Caravan

5-17-10

Caravan

Along with Soft Machine, a fine Canterbury band…

CD BBC 1969 - 1973 pirate MY PHENIX ZA 88

1996? 10 TRKS Live, pirate CD of poorly recorded BBC radio broadcasts – musically, very interesting

LP CARAVAN & THE NEW SYMPHONIA LONDON US PS 650

1974 5 TRKS Live

CD CARAVAN & THE NEW SYMPHONIA re DECCA UK 882969.2

1974 10 TRKS (5 x bonus tracks) Live '74 ('01 issue)

LP CARAVAN MGM UK 2353 058

1969 8 TRKS stereo, 1st album

CD CARAVAN UNIVERSAL JPN UICY-9208

1969 9 TRKS ('02 issue) kami sleeve (1 x bonus track)

LP FOR GIRLS WHO GROW PLUMP IN THE NIGHT DERAM UK SDL-R 12

1973 7 TRKS The first Caravan LP I ever heard

CD FOR GIRLS WHO GROW PLUMP IN THE NIGHT (UNIVERSAL JPN UICY-9060

1973 12 TRKS ('01 issue) kami sleeve (5 x bonus tracks)

7" HEADLOSS (mono) / (stereo) promo LONDON US 5N-20080-DJ

1973 2 TRKS no pic sleeve, promo

7" HEARTBREAKER / IT'S NEVER TOO LATE KINGDOM UK KV 8009

1980 2 TRKS with pic sleeve

CD IF I COULD DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN… UNIVERSAL JPN UICY-9065

1970 12 TRKS ('01 issue) kami sleeve (4 x bonus tracks)

LP IN THE LAND OF GREY AND PINK DERAM UK SDL-R 1

1971 5 TRKS Probably my favorite Caravan LP

CD IN THE LAND OF GREY AND PINK UNIVERSAL JPN UICY-9058

1971 10 TRKS ('01 issue) kami sleeve (5 x bonus tracks)

7" STUCK IN A HOLE / LOVER DECCA UK FR 13599

1975 2 TRKS no pic sleeve

LP WATERLOO LILY LONDON US XPS 615

1970? 7 TRKS

CD WATERLOO LILY UNIVERSAL JPN UICY-9059

1972 9 TRKS ('01 issue) kami sleeve (3 x bonus tracks)

I like them well enough to have purchased most of their original early albums as little paper album cover CD’s the last time I visited Japan, in 2007.

I was always amused by vocalist Richard Sinclair, whose contributions to the first LP by Hatfield & The North are wonderful. I mean, what is Hatfield & The North except Caravan with the keyboard player from Egg? Seriously, I love this stuff. And when you can’t get enough Caravan…there’s always National Health.

Start with “In The Land of Grey & Pink”, then go on to “For Girls Who Grow Plump In The Night”. If you don’t get the joke by then, give up. The others won’t help.

So, why did they make Caravan 45’s in the US? It’s not like they were ever going to get played on anything but “Progressive” FM stations, anyway – stations that notoriously did not ever play 45’s.

I recently found the British re-mastered CD of “Caravan & The New Symphonia” – the new CD about doubles the length of the original LP. I never got this far with Caravan at the time. I don’t quite know why.