'66 THE SPARROW Featuring STEPPENWOLF GRITTY HARD BLUES FUZZED UP & COOLED OUT

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          1966 RECORDING PRE- STEPPENWOLF
             GROWLING FUZZED-UP BLUES                           ..|/\|...............................................|/\|..                          
                                    THE  SPARROW       John Kay And The Sparrow
             
            ..|/\|...............................................|/\|..                                USA - Columbia 360 Sound - CS - 9758

Here's the now very difficult to find FIRST PRESS of pre-STEPPENWOLF growing electrified bluesy fuzz-rock that was yet to be tamed just a bit and formulated into STEPPENWOLF. All the same members in both bands.

The cover states: "John Kay of Steppenwolf had his beginning with The Sparrow..." as if it was a whole different band backing singer John Kay. In truth, Sparrow contained all the Steppenwolf members, exactly the same group, in all but name. This SPARROW blues-rock treasure was captured in 1966, and Columbia didn't realize they even had until STEPPENWOLF became the next big thing, when Sparrow had already moved on from Columbia, changed their name to Steppenwolf and really boomed under the ABC/ Dunhill label with their huge promotion of 1966 "Born To Be Wild" and 1967 "Magic Carpet Ride".

This SPARROW album has enough of gritty raw style and what was re-named and re-recorded that even the casual Steppenwolf fan can hear pre-echoes of the more familiar material by Steppenwolf. Like "Square-Headed People", all but rewritten and released as "Power Play". Or "Chasin' Shadows", which was redone as "Desperation" on the first album where we also first heard "Born To Be Wild". There is a neat Byrdish 12-string figure during this song. And best of all, the song "Twisted", which they later included on their first live release, appears here in its only studio version. It's too bad this classic album never did pop up later as a Steppenwolf release--it's just as valid a prequel as the more familiar "Early Steppenwolf" LP ( we also currently list this week ) using the same personnel as that album, but in a studio setting here rather than the live in San Francisco setting as on that effort.

Essentially, John Kay and the Sparrow are a juvenile Steppenwolf - and you know it from listening to this LP -- put out in the late '60s to capitalize on Steppenwolf's HUGE success.

No matter, John Kay and the Sparrow stand on their own here, with a strong archive of work, not all of which fed directly into the Steppenwolf sound. Take the wistful "Tomorrow's Ship" - which echoes the Byrds and has a really engaging guitar sound, but hardly predicts Magic Carpet Ride. There are also some really great blues numbers to begin with, from the excellent "Twisted" through a raucous "Going to California" and "Bright Lights, Big City." Other highlights include the hippie-ish "Chasin Shadows," despite its rather half baked lyrics. Even though it contains the line "But I'm aware of how she keeps on changing / She'd better listen and start rearranging" it's actually quite good.

We also may prefer this to Steppenwolf - it's more naive, less stardom (for the most part) and less bombastic. Good stuff.

A:
Twisted
Goin' to California
 Baby, Please Don't Go
 Down Goes Your Love Life
 Bright Lights, Big City
 Can't Make Love by Yourself
B: Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
King Pin
Square Headed People
Chasin' Shadows
Green Bottle Lover
Isn't It Strange

                 CONDITION: The cover: rated: M- top copy, looks great, colors are "there" and has NO no delete marks, no split seams, no bends, and no writing  ...

The vinyl: Rated: M- very clean appearance, plays fine without surface and basically a keeper collection copy!  Then both 360 Sound Columbia labels are clean                        THE  SPARROW       John Kay And The Sparrow
                    A cool addition to anyone's music library!






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