David Stoughton - Transformer (1968)

I don’t know where he came from and I don’t know where he’s gone, but David Stoughton made one weird and arty psychedelic record for Elektra records back in 1968: Transformer (available here).

This is definitely Stoughton’s show. In addition to performing, he wrote the songs and produced the sucker. Some pieces are songs, sort of in late-period Tim Buckley style (but missing Buckley’s vocal skills & songwriting ability) while others are weirder experiments in sound collage (The Anecdote of Horatio and Julie) or extended semi-classical psychedelic (or is it semi-psychedelic classical) concertos (I Don't Know If It's You). Personally, I prefer these more experimental pieces—his other songs, lyrically at least, generally seem a little silly and/or pretentious (a bad combination).

As always, this record is unavailable on CD and is unlikely to appear in that form any time soon. Polygram owns the rights to the recordings and have no interest in releasing it on CD in spite of requests by fans. They also, from what I have read, appear to be asking an exorbitant amount for other labels to issue it and because we’re talking about a major label it’s unlikely anyone will put a copy without securing the rights. Unfortunately major labels are only interested in a recording if it will make lots of money but remain paranoid about keeping the rights to any recording they have, so if you want to get this album you’ll have to search ebay, etc. for a used copy (which can run anywhere from $10 to $60). Again, props to the WMUC record library.

Tracklist and performers below

1 The Sun Comes up Each Day - 3:59
2 The Summer Had No Breeze - 5:10
3 The Anecdote of Horatio and Julie - 8:00
4 Saving for a Rainy Day - 4:51
5 Evening Song - 4:25
6 I Don't Know If It's You - 10:00

Peter Chapman - horns (1968)
Devi Klate - vocals (1968)
Joe Livols - drums (1968)
Mal Mackenzie - bass (1968)
John Nicholls - vocals (1968)
David Stoughton - vocals, guitar (1968)
Steve Tanzer - flute, piccolo (1968)

I’ll try to get another post in next week, but after that I’m off for the rest of September but you’ll find tons of great music in the sites linked over on the right side of the page (that’s your right, not mine).