At 480 vinyl-sized pages, IBoR volume 3 is the biggest yet and like the previous volume, it documents just two years – 1971 and 1972. This time, though, there are more albums to contend – 80 on the main Island label alone among which are: Roxy Music’s debut, live albums from Traffic and Free, two more from Cat Stevens, the soundtrack to the finest Jamaican film of all time – The Harder They Come as well as Traffic’s era-defining The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys.
There’s Sandy Denny’s Sandy housed in a stunning David Bailey front-cover portrait of the lady herself and Nick Drake’s yet to be discovered masterpieces Bryter Layter and Pink Moon which sit alongside Mountain’s Flowers Of Evil and Bronco’s Ace Of Sunlight with it’s highly questionable front cover. Jethro Tull’s Aqualung borders Mike Harrison’s solo debut as much as it does as three albums which were recorded but never made the final cut – Carlisle’s own Junkyard Angel, Jess Roden’s first solo album and… Neil Tucker’s The Indefinite You.
And then… we have ten more on the newly introduced mid-price HELP imprint which opened its account with ELP’s Pictures At An Exhibition before continuing with Tibetan Bells, National Lampoon’s Radio Dinner as well as spawning the formidable Morris On series; the ICD series is introduced which brings in The History of Fairport Convention and then there’s El Pea itself – the next in a series of great compilations but let down by dubious packaging.
Factor in another eleven Chrysalis albums – who knew that Mike Batt got a gig working with Steeleye Span because of the drum sound he got with The Wombles? – as well as a handful of obscurities like a Brazilian-only Best Of Juicy Lucy offering and a couple of Norwegian-only compilations. And, as usual, there is a full discography of 45s as well.
But that’s not all… oh, no. In amongst the albums we delve deeper – for example there’s John Wood and Geoff Frost telling the story of their studio – Sound Techniques as Jonathan Morrish looks back to the 1971 Glastonbury Fayre when Traffic headlined. As a label, Chrysalis starts to spread its wings and make independent moves as Emerson, Lake & Palmer, having achieved massive worldwide success leave for pastures new.
Fresh interviews uncover how The Wailers landed up broke at Basing St. yet managed to get back to Jamaica to record Catch A Fire and what hearing those in-progress recordings was like. The Round Table Principle documents the creative hub of Island while Soundtracking explains Perry Henzell’s choice of music for The Harder They Come.
The inception of Heads, Hands & Feet is chronicled while The Origin of the Species outlines the creation of the first Island Book(s) of Records. Two in-depth time lines have been carefully plotted: A Year in the Life of Traffic (1971) and Cat Stevens on his Road To Find Out throughout 1971 and 1972. Then, A Resignation in the House sees David Betteridge taking over the day-to-day company reins as we looks at the significance of Chris Blackwell being one of the only record company founders who were also producers in their own right.
As usual, the IBoR text combines contemporary commentary with interviews from years gone by whereby the stories behind the records and their artwork are told only by those involved in their making: musicians, designers, photographers, producers, engineers, managers and record company personnel of the time.
The IBoR is designed by Jayne Gould – former Chief Creative Officer, New York Daily News; Design Director, Associated Newspapers; Design Director; News Corp. and Art Director, Tatler.
Pre-ordering is open now via all the usual places (Manchester University Press pre-ordering begins the first week of July) and IBoR 3 will be published worldwide on October 6.
And, just in case anyone’s wondering… yes, we’ve already started work on IBoR 4 which covers 1973-1975
