Les Humphries Reviews Les Humphries Singers "Rock My Soul" (1970) This is the earliest of all LHS albums in my collection, and, thus, one that will launch the series of reviews. It does not feature John Lawton at all, and I assume John hadn't joined the group by then, but for what it's worth, it's a very good album.
Two things that a casual listener today might notice straight off the bat:
1. It sounds very very dated (which is a PLUS, to me), and
2. It's a full fledged gospel album which may indeed appeal to many a Heepster, if they (you?) manage to overcome "timist"/"era-ist" prejudices (what a term!) I personally like the "dated" sound, but others may not.As the liner notes suggest, ex-Marine Les Humphries was only 28 when he recorded this album; at that point, he was already a band and an orchestra leader! And what a fine job! This album, although already 27 years of age (same as me!), displays vividly how professionalism and restraint can go hand in hand with (no, not boredom and blandness, but…) PASSION. It's well sung, well arranged, and is free of any and all "digital" gimmicks which have crippled many an album in the 80s and the 90s!
The arrangements are pure and tight, both choral acapella and the instrumental ones. The gospel choir really sound TOGETHER on all songs, and again, borrowing from the liner notes, "Here a chorus can show that an arrangement, combining elements of Soul, Beat, Swing and the sadness of the Blues permits new developments based on sound old foundations."
On to the songs then. Why do I say that Christian Heepsters and Christians in general might enjoy this album? Well, for starters, the song titles: "Jesus Lover of my Soul", "Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen" (Trad. Arranged by Humphries, I presume), "If I Had a Hammer", "Gospel Train", "Rock My Soul", "Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho" and "When the Saints Go Marching In" - this is a mixture of standard gospel covers and original
compositions, but all aside from "I Believe" and the Dylan cover "Blowin' in the Wind" are (not so) modestly credited to Mr. Humphries! :-) The song "Motherless Child" is no exception in this regard, a slow blues, not unlike "Summertime" which several years later became a minor hit for a Jamaican disco band Boney-M, reworked into a danceable disco standard, and on their record credited to Frank Farian (again, not so modestly). Now I'd like to know who really wrote it! :-) Now that I've heard it, I clearly prefer the Humphries version!This group is also reminiscent of another early 70s European gospel-pop group, Brotherhood of Man, of "United We Stand" fame - again, similarly clear choral arrangeements, simplistic (by today's standards) but beautiful orchestral arrangements, plenty of echo on the piano and other instruments, as well as on the voices, so that the listener gets the impression as though
it was all done at a big church with really fantastic acoustics". BoM, later in the decade, reformed as a pop outfit, which quickly drew comparisons to ABBA (two guys, two gals), both LHS and BoM performed at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1976."To My Father's House" and "Rock My Soul" became regular live staples in the group's repertoire - really contagious, sing-along numbers with none of the pretense of today's music. The aforementioned Dylan cover does look a bit strange and out of place here at first, but once you hear it, this version is amazing. Imagine a gospel choir doing a rather slow-ish version of "Blowin' In the Wind", tempo changed to accommodate the "church" feel, and the whole thing reminds me of the choir that backed up George Michael during his performance of "Somebody To Love" at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert earlier in this decade.
Alex Gitlin