Review Summary: A great debut from one of the best and most known Canterbury bands.
“Caravan” is the eponymous debut studio album of Caravan that was released in 1968. The line up on the album is Pye Hastings, David Sinclair, Richard Sinclair and Richard Coughlan. The album had also the participation of Jimmy Hastings.
Caravan was one of the most formidable progressive rock acts to come out of England in the end of the 60’s. Still, the band has never achieved the great success that was widely predicted for them at the beginning of their career. They were never much more than a very successful cult band at home, really. Apart from a brief moment in 1975, they were barely a cult band anywhere else in the world. They only ever charted one album in their first six years of activity, but they made a lot of noise in the English rock press, and their following fan base has been sufficiently loyal and wide to keep their work in print. But, despite all I said before, they were nevertheless considered a key part of the Canterbury scene, blending psychedelic rock, jazz and classical influences to create a very distinctive progressive rock sound.
Along with The Soft Machine, Caravan is surely the best known representative band of the so called Canterbury music scene. But, this is characterized more by the same origins than by the musical similarities. Like many other progressive rock bands, Caravan reached their musical peak in the early 70’s, only to slowly but surely slip into more commercial realms. Caravan offers an extremely relaxed, never shallow, clearly jazzed up music and that is wonderfully catchy.
On their debut, Caravan is still partly influenced by the 60’s pop music, although the characteristics of their typical style are already there, such as the long organ loops, the lack of pronounced solo parts, especially noticeable with the guitar, which is only used as a rhythm instrument, and of course the characteristic vocals by Pye Hastings and more rarely by Richard Sinclair. But, some things still seem a bit immature, especially when some songs are suddenly faded out at inappropriate places. Even the light jazz part of their classic albums isn’t there yet. Nevertheless, Caravan has made a very interesting debut work, really. With this album, Caravan laid the great foundations upon which their two upcoming masterpieces, “If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You” and “In The Land Of Gray And Pink”, would rise.
“Caravan” has eight tracks. “Place Of My Own” starts with a powerful intro and a sad yearning organ dominated motif. The almost childlike vocal of Pye intones a lyric and melody of heartfelt beauty. It has one of the best organ solos on the album. It ends with a louder reprise. “Ride” has an eastern inspired melody line interspersed with loud instrumental breaks. Here, Richard Sinclair shows the bass legend he is. “Policeman” shows the vocal talent of Richard Sinclair. It’s an example of his charming and very English compositional style present in the future Caravan’s works. His cousin David shines on his mighty organ. “Love Song With Flute” has the hallmarks of Caravan’s best songs. It has a slow minor keyed intro, a simple vocal melody building, the satisfying chorus with gospel like vocal harmonies and a nice discordant, crescendo. It has also a lovely flute solo by Jimmy. “Cecil Rons” begins in free form. It evolves into a tone bass driven with an atypically vocal line from Pye. A kind of a waltz coda closes the track. Caravan never attempted it again on their following works. “Magic Man” is a delicious and a beautiful simple song in waltz time with an unforgettable chorus. It’s the most beautiful moment on the album, truly a magic moment. “Grandma’s Lawn” is a track in a similar vein to Syd Barrett’s unreleased classic song “Vegetable Man”. The echo effect on the vocals is just right for the cavernous general mood of the song. “Where But For Caravan Would I?” is the best track on the album. The quiet melody is great. The harmony vocals take the tune even further. After the beginning, the song explodes into an amazingly riff. The song ends on jarring, repeated guitar and a massive crash of drums. Unremittingly complex yet bursting with infectious melody, this is the sound of a great progressive band at the start of height of their powers.
Conclusion: For their first album, Caravan was surprisingly strong. While steeped in the same British psychedelic that informed many of the bands in those days, Caravan relates a certain freedom of spirit. Caravan’s debut straddles the fence between psych and prog. I think this album was always underrated. It has a lot of beautiful psychedelic songs and represents a perfect example of the music in the end of the 60’s and of what would be the prog and the beginning of the classic golden era of the prog rock music in the glorious days of the 70’s. In fact, only the lengthy final track “Where But For Caravan Would I?” really goes further than simply flirting with prog. This is clearly a great prog track. I always considered Caravan the best and most representative band of the Canterbury scene. Their five first studio albums are all excellent and represent a great intro into this sub-genre of prog. This is definitely an album not to be missed, really.
Music was my first love.
John Miles (Rebel)
