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Reviews

The Nice — The Swedish Radio Sessions
(Castle CMRCD349, 1967/2001, CD)

by Paul Hightower, Published 2003-02-01

The Swedish Radio Sessions Cover art

This excellent August 1967 recording finds the very early Nice in front of a Swedish radio audience during a tour of Europe two weeks before they would enter the studio to record their debut album. These six tracks represent what must have been the bulk of their act, since as a supporter on most bills, they rarely had more than 30 minutes of stage time. The Swedes are polite though don¹t quite seem to know what to do with the band’s mixture of psychedelia, blues, classical, and jazz. Everyone sounds cold on the first two songs, “She Belongs to Me” and “Flower King of Flies.” Predictably, Lee Jackson’s singing is painful though guitarist David O’List is given greater presence within the band’s sound than he was to enjoy during the remainder of his tenure. Of historical interest are the next two cover tracks, the only known recordings of “Sombrero Sam” and the Vanilla Fudge version of “You Keep Me Hanging On” in existence. The former allows Keith Emerson to finally stretch out on the Hammond though the latter never really takes off and would soon be permanently discarded. A tight reading of the soon-to-be-released “The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack” follows though the real enchilada of the disc is a 12-minute version of “Rondo.” It simply cooks and must have left the audience wondering what took the band so long to arrive, and why do they have to leave now? It’s worth the price of admission alone and, coupled with the rare covers, makes this CD a must-have for Nice and Emerson fans.

Filed under: New releases, Issue 26, 2001 releases, 1967 recordings

Related artist(s): Keith Emerson, The Nice

 

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