Eyes Of Blue - The Crossroads Of Time Label: Mercury - SR 61184 Format: Vinyl, LP, Album Country: US Released: 1968 Genre: Rock Style: Psychedelic Rock, Prog Rock Vinyl Rip in 24/96 Rip by Rockmaninov Tracklist Side 1 A1 - Crossroads Of Time 5:00 Written-By - D. Stewart A2 - Never Care 3:19 Written-By - R. Francis A3 - I'll Be Your Friend 3:49 Written-By - R. Francis A4 - 7 + 7 Is 2:33 Written-By - A. Lee A5 - Prodigal Son 5:27 Written-By - R. Francis Side 2 B1 - Largo 3:15 Written By - G.F. Händel/arr. R. Francis / Written-By - G. F. Händel B2 - Love Is The Law 5:16 Written-By - D. Stewart B3 - Yesterday 4:23 Written-By - J. Lennon/P. McCartney B4 - I Wonder Why 3:15 Written-By - R. Francis B5 - World Of Emotion 2:50 Written-By - R. Francis B6 - Inspiration For A New Day 3:09 Written-By - R. Francis Credits Liner Notes - Graham Bond Producer - Lou Reizner Personnel: - Gary Pickford-Hopkins - vocals - Wyndham Rees - vocals - Ritchie Francis - bass - Phil Ryan - organ, piano - Ray "Taff" Williams - guitar - John Weathers - drums This has been always in my memory, an album from a time when I started my first attempts to operate on the TT of my older brother with my own hands - I was 13/14 years old - and this was among the records I first remember and always had in my heart. For long time I believed, this our record (and many other) were lost forever…I could not search on web for them, because of mostly of them I had forgotten name and title. So, after I started a recovery action, writing to all (!!!) my relatives all over in Italy to send me all records that they didn’t need/use anymore, in a last package from Genova in 2011, I was struck by lightening when i saw this one. How incredible, seemed to be Mint, after +45 years… I found very scarse info on web, about this band and this recording. What a pity, because i think, this is a masterpiece in Psychedelic/Progressive Rock. The music, wonderful various and dominated by the organ, invites you to a voyage on a time machine, back to the past, in 1968, where it all began. Ah…you never heard a better cover of Beatles’ “Yesterday”. The Eyes of Blue’s debut album is a rather typical bottom-drawer late-’60s psychedelic effort, going over much of the musical map without charting new territory or doing especially interesting songs. Chunks of British harmony pop, soul, trendy Eastern-tinged psychedelia, and early progressive classical-dipped melodies and arrangements all bump around in the mix, though they don’t cohere too memorably. The Welsh group did have a more organ-based sound than many of their U.K. peers, and the band’s keyboardist, Phil Ryan, has admitted that Graham Bond was a big influence on his style on this album. Bond’s input wasn’t limited to this; he also wrote two of the songs, “Crossroads of Time” and “Love Is the Law” (though they were credited to “D. Stewart,” aka his girlfriend, Diane Stewart), both of which Bond himself would record slightly later on his 1969 album Love Is the Law. The Eyes of Blue’s version of “Love Is the Law” sounds more like the early Bee Gees than Graham Bond, though it’s actually one of the better songs on the record. “Crossroads of Time” is likewise one of the relative highlights, starting off with an atomic explosion and Phantom of the Opera organ, though its lyrics are pretty blatant hippie sloganeering. It’s an indictment of the weakness of the group’s original material (by guitarist Ritchie Francis) that the most notable other track is one of the most eccentric covers of the Beatles’ “Yesterday” you’ll hear, arranged to sound almost like a classical hymn. Highly recommended! ———————————————————————————————- Analyzed folder: /96k Eyes Of Blue - Crossroads Of Time ———————————————————————————————- DR Peak RMS Filename ———————————————————————————————- DR9 -1.19 dB -12.87 dB A1 Crossroads Of Time.aif DR9 -1.88 dB -13.34 dB A2 Never Care.aif DR8 -1.63 dB -13.31 dB A3 I’ll Be Your Friend.aif DR8 -1.18 dB -14.26 dB A4 7 + 7 Is.aif DR9 -2.09 dB -13.99 dB A5 Prodigal Son.aif DR9 -1.72 dB -12.08 dB B1 Largo.aif DR9 -1.55 dB -13.06 dB B2 Love Is The Law.aif DR9 -1.39 dB -13.91 dB B3 Yesterday.aif DR9 -1.87 dB -12.73 dB B4 I Wonder Why.aif DR9 -1.51 dB -12.94 dB B5 World Of Emotion.aif DR9 -2.59 dB -13.33 dB B6 Inspiration For A New Day.aif ———————————————————————————————- Number of files: 11 Official DR value: DR9 ============================================================================================== Ripping Info RCM: Okki Nokki (L’art du son, Clearaudio’s Diamond Cleaner) TT: Vintage (1982) Yamaha PX-3 Cartridge: Sumiko Black Bird Phono amp: Audio Research SP15 own tube phono section. ADC/DAC: RME Fireface UC Monitoring Pre Amp: Audio Research SP15 Finals: Opera Consonance 9.9 Mono (Tube) Speakers: Dali Helikon 400 Connections: MIT Terminator, Audioquest Emerald, Audioquest Quartz Software: iZotope RX 4 Advanced, Adobe Audition CS 5.5, Twisted Wave 1.9 Super light de-clicking with iZotope, significant clicks manually removing, no de-noising DR-Analisys before converting to Flac Converting Wave -> Flac: Twisted Wave 1.9 Artwork: Sony Alpha 350, Epson Perfection V750 Pro, Photoshop CS 5.5