Backtrackin' (Them album) cover
(click on cover image
for larger version)

Backtrackin'
(US Them album)

London PS 639
(Released October, 1974)

Side A:

  1. Richard Cory (2:44)
  2. I Put a Spell on You (2:35)
  3. Just a Little Bit (2:00)
  4. I Gave My Love a Diamond (2:50)
  5. Half as Much (3:05)

Side B:
  1. Baby Please Don't Go (2:40)
  2. Hey Girl (3:00)
  3. Don't Start Crying Now (2:40)
  4. All for Myself (2:45)
  5. Mighty Like A Rose (4:00) *

* Previously unreleased.

Original LP liner notes: (thanks to the Eggman for the transcription)
One way to fight the future shock of disc inundation is to recollect past treasures, re-discover the juicy joys of primal periods. You're holding a key to such treasures.

All these Them nuggets were impossible to find in one package. (i.e., LP form) before this very moment. Many of them have never been released in our country.

This set is just one big healthy concoction for Anglophiles and an incredible new adventure for anyone who was, say, four years old when records were released in the mid-sixties.

The True Meaning of Them
Led by one of the finest singers ever to lend a note or lay down a life for Rock 'n Roll, Van Morrison, Them never gained the prominence of a Rolling Stones or an Animals (two groups whose raunchy R&B--cum--anglo--arrogance is akin).

Morrison's group was simply too self-effacing in the visual department to ever truly compete with the Stones. In his fine liner annotation of London's previous sixties--re-cycling of Them material (titled Them with Van Morrison, lead singer Parrot BP 71053/4), Lester Bangs, Creem's whiz chief-editor touched on this subject:

"We could hardly believe that this short pudgy replica of the gray nerd who sat behind you through a whole semester of Driver Education and never spoke a word, that that absolute antithesis of every superstar image ever stamped in our skulls, could be the helmsman of this wild night's ride".
The Meaning of the Music
Every cut here, despite no wah-wah chicanery nor electronic doodlings, represents the most progressive form of R'n'R. This is the new music at a burgeoning popint; one can hear the Band, the Stooges, James Brown, Love, the Jefferson Airplane, the Troggs, Traffic, the Doors and even Alice Cooper reelin' in the years to this music.

From the pulsating bass intro of "Baby, Please Don't Go" you realize this ain't like nothin' goin down anywhere nomo'.

"Hey Girl", with it's watery piano, butterfly flute, and Jack Cassidy bass is as mesmeric and vital as any of Mr. M's new material.

If you think Capt. Beefheart has the "nasty-vocals" award sewed up. take a gander at "Don't Start Crying Now" or the likes of "All For Myself". Balls!

Remember "Brown-Eyed Girl"? (It's not here). Well, its father, "Mighty Like A Rose" is one elegant slice of raunch and it's here in spades. It's a summer song about a nympho and her sugar cubes.

Believe it or not "Richard Cory" is the same song by Garfunkels old partner. Van attacks it with the same pizazz as he did with Bobby D's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue", which is to say he turns it inside out and makes it anew.

For Sleazy-sax, don't jump over Screamin' Jay's classic "I Put A Spell On You". It's first rate.

Peter Hay

Part of the van-the-man.info unofficial website