1091 - Mojo 103. Appletree Theatre - Playback (1968)

Track Listing

1. In The Beginning
2. Hightower Square (The Start Of It All)
3. Lullaby
4. Saturday Morning (About A Saturday Morning)
5. Nevertheless It Was Italy (A Deja Vu In A Pizza Palour And A Bit Of Merry Ole England)
6. I Wonder If Louise Is Home (A Bit Of Tragic Relief)
7. Chez Louise
8. E Train (The Jello Song)
9. Meanwhile
10. Brother Speed (Vocal With Didactic Chorus)
11. You're The Biggest Thing In My Life (Being As It Is A PauseIn The Proceedings)
12. Don't Blame It On Your Wife (The Fellini Song)
13. Sorry State Of Staying Awake, The
14. Barefoot Boy (A Bit Of Johnny Appleseed), A
15. Lotus Flower (Michael John And Boona)
16. What A Way To Go (Yes)

Review

Clearly influenced by the Beatles and state-side psychedelia as well as the great British tradition of novelty music, the Appletree Theatre is strangely enough an American band (with members that were brought up in the UK).

For a funny album it is often not obviously being played for laughs. This is actually a good thing, the humour is smart and not too easy, even if it is clearly there. Musically they are a really varied band reminding one at times of Sgt. Pepper's Beatles or of the Left Banke, while some of the tone being reminiscent of Bonzo Dog Do-Dah Band.

In the end, unfortunately, it doesn't quite manage to be more than its constituting parts. These parts are good enough, however, to sustain the album as a funny, sometimes kind of deep, and musically adventurous offering.

Track Highlights

1. Hightower Square (The Start Of It All)
2. Brother Speed (Vocal With Didactic Chorus)
3. I Wonder If Louise Is Home (A Bit Of Tragic Relief)
4. Don't Blame It On Your Wife (The Fellini Song)

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The project was set up by brothers Terry and John Boylan, with leading jazz session musicians including Larry Coryell and Eric Gale. The album was essentially a loosely-woven concept album, comprising a collage of interlaced vocal narratives, sound effects, song fragments, and quality pop songs such as "Hightower Square" and "I Wonder If Louise Is Home". It was issued on the Verve Forecast label, and was finally reissued on CD in 2007. John Lennon referred to it as one of his favourite albums.


Don't Blame It On Your Wife (The Fellini Song):