Jack Bruce - Harmony Row (1971)

Steve:

After Led Zeppelin whet my appetite for what is called Classic Rock, one of my favorite new favorite bands in my high school days was Cream. By far, my favorite aspect of Cream was the vocals, songwriting, and overall musicality of bassist/singer Jack Bruce. My admiration of Jack was amplified tenfold one day when I purchased a double LP on Polydor called Jack Bruce at His Best.  Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker had also been honored with similar-looking and similarly titled double LPs; Cream remained extremely popular, even after their premature demise in 1968.  

Eric Clapton was always the main draw of the band, popularity-wise - his tenure in the Bluesbreakers, Derek and the Dominos, and his commercial success as a solo artist kept the interest in Clapton alive well into the 70s, 80s, and 90s. But Jack Bruce? Even as the primary creative force and front man for the Cream juggernaut, he always seemed the underdog to me - a "musician's musician" whom everyone respected but who never had much commercial success on his own. Which brings me back to Jack Bruce at His Best. This double album provided a pretty inclusive summary of Jack's first three solo albums: Songs for a Tailor, Things We Like, and Harmony Row. I was blown away by all of it.  All but one track from Harmony Row was included in this double LP.

To a large extent, Harmony Row is all Jack's work. He wrote all the music (his writing partner Pete Brown handled the lyrics, as always), and played piano, organ, bass, acoustic guitar, and cello. John Marshall, soon to join Soft Machine, played the drums, and session whiz Chris Spedding played electric guitar. A good analog to this album would be Steve Winwood's realization of John Barleycorn Must Die, a similarly eclectic Traffic album on which Winwood handled the lion's share of the instrumental and compositional duties by himself.  

Harmony Row, however, sports even more sharp left turns and just plain odd tracks than Winwood's opus. For the most extreme example, listen to "Post War", with its weird near-ska rhythm and sudden key changes, not to mention the abrupt bridges that sound like they were flown in from a different album. For the most part, though, these eclectic musical decisions only serve to pump up the excitement. "A Letter of Thanks" is an exhilarating piano-fueled rocker whose unpredictable changes in meter successfully build momentum rather than halt it. The closing "The Consul at Sunset" uses a slow jungle beat to frame its spooky portrait of a haunted and doomed man. "Smiles and Grins" uses its length (at nearly 6 minutes, it's the album's longest track) to include jazzy instrumental passages as breathing room between the rapid-fire vocal sections. Finally, "Victoria Sage" might be one of the prettiest ballads I have ever heard, and I'll leave it at that.

All the tracks I cited above comprise side 2 of this fantastic album. I believe it's the best album side in my collection. There, I said it. Side 1 rules too. Don't miss this one.

Dan:

It seems only fair to be scooped by my own son on music from my generation. He's right about Jack Bruce's relative neglect compared to "Slowhand" Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker, Bruce's Cream bandmates. Despite the neglect, I could make the case that Bruce was the best musician in Cream. For evidence, listen to the live sides on Wheels of Fire, paying attention to Bruce's bass lines. "Spoonful," in particular, is transformed from an average blues song into something bordering on the miraculous. The instrumental "Toad" is also filled with great bass playing. Jack Bruce was also Cream's best vocalist.

I have to confess to being unimpressed with Harmony Row the first time I heard it. I was too impatient. I have since revisited the album and now know why it's one of Steve's all-time faves. It's worth the extra investment of time to appreciate each and every track on its own terms. I especially enjoy "The Consul at Sunset" and "Victoria Sage." I'm glad I rediscovered this album.