Ranking the Studio Albums- Spooky Tooth
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- čas přidán 19. 02. 2019
- Join host Pete Pardo as he runs down his favorite to least favorite releases from British hard rock legends Spooky Tooth! ***Correction-the debut album is called 'It's All About', not 'Spooky Tooth' as mentioned on the show.****
Listen to some music here: podcasts.progrock.com/2024/01/30/sea-of-tranquilitys-ranking-the-albums-spooky-tooth/?fbclid=IwAR3waDWukgWzzcVQEX-GqLAZM6Uew2UQYwvcPSc8VvUcs34F7a8DcMltAkM
Luther is my dad, our name is pronounced grow venor. Supernatural fairy tales is my favourite album my dad has been a part of over the years. Great video mate. 👍🏻
Spooky two is tops, a band that surpassed many of the time, but short lived. Intense and authentic. What a time for music! Good overview. Thanks
Wow! Love his work in Spooky Tooth and Mott The Hoople.
@@JWD1992 👍🏻
John, Your Dad is my freaking guitar hero man! The lead guitar on the Hoople albums blown my mind. The "HOOPLE" album your Dad played on really gave the band a leap ahead! Amazing great guitar player. Love his other bands too! Rock on John!
@@mirrortime Cheers mate. I'll show him your message next weekend, he will be chuffed 😀 🙏🏻👍🏻
I agree that Spooky 2 is their best album but I would have rated Last Puff much higher. It is very listenable and well done.
For those unfamiliar with it, "Ceremony" is an electronic/art-rock version of the Catholic/Anglican mass (communion service).
Great one..."Prayer" was the first Song I listened to and love it
@@harrype3283 “Prayer” is an ethereal and beautiful track.
A mention for drummer Mike Kellie, original band member, who later played with The Only Ones.
Funny, I did not know this, yet I was immediately able to picture him on the cover of the "Special View" compilation The Only Ones put out in the US. Never put it together in my head before, haha.
Saw them in 1969. They warmed up for Santana. Great gig that night.
Second great Best to Worst today! I have Spooky Two, and... that's it. Now I know I have to dig deeper. Thanks again, Pete.
The first album is called It's all about, and Ceremony is brilliant and their best.
I love the band's effort on the album but Henry's stupid sound effects ruin it for me. I wish it were remastered without the effects.
You Broke My Heart...& Spooky Two the best
The Mirror is my favorite album from Spooky Tooth. The title track gives me chills every time.
That album has held up really well. It's one I like more and more in recent years.
1) Spooky Two
2) It’s All About (aka Spooky Tooth)
3) Witness
4) The Mirror
5) You Broke My Heart So I Busted Your Jaw
6) Cross Purpose
7) The Last Puff
8) Ceremony
“Spooky Two” is my favourite album by them, and also enjoy “It’s All About...” but, “Ceremony” is a very cool, unique, and daring album.
Oui ! Spooky Tooth finds Jesus with a side order of wired synth offerings . Hammer hitting anvil is the best blind date background music ever . 😎
If you simply could take out Pierre Henry's parts on the album and leave just Spooky Tooth, you would hear one of their best efforts ever.
@@sportster16301 “Have Mercy” is the only track that has survived, with the original version without Pierre Henry. You can hear it on the Spooky Tooth box set.
@@sportster16301 If you listen to works by Pierre Henry , Pierre Schaeffer , Eno , Devo , Goblin , Basil Kirchin , Harold Budd , Gil Melle ( Tome VI ) , Beatles ( Carnival of Light ) , the immortal Karlheinz Stockhausen among countless others then you may get it . This stuff is composed out of the box . Walk the out of style ! Spooky Tooth wanted do something radical and different from what the typical unimaginative gringo public was expecting . Too few folk refuse to accept the avant garde . Don't get out the boat unless your going all the way . LOL ! 😎🤡🤡🤓🤓🧐🧐
I bought Spooky Two after a concert in Londerzeel Belgium initiated by Island Records. That evening also Jethro Tull, Free and Rory Callagher were on stage. Unforgettable. I went home with 4 classic albums. One of each group...
Another great list Pete, well done! I'm a huge Spooky Tooth fan, got all their stuff on vinyl still and upgraded to CD as they came out. I'm not as big a fan of The Mirror as you, I missed Harrison's vocals on that one. Patto is a great singer, but there was something special about Mike Harrison's voice (RIP). Completely concur about the second album, I've had it in many formats over the years. It's definitely a certified classic. Interestingly, I won a complete set of Spooky Tooth vinyl test pressings a couple years ago from the label that did their massive box set.
Great Post, @metaljim... I'm assumming "Jim" :)
You are Amazing man. Thank you for your clarity and awesome info! I've never been into S. Tooth. I'm ready now buddy! Thanks to you. I am one of these weirdos that love "Underdog" albums! Gonna play Ceremony first. Ya know I always thought the band was called Ceeremony. I saw it in the cut-out bins for years! Thanks again Pete!!!!
Thanks for this! I lost track of them after "Spooky Two". I will listen to more of their stuff now, based on your recommendations!
Appreciate your featuring a hugely underrated band with great players especially Gary Wright. By the way Luther Grosvenor’s last name is pronounced: grove’ nor. (The ‘S’ is silent).
Love your review. I am a Ridley fan.
Good ranking, thanks a lot!
I am glad I found this Pete , this was a fantastic albums, I am not sure if it was a hard-rock band but it has so. many styles.
Sorry, fantastic BAND
"The Last Puff," with the Beatles' cover "I Am The Walrus," is my go-to song when I need something stronger than coffee to get me going for a physical exercise session.
Damn...this channel gave me so much bands to listen. Love from India pete. You're star. 💯❤️🙏🤘
MIKE PATTO. What a towering talent!! Gone too soon and never got the recognition he deserved!
I love "Ceremony"!
Last Puff wasn't great, but "The Wrong Time" was definitely a great tune. "Holy Water" off the "Busted my Jaw" album is probably one of Harrison's best all time vocals. And have to agree about "Spooky Two". In fact, it's probably my favorite album of all time. Thanks for doing this video.
Thanks very helpful I used to have the album Witness awesome album 🙂
Thanks for this Pete.This was very informative for me,because for whatever reason, I never bought a Spooky Tooth record and never knew anyone that had one.So,I do not know their music,even though they have musicians like Greg Ridley who I loved in Humble Pie,Luther/Ariel Bender who I really liked in Mott the Hoople and Mick Jones who I respected his guitar work in Foreigner. I will start With the Spooky 2 album and go from there.Thanks!
Grosvenor is pronounced "Grow-vener" - a silent "s". There's a hotel in London called The Grosvenor, so the word's well-known if you live here. A great video. A few points. I have Cross Purpose. More on that shortly. Over the years there have been rumours that Ceremony could be remixed and Pierre Henry's random, painful contributions removed. It may be great art, but it's not a great experience. The actual songs are good. One original on The Last Puff is The Wrong Time, written by Gary Wright but sung by Mike Harrison. The singer sharing vocals with Gary on The Mirror was Mike Patto, who sounded like a proto-Bon Scott. The song Two-Time Love on that album seems to share an influence from The Band's Chest Fever with Deep Purple Mk.3's Might Just Take Your Life. The album has been issued as Comic Violence as well - not sure why or how. Spooky 2 is the classic. Cross Purpose is a funny mixture that somehow works. The only band-composition is Kiss It Better, a hard-rocking Stones/Mott-type of song. It ends the album but should've started it. The opener, a remake of That Was Only Yesterday, is successful, though - great bassline, and Mike Harrison's voice is as soulful as ever. There's a cover of Jimmy Stevens' Tears (Behind My Eyes) which is also very poignant. Then the band start songs written by individual members. Greg Ridley's It's You Girl (Message to Deborah) is particularly good. He sings it himself, and the organ part fits the mood perfectly. Luther Grosvenor's Throw Me a Line is pretty good, and he also sings it - his voice is Peter Gabrielesque. Mike Harrison revisits Love Is Real from the Art album, and makes it even spookier (pun). Mike Kellie's How is sung by Harrison, and is a good song. The band cover a World Party song called Sunshine, which seems quite similar to the original - the band liked doing covers on many albums, as Pete said. The band then play two well-worn covers, Send Me Some Lovin' and I Can't Believe (You Want to Leave), and these sound a little disposable to me. Overall, it's an 8/10 album. Mike Harrison's voice was one of the best. All his solo albums are worth hearing. The only prolific songwriter was Gary Wright, and he's also a great singer. Sometimes, it's hard to tell them apart.
Nice to see this. I love Spooky Tooth but a you have to really sift through their catalog to find the gems. I was thinking about Art and was pleasantly surprised to see you included it in your top ten. "Think I'm Going Weird" is incredible! Thank you!
I think The Last Puff album is a pretty good one and their cover versions quite tasty.It's the first album I heard back in the day and it has that laid back feel for the most part and yep when in the mood I like it.Love the I am the walrus version !
I have The Last Puff and Art - Supernatural Fairy Tales. I really like those albums and wanted to dig deeper into the band, this video was perfect for that.
The debut is titled "It's All About". Also, "The Last Puff" was intended to be the "launching pad" for Harrison's solo career while utilizing the Spooky Tooth name. "I Am The Walrus" would become a staple in their live set after Wright and Harrison reformed the band in early 1973. Do check out "Cross Purposes". It is surprisingly good.
I liked these guys back in the day.
Its god to see you doing some more obscure bands like Spooky Tooth and T. Rundgrens Utopia
Both those bands are great , RA by Utopia is fantastic and so is Spooky Tooth’s The Mirror !
Yesh I dig this band and love their sound 1 - Spooky Two
2 The Mirror
3 - You Broke my heart so I Busted your jaw
4 - Ceremony EVil Woman from Spooky Two contains a classic guitar solo from Luther Grosvenor that defies all Phantoms! Thanks Pete could you do albums rankings for Procol Harum and Spirit Cheers mate.
I grew up listening to this band
The first album was called It's All About in England, and Tobacco Road on a much later rerelease in the US. Also of note is the live concert DVD they filmed in a couple of reunion shows in Germany in the early 2000,s with three original members: Wright, Harrison and drummer Mike Kellie. Harrison sadly died a few months ago and Kellie and Greg Ridley are also gone. Grosvenor, as Ariel Bender, was recently playing in the US with Mott the Hoople, in their Mott '74 tour.
Hey Pete, I went on Spotify, turns out their debut is actually called: It's all about. Great review, I didn't know about Art
One more times!!! Second like ✌🎸😎👊.....Great Band👍
Try smoking some better stuff . It was the yoko / john follow up from their early noise albums . Hard Luther rock with pre ELP etc... Eno and Fripp may have been playing this backwards . In those days , not too many were getting real freaky with strange electronic sounds and hard rock . Zappa may have had this . Capt. Beefheart ? I put this on one nite ( late 60's ) real loud while a couple was upstairs having sex . Then left the house . Later the couple told me it destroyed their orgasms for the whole night . This is a great different music album . Albert Ayler ! Miles ,Big Fun etc... Randy Holden ! They played the Warehouse in NOLA in the early 70's . You have to have Mozart world ears to listen to this !
You Broke My Heart.... EXCELLENT record! Their best songs ever. Klaus Voorman cover art!
Spooky Two is my fave also. Ceremony is an album that a "surreal artist" friend of mine played constantly. It created a kind of "abrasive ambient texture" .
Yep, Ceremony fan here.
Also of note: before becoming Art, the band that would later become Spooky Tooth, the four core members -Harrison, Grosvenor, Ridley and Kellie- were in The V.I.P., who recorded a few singles in '67. There are live TV videos on CZcams. Curiously, they had Keith Emerson on keyboards for a while, before he went to The Nice. Lastly, the notorious 1970 rockumentary 'Groupies', has a section of the 'Ceremony' era band goofing around in a hotel room with some L.A. . groupies, of Grosvenor getting hot and heavy with another one in a club and, most tempting, just a short snippet of the band apparently playing one of the Ceremony pieces in a sound check inside a club.
Witness is without a doubt my favorite Album, always been
not even a mention of mind blowing "I am the Walrus" reinterpretation on Spooky Two.. ? definitely an amazing album.. wish I had kept my LP..
He did indeed mention "I am the Walrus". It´s not on Spooky Two, however, but on "The Last Puff".
Lange gesucht 56 Jahre ..Danke B und T...
pretty much agree with this order which is unusual. I love spooky two.
"Here I lived so Well" (In the Court of the Crimson King)
Finally watching some of these older rankings. Except for the bottom on my list I think these all have some worthy tracks.
8) Ceremony (Just... no)
7) Cross Purpose (Released 25 years after their last album, this is kinda faceless, but not bad.)
6) Witness
5) You Broke My Heart So I Busted Your Jaw
4) The Last Puff (This was the first of theirs that I heard, so it holds a special place for me.)
3) The Mirror
2) It's All About/Tobacco Road
1) Spooky Two
Thanks, Pete!
Hi, to save you choking on Luther's name again it's pronounced Gro - venor.
I find all the Mick Jones albums more consistently listenable than any of the others.
great live band ive got 4 live bootlegs and a live reunion album
That ceremony album reminds me of a studio recorded version of Greatful Dead space jams.
I like this band & i have many albums
Spooky Tooth had many solid albums. I agree with Spooky 2 being their best. I like Mirrors as my #2. What a band loaded with talent.
ceremony is my jam, most bizarre church service ever, great vocals from mike, solid organ playing from gary and intense electron work from pierre
The album would have been great but Pierre Henry's inane sound effects ruined it.
@@sportster16301 it's an album that's not for everyone but it works for me
The Art LP really should be a Spooky Tooth LP
Awesome Band
Spooky Too is correct! So was Utopia's first album. That's two for two!
The first one can't cope with the later ones
Huge Spooky Tooth fan here from way back after I caught them at a low key gig in Glen Cove NY. Spooky Two one of the very best albums from 1969. I've got all of these on Vinyl except for Art, and I've got The Mirror on CD. Think Mike Patto was the singer on that one. Ceremony a huge let down. Ditto for Last Puff. But overall I agree with these rankings.
Talking about Mick Jones in Spooky Tooth. Have you heard the two releases of a band named Black Sheep with Lou Gramm?
Yes indeed! I showed and discussed those on an earlier show a few months back. Excellent!
You Broke My Heart is the best!
I still have Dream Weaver on vinyl and digital. Very 70’s!
I have Spooky Two and The Last Puff. Excellent proto metal and heavy progrock. And I also have the compilation That Was Only Yesterday.
1. The Mirror
2. Spooky Two
3. Cross Purpose
4. You Broke My Heart....So I Busted Your Jaw
5. It's All About
enjoyed and agreed with most of your ratings.....i had the last puff rated a little higher though...always thought that i am the walrus and the wrong time were as good as anything this great band ever did...great vocals by mike harrison rip, great guitar work by luther grosvenor, and great drumming by mike kellie rip.
My favourites are from the Mick Jones era, being The Mirror #1.
I've started collecting Spooky Tooth from oldies dot Com...I have the mirror..You broke my heart, the last puff and cross purposes..
Why they never made it America the way that other UK bands with a similar sound like Free, Humble Pie, and Ten Years After did is something I'll never understand. I thought they were a cross between Traffic and Three Dog Night--good funky straight ahead rock with commercial appeal that deserved radio airplay (which eluded them in the States)
Spooky tooth can do a cover tune and it sound uniquely original.
I agree that …Busted Your Jaw and Witness are equal but put The Last Puff up with them.
My ranking is quite a bit different #1 tie between You broke my heart and Witness, #2 Spooky TWO, #3 The Last Puff, $4 It's All About, #5 The Mirror (no Mike Harrison) I don't consider Ceremony a Spooky Tooth album (the band really didn't either)
Is this band named in your honor Pete? 😉
I love Wildfire.
Back in 1989, I popped into a 2nd hand record shop and bought a couple of Christian related albums by mainstream bands of the 60s, "Together with him" by the Moonrakers {a late 60s psych[o]/nascent proggy pop fest} and "Ceremony" by Spooky Tooth. I thought the cover of "Ceremony" was horrible and when I listened to the record, I was scratching like crazy, like I had been subsumed into a nation of fleas. The noises that Pierre Henry made were so irritating that I was itching like I had the chickenpox !
Behind it, I could hear that the music sounded pretty good. But for a while, those noises, sort of random bleeps, utterances, electronic cut ups and whatnot were just too much.
But you know what ? I persevered and grew to love that album. I still have it and listen to it once in a while. I cannot blame anyone for hating it because even with a liking for a bit of avant garde stuff and free jazz {which, with some of those honking saxes and squealy violins and double basses is a real effort at the best of times}, it took me a while and I'm not surprised the band broke up after making the album. But it is a good album. Though I'm kind of used to its noises now and they don't irritate me and I sort of tune them out, I'd still say that it would have been a much better LP without them. No doubt.
I love the other one by the Moonrakers too and that one made me feel a little sick initially !
I have the last puff album on vinyl
Was always aware of Gary Wright, only hearing he came from Spooky Tooth. Then, about a year ago, I ran across this gem--czcams.com/video/kZA9v3KRyMs/video.html. Evil Woman. What a kick-ass song. What I found interesting was at about 4 minutes in, Gary Wright and the guitarist (Grosvenor?) face off. The guitarist looks like he is kicking Wright's butt. What a blistering guitar solo!!!!!
Have you ever done a worst to best on Foreigner?
R.I.P. Mike Harrison
i dont know what is so wrong with late 60'spsychedelia .it certainly lead to some very interesting musical concoctions.Art actually had a little side project in 1967,namely the lp Hapshash and the coloured coat featuring the heavy metal kids abd the human host,released 1967 on the Uk Minit label and on Imperial in the us.Hapshash were basically poster artists Nigel Weymouth and Michael English,who also ran Granny takes a trip boutique.they were very friendly with Guy Stevens who was atalentscout for island records,so thye band was roped in tho provide backing for the first Hapshash lp,for legal reasons they werent mentioned.Hapshash recorded another album in early 1969 with Mike Batt as producer
I love Ceremony, it gets a bum rap. Just need to listen to it a few times.
Hi sea of tranquility had second lp sealed original copy around $ 250 first lp is around $350.00 it's on Bell label had third lp u.k label on island that lp is oround 175.00 $ 200. Plus depending on condition .Mike Harrison left made a solo lp wasn't able to locate copy hard to find
Patto was another great band had couple of his lps . Another great band was Ronnie Montrose but without Sammy Hagar 3rd lp is actually very good lp . Andromeda with John Du cann later went to Atomic Rooster with Vincent crane and Carl Palmer left and formed ELP.rest is history .
Totally disagree - Ceremony for me is one of the classic prog rock albums - do not really understand why people jump on the hate wagon
Totally agree. Ceremony is by far their best album. Utterly brilliant. The song Hosanna is a masterpiece of prog rock.
@@joeking5310, it is unlistenable.
Huge Spooky Tooth fan BUT Ceremony is absolute garbage 🙉🙉🙉
Mine from worst to first are
Cross Purpose
The Mirror
The Last Pufft
Ceremony
Witness
It’s All About
You Broke My Heart So I Busted Your Jaw
Spooky Two
By the was Cross Purpose isn’t bad if you take it at face value. Gary does not play on it, kind of mellow.
Cross purpose is very good...
Dont cheat Pete
7) Ceremony , its absolutely terrible
6) The last puff , stiil overrated , nothing impresses really
5) Its all about .... better , its ok
4) You broke my heart so i busted your jaw , very good.
3) Witness , similar to You broke my heart but better!
2) Spooky 2 ,excellent
1)The Mirror ,absolutely brilliant, 100 time better than Foreigner !
Witness and Mirror are the bottom of the barrel, Ceremony and Last Puff rock out
Someone would have to pay me to care what this clown has to say.
LOTS of 0's on that check please LMAO
What are you on about?
The last puff album is decent, this guy doesn't know what he's talking about.
Hard Rock ? Ridiculous...
Guess you haven't listened to much Spooky Tooth then. PLENTY of their songs are hard rock.