Something of a cheat this weekend: Gracious in performance during the 1970 Isle Of Wight Festival. Part of the reissue box set released by Esoteric Recordings last year.
I suspect there are not a lot of you who are even vaguely familiar with this band, which is 99% of the reason I am running it. So, not meant to be a deterrent for you from buying the boxset itself, but rather to let you know who this band was, what they sounded like and why you should dive into them as a way of knowing just how much musical activity was going on during the late 1960s and all through the 70s.
The whole genre of Progrock has been encapsulated (at least by American audiences) as being the sole property of ELP, Yes and maybe mid-period Genesis. The Progressive movement was seismic in Europe, but as was always the case, not understood very much by the powers of mainstream record labels and certainly Radio in the U.S. – Sadly, Gracious! were just one of many bands during this period who suffered from neglect or just bad relationships.
Of the two albums Gracious! released, only one of them got anywhere near American distribution – their debut album, distributed by Capitol in the U.S., a label more preoccupied with figuring out the break-up of The Beatles, how to promote their solo projects and generally engaged in the act of throwing new acts against the wall to see if any stuck as well as splitting promotion between McCartney, Lennon and Grand Funk Railroad. Not a whole lot of budget left over to cultivate an audience for bands like Gracious! who needed help explaining a relatively new genre to an audience not accustomed to anything longer than 3 minutes. Even FM, which was slowly drifting to more commercialism, had mountains of new releases to deal with and Gracious! got sadly lost.
In all fairness, the early 70s did represent a changing tide in Rock, with flood gates being opened and new artists and bands popping up almost hourly – it was simplly hard to keep track.
It also didn’t help that, after their debut album, Gracious! was promptly dumped by Capitol for U.S. distribution and their second album, “This Is . . . ” was only issued by Philips in the UK via their subsidiary Vertigo, as was their Debut album, had no American label – hence, no exposure.
Unless you were one of those people who kept an eye on goings-on overseas, your chances of finding either Gracious! album at your local record store were remote at best. But some did manage to make it over here, and were snapped up by fans who did their best word-of-mouth. As was truly the case with Progrock in the U.S.; much of what gained popularity was largely based on a small but vocal following of people who kept their eyes peeled and minds open.
So this performance at The Isle Of Wight festival was pretty much unknown to most people, until it showed up on this new reissue box. And of course, it begged the question; “what else are we missing out on?” Seems the ground is fertile for the audience to make new discoveries, or discover important clues to puzzles.
The Gracious boxset, which includes the two albums and a DVD of the Isle Of Wight performance is available for $43.00 – to some it might be pricey, as boxsets tend to be. But this taste of what Gracious! sounded like live, might be a deal-closer if you are curious but need more proof. Head over to their website and check it out – Esoteric Records
In the meantime, dive into this sample of a band who were unjustly ignored and criminally underrated and go on a exploration.
Weekends are made for poking around and listening.
Oh, and do what you can to help out with this insane Rent increase at the Archive:
