Caravan: Caravan (1968)

This is it, the debut by Caravan, one of the biggest names in the Canterbury rock scene. This was the original (and best, in my opinion) lineup of Caravan, with vocalist and bassist Richard Sinclair, organist David Sinclair (cousin of Richard), vocalist and guitarist Pye Hastings, and drummer Richard Coughlin.

Their self-entitled debut, recorded in October 1968 isn’t always their most respected album in their discography, and here’s the reason why: the sound quality is crap. It sounds like it was recorded in a tin can. The two songs in which Richard Sinclair sings are the most problematic because you can hardly hear him at all.

Why am I giving this album such a high rating? Because the music is incredible (and the band performed a lot of these songs live well in to the 1970s). You can already hear a lot of that great classic Caravan sound, like “A Place of My Own”, “Love Song With Flute” and the epic “Where But For Caravan Would I”. And the band does have its humorous side, like “Policeman” (one of the songs that R. Sinclair sings on). “Love Song With Flute”, as the title suggest, features flute, which was played by Pye Hastings’ brother, Jimmy Hastings (who was around ten years older than the rest of the band, including Pye himself). “Where But For Caravan Would I” is by far the most progressive number on this album, it’s full of great organ solos from David Sinclair, and it goes through several different changes and meters.

This album only proves that more great things will come from this band, and their next two albums prove that. So if you don’t mind the crap sound quality of their debut, you owe it to yourself to get this album, because it’s full of great material.