Caravan – The Decca/Deram Years: An Anthology 1970-1975 – 9 CD Decca/Universal – 06-09-2019

I Caravan, insieme ai Soft Machine, sono la band più importante nata all’interno di quel filone del rock britannico definito Canterbury Sound: un misto di rock progressivo e psichedelico, jazz(rock), ma anche improvvise aperture melodiche a livello vocale che sbocciano prima e dopo lunghe improvvisazioni strumentali. Già attivi dal 1964 al 1968 come Wilde Flowers, una band che univa tutti i futuri componenti dei Caravan, David e Richard Sinclair, Pye Hastings e Richard Coughlan, con i principali alfieri dei Soft Machine, ovvero Kevin Ayers, Robert Wyatt e Hugh Hopper, in pratica mancava solo Mike Ratledge: anche se all’epoca non pubblicarono quasi nulla a livello discografico, il loro loro materiale è uscito in gran parte a livello postumo dal 1998, per merito dell’etichetta Voiceprint. Ma questa è un’altra storia: concentriamoci su quella dei Caravan.

Come vedete qui sopra, non è il primo cofanetto dedicato alla band di Canterbury, già nel 2010 era uscito il quadruplo The World Is Yours: The Anthology 1968-1976, una raccolta (ora fuori produzione) che copriva il periodo dal 1968 al 1976, con alcuni inediti inseriti per renderla più interessante. Mentre il nuovo box da 9 CD è più completo, anche se purtroppo non esaustivo, visto che copre comunque all’incirca lo stesso arco temporale, ma non è una integrale di tutti gli album pubblicati in quegli anni: mancano il primo disco omonimo del 1968, il Live Caravan & The New Symphonia del 1974, ma aggiunge Live At The Fairfields Hall registrato nella stessa annata, ma pubblicato solo nel 2002. Oltre ai due CD conclusivi The Show Of Our Lives: Live At The BBC 1970-1975, uscito nel 2007 e quindi anche questo non inedito. Inoltre gli album in studio riportano le versioni rimasterizzate con alcune bonus, ma per esempio In The Land Of Grey & Pink non è nella versione tripla CD/DVD pubblicata nel 2011.

Comunque ecco la tracklist completa del cofanetto.

CD1: If I Could Do It All Over Again, I’d Do It All Over You]
1. If I Could Do It All Over Again, I’d Do It All Over You
2. And I Wish I Were Stoned / Don’t Worry
3. As I Feel I Die
4. With An Ear To The Ground You Can Make It / Martinian / Only Cox / Reprise
5. Hello Hello
6. Asforteri
7. Can’t Be Long Now / Françoise / For Richard / Warlock
8. Limits
Bonus Tracks:
9. A Day In The Life Of Maurice Haylett
10. Why? (And I Wish I Were Stoned)*
11. Clipping The 8Th (Hello Hello)*
12. As I Feel I Die*

*Demo versions

[CD2: In The Land Of Grey And Pink]
1. Golf Girl
2. Winter Wine
3. Love To Love You (And Tonight Pigs Will Fly)
4. In The Land Of Grey And Pink
5. Nine Feet Underground (Nigel Blows A Tune / Love’s A Friend / Make It 76 / Dance Of The Seven Paper Hankies / Hold Grandad By The Nose / Honest I Did! / Disassociation / 100% Proof
Bonus Tracks:
6. I Don’t Know It’s Name (Alias The Word)
7. Aristocracy
8. It’s Likely To Have A Name Next Week (“Winter Wine” Instrumental)
9. Group Girl (First Version Of “Golf Girl”)
10. Disassociation/100% Proof (New Mix)

[CD3: Waterloo Lily]
1. Waterloo Lily
2. Nothing At All / It’s Coming Soon / Nothing At All (Reprise)
3. Songs & Signs
4. Aristocracy
5. The Love In Your Eye / To Catch Me A Brother / Subsultus / Debouchement / Tilbury Kecks
6. The World Is Yours
Bonus Tracks:
7. Pye’s June Thing
8. Ferdinand
9. Looking Left, Looking Right
10. Pye’s Loop

[CD4: For Girls Who Grow Plump In The Night]
1. Memory Lain, Hugh / Headloss
2. Hoedown
3. Surprise, Surprise
4. C’thlu Thlu
5. The Dog, The Dog, He’s At It Again
6. Be All Right / Chance Of A Lifetime
7. L’auberge Du Sanglier / A Hunting We Shall Go / Pengola / Backwards / A Hunting We Shall Go (Reprise)
Bonus Tracks:
8. Memory Lain, Hugh / Headloss (Us Mix)
9. No! (“Be All Right”) / Waffle (“Chance Of A Lifetime”)
10. He Who Smelt It Dealt It (“Memory Lain, Hugh”)
11. Surprise, Surprise
12. Derek’s Long Thing

Cd5: Caravan & The New Symphonia: The Complete Concert Recorded Live At The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane On The 28Th Of October, 1973

1. Introduction / Memory Lain, Hugh / Headloss
2. The Dog, The Dog, He’s At It Again
3. Hoedown
4. Introduction
5. The Love In Your Eye
6. Mirror For The Day
7. Virgin On The Ridiculous
8. For Richard
9. A Hunting We Shall Go

[CD6: Cunning Stunts]
1. The Show Of Our Lives
2. Stuck In A Hole
3. Lover
4. No Backstage Pass
5. Welcome The Day
6. The Dabbing Conshirtoe: The Mad Dabsong / Ben Karratt Rides Again / Pro’s And Con’s / Wraiks And Ladders / Sneaking Out The Bare Quare / All Sorts Of Unmentionable Things
7. Fear And Loathing In Tollington Park Rag
Bonus Tracks:
8. Stuck In A Hole (Single Version)
9. Keeping Back My Love

[CD7: Live At The Fairfield Halls, 1974]
1. Memory Lain, Hugh / Headloss
2. Virgin On The Ridiculous
3. Be All Right / Chance Of A Lifetime
4. The Love In Your Eye
5. L’auberge Du Sanglier / A Hunting We Shall Go / Pengola / Backwards / A Hunting We Shall Go (Reprise)
6. The Dog, The Dog, He’s At It Again
7. For Richard
8. Hoedown

[CD8: The Show Of Our Lives: Live At The BBC 1970-1975 – Disc One]
1. If I Could Do It All Over Again, I’d Do It All Over You
2. Hello Hello
3. As I Feel I Die
4. Love To Love You
5. Love Song Without Flute
6. In The Land Of Grey And Pink
7. Nine Feet Underground
8. Feelin’ Reelin’ Squealin’
9. A Hunting We Shall Go
10. Waffle Part One: Be All Right / Chance Of A Lifetime

Tracks 1, 2 & 3 Recorded for the BBC Transcription Service ‘Top Of The Pops’ 19th August 1970.
Tracks 4, 5 & 6 Recorded for ‘Sounds Of The Seventies’ 11th March 1971.
Tracks 7 & 8 Recorded for John Peel’s Sunday Concert’ at the Paris Theatre, London 6th May 1971.
Tracks 9 & 10 Recorded for the BBC ‘In Concert’ at the Paris Theatre, London 2nd August 1973.
All tracks recorded for BBC Radio 1 except tracks 1, 2 and 3 recorded for the BBC Transcription Service.

[CD9: The Show Of Our Lives: Live At The BBC 1970-1975 – Disc Two]
1. Memory Lain Hugh
2. Headloss
3. The Love In Your Eye
4. Mirror For The Day
5. Virgin On The Ridiculous
6. For Richard
7. The Dabsong Conshirtoe
8. Stuck In A Hole
9. The Show Of Our Lives

Tracks 1 & 2 Recorded for the BBC ‘In Concert’ at the Paris Theatre, London 2nd August 1973.
Tracks 3, 4, 5 & 6 Recorded for John Peel’s Radio Show 7th February 1974.
Track 7 Recorded for the BBC ‘In Concert’ at the Paris Theatre, London 21st March 1975.
Tracks 8 & 9 Recorded for John Peel’s Radio Show 26th June 1975.

La band è tutt’ora in attività, anche se l’ultimo disco di studio Paradise Filter risale al 2013 e della formazione originale è rimasto solo il chitarrista e cantante, nonché leader maximo, Pye Hastings. Ovviamente oltre agli album compresi nel box da allora ne sono usciti moltissimi altri, ma questi sono quelli da avere, in quanto coprono il periodo migliore del gruppo inglese.

L’uscita del cofanetto è prevista per il prossimo 6 settembre.

Bruno Conti