DBMT (Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich) - Fresh Ear (1970)

Here's a rather odd album. I already posted three BBC albums by the British pop rock group Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. This is by them, but it's very different from the stuff that made them famous. In my opinion, they put out one solid album right at the end of their career, in 1970, that's in the vein of multiple harmony, singer songwriter influenced rock, like Crosby, Stills and Nash or America. 

From 1965 to 1969, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich (DDBMT) had a bunch of hits in Britain (but only in Britain, they never made it big in the US). They were teenage heartthrobs and actually one of the best selling artists in Britain for a couple of years. But musical styles were changing rapidly in the late 1960s, and they found themselves out of fashion. In 1969, their lead singer Dave Dee left the group to pursue an unsuccessful solo career. The others kept on, but changed their name to DBMT, since their old, and very unwieldy, name was now uncool. 

Most groups in a similar situation faded out of popularity around the same time, such as the Searchers, the Mindbenders, or the Tremeloes. Pretty much all of DDBMT's hits were not written by them, making it more likely that they would disappear once the hits stopped. Yet on this album, all of the songs were written by the band members with Tich, Beaky, and Dozy each writing a few. They were really included by the CSN sound that was very popular at the time, and sound dramatically different than how they did on their hits. If you're into that kind of music, I suggest you give this album a try.

The first two songs are not actually from the album, but were released as the A- and B-sides of a single a few months before it, in late 1969. They already had the new name by that time, but it's a transitional sound, and the A-side was a minor hit in some countries, but not Britain. One song from the album, "Mr. President," was released as a single and was a minor hit as well.

This album is rather short, at 35 minutes, but since I added the two songs at the start it's a more typical album length, 41 minutes.

DBMT has a bunch of other good songs from this time period that only came out as singles. There's enough of those for a nice album, so I'll post that album separately later.

01 Tonight Today (DBMT)
02 Bad News (DBMT)
03 Mr. President (DBMT)
04 Too Much (DBMT)
05 She Was a Raver (DBMT)
06 Mystery Rider (DBMT)
07 World (DBMT)
08 Rain (DBMT)
09 Soukie (DBMT)
10 Leader of a Rock and Roll Band (DBMT)
11 Buttercup Joe (DBMT)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15109391/DaveDBMT_1970_DBMTFrshEar_atse.zip.html

The cover here is the original album cover with no changes at all.