Rating: **** (4 stars)
Title: Virginia Woolf
Company: Water Street
Catalog: WST 1001
Year: 1972
Grade (cover/record): VG+/VG+
Comments: still in shrink wrap; though opened and wrap is torn; includes original lyric insert
Available: 1
GEMM catalog number:
Price: $120.00
While in his teens, Snopek became interested in mixing classical music with rock and roll. The late-'60s found him attending the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee as a music major. Deciding to form a band to try out his musical ideas, Snopek formed The Bloomsbury People in 1968. Playing local dances and clubs generated a cult following, followed by a recording contract with the small local Page Records. A one shot 1969 single "Have You Seen Them Cry" b/w "Madeline" (Page catalog number 1109) vanished without a trace, but attracted the attention of MGM Records, which promptly signed the band, releasing a sought after 1970 self titled album (see separate entry).
Billed as a Snopek solo effort, for all intents and purposes 1972's "Virginia Woolf" served as The Bloomsbury People's sophomore release. Regardless of the marketing effort, the album was easily one of the year's most intriguing (and oddest) efforts. With Snopek credited with penning all selections, the album served as a concept piece apparently built around the life of the famed novelist/namesake Woolf. Musically it's one of the strangest album's we've ever heard (probably explaining why the collection's attracted a fevered cult following). Written as an interconnecting suite (though the plotline is largely lost on us - the liner notes say "Virginia Woolf came to me one early morning, told me the story of her suicide and her for the war ... In her song the Nazi war drums tell her death as she sinks into the sea ..."), the collection bounces across different genres, mixing a host of styles including blues (""), classical motifs ("Prelude"), jazz (parts of "Blue"), conventional pop (the pretty ballad "Elizabeth") and even early progressive moves ("El Ciudad (the City) Part 1"). Weird, yet oddly fascinating, this is one of those albums that you simply can't begin to accurately describe. You literally need to hear it to get a feel for it ...
"Virginia Woolf" track listing:
1.) Prelude (Sigmund Snopek III) - 0:55
2.) El Ciudad (the City) (Sigmund Snopek III) -
Part 1 - 3:40
Part 2 - 2:04
3.) Orange/Blue
Orange (Sigmund Snopek III) - 2:59
Blue (Sigmund Snopek III) -10:17
4.) Elizabeth (Sigmund Snopek III) -3:42
5.) Soothsayer's Dove (Sigmund Snopek III) -2:25
6.) Virginia Woolf (Sigmund Snopek III) -11:12
7.) Song of a Nation (Sigmund Snopek III) -2:54
8.) Epilogue (Sigmund Snopek III) - 0:45
Adding a pair of bonus tracks (the extended instrumental "Lifencave Book Two" and updated remake of "Orange/Blue"), the Gearfab label reissued the collection as a double LP in the mid-'90s (catalog number GFC 421 DLP).