Marrying Maiden by It’s a Beautiful Day (Vinyl record album review)

Record basics

Album name: Marrying Maiden

Group name: It’s a Beautiful Day

Year: 1970

Number of discs: one

Label: Columbia Records

Collection: Brenner / Gessner

Distinguishing characteristics: “G” written on top left of album, indicating that my father owned it

Buy it on Amazon: $10.00

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I have no idea what this is, and actually originally had this as a record called “It’s a Beautiful Day” by the band “Marrying Maiden,” until realizing that I’d gotten confused.

What I expected

Maybe folk rock?

What it was actually like

This wasn’t folk rock. What was it? It was a little bit of everything, and a lot of strange combinations of things:

Don And Dewey was sort of like psychedelic classical swing, an instrumental song that was jazzy, with electric guitar, organ, violin and harmonica. It definitely was not like anything I’ve ever heard before, and was definitely fun.

The Dolphins was more of a conventional country rock or folk rock style song with country style violin solo and lead vocals, and choral style backing vocals.

Essence Of Now sounded like a Cream song.

Hoedown was… like a hoedown: instrumental and very bluegrassy, with banjo that sounded like Scruggs style, electric guitar instead of Dobro, and harmonica.

Soapstone Mountain started out like a Who song, but continued like a Cream song.

Waiting For The Song started with an Indian-like drone, but with monotonal chanting like church music. It may just have been a prelude to the next song, Let A Woman Flow, which was more easy listening style, almost elevator music, with some Spanish lyrics.

It Comes Right Down To You was old timey, with sort of a swing sound, but also sounded a lot like New Riders of the Purple Sage (I’ve previously reviewed three of their records: Home, Home on the Road, Powerglide and Gypsy Cowboy), which would make sense because I know that Jerry Garcia was involved NRPS and it seems that he participated in It’s A Beautiful Day as well.

Good Lovin’ was a blues rock song driven by electric guitar, with harmonica.

Galileo started out as a mumbly spoken word song, then turned into a kind of march, and then transformed back into more mumbly spoken word.

Do You Remember The Sun? was more orchestral, with an organ and choral style vocals, and could have been a Beatles outtake.

What can I possibly make of all this? Parts of it were great, and other parts of it were weird and interesting. Somehow it all did seem to fit together, even if I can’t entirely figure out why or how.

Grade

4/5: would listen again