Major changes happened upon the Caravan camp in late 1971 with the departure of key member David Sinclair to Matching Mole. His keyboards, in particular the fuzz organ, and his unique style of playing were out the door. In comes Steve Miller from the band-that-should-have-made-it Delivery. His style is more jazzy and he prefers the Fender Rhodes. So with that, Pye Hastings and Richard Sinclair take a bigger role in the songwriting for their next album Waterloo Lily. And there's quite a drop off in quality overall. At least from my perspective. Having owned this album in the same near-40 year timespan, I've generally regarded Waterloo Lily as their least great album until Cunning Stunts. Note I used the phrase "least great" rather than "worst" because I still think it's a worthy album, just not at the level of the others. Part of that is Miller's influence, or lack thereof. The other is Pye Hastings taking more control over the songwriting - or at least there are fewer progressive rock outings. However there's still two lengthy suites to consider. The first 'Nothing At All' is the jazzy sequence, very good on the whole but not exemplary. The other is why Waterloo Lily can still hang with their classics: 'The Love in Your Eye' which is definitely a look back to In the Land of Grey and Pink. There are a contingent of fans who prefer Waterloo Lily, or at least state it's at the same level as its predecessors. Mostly you'll read that the songs are better, and the other albums were too "jammy". So if you hold a similar opinion about Caravan's classics, and haven't heard Waterloo Lily, then rest assured this might be the album you enjoy most.
Ownership: LP: 1972 Deram. Gatefold original. Bought this in 1985 at a store in the Dallas area known as Bill's, which was still around until 2020 (back then they were on Spring Valley in Richardson). It was the first original UK pressing for me to own by Caravan. In those days I didn't care about such things, but while the others all went through upgrades, this one stayed steady throughout.
LP: 1972 Brain. A true green Brain Metronome original. Online purchase from 2004. Own this one primarily because I collect the label. I'll probably sell it eventually, but not now.
CD: 2001 Deram. Of course I have this as part of the Disk Union box set right? Ummm... sort of. I won that box set in an auction at a ridiculously cheap price, and is now regarded as in my top 10 of all CD packages in the collection. Only one problem: Waterloo Lily was sent with the full packaging, but not the CD! Even without the CD, it was a total steal of a deal, so there wasn't much I could do - he looked but it was gone. Fortunately I already owned the European CD which is the exact same minus the papersleeve packaging. In any case, like the others, this comes with full historical liner notes and 4 unreleased bonus tracks. The latter not adding as much value as the others in the series.
7//85; 9//04; 1//14; 7/17/22 (new entry)
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