BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST : THE BEST OF BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST

1. Ursula (The Swansea Song)
2. Brother Thrush
3. Poor Wages
4. Child Of Man
5. The Joker
6. Rock And Roll Woman
7. Good Love Child
8. Mocking Bird
9. Galadriel
10. Medicine Man
11. The Iron Maiden
12. Moonwater

Label : Harvest

Released : 1977

Length : 42:55

Review (AllMusic) : Only the first four of Barclay James Harvest's albums were released on the Harvest label, so this 1977 compilation has a pretty limited selection to draw from. Even so, the compilers somehow managed to botch the job. For one thing, only two of the group's four great 1968 non-LP single sides (the B-side of the first single and the A-side of the second) are included; somehow forgetting "Early Morning," a sublime piece of gentle, acoustic psych-pop that's easily among the half-dozen or so best things BJH ever managed, is a crime, as is the lack of the similarly lovely "Mother Dear," from the self-titled 1970 debut. The selection is skewed toward the poppier songs of guitarist John Lees, thereby giving a rather distorted view of the band to those unfamiliar with the group's albums. Wisely, the album does end with the fan favorite "Moonwater," a lengthy Mahler-influenced piece of Romantic orchestral prog rock that epitomizes this side of Barclay James Harvest's musical personality. 1973's Early Morning Onwards is a much more satisfactory précis of the group's Harvest years, not least because it doesn't contain the terrible commercial move "Rock and Roll Woman."