The Appletree Theatre
Playback
CD
"The first CD release of one of the most enigmatic pop albums of the 1960s...Playback by The Appletree Theatre. The project was set up by brothers Terry and John Boylan. Essentially a loosely-woven concept album, divided into three acts. It’s an inventive pop album with great songs, strange sound effects, comedy bits and trippy dialogue comprising a collage of interlaced vocal narratives, sound effects, and song fragments, recalling the Golden Age of radio, and prefiguring the antics of The Firesign Theatre, along with top quality pop songs such as Hightower Square and I Wonder If Louise Is Home, with its distorted megaphone vocals and soaring horns. Some of the tracks suggest the boys may have indulged in too many psychedelic drugs. It's not for us to say.
In 1968, John Lennon referred to Playback as one of his favourite albums. Fans of Friends-era Beach Boys, Family Tree, the Smoke and the Millennium will really love this record even though it has more of a downbeat mood than the aforementioned sunshine pop classics.
In the wake of the set's commercial failure Terry went solo, releasing three albums as a singer/songwriter, while John turned his attention to production, initially with Linda Ronstadt and became deeply involved in the formation of The Eagles."
Tracklisting
1 ...In The Beginning
2 Hightower Square
3 Lullaby
4 Saturday Morning
5 Nevertheless It Was Italy
6 I Wonder If Louise Is Home
7 Chez Louise
8 E-Train
9 Meanwhile
10 Brother Speed
11 You're The Biggest Thing In My Life
12 Don't Blame It On Your Wife
13 The Sorry State Of Staying Awake
14 Barefoot Boy
15 Lotus Flower
16 What A Way To Go
LRP £9.99 - discounted to...
