Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera – ELMER GANTRY’S VELVET OPERA***

Intro/Mother Writes/Mary Jane/I Was Cool/Walter Sly Meets Bill Bailey/Air/Looking For An Happy Life/Flames/ What’s The Point Of Leaving/Long Nights Of Summer/Dream Starts/Reactions Of A Young Man/Now She’s Gone

Self titled debut album from the British rock group Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera. Their single Flames was the only non self composed number included in the early Led Zeppelin stage act.

“Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera is a truly great LP. It sounds amazingly fresh and different from its contemporaries.”

“This really does have some great stuff on it. There are a number of various styles offered, and though not all of them are necessarily great, they certainly keep things from getting boring. Even the weaker tracks are generally pretty decent, but the better ones are exceptional. This has some early progressive elements, an overall psychedelic orientation and great period flavour as well.”

“Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera's debut is by no means a perfect album, owing mainly to some just plain odd blues/ham-fisted music hall experiments on side one, but it does contain some of the greatest songs in UK psychedelia. Reactions Of A Young Man is an astounding accomplishment. Dream Stairs utilizes the most intense vocal reverb ever heard on a psych track. What's The Point Of Leaving and Now She's Gone are two heavy mellotron tracks, while Long Nights Of Summer is pure pop. Flames was chosen as the single from the album but my personal pick would have been the powerful opener Mother Writes.”

“There are so many different styles of songs on this album you'd think you're listening to an amazing psychedelic compilation. It just doesn’t get much better than this.”

“Average at best, heavy psych, rock influenced. This, their first album, is appreciably inferior to their next. The best I can say about this record is that it isn't unpleasant to listen to.”

"Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera belongs to the hidden sixties - the music that existed in a parallel universe to that which was popular, but it remained a secret.”