B.J. COLE New Hovering Dog 1972 ORIGINAL ACID FUZZ PSYCH HEAD TRIP LP LISTEN

$

25

Listen up, psychedelic steel guitar acid prog jazz rock fans!  Both of you!  That sound you hear is the sound of your ship coming in.  It’s B.J. Cole’s 1972 album New Hovering Dog, and I have to admit, I had never heard of this very talented and hugely popular session guitarist before I slapped this little slab of black plastic on my turntable (and by “slap” I of course mean “very gently placed”), but this is perhaps the very pinnacle of psychedelic steel guitar acid prog jazz albums, and that’s saying…well, that’s certainly saying something, right?

Two things to keep in mind:  this ain’t country steel guitar we’re talking here, so if you’re worried that “New Hovering Dog” might sound like your mom’s Barbara Mandrell records, go ahead and put that thought to bed right now.  This is much more in the early 70’s jazz-prog bag, influenced by the Canterbury scene (Hatfield and the North, Henry Cow, early Caravan), and King Crimson Mark 2 (Lizard, Islands, McDonald and Giles).  Which is not surprising when you consider Crimso’s Mike Giles plays drums on B.J.’s album, and Danny Thompson of Pentangle is on bass.  If you could imagine what it might’ve sounded like if Jimi Hendrix had lived long enough to join King Crimson on their 1971 album Islands, it would’ve sounded like New Hovering Dog.  With shorter, beefier and far less precious songs. 

The other thing to keep in mind is that B.J.’s been around for a long time, and chances are you’ve heard his work before without even knowing it.  He’s worked with Elton John, T. Rex, Scott Walker, David Sylvain, and he’s still working today with artists like Bjork, Beck and the Verve.  So if you’re looking for chops, he’s the man.  And on a song like “The Regal Progression,” he’s out to blow the few heads that escaped the 60’s unblown.  This is a psych prog head trip like no other – all glistening distorted trippy guitar licks, speaker-to-speaker harpsichord drive-bys and lots of giant, dramatic cymbal crashes.  Like that other solo virtuoso Brian Eno, B.J.’s not much of a singer, so he gets someone behind the board to drench his vocals in cavernous swathes of echo, rendering much of his lyrics indecipherable without a handy lyric sheet.  Which, in this case, might be a good thing, because his already dark, mindblowing Lewis Carroll acid trip holds some pretty dark Pete Sinfield-esque thoughts:

“In the fire of the King is a numberless man,

Who will suffer the Royal pain!

For his arms will be wrenched to the points of the earth,

As the ruler ascends to his reign.”

B.J.’s stoned steel guitar work on “Now You See Them, Now You Don’t” sounds as if his instrument’s being sucked through a black hole, and shows just how many twisted sounds he can wrench out of the thing.  He’s not averse to picking up a good old-fashioned fuzz guitar either, like the one he uses to spice up the shimmering, hazy “I Know Now.”  With B.J.’s eerie, echoed-out, barely-there falsetto, he sounds a lot like Pye Hastings on one of those early, stoned Caravan ballads, like “And I Wish I Were Stoned,” for example.  I don’t mean to imply B.J. was stoned during the recording of his album, but someone behind the mixing board certainly wants you to think that.

New Hovering Dog is certainly a long way away from Conway Twitty, and that’s always a good thing.  I wasn’t prepared to be blown away by the solo album of a talented steel guitarist, but this one bowled me over like a whuppin’ upside the head from Roy Clark’s banjo.  And if Hee Haw and white sequined suits did everything they could to make the steel guitar uncool, then B.J. Cole’s doing everything he can to get it back.

 ORIGINAL 1972 pressing on the UK UA label.  Cover's got some slight ringwear 'cuz those British pressings had flimsier covers, and it's a little dingy 'cuz it's white and it's like 50 years old or something.  Vinyl plays EXCELLENT and real nice, although I detected some random pops on Side 2 but not for long.  You'll enjoy.

The less exciting stuff

Media mail shipping with delivery confirmation starts at $4.00 in the US, with each additional record only $1 additional shipping.  Overseas shipping has, unfortunately, gone way up in the fast few months, which translates to $15 for the first LP to Canada ($3 each one thereafter) and $24 for the first LP everywhere else in the world, with each add'l LP an extra $5 (so it pays to buy more, nudge nudge wink wink).   I accept payments through Paypal. 

I try to grade as best as I can, and I list as many blemishes/imperfections I can find (writing, ringwear, scuff marks, etc.) – Also, please note that I DO listen to these albums – I may not listen to every track, but my grades are based on LISTENING, not just looking at it, since chances are you’ll be listening to the record you buy, not just looking at it.  Most of the albums I sell are the ones I’ve enjoyed for years – and I treat my records with kid gloves.  But sounds speak louder than words, so check out the sound clips below – they’re from the actual record you’re bidding on. 

SHIPPING AND PACKAGING

Listen, I buy a bunch of records too (when I’m not getting outbid at the last second, which is more often than not) – and I know what it’s like to get a rare, one-of-a-kind album packaged dangerously in a flimsy bubblewrap package.  I hate that too.  So rest assured, I ALWAYS package albums with stiff cardboard reinforcements, same for 45s.  And yes, the records are removed from the sleeves (for albums).  I ship out once a week, every Friday, because I have a regular day job.  But I’d be willing to give that up if you’d all be so kind as to bid my items up to stupidly high amounts. 

 For more security and international tracking, you may request GLOBAL PRIORITY MAIL - but bear in mind the cost of this service is upwards of $30.  For expensive items, however, it may be well worth it.  Unfortunately, there isn’t a cost-effective way of tracking parcels to foreign countries yet, and shipping times vary depending on your country’s postal system.   Italy in particular seems to be really bad at delivering packages quickly, or delivering packages at all, now that you mention it.  I will always email you when your package ships, but once it’s on its way, please don’t ask me when it will arrive because I don’t know.  If the world’s postal systems can ever agree on a universal tracking system that’s affordable, I’ll be the first to use it.

NOW IT’S YOUR TURN…

I will always leave positive feedback for successful transactions, and would appreciate the same in return.  All I ask of you is the following – please pay for your items within 14 days of the close of auction.  Compared to other sellers, that’s a generous amount of time, so if you don’t pay within 2 weeks, then I have to assume something’s wrong.  You’ll get an Ebay payment reminder at that point, and possibly a decapitated horse head in your bed.  If, after 30 days, you still haven’t forked up the cash, I’ll relist the item and yell at you if I ever see you in town.