Tuesday, January 4, 2022

Marmalade - Reflections of My Life - Non-Album Tracks (1969-1970)

I'm slowly making my way through the rest of the best of Marmalade's musical output. 

Around the start of this album, the band's fortunes took a turn for the better because they changed record companies. The previous company was short sighted, pushing the band to record singles written by professional songwriters. Under the terms of their new contract, they were freer to write and record their own material. The first two songs are the last from their time with the previous record company, and it still fits that mode. But then they hit it out of the park with their first single for their new record company: "Reflections of My Life." This original song hit number three in Britain and number 10 in the US. More importantly, it has gone on to become a classic, being played millions of times on the radio. 

Encouraged by this success with their own material, they began writing nearly all their own songs. I believe all the others from this album are theirs. They put out an album in late 1970 to capitalize on their "Reflections of My Life" success, called "Reflections of the Marmalade." I've included only six of the ten songs from that album. I thought some of the other songs from that time period were stronger. The rest of the songs here come from the A- and B-sides of singles, as well as two songs that weren't released at the time and only came out on archival releases much later, "Some Fine Day" and "Evenings Shadows."

In my opinion, Marmalade isn't appreciated as much as they should be. I think one big reason for that is because their musical identity kept shifting. At first they were psychedelic, then poppy, then they switched to more of a Crosby, Stills and Nash sound, meaning more acoustic based with lust harmonies. But then they switched again to more of a hard rock sound. But looking back on it decades later, these things don't matter as much, since it's all quality stuff.

This album is 45 minutes long.

01 Baby Make It Soon (Marmalade)
02 Time Is on My Side (Marmalade)
03 Reflections of My Life (Marmalade)
04 Rollin' My Thing (Marmalade)
05 Some Fine Day (Marmalade)
06 Butterfly (Marmalade)
07 Kaleidoscope (Marmalade)
08 Fight Say the Mighty (Marmalade)
09 Super Clean Jean (Marmalade)
10 Life Is (Marmalade)
11 Evenings Shadows (Marmalade)
12 Rainbow (Marmalade)
13 Ballad of Cherry Flavar (Marmalade)

https://www.imagenetz.de/kapDT

I've had a hard time finding good photos of the band from these years. I found a cover of the "Reflections of My Life" single, but I didn't like the photo there. So I took the text for the band name and song title, and used those up top, as well as the record company logo. Then I brought in a different photo that appears to be from roughly that time, based on the band members in it and the clothes. All of that was in black and white though, so I jazzed things up with various shades of blue.

3 comments:

  1. Hi thanks for this. One of the reasons that The Marmalade are forgotten these days is because of a News of The World inquiry in the early 70s. Week after week of revalations about them having sex with their fans came out, and thrashed their reputation. I cant find any articles online, but this getty image hints at the scandal https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/the-marmalade-pop-group-who-have-been-accused-by-the-news-news-photo/3297022

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  2. There's a live film on Youtube from 1970 about 24 minutes in length. A partial version of Cripple Creek opens the set, followed by a cover of Suite Judy Blue Eyes, Scarborough Fair, Sounds Of Silence, Rainbow, Reflections Of My Life and Life Is. Sound quality is pretty good as is the video.

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    Replies
    1. Yep, I'm aware. And I'm utilizing some of that. I think some of that is going on the Marmalade BBC stuff I'm making.

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