With Roger Chapman’s “manic behaviour, contortions, and swearing”, as the wonderfully inept sleevenotes put it, and Charlie Whitney, Rick Grech and Jim King’s delicate augmentation, Family developed one of the most distinctive sounds of the late ’60s. Given the band’s propensity for live improvisation, the earliest tracks here remain surprisingly faithful to their studio counterparts. The lull and lilt of the hippie pastorale gives way to a more boogie-driven direction on selections from the band’s third album, A Song For Me, and by the time of “No Mules Fool” in late 1969, hit singles and campus acclaim beckoned.
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