letherslade Farm (1970)

Wow, now this is a true rarity. The debut album by Jigsaw bears no resemblance to the disco pop titans they later became in the mid-seventies. In fact, upon first hearing it, you might find them more along the lines of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. Such a comparison is truly deserved, as the album takes on more of a cinematic point of view, with trippy songs strung together by completely bizarre spoken word sketches. Fetching well over $300 these days, "Letherslade Farm" is an extremely difficult album to find. Being the proud owner of this psychedelic cult classic, I feel compelled to share this with others. Not enough people have heard this highly distinct album. Here's hoping my post will bring this nugget to a wider audience. 37 years late is better than never, eh?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Discovered your blog some time ago, but only now have I taken the time to download loads of stuff from it. Thanks for sharing this one, I'm a Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band fan and this one was right up there with their albums in terms of quality, only songs were trippier.

Verdier il Vampiro said...

Very good! Thank you from another blogger !

Anonymous said...

Robot..thanx alot for posting this one. I've wanted to hear this one for years. Even the rare record dealer I always buy from never has this one!!Regards,John.

Anonymous said...

MANY MANY thanks for this!!

I bought the album in 1970 and at some point over the years it went walkabout. Since the advent of the Internet I've searched for it again and again without trace.

The range of work on the album is awesome!! Truly a classic which should have been re-mastered by now.

Thanks again

Anonymous said...

It is a bit like the Bonzos, but actually this sounds a lot more like "The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp" from 1968. The GGF album certainly isn't stellar, but I like it a lot more than this.

The version of "The Weaver's Answer" included here is a very pale imitation of the original recorded by the British band "Family" in 1969. The only singer that even comes close to sounding like Family's Roger Chapman is Joe Cocker. What made these guys think they could compete with someone like that?

This arrangement of "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" is certainly the blueprint for the "Apollo 100" version which was titled "Joy" in 1972, but again, this album contains an inferior version.

Overall, a very disappointing album.