Our Price: £4.99

FIELDS - SELF TITLED - CD

This much-sort after LP has long since been deleted making this even rarer.

This US power trio’s sole album was released on both sides of the Atlantic in 1969, but sank without trace. Equally influenced by blues, soul and acid rock, it’s an enjoyable mixture of snappy hard rock songs and the lengthy Love Is The Word suite, which occupied a whole side of the original LP. Featuring backing vocals from Northern Soul legend Brenda Holloway and production by former Merry-Go-Round guitarist Bill Rinehart, it’s a must for fans of bluesy psychedelic rock, and makes its CD debut here.

1. Elysian Fields (Fortunato / Bowman / Burke)
2. Bide My Time (Fortunato / Lagana / Burke)
3. Take You Home (Fortunato)
4. Jump On You (Fortunato)
5. Sun Would Set Fortunato)
6. Love Is The Word (Fortunato / Lagana / Burke)

Guitarist Richard Fortunato and drummer Steve Lagana first played together in the Preachers, a Californian garage band whose scorching cover of Who Do You Love? (on Moonglow Records) is treasured by garage collectors. The outfit was short-lived, however, so - after stints with the Vejtables (Fortunato) and Johnny Rivers (Lagana) - they joined forces with bassist Patrick Burke and evolved into the W.C. Fields Memorial Electric String Band. Under that wordy moniker they made two superb garage singles in 1966, Hippy Elevator Operator / Don’t Lose The Girl (HBR 507) and (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone / Round World (Mercury 72578). They then shortened their name to ESB (or Electric String Band) for another great psych single, 1967’s Mushroom People / Let Me Touch You (In Arts IA 102), before shedding two members and recasting themselves as a power trio named Fields (presumably after W.C. Fields).

Having signed a deal with Uni, they proceeded to make their sole album with producer Bill Rinehart, formerly guitarist with Emitt Rhodes’s first outfit, The Merry-Go-Round. Less psychedelic than their pedigree might suggest, it’s a solid collection of acid-dappled blues rock with stinging lead guitar and a noticeable Cream influence. Mostly penned by Fortunato, the first side comprised raw, snappy numbers like Elysian Fields, Take You Home and Jump On It, while side two consisted of just one long cut, Love Is The Word. Featuring backing vocals from Motown singer and Northern Soul heroine Brenda Holloway, it’s a carefully-structured and intriguing blend of rock, soul, blues and psychedelia, and one of the best epics yielded by the era. The album was released in a gatefold sleeve on both sides of the Atlantic in 1969, and a single (Bide My Time / Take You Home) was extracted in the States - but when both failed to sell, the band became yet another of the many talented one-shots that peppered the era.

Richard Fortunato – lead guitar, vocals
Patrick Burke – bass guitar, vocals
Steven Lagana – percussion, vocals
Produced by Bill Rinehart
Engineered by Frank Kejmar
Special arrangements by Gene Page and Bill Rinehart
Photography and design by Michael O’Bryant
Graphic art & design by Mitchell Brisker
Thanks to Brenda Holloway and the Raylettes

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