Pearls Before Swine/Tom Rapp folk psych greats albums: track by track *

track 3) The Baptist

No youtube plays or lyrics
but you can access the third track here in the full album play.
...at the 9:15 minute mark.

 

track 4) Summer Of '55

 

track 5) Tiny Song

No plays, but you can access it at the full album play...on track 3.

 

track 6) Stardancer

Another stunning TOM RAPP song...



When my father went to space
I woke up one morning and he was gone
I would lie out in the yard
And try to see a falling star
Something to wish upon (something to wish upon)

Out there on the edge of things
He would be freelancing
In the midnight sprinkled sky
He would open up his hands and go
Stardancing (stardancing)

Sometimes I would watch a star and it would break loose from the sky
A tongue of fire in the air when a star falls home to die (home to die)
I always felt my father touched them and if the sky were torn
Somewhere beyond his hand, another one was born (another one was born)

For a man who needs a place, where he can see a star
The open land above the air is where the answers are
When stars go burning through the night
You can never touch them all
On the razor edge of space
Stardancers sometimes fall
Stardancre

It's falling, always falling
And I would watch it all
To see me a stardancer
And watch my father fall

When my father went to space, I woke up one morning and he was gone
I would lie out in the yard and try to see a falling star

I could wish upon

Stardancer stardancer

 

track 7) Marshall

 

track 8) Why Should I Care

Also only accessed thru the album play

 

track 9) Touch Tipping

No individual play...Full album..."I'm doing the work, doc".*
*If you get that obscure film reference, you go to the the head of the class!

 

track 10) Les Ans


The final track. You what I'm going to say...just do it.

 

Sunforest (1973) will be the next to explore in a couple days...
his "final LP"... for the next 25 years :

[Journal Of The Plague Year (released in 1999), is one of his strongest efforts
and the most realized album of Rapp's long and fruitful career.]



AllMusic Review by Stewart Mason

Tom Rapp's last album for over a quarter of a century, released in 1973 just before he left pop music to become a civil rights lawyer in Philadelphia, doesn't have the cracked acid-folk majesty of his two ESP-Disk releases or the haunting delicacy of his four Reprise albums (all released under the name Pearls Before Swine, though Sunforest's cover painting shows Rapp sporting a Pearls Before Swine button, it was released as a solo album).

Yet although Sunforest is easily the weakest of Rapp's albums, it still has much to recommend it. Rapp is a gifted, intelligent lyricist with a streak of wry humor (check the bittersweet closer "Sunshine and Charles": "She was 16 when she met Jesus/He was the Puerto Rican kid who lived next door/They got married and they loved each other/Up until the day they didn't anymore") and a storytelling talent both fanciful and sharp. The surprising calypso lilt of the joyous opener "Comin' Back" sounds like Van Dyke Parks' Discover America, which had come out the year before, but most of the rest of the album stays in the styles Rapp had explored on his earlier records. There are lengthy, mystical ballads like the title track; desolate and haunted tunes like "Forbidden City"; and the puckish "Love/Sex," a forceful reply to Stephen Stills' "dig my swingin' ways" load of horseflop "Love the One You're With."

Nearly all the songs are worthwhile (though Rapp justifiably dismisses the negligible "Someplace to Belong" in the CD reissue's liner notes), and only the less interesting than usual production keeps this from being a top-drawer Rapp release.

 

Sunforest



Sunforest was the ninth album recorded by American singer-songwriter Tom Rapp (either with or without his group Pearls Before Swine), his second for Blue Thumb Records, and his final record before his lengthy retirement from the music industry after the mid-1970s.

Sunforest was released in 1973 and was credited to "Tom Rapp / Pearls Before Swine". Like its immediate predecessor, Stardancer, the album was recorded with members of the touring group Pearls Before Swine (Art Ellis and Bill Rollins), supplemented by a selection of prominent Nashville session musicians.

The content of the album, which is not generally regarded as one of his best, is very varied, but generally more upbeat than most of Rapp's work, with the up-tempo "Comin' Back" and "Someplace To Belong" almost rating as pop songs. "Love/Sex" is a riposte to Stephen Stills' "Love The One You're With", containing the line "Love will get you through times of no sex / Better than sex will get you through times of no love", while the title track "Sunforest" is an attempt at a traditional folk ballad. "Forbidden City" and "Blind River" show some jazz influences. "Sunshine & Charles" is one of Rapp's own favourite songs[2] and contains the classic line: "She was 16 when she found Jesus / He was a Puerto Rican kid and he lived next door".

The sleeve design showed a cover painting of Rapp, and two small reproductions of paintings by Henri Rousseau were included on the back cover.

Sunforest was reissued on CD by Demon Records in 1998, and again by Lemon Records in the UK in 2009.[3]

All tracks composed by Tom Rapp

1. "Comin' Back" - 2:59
2. "Prayers Of Action" - 3:05
3. "Forbidden City" - 2:51
4. "Love / Sex" - 4:04
5. "Harding Street" - 3:40
6. "Blind River" - 4:57
7. "Someplace To Belong" - 2:53
8. "Sunforest" - 6:19
9. "Sunshine & Charles" - 4:55

Personnel

• Tom Rapp - Vocals, Guitar
• Art Ellis - Flute, Congas, Vocals
• Bill Rollins - Cello
• Steve McCord - Guitar, Musical Advisor
• Jim Colvard - Dobro, Guitar
• Charlie McCoy - Bowed Psaltery, Harmonica, Harp, Organ
• Buzz Cason - Vocals
• Diane Harris - Vocals
• Chuck Cochran - Piano, String Arrangements
• Buddy Spicher - Electric Viola, Violin
• David Briggs - Piano
• Mike Leech - Bass, String Arrangements
• Farrell Morris - Percussion
• Bobby Wood - Piano
• Reggie Young - Piano
• Karl Himmel - Drums, Percussion
• Bobby Thompson - Dobro, Guitar, Banjo
• Kenny Buttrey - Drums
• Bob Dorough - Piano
• Bill Salter - Bass
• Warren Smith - Marimba

Other credits

• Recorded at House of Cash, Quadrafonic Sound, Woodland Sound Studios, and Electric Lady
• Produced by Larry Butler and Peter H. Edmiston
• Engineers : Charlie Bragg, Gene Eichelberger, Rex Collier, Dick Shapiro

 

Tim Lukeman
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
5.0 out of 5 stars A last walk through the Sunforest before the 1970s fell

Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2013


This final 1970s release from Tom Rapp/Pearls Before Swine is of a piece with the entire PBS catalog -- and that's a very good thing. In the excellent "American Troubadours" writer Mark Brend said that if one criticism could be made of Rapp's music, it's that it didn't change or grow with the times. I disagree -- to me, Rapp found his groove right from the start & just continued writing the songs he wanted to write & sing, rather than making concessions to commercialism. What's interesting is that time has vindicated his integrity, as new generations discover his wonderful body of work, admiring it precisely for being true to itself.

Still, all the integrity in the world doesn't help if the songs aren't good to begin with ... but these are very good indeed, fully as poignant, mysterious, and achingly humane as anything Rapp ever wrote. "Love/Sex" is his scathing response to the then-current hit from Steven Stills, "Love the One You're With" (which was always catchy musically but vapid lyrically); "Prayers of Action" is one of the few spiritually inclined songs of that era that remains truly heartfelt & meaningful; and the title track "Sunforest" is a last folk-Medieval song defiantly out of place in glam 1973, and all the more lovely & otherworldly because of it. The trippy magic has mellowed just a bit since those heady days of 1967, but it's still strong & honest. -amazon

 

track 1) Comin' Back

Love this catchy opener.



I was out on the street today
Everyone was high
The sun was comin' over the hill
And everything was fine

Everything was fine
Everything was fine, fine, fine
Everything was fine
Everything was fine

Joy is comin' back
Just been hiding
Joy is comin' back
And it's fine

Grew so fast it caught some tears
In a pool of surprise
Down on the corner I thought I saw
A blessing in disguise

There in the sky
And everything was fine, fine, fine
Everything was fine
Everything was fine

Joy is comin' back
It's just been hiding
Joy is comin' back
And it's fine

Everywhere the wind was
Thought I heard a song
Everyone was comin' back
To try and sing along

And a man said to his buddy, Pain
"Hey, get your fingers off of me!"
Out on the corner was another man
He was about to see
He was about to see

That everything was fine, fine, fine
Everything was fine
Everything was fine
Joy is comin' back

Just been hiding
Joy is comin' back
And it's fine

Everywhere the wind was
Thought I heard a song
Everyone was comin' back
To try and sing along

Joy is comin' back
Just been hiding
Joy is comin' back
And it's fine

Joy is comin' back
Just been hiding
Joy is comin' back
And it's fine

 

track 2) Prayers Of Action

Wonderful metaphor...lovely tune...
All of us are prayers of action.

Fits perfectly in the Pearls Before Swine/Tom Rapp canon.



Oh, children, don't you weep
If the road is long
All of us are prayers of action
On our way to God
On our way to God

Some of us are long and rambling
Sometimes lost for years
Some of us are small and holy
Beautiful and clear

Oh, children, don't you weep
If the road is long
All of us are prayers of action
On our way to God
On our way to God

 

track 3) Forbidden City

I do love this album...lovely music and effects.



Trembling with death,
The signs clack in the air,
Like wind chimes.

In the forbidden city,
The winter carves white silhouettes,
Along the avenue.

And everything is simple,
And everything is new.

The blonde-faced lady is frozen,
With one hand waving around her neck,
Like an alabaster statue.

And jewels encircle like a chain of ice,
And all that moves around her is the light.

In the forbidden city,
All things are made of glass,
Red and gold bands form in the frost,
As the light goes past,
Ideas pause waiting to be born,
And I have always thought of snow as peace,
A snow parched stone falls in a pond,
No circles form again, again, again, again,
And there is an end,
Of pain.

Trembling with death,
The signs clack in the air,
Like wind chimes.

 

track 4) Love/Sex

Beautiful song...great sentiment.
With a bit of a reference to Stills...

If you don't love the one you're with,
then why not just wait for the one you love?.



I want to meet somebody
That I can talk to
I want to meet somebody
I can make love with, not to

Bodies on bodies
Like sacks upon shelves
People are using each other
To make love to themselves

And we all use our bodies
As a place to hide
And meet all the other bodies
With people hiding inside

If all that is touching
Is just what you wear
I guess that not sharing
Is the only thing we share

Somewhere

Somewhere we lost real love
Somewhere along the line
They say get it while you can
Get it while you can
But don't get left behind

And if you don't love
The one that you're with
Why don't you just
Wait for the one that you love?
And she'll love you, too

Today I met somebody
That I can talk to
Today I met somebody
I can make love with, not to

She says love will get you
Through times of no sex
Better than sex will get you
Through times of no love

We wrote that on the wall
We wrote that on the wall
We wrote that on the wall

And why don't you
Write that on your wall, too

 

track 5) Harding Street

Love it...pure Rapp.



I met a girl today
She asked me if I knew her
Around her neck she wore
The small half of a wishbone
She never trusted

Happiness or strangers
'Cause both of them
Are just the same
They're just the same to her

I saw my friend on Harding Street
And I asked to have a word
When she was a child
She saw Jesus in the flowers
The wind was the breath of God
Whispering in the world

And when she found that
She couldn't be a saint
For all the men who found her
She was like some magic creature
That dissolves in its own tears

I saw my friend on Harding Street
And I talked to him of fear
She raised her hand to touch my face
She offered to be kinder, and I said
If I wasn't lost myself
I'd be the first to find you

When she says she hates to be alone
What can you tell her
That she hasn't heard at least
A hundred times before?

I saw my friend on Harding Street
And said that I didn't want anymore

"I think you want a priest," I said
With magic in his fingers
He will save you with his touch
And he will heal you with his body

Perhaps our crowns of loneliness
Would not just lock together
If love was something better than it is
I must go back to Harding Street
So I can try again

 

track 6) Blind River


Yes. Love it.
Great instrumentation and fantastic flute...lyrics, tune.



I've seen your face before
Oh, won't you stay?
It's such a lonely day out
An eclipse of the sun
I think you're going to be the one
I think you're going to be the one

And we all play our part
In each other's pain
A crowd of people all alone
Rhetorical answers, crocodile smiles
I think that we all need someone
I think that we all need someone

Blind fish in a green river
Cast upon the shores of the untried
I'm going to take my pain in both my hands
I'm going to throw it away
I think that this could be the day

I've seen your face before
Oh, won't you stay?
It's such a lonely day out
Can you give it back the sun?
I think you're going to be the one
I think you're going to be the one

 

track 7) Someplace To Belong

Upbeat with some nice organ...a little Donovan like
in a good way.



When you're nobody
'Til somebody else comes along
When you're nobody
'Til somebody else sings your song

I know you, I know you, I know you
And you've got
Someplace to belong

Known you were coming
I'd have written this song long ago
Someplace to belong

Known you were a coming
I'd have written this song long ago
You think you're such a hero
For doing your act so well and yet

Don't you know deep inside
You're doing your act without a net
And you've got
Someplace to belong

Known you were coming
I'd have written this song long ago
Someplace to belong
Known you were leaving

I'd have written this song long ago
And you're afraid of the dark
At both ends of your life
Just because they're not at your fingertips

All those thing you can't see
They say, "It's alright, it's alright
It's alright, it's alright."
You got someplace to belong

Known you were coming
I'd have written this song long ago
Someplace to belong
Known you were coming
I'd have written this song long ago

It's alright, it's alright
It's alright, it's alright

 

track 8) Sunforest

Great title track



In a faraway land
Where my story opens
There dwelt a fair young maiden
She spied a king in chains

His eyes were filled with pain
His feet were cloven twain
She said, "Oh, kind sir
It hurts my heart to see you
I will come to free you."

And she helped off his chains
And he wickedly smiled upon her
He said, "This gift I give you
This sad gift I give you:

Your tears shall turn to jewels
You shall rue the morning
If my secret is not revealed
I will come to own you."

Then he mounted up his steed
It was a golden stallion
Riding in the morning mist
Like a ghostly galleon
It's mane was all of ashes
"Oh, my heart," said the maid
"I am lost forever."

And then the maid began to weep
Diamonds and rubies and opals at her feet

And the word went out for miles
To every castle and sty
People came from miles around
To make the maiden cry

And Oh, what things were done
It makes the heart to shudder
But she heard above it all
A voice that seemed to thunder:

"Your tears shall turn to jewels
You shall rue the morning
If my secret is not revealed
I will come to own you

Then there came a peasant boy
A fair young man was he
Said, "I will rescue thee.
Wickedness is born to magic
But we our own must be."

And he took her to the sunforest
Where both of them could be
He said, "All men do make their chains
And every link a jewel
And when they leave this world dead
I believe they leave as fools

I think you are a sign from God
That all things come from pain
But I do not think that God did this
Such a thing I know it could not ever be

And though I am but a peasant boy
And do not know of kings
I do but know this song of joy
It is of that I sing."

"I think I know the answer now
I think I know," said she
And then the chained king did appear
His eyes all flaming skyward
He said, "I want you now."

His beard the devil's fire
He said:
"Your tears shall turn to jewels
You shall rue the morning
If my secret is not revealed
I have come to take you."

And around his feet he gathered
All the jewels she had made him
But one look in her eyes betold
That his secret had been answered
His secret had been answered

And the king, he shook with rage
And the fire pulled him downward
The only other sound they could hear
Was the jewels turning back to tears
The jewels turning back to tears

And in her freedom the maid did laugh
Her bestest laughter ever
Her tears of laughter changed to jewels
And they did last forever
Deep in the sunforest
They did last forever

 

track 9) Sunshine and Charles

Nice closer.




When Sunshine met Charles
They were both broken
They had long discussions
In the back of the car

They both agreed
It's hard not to love someone
When you first see
How fragile they are

They didn't make a sound
When the day of the angel
Is coming around
And how do you keep it together

In a world that's choking with harm
One way that they found
To keep it together
Was holding each other

Together in the dark
It's time not to be lost anymore
When the day of the angel
Is outside your door

She said, "All I want
Is something to believe in
Something I can hold in my hand
Something I can understand."

When they began unloving each other
The distance between them began to set in
She broke the rule about keeping it together
By taking things apart

And one thing was him
Yes, in bed but not in love
The day of the angel
Is one more thing gone

Love is a thing
That hangs on when it's over
Like unscrambling eggs
Or trying not to think

And uncertain smiles
They quickly grow older
With days of lost comfort
That no one can bring

There's nothing a friend can say
When the day of the angel
Is falling away
She said, "All I want
Is something to believe in
Something I can hold in my hand
Something I can understand."

She was sixteen
When she found Jesus
He was a Puerto Rican kid
And he lived next door

They got married
And they loved each other
All the way
Until the day they didn't anymore

It's time to recycle your pain
When the day of the angel
Comes back again
She said, "All I want
Is something to believe in
Something I can hold in my hand
Something I can understand."

 

Next and finally...soon

 

Tom Rapp

 

We come now to Tom Rapp's last album...and a masterpiece it is!
A Journal Of The Plague Year




A Journal of the Plague Year was an album released on CD in 1999 by American singer-songwriter Tom Rapp, leader of the 1960s/70s psychedelic folk group Pearls Before Swine. It was his first new album for 26 years, and included collaborations with Damon and Naomi and Nick Saloman.


All songs written by Tom Rapp unless otherwise noted.

Tracks

1. "Silver Apples (a cappella)" – 1:56 (Yeats / Rapp)
2. "The Swimmer (for Kurt Cobain)" – 3:51
3. "Blind" – 3:15
4. "Space" – 3:27
5. "Mars" – 3:23
6. "Hopelessly Romantic" – 3:38
7. "Running in My Dream" – 4:52
8. "Wedding Song" – 4:15
9. "Silver Apples II (for Simeon)" – 2:35 (Yeats / Rapp)
10. "Shoebox Symphony" – 10:46
    1. Where Is Love?
    2. State U
    3. Just Let the Grass Grow

Musicians

• Tom Rapp - Vocals, Guitar, Harmonica
• Olvardil Prydwyn - Harp, Mandolin, Shenai, Flute
• Naomi Yang - Bass, Vocals
• Damon Krukowski - Drums, Percussion, Vocals
• Nick Saloman - Guitar, Organ, Drums, Mellotron
• Ade Shaw - Bass, Effects
• David Rapp - Electric Guitar
• Carl Edwards - Violin, Vocals
• Andrea Troolin - Cello

Other credits

• Produced and engineered by Damon Krukowski at Kali Studios, Cambridge, Mass.
• Except "Shoebox Symphony" produced b

 

9/10 stars by AllMusic...for me it is 10/10!

AllMusic Review by Matt Fink

Being his first album in over 25 years, it would have been altogether excusable had Tom Rapp re-emerged being a little rusty. Nothing could be further from the truth, however, as Rapp has created a very satisfying set of haunting, slightly surreal folk ballads.

Understated beauty saturates tracks like "The Swimmer (For Kurt Cobain)," which is highlighted by a splendidly plucked harp that echoes Rapp's fingerpicked guitar and harmonica. "Blind" definitely has a Dylanesque quality to it, as many songs on the album do, and Rapp uses vivid imagery to color his dreamlike narrations.

Haunting chord progressions that bring to mind the best work of Cat Stevens turn up on "Space," and there are excellent violin and mandolin touches on "Hopelessly Romantic." Possibly the most vibrant statement on Rapp's return is the ten-minute, three-part epic "Shoebox Symphony," which was adapted from a tape found in a shoebox that was left over from his days with Pearls Before Swine. The piece passes through straightforward folk-rock to frightening psychedelic elements before it is seemingly spliced to an old children's folk song.

All in all, Rapp has definitely returned with his artistic vision intact, and having created such an impressive returning statement, one hopes he doesn't wait another 25 years before recording another...

....................

Sadly that was not to be.