Musicology

Karen Beth – The Joys Of Life 1969

Karen Beth's first album, The Joys of Life, is probably one of the most obscure LPs to make the Billboard Top 200 (where it peaked at number 171) in the late 1960s. In retrospect, it's a little surprising that the record even got that high, not because of any flaws in the music itself, but because the record's not too commercial or radio-friendly, even as it reflected late-'60s trends in folk-rock, the emerging singer/songwriting movement, and psychedelia. Her voice, to start with, is pretty odd, sounding a little like a pinched, more folk-country-influenced, slightly robotic Grace Slick who's deliberately holding back and not opening her mouth or throat too widely. Karen Dalton is a more cult-ish reference point, though the vocals here are more pop/rock-friendly, and the material based in contemporary folk-rock, not traditional folk. It'll be an acquired taste for some listeners, but most of the songs do have an interesting, fairly attractive sad, haunting quality, if kind of detached and observational in tone. In addition to the acoustic guitars common to many folk-rock-based singer/songwriters of the era, there are ghostly tinkles, drones, strings, and electric guitar shimmers in the arrangements, somewhat in the manner of some Elektra Records folk-rock productions of the time (though this came out on Decca, not Elektra). And in the middle of this comes a wholly a cappella performance, "Song to a Shepherd," that's as spooky as anything else on the record, sounding as if it's being sung from an isolated cave. While the record's not up to the best such obscure albums of its style in the era, at times it achieves some genuine downbeat eerieness, and is more interesting than some other neglected records of its type that have gotten much more attention from collectors. AMG.

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