🎵 AotW Classics Lee Michaels - CARNIVAL OF LIFE (SP-4140)

[Mr Bill]

Lee Michaels
CARNIVAL OF LIFE
A&M SP-4140

Released as LP-140 in mono. Available on CD from Lee Michaels' website

Tracks:

Side One:
1. Hello (Lee Michaels) 4:24
2. Another One (Lee Michaels) 4:08
3. Streetcar (Lee Michaels) 3:35
4. Love (Lee Michaels) 5:07

Side Two:
1. Carnival Of Life (Lee Michaels) 3:00
2. Why (Lee Michaels) 3:23
3. Tomorrow (Lee Michaels) 4:33
4. Sounding Of The Sleeping (Lee Michaels) 4:05
5. My Friends (Lee Michaels) 2:40

Produced by Larry Marks
Piano/Organ/Harpsichord: Lee Michaels
Organ: Gary Davis
Bass: John Keski
Drums: Eddie Hoh
Guitar: Hamilton W. Watt
Engineer: Jim Mecina
Keeper: Henry Edward O'Neil III
All Songs Published by: LaBrea Music/Sattwa Music, ASCAP
Album Design: Corporate Head
Art Director: Tom Wilkes
Photography: Guy Webster

 

[mexicat]

It's very underrated but is totally a long time favorite album of mine. Had a beaten up vinyl copy for years but got a CD reissue a while back and was so glad I did, I love it.

He gave it all up in the 70's to open a seafood restaurant ("Killer Shrimp") which is crazy when you consider the gazillions of rubbish acts out there today that really should be working at fast-food joints...

But anyway. Killer Shrimp? Right on, Lee...

 

[Dave]

Hmmmm...why did I pick "Never Heard" when years ago I did hear this?

Well, all the songs are good and it was so hard to make up my mind which one(s) I love best...

And it's One Way, that's the reissue company responsible for re-releasing all of Michaels' works on CD...



Dave

 

[JOv2]

Don't know this LP or the artist. I managed to hear a few snippets on AMG and it would seem, based on his style as well as his run of LPs into the 70s, that he is the earliest A&M artist bridging the '60s/'70s transition with contemporary rock.

 

[dostros]

Been listening to this album recently. I believe it's one of the "first 50" of A&M so fits in with the 50th anniversary conversations. Lee is a blues-based singer, but very clear-voiced - not at all like Joe Cocker, for instance. His vocal talents are astonishing, I think. His first album is carefully produced and arranged (certainly compared to his later albums) but a first listen can be a bit off-putting, because it sounds so-o-o-o dated. The production values are classic Northern California psychedelia - the hyper-fuzz guitar sound on many of the songs is EXACTLY the same as on Neil Young's very first album.

So it's a dated sound but as Dave says the songs are very good, and very seriously thought out. It's hard to pick a favourite. One thing I notice is a number of songs that completely change tempo at some point, a bit like what Paul McCartney did a lot on his first albums. It turns the songs into little operas or suites or something and I generally find that puts them outside of the realm of the radio-friendly 3-minute pop tune. Maybe that's part of why the album didn't live up to expectations as far as sales go.

"Tomorrow" and "My Friends" are about the only songs that resemble the simpler bluesier stuff he became famous for on albums like Lee Michaels and Lee Michael's Fifth.

Apparently his "Killer Shrimp" restaurant was a tiny hole-in-the-wall place that served only one dish: shrimp and bread. It's only recently moved to a bigger place and expanded the menu.

 

[Rudy]

I haven't listened to this in quite a few years (I lucked into a very nice copy locally for not much money), but I remember it being not quite what I expected. (And I meant that in a good way.) I was expecting something more along the lines of We Five maybe? I feel it's a good listen for anyone who likes this style of music, and can give it a chance.