UPDATE 11/07/2011: I was recently informed by Tony Francis (the keyboardist and lead singer of Squeezer)'s nephew that sadly, Tony passed away about 20 or so years ago. The whereabouts of the other two band members - Larry Alcorn and Michael Dale - are still unknown (I know that Ernie Archibeque also passed in late 2003). If anyone has info, please contact me by personal message or comment on this video.
Fifth track off the album \"Joy Jell Fantasies\" (US pressing, Now Records/Original Sound NLP-7001)
Want a fresh, bubbling mix of a variety of rock 'n' roll influences on vinyl? Leave it to Squeezer, an four-piece combination of then-young and supreme talents from the breath-taking blue skies of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Their only album, Joy Jell Fantasies, was released in early 1974 on Art Laboe and Brian Ross's then-new Now label (a secondary imprint of Original Sound intended for releasing new albums instead of compilations consisted of previously-released material) and is indeed a spectacular album that never loses even a teeny-weeny bit of its freshness every time you listen to it.
I first happened upon Squeezer via somebody's video of a mispressed copy of Kiss's self-titled debut album which had side 2 of Joy Jell Fantasies instead of the proper side 2 of the Kiss album. I didn't know who the artist was when I first saw the video, so I decided to do some deeper research. This research lead me to the discovery of Squeezer, and a spectacular discovery too. Due to its obscurity (it has never been reissued on CD at all!), Joy Jell Fantasies has considerably been hard to find on vinyl, but over the past little while, I have seen several sealed copies showing up for sale on various sites including eBay, Discogs and the like, which probably means that some lucky soul found an old distribution warehouse in Hollywood filled with unsold copies of the album. This was one of them.
Unfortunately, the majority of these sealed copies can only be found in the West Coast of the USA, and we know shipping times from Western states to be really slow. Also, the prices for the album on eBay are not the best (usually in the range of $15-$30). But, as luck would have it, I found a copy on Discogs in Pennsylvania, and the price was right (only $5)!
People, you better sit back, put on your headphones, cause I've posted the whole album for your enjoyment! None of the tracks on side one are anywhere else on YouTube, so this is an exclusive premiere... I hope you'll like this album as much as I do! Don't forget to stay tuned to my blog (http://ryansvinylemporium.blogspot.com/) for a review of Joy Jell Fantasies!
Lyrics:
My, oh my, you just haven't begun
To see what it is you mean to me
And nobody knows why
I'm feelin' insecure as hell, I'm feelin' well when you're near me
Well it's a blue-streaked day
Your smile impelled me to say
There ain't nothin' more that I can see
To make me understand how the music in my eyes has made me wise and I wanna be
Let your mountain pastures grow
And tell it like you know
Let your body show
What's growin' deep inside
Well it's a windswept day
My heart's been stolen away
Whenever there are words that I can't speak
You know I'll never let them go, I feel like you should know what's in my heart and I'll let it show
Well if ya call on me
When you do you will see
The breath of my life will rhyme with you
And everyone will say, \"Together we whave made the sun shine through and then cleared the way.\"
Let your mountain pastures grow
And tell it like you know
Let your body show
What's growin' deep inside
