Gandalf "Gandalf" 1968*****

I'm a huge fan of Gandalf. I know what you'll say: Aren't we all? Tolkien's Grey Wizard? The one that Ian McKellen brought to life so masterfully in the Lord Of The Rings/Hobbit hexalogy? Well, I agree that that Gandalf is a cool one (just look at him blow pipe smoke, below) but I meant the psychedelic rock band from New York. Not to be confused with Austrian prog rockers Gandalf, Finland's metal band Gandalf, UK's Gandalf's Fist or even that other psychedelic rock band from New York, Gandalf The Grey. Never heard of any of them? Well, none of them had much success - I wonder if it's the grey wizard's curse. Anyway, this particular band was led by guitarist Peter Sando and only made one album, which was to become one of the rarest albums even made by a major label (Capitol). It was released in 1968 with minimum promotion and most of the copies went unsold and were probably recycled. Then, someone must have actually heard it and word got out. Collectors started paying ridiculous prices for a copy - even now that it's been re-released countless times, an original on ebay costs $474.99 and it's a fairly used one, with a big "FREE" stamp on the front. The first authorised reissue on CD was in 1991, and that's almost how long this album's been with me. It's one of the few CD's I took with me when I moved from Delft to Brussels.

What's so special about it, you ask? The cover, for once. The MP3 generation may never realise its importance, but album cover design is a form of art and, for me, it's inseparable from the music. Here, the colour explosion and floral elements are very typical of 60's flower-power but the alien beauty and empty stare of the unsmiling face points to something dark and mystical. The music is also often eerily beautiful, melodic and richly orchestrated with strings, organ and harpsichord but never overtly sweet. Most of the songs are covers but, unusually for their time, there are no Beatles, Dylan or blues numbers. Instead, we get 3 songs by Tim Hardin and some crooner material that was definitively unhip at the time. The album opens with a great cover of Bing Crosby's "Golden Earrings" featuring psychedelic organ and guitar effects. The harpsichord lends some baroque flavor to Belafonte's "Scarlet Ribbons" while Nat King Cole's "Nature Boy" gets a dramatic, proto-prog reading - haunted organ and vocal capped by a loud, distorted guitar solo. Tim Hardin's "Hang On To A Dream" has known many covers (The Nice, Fleetwood Mac, Marianne Faithfull etc) but Gandalf's version is the best by far. It starts with a mysterious distant piano, funereal drums and soft vocals, which are later treated with reverb and echo for an otherworldly effect. The heavy and gothic organ solo amplifies that feel. The second Hardin song "Never Too Far" is by turns folk pop and heavy psych a la Iron Butterfly, while the third one "You Upset The Grace Of Living" is a folk rock ballad with intricate organ. "Me About You" and "Tiffany Rings" were written by studio songsmiths and, while still good, they're the weakest of the bunch, a couple of baroque folk ballads a la Left Banke. Sando's own compositions are much more interesting, laden as they are with psychedelic studio wizardry. Album closer "I Watch The Moon" starts off as a typical organ-dominated ballad but keeps gets heavier, ending up sounding like Vanilla Fudge. "Can You Travel In The Dark Alone" is the album's standout track, a mid-tempo psychedelic rocker with spaced-out fuzz guitar, every bit as vital as the best Electric Prunes. The lyrics are a nice piece of lysergic pop poetry, too: "You are lost in the ocean of your dreams and what is real/but the blue green surface only covers what you feel/and the lighthouse that you find casts a beam across your mind/ and there's your home/ but don't you ever wonder could you travel in the dark alone...". You'll notice how the individual track rating doesn't add up to the 5(*) I gave the album, but you just have to reward them for a great effort that was initially unjustly ignored. If you're interested in learning more about this band, including details of a 2nd album of outtakes released decades after the fact, try Peter Sando's official website.

***** for Golden Earrings, Hang On To A Dream, Can You Travel In The Dark Alone, Nature Boy

**** for Never Too Far, I Watch The Moon

*** for Scarlet Ribbons, You Upset The Grace Of Living, Tiffany Rings, Me About You