Rating: **** (4 stars)
Title: Forever Is a Dream
Company: Capitol
Catalog: ST-304
Year: 1969
Grade (cover/record): VG/VG
Comments: still in shrink wrap; cut out hole in top right corner
Available: 1
GEMM catalog ID: 4209
Price: $200.00
Cost: $111.60
This one's always been somewhat of a mystery to us. First off, there doesn't seem to be a great deal of biographical info on these guys. They certainly didn't leave behind an extensive catalog. Besides, how come the cover shows four guys, while the liner notes and the back cover photo show the band to be a five piece ... who's missing on the cover?
Chicago-based Food sported a line up consisting of keyboardist Ted Ashford, bassist Eric Scott Flipowitz, drummer Barry Mraz, singer Steve Whiteand guitarist Bill Wukovich. If you subscribe to the popular story they were discovered by the same outfit that found Grand Funk Railroad. Along with Grand Funk, they were signed by Capitol, but with Grand Funk generating strong sales, Capitol lost all interest in Food.
Produced by Ashford "Forever Is a Dream" is pretty darned impressive. True, it may not be the year's most original offering, but with three of the five members contributing material, material such as the extended title track, "What It Seems To Be" and "Marbled Wings" is literally drenched in a dense and dreamy aura. It's all wrapped up in a series of attractive melodies, intriguing lyrics, coupled with plenty of fuzz guitar, whacked out drumming and interesting bits of orchestration, including some surprisingly nice horn charts ("No"). Elsewhere, on material such as " Native Prayers" and "Fountains of My Mind" vocalist White sounds like he's been partying pretty hard. Great headphone album !!!
"Forever Is a Dream" track listing:
(side
1)
1.) Forever Is a Dream (Ted Ashford - Steve White - Bill
Wukovich) - 5:49
2.) Native Prayers (Bill Wukovich) - 4:45
3.) No (Ted Ashfrod) - 2:43
4.) Lady Miss Ann (Steve White - Bill Wukovich) - 3:03
5.) Fountains of My Mind (Ted Ashford - Steve White) - 3:03
6.) Coming Back (Steve White - Bill Wukovich) - 2:50
(side
2)
1.) What It Seems To Be (Steve White) - 6:00
2.) Inside the Mirror (Bill Wukovich) - 2:17
3.) Marbled Wings (Bill Wukovich) - 2:10
4.) Traveling Light (Ted Ashford - Steve White - Bill Wukovich) - 2:44
5.) Leaves (Ted Ashford - Steve White) - 3:22
6.) Here We Go
Again (Steve White) - 3:58
Supposedly a couple of these songs were used in the soundtrack for the porn flick 'The Babysitters'.
Yep, "Forever is a dream" is one of the most amazing deja vu LPs you'll ever come across. Amazing, because it's still a lot of fun and a solid listen all through... in fact it's better than a lot of the LPs that it sounds like. This isn't strange, because I doubt Food ever listened to the various groups they resemble – instead they, being located in Chicago, managed to place themselves at the absolute intersection of all the musical crosscurrents that ran between L A and London in the whiteboy melodic psych sea of the late 1960s. The end result is a tapestry of zeitgeist sounds that is pretty much the ultimate incarnation of an era. You could hang it in a museum with a "Mainstream psychedelia 1968" affixed to it, or send it out in a space capsule for aliens who want to learn about incense, peppermints and fake John Lennon moustaches.
OK, so why does it still work? Well, the songwriting is good – it's not just imitations, but processed and regurgiated "food", with just enough unique seasoning to be delightfully swallowed by any fan of the genre. Secondly, their A&R guy had a better devised payment plan than the Common People, meaning that there was enough studio time and session hacks available to give the entire LP a uniform, fully realized sound, elaborate and impressive like the David or even the '67-68 Curt Boettcher LPs. And finally, the glue that holds the LP together is Steve White's vocals, which aren't necessarily brilliant but with a clear identity and presence throughtout the various chameleon tricks of the album.