Tom Rapp & Pearls Before Swine-musician extraordinaire

[jamestkirk]

I like to think of Tom Rapp as a stardancer...he is something special...


"STARDANCER", Tom Rapp 1972




"For The Dead In Space" Tom Rapp from his brilliant STARDANCER 1972
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgSGEH-ogBI



"Stardancer"..so great on so many levels.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7dROl8iFmM

When my father went to space
I woke up one morning and he was gone
I would lie out in the yard
And try to see a falling star
Something to wish upon (something to wish upon)

Out there on the edge of things
He would be freelancing
In the midnight sprinkled sky
He would open up his hands and go
Stardancing (stardancing)

Sometimes I would watch a star and it would break loose from the sky
A tongue of fire in the air when a star falls home to die (home to die)
I always felt my father touched them and if the sky were torn
Somewhere beyond his hand, another one was born (another one was born)

For a man who needs a place, where he can see a star
The open land above the air is where the answers are
When stars go burning through the night
You can never touch them all
On the razor edge of space
Stardancers sometimes fall
Stardancer

It's falling, always falling
And I would watch it all
To see me a stardancer
And watch my father fall

When my father went to space, I woke up one morning and he was gone
I would lie out in the yard and try to see a falling star

I could wish upon

Stardancer, stardancer

[jamestkirk]

TOM RAPP & Pearls before Swine...a uniquely special experience.


"Another Time"...from "One Naton Underground....the first song he wrote it is said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wPIsXO9 ... re=related




"ONE NATION UNDERGROUND" 1967

One Nation Underground was the debut album by American psychedelic folk group Pearls Before Swine. It was released on the ESP-Disk label in October 1967.

It was recorded at Impact Sound in New York City, between May 6-9, 1967, by the Florida-based group, which at that point comprised main songwriter and singer Tom Rapp, Wayne Harley, Lane Lederer, and Roger Crissinger. Percussion was by session musician Warren Smith.

The album presents a mixture of styles - "psychedelic folk reminiscent of Donovan collides with Farfisa-driven punk and hard-to-categorize repetitive minimalism, all thrown together with the undisciplined, creative exuberance of youth".[3]

"Another Time" is an acoustic song, the first that Rapp ever wrote, based on his experience in a car crash where he walked away unscathed, and, with "Morning Song", represents the most characteristic example of Rapp's later writing style. In contrast, "Drop Out!" and "Uncle John" are youthful protest songs. "(Oh Dear) Miss Morse" spells out in Morse code the word F-U-C-K, accompanied by banjo and organ.

The album became the most successful ESP release ever, estimated to have sold between 100,000 and 250,000 copies. Early vinyl copies came with a small poster of the Hell panel from Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights, a detail of which was used on the front of the album sleeve.

The album went through a number of cover variations. The original, first edition was brown monochrome with a white border along two sides of the cover. The second edition had a black and white cover with the group name in white along the top. The third edition was the white background and color section of the painting (see right).

The album has been reissued several times on CD.

"Morning Song"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqa-_DsXpRA


"Playmate"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTxrtCyR ... re=related

...........................

for a full album listen...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7Sta5sU ... re=related

[jamestkirk]

"City of Gold" was not considered his best, but...

City of Gold was the fifth album made by American psychedelic folk group Pearls Before Swine, and their third on Reprise Records. It was released in 1971.

The album was the first to be credited to "Thos." (Tom) Rapp and Pearls Before Swine, rather than solely in the group's name. In fact, the group, which had been formed by Rapp and his friends in Florida in the mid-1960s, and which in its original incarnation had never performed live, had effectively ceased to exist by the time of their third album These Things Too, and subsequent albums had been recorded by Rapp with his wife Elisabeth and session musicians.

City of Gold drew heavily on material left over from the recording of the previous Pearls album, The Use of Ashes, which had been recorded in early 1970 with the cream of Nashville's session musicians.[2] Further recording sessions took place in New York later that year, with Rapp taking on producer duties.

The album, while having a broadly country/folk feel, is very mixed in content and, in most critics' estimation, quality.

However, it does contain some of Rapp's best lyrics, sparkling arrangements, and some of his most heartfelt vocal performances, such as on the harpsichord-dominated version of Leonard Cohen's "(Seems So Long Ago) Nancy", and his own "Did You Dream Of". It also includes a very atypical up-tempo Rapp song, "The Man", sung vigorously by David Noyes. According to Noyes, a high school student at the time, the song was recorded at A&R Studios in New York City during the summer of 1969; Noyes also sang harmony vocals on other songs, including "Seasons In The Sun". Noyes' friend, Jon Tooker, took his position when the band toured Europe later in the year.

The sleeve design broke with the group's tradition of using classic art rather than photographs of the musicians. The front cover showed a hand-painted photograph of Rapp, taken in the Netherlands where many of the songs had been written. The photograph on the back of the cover shows Rapp, Jon Tooker, Gordon Hayes and Michael Krawitz. This was the version of Pearls Before Swine which toured in 1971, but Tooker, Hayes and Krawitz did not play on the album itself (although they did play on the next album, Beautiful Lies).

City of Gold was issued on CD in 2003 as part of the Jewels Were the Stars compendium of Pearls Before Swine's first four Reprise albums.



There isn't much I don't like from Mr. Rapp...

Did You Dream of (Unicorns)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5g0baJAWtc

Wizard Of Is (These Things Too)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCrn6BWC ... ults_video

Once Upon A Time
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMFNUU58mRc

.......................

Trippy acid folk ...lovin' it today.

[8D]

Sonnet #65
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR0eFlX9tLo

[jamestkirk]

Thomas Dale Rapp (b. 8 March 1947, Bottineau, North Dakota) is an American singer and songwriter, best known as the leader of Pearls Before Swine, the psychedelic folk rock group of the 1960s and 1970s. More recently he has practiced as a lawyer.

ANOTHER TIME...I love the vinyl "pig" label too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hElMPxOjOTI



Tom Rapp's parents were both teachers. As a young child his family moved to Minnesota, where at the age of six he was given a guitar. A neighbour taught Rapp some chords, and he also learned to play the ukulele.

He once came third in a talent contest in Rochester where a certain Bobby Zimmerman from Hibbing was fifth. "The winner was a cute little girl in a red sequined costume who twirled a baton."

The Rapp family moved from Minnesota to Pennsylvania before settling in Melbourne, Florida in 1963.


With high school friends Wayne Harley (banjo, mandolin), Lane Lederer (bass, guitar) and Roger Crissinger (piano, organ), Rapp wrote and recorded some songs which, inspired by the Fugs, they sent to the avant-garde ESP-Disk label in New York. The group took its name from a Bible passage: "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine..." (Mat. 7:6, KJV), meaning: do not give things of value to those who will not understand or appreciate it.


DROP OUT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSK-qMS4 ... xenyNrPl0P

They were quickly signed up, and recorded One Nation Underground (1967), featuring songs of mysticism, protest, melancholia, and some controversy in the case of “Miss Morse”, which spelled out an obscenity in code. The album eventually sold some 200,000 copies, although management and contractual problems meant that the band received little reward for its success.[1]




The strongly anti-war themed Balaklava (1968) followed, inspired by the Charge of the Light Brigade. Rapp has said "The first two albums are probably considered the druggiest, and I had never done any drugs at that point. I smoked Winston cigarettes at that time, so these are all Winston-induced hallucinations."[2] The album covers featured paintings by Bosch and Brueghel, while the records themselves included interpretations of the writings of Tolkien and Herodotus as well as archive recordings from the 1890s, with innovatively [sic] arranged songs using an eclectic variety of instruments.

The Reprise period, 1969-72

The band signed for Reprise Records in 1969, although by this time the other original members had left and the band name now referred to Rapp and whichever musicians he was recording or touring with, one of whom, Jim Fairs, was previously a member of The Cryan' Shames. The five albums on Reprise were generally more conventional in sound, but contained a unique blend of humanistic and mystical songs, with some whimsical touches. Some were recorded in New York and others – particularly The Use of Ashes and City of Gold - in Nashville with top session musicians including Charlie McCoy, Kenny Buttrey, and other members of Area Code 615.




Several also featured Rapp's then-wife Elisabeth on vocals. The oddly-upbeat "The Man", from City of Gold, was sung by David Noyes and recorded at A&R Studios in New York City during the summer of 1970. Noyes' friend, Jon Tooker, took his position when the band toured Europe that fall.





In his teens, Rapp lived close to Cape Canaveral and watched the rockets take off. The song "Rocket Man", on the album The Use of Ashes - written the day Neil Armstrong landed on the moon - was credited by Bernie Taupin with inspiring his hit song with Elton John of the same title. Quote : "We didn't steal that one from Bowie, we stole it from another guy, called Tom Rapp...".[2] Many of the other songs of this period reflected Rapp's interests in mysticism, his relationship with his alcoholic father, and his experiences of living for a time in (and marrying a native of) the Netherlands. The final Reprise album, Familiar Songs, was a collection of demo re-recordings of some of Rapp’s earlier songs, and was released under his own name, not as a "Pearls Before Swine" album, and without his knowledge.[4]

In 1971, Pearls Before Swine toured for the first time, the group then comprising Rapp, Mike Krawitz (piano), Gordon Hayes (bass) and Jon Tooker (guitar). Around this time, Rapp often referred onstage, not quite seriously, to the group as "the house band for the SDS." A live album from this period, Live Pearls, recorded at Yale University, was released as a download in December 2008.[5]


Later years

Two further albums followed, released under Rapp's own name on Blue Thumb Records. The first, Stardancer, was again recorded in Nashville, followed by Sunforest.




The band - by that time comprising Rapp, Art Ellis (flute), Bill Rollins (bass, cello) and Harry Orlove (guitar, banjo) - toured until 1974, with Rapp from then performing solo until a final appearance in 1976 supporting Patti Smith.



After this, Rapp retired from music and, after graduating from Brandeis University, became a civil rights lawyer. After being contacted by the magazine Ptolemaic Terrascope, he re-appeared in 1997 at Terrastock, a music festival in Providence, Rhode Island, with his son's band, Shy Camp, and began recording again with 1999's A Journal of the Plague Year (I love this one! -lk).




Original member Roger Crissinger left the group in 1968, joining San Francisco band One (1) led by Reality D. Blipcrotch.[7] Lane Lederer is now a member of the Florida Orchestra.

Jon Tooker died in a motorcycle crash in 2008.[8]

PBS have been cited as a key influence by various musicians including The Dream Academy, Damon and Naomi, the Bevis Frond, Magic Hero vs. Rock People, The Late Cord, This Mortal Coil, and the Japanese band Ghost. Three tribute albums have been released by Secret Eye Records.

* One Nation Underground (1967, ESP-Disk)
* Balaklava (1968, ESP-Disk)
* These Things Too (1969, Reprise)
* The Use of Ashes (1970, Reprise)
* City of Gold (1971, Reprise) (Thos. Rapp / Pearls Before Swine)
* Beautiful Lies You Could Live In (1971, Reprise) (Tom Rapp / Pearls Before Swine)
* Familiar Songs (1972, Reprise) (Tom Rapp)
* Stardancer (1972, Blue Thumb) (Tom Rapp)
* Sunforest (1973, Blue Thumb) (Tom Rapp / Pearls Before Swine)
* A Journal Of The Plague Year (1999, Woronzow) (Tom Rapp)

Live album

* Live Pearls (recorded 1971, released 2008, WildCat Recording)



I love all the Tom Rapp albums, start to finish, though many have stuck to the first two PBS masterpiece LPs,....you are missing a lot of beautiful music if so!


Translucent Carriages
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWfN9R3z ... st_related


Rocket Man....inspiration for those that came after....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV_jDmSm ... re=related

Space..."the wizard of is"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7POEdsYx ... re=related

For The Dead In Space---Stardancer...my favorite
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgSGEH-o ... re=related

The Swimmer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMSevsVi ... re=related


"Shoebox Symphony"...10+ minutes of brilliance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OKtznyK ... re=related

[jamestkirk]

SUNFOREST

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjme1UN ... sults_main