The Viper (What john Rance Had To Tell)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pve5mCQBMlg
Whistler, Chaucer, Detroit & Greenhill were an obscure late 60s group from Texas, their real names being David Bullock, Scott Fraser, Eddie Lively and Phil White. More of a collaboration of singer-songwriters than a true band, they got together and recorded this one album in 1968, under the guidance of producer T-Bone Burnett (who also contributed to the songwriting). Stylistically it is a truly diverse exploration of the folk-rock pallette, at times rootsy and earthy and at others whimsical and baroque. All four members contribute guitar, bass, keyboards and vocals between them, and their arrangements are orchestrated here and there by violins, accordions, harmonica and strings. The end result is a charming, laid-back and curious blend of sounds. The record went unnoticed on its original release, and would have remained so to this day if it wasn't for a recent CD reissue. White, Fraser and Bullock later teamed up with drummer Brett Wilson and became Space Opera.
Review by Richie Unterberger - Allmusic Guide
Although Whistler, Chaucer, Detroit & Greenhill were indeed a quartet, no one in the band actually went by any of those names. Instead, their eclectic, whimsical psychedelic-influenced 1968 LP, The Unwritten Works of Geoffrey, Etc., was recorded by David Bullock (guitar, bass, vocals), Scott Fraser (guitar, keyboards, bass, vocals), Eddie Lively (guitar, vocals), and Phil White (bass, keyboards, vocals), with John Carrick adding guitar and vocals, and a young T-Bone Burnett producing. Bullock, Fraser, Lively, and Burnett all wrote material on the album, a low-key but ever-shifting mixture that defied an easy label. Some songs ("The Viper [What John Rance Had to Tell]," "House of Collection") sounded rather like an oblique take on early, rustic Neil Young, though it's highly unlikely Young was a direct influence. Others offered accomplished country-rock ("Just Me and Her"), stirring folk-rock with touches of hard psychedelic rock guitar ("Ready to Move"), pastoral Renaissance-flavored orchestrated folk that sounded very much like some of the most baroque pieces recorded in the late '60s by the Beau Brummels ("Upon Waking from the Nap," "Tribute to Sundance"), and a haunting cabaret-like number laced with violin and disembodied backing vocals ("Street in Paris").
The group formed in Fort Worth, TX, where Fraser and Lively had been in the band the Mods. After picking up the other members, they began recording in a basement studio of a local radio station, coming to the attention of Burnett. Guy Clark, later to become a rootsy singer/songwriter of some renown, was also associated with the group and did the LP's cover design and photography. The record, however, was barely noticed upon its initial release. After Fraser, Bullock, and White hooked up with drummer Brett Wilson in Austin, they changed their name to Space Opera, recording more polished (though often still folk-rock-influenced) sounds for a self-titled album on Columbia in the early '70s. The Unwritten Works of Geoffrey, Etc. was reissued on CD with historical liner notes in 2006.
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Whistler, Chaucer, Detroit & Greenhill's only album was a minor but decent late-'60s folk-rock-psychedelic record, at times (but not always) reflecting the influence of California groups of the period like Buffalo Springfield. Certainly a few of the tracks, especially "The Viper (What John Rance Had to Tell)" (written by a young T-Bone Burnett, who produced) and "House of Collection" sound much like the folkier things Neil Young was writing and singing in the Springfield's later days and his early solo career. They're also competent at integrating both psychedelia ("Days of Childhood") and country-rock ("Just Me and Her") into that Springfield-esque palate, though at times the songs aren't particularly rootsy. "Upon Waking from the Nap," for instance, goes for a more baroque orchestrated mood, and Burnett's "Street in Paris" seems like an attempt to craft an eccentric throwback to '30s European cabaret. There's an understated mood to the record that makes it a cut above many similarly derivative albums of the time, as it doesn't seem to be straining as hard to ride the trends of the day as if they're cloaks to be worn for the duration of the recording sessions. This rarity was reissued on CD in 2006 with historical liner notes.
Ready To Move
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4SEc0OvlwI
As Pure As Freshly Driven
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0idj23r0Ihk
