Long Lost Beatlesque group

[JoJo]

From: www.popjunkie.tv/longforgotten_debuts/



The best album The Beatles never made

Aerovons We hate to be the ones to tell Noel Gallagher, but the best album The Beatles never made isn’t What’s The Story, it’s Resurrection by The Aerovons – written by a 17 year old genius from St Louis, Missouri! In fact this long forgotten, 1969 psych-pop masterpiece is so close to the sound of The Fab Four, that on first listen, you’ll be convinced you’ve discovered a lost Beatles album.

You haven’t; of course, you’ve merely stumbled across the brilliant debut (and only album) from a Beatles obsessed Missouri four-piece who were lucky enough to secure a contract with EMI, travel to London, meet their heroes and record in Abbey Road with Beatles engineers. Sorry, Noel.

Incredibly, Resurrection remained locked in the EMI vaults for over 30 years and only saw the light of day in 2003. Composed and produced by teenager, Tom Hartman, it’s an astonishing record with several moments that are easily up there with the best of The Beatles. No, really. At times, you’re convinced that the Fabs popped in from Studio Two and knocked out some of these tunes in their lunch hour. (Pop Junkie fact – the title track actually features The Beatles’ Mellotron)

Hearing the opening song, World Of You, for the first time, is like finding a fiver in an old pair of jeans. A haunting anthem for a young man who’s just discovered love, it starts with sad piano and Macca-esque vocals, before being carried skywards by haunting orchestration and finally ending with a mad George Harrison style guitar freak-out! Forget Wonderwall - check this beauty out instead.

The trippy title track is basically a reworking of Across The Universe (Hartman snuck a listen to the tapes of the as-yet unreleased Beatles song while he was in Abbey Road), Say Georgia echoes Oh, Darlin’ and With Her is a cute acoustic ballad in the vein of And I Love Her. There’s more; story song Bessy Goodheart is Maxwell’s Silver Hammer meets Lady Madonna, Everything's Alright is a close cousin of Good Day Sunshine and The Children apes A Day In The Life with its ‘song within a song’ structure.

The Aerovons’ Tom Hartman doesn’t merely wear his influences on his sleeve; he actually dons a Sergeant Pepper Suit and says ‘to hell with it.’ Thankfully, he’s a great songwriter in his own right, so there’s plenty here to enjoy. Fans of classic pop can revel in the beautiful melodies and intricate, playful arrangements. This is a truly Fab record.

Track listing:

1. World of You [Single A Side]
2. Resurrection
3. Say Georgia [Single B Side]
4. With Her
5. Quotes and Photos
6. Words from a Song
7. Bessy Goodheart
8. Something of Yours
9. She's Not Dead
10. Years
11. Everything's Alright
12. Children
13. Train [Single A Side][/li][li]
14. Song for Jane [Single B Side][/li][li]
15. Here [#][/li][li]
16. World of You [#][Demo Version][/i]

It's available on Amazon, just search for "Aerovons". May be seeing things in the tree branches again (think the "Free as a Bird" video) but what's that above their heads? Resurrection is an interesting title, as are a couple of titles such as "She's Not Dead" and "Song For Jane".

Somewhat surprising that it was kept locked up for all this time if it is supposedly such a good listen, some of the groups that did get released under the Apple label were pretty awful, just listen to the Apple singles collection.

[plastic paul]

Thanks JoJo, i'm gonna have to check it out.

Anychance you have a preview snippet?

[JoJo]

Not yet, I ordered it from Amazon though. Some reviews say it's really good, others hated it, we'll see. All strong reactions, a good sign to me.

[JoJo]

Not bad, not as great as this reviewer would have it, but OK. Whereas the Beatles were timeless musically, this is quite distinctly from the sixties, again, not a bad thing.

It's funny, if I were to have told you I found an unreleased Bill song, and you listened to this, you would probably have no reason to doubt me. Would you think this was a JPM vocal? Now that's an interesting question..

Here's a better scan of the cover, IMO it's real hard not to see a face in those trees.

[plastic paul]

Yeh i definitely see the face, and i am absolutely dumbfounded by that song!

It's a little naive compared to the beatles but my god does it sound "McCartney-esque!"

Anyone else hearing Here,There and Everywhere?

[JoJo]

It sounds "Bill-esque" IMO, especially his post Beatles work in the early years when he could really sing those high notes. Not saying it's Bill himself, I hear a moment or two that gives it away as someone else upon a few more listens, but do you think "oh this sounds like the guy who sings Yesterday"? Or more like "Another day"?

[plastic paul]

I put "McCartney-esque" in commas due to the fact that both bill and the aerovons were trying to emulate JPM's sound.

I agree though it's very much like bill at times.

It's quite like listening to those bootlegs of bill singing a demo song or the vocal warm-ups etc.

[Doc]

A face in the trees? Really? How about:



You know, I can't blame this on LSD. It's just the natural crazy comin' thru I guess.

[LOVELYRITA]

Faces of Paul in agony?

Even without seeing the post with the drawn on faces....I could see faces...
I remember someone once telling me that an artist can see "faces" where other people may not see them. Nothing spacey about what she was telling me, but to be inspired to find something to draw from....one can look at patterns on floor tile, wall paper...etc and see images.

While on the subject of seeing images on pictures. I recently saw Sylvia Brown on Montel Williams and some woman had a photo taken from some Christmas, and there was an image of an angel, very clear, in the photo, was on the woman's wall. It was her "spirit guide".

Just wondering if some spirit guides were around this group when taking their picture?

[P(D)enny La(i)ne]

I've had this Aerovons album since just about the moment it came out, but hadn't listened to any of it except for "World Of You", for years.

I've been re-ripping my CDs lately though, and was knocked for a loop when "Everything's Alright" came on random.

In fact, I was so taken aback, that I called Miss La(i)ne in from the other room and said "you've heard this before, haven't you?", and she said "yeah, it's McCartney, right?."

It's not just a "McCartney" vocal, but I think it's a match for the elusive "Hello Goodbye" "McCartney" voice.

Take a listen here, courtesy of JoJo:

www.jojoplace.org/Shoebox/Aerovons_Everything_Alright.mp3

And of course, for comparison:



(modified to put the tune on jojoplace)