Now this one is interesting. Still known as The Locomotive, this single was not included in the CD reissue below. And it's easy to understand why. It has little to do with their trademark sound. Rather this is Rocksteady music. Jamaican music, my friends. The horn charts and organ are well done. Not a bad 45, just the wrong group doing it.
Source: 1968 Bell promo (SP)
3/18/25 (review)
We Are Everything You See (1970)
Locomotive were an interesting band, with their sole album clearly released by Parlophone with big intentions for major acceptance in popular music circles. Many references can be tied to The Moody Blues and The Beatles, but with a contemporary 1970 sound, including horns and a heavy Hammond organ approach. And it just didn't happen for the starstruck band, who dissipated quickly afterward. There's really nothing wrong with the music here, it's definitely an album made up of psych / prog / pop songs geared for the hit parade. There's no artsy pretension or long flights of fancy here. Sure, there's the three part 'The Loves of Augustus Abbey' which is about as extreme as Sgt Peppers was, so it's still cuddly fun. In the end, since it's an album made up of structured songs, there's nothing extraordinary here - and nothing terrible either. All very well done, and certainly worth owning, but not enough to be a true cult classic for future generations. That would be reserved for guitarist's Norman Haines' decidedly more extreme album Den of Iniquity, which came about a year later. And that album also didn't sell squat in its day, but is more highly revered now.
Ownership: 2003 Eclectic (CD). Historical liner notes and six bonus tracks from singles. Though not including the one I have above.
2//04 (first acquired); 4//10; 10/10/15 (review)
Locomotive were an interesting band, with their sole album clearly released by Parlophone with big intentions for major acceptance in popular music circles. Many references can be tied to The Moody Blues and The Beatles, but with a contemporary 1970 sound, including horns and a heavy Hammond organ approach. And it just didn't happen for the starstruck band, who dissipated quickly afterward. There's really nothing wrong with the music here, it's definitely an album made up of psych / prog / pop songs geared for the hit parade. There's no artsy pretension or long flights of fancy here. Sure, there's the three part 'The Loves of Augustus Abbey' which is about as extreme as Sgt Peppers was, so it's still cuddly fun. In the end, since it's an album made up of structured songs, there's nothing extraordinary here - and nothing terrible either. All very well done, and certainly worth owning, but not enough to be a true cult classic for future generations. That would be reserved for guitarist's Norman Haines' decidedly more extreme album Den of Iniquity, which came about a year later. And that album also didn't sell squat in its day, but is more highly revered now.
Ownership: 2003 Eclectic (CD). Historical liner notes and six bonus tracks from singles. Though not including the one I have above.
2//04 (first acquired); 4//10; 10/10/15 (review)
10/10/15 (new entry)
