It’s a Beautiful Day: Choice Quality Stuff (1971)
I was in utter shock when I first heard this album. I was expecting more of the same, soft sounds of their previous offering, Marrying Maiden. Instead, it turns out to be their most rocking album ever! It’s as if they wanted to create a bunch of songs not unlike “Wasted Union Blues” off their debut. Songs like “Creed of Love”, “Lady Love” and “Words” proves that.
“Words” sounds a whole lot like Santana, which comes as no surprise, as a couple of their percussionists, Coke Escovedo and José “Chepita” Areas appear on that song. The band at that point was really starting to face a crisis in their lineup. There are some songs that feature bassist Mitchell Holman, while others feature new bassist Tom Fowler (same guy who appeared on Frank Zappa’s Over-Nite Sensation). Hal Wagenet plays guitar on some cuts, and new guitars Billy Gregory plays guitar on others. It’s a real mess. Other guests, besides the Santana percussionists include Gregg Rolie (also of Santana), Sid Page (of Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks – it also happens that David LaFlamme was an early member of that group), Bruce Steinberg (same guy who played harmonica on “Hot Summer Day”) and a few names I don’t recognize. Of course David LaFlamme is always there on violin and vocals, and Pattie Santos helps on the backing vocals.
The album was divided in to two sides, the first side was called Choice Quality Stuff, while the second side was called Anytime. The first side is where all the rockers are included, which three songs were already mentioned. A couple others worth mentioning is the boogie-oriented “Bye Bye Baby”, and “No Word For Glad”, which features flute, unheard of on an It’s a Beautiful Day album.
The second side harkens back to the softer sounds the band is better known for. Still some great pieces here including “Places of Dreams”, “Bitter Wine” and “Misery Loves Company”. There’s the instrumental “Oranges & Apples” that sounds like a re-write of “Bombay Calling”, but not nearly as good, and “Anytime” is just plain mediocre, with lyrics dealing with a Greyhound bus.
Some people thought It’s a Beautiful Day went way downhill with this album, but it sure doesn’t sound that way to me (I hadn’t tried listening to one of their later albums, like 1973’s It’s A Beautiful Day… Today). This time around, the ever greedy Matthew Katz never reissued this album on his San Francisco Sound label. An imported CD reissue of this album did surface a while ago, but I’m pretty sure Katz put a stop to it. So that basically leaves you the choice of either the imported CD reissue, or the original LP. Choice Quality Stuff is actually a pretty underrated album and actually worth owning.