One St. Stephen "One St. Stephen" 1975****

This is one of those ultra-rare psychedelic albums that became the stuff of legend because people had heard of them but very few had actually heard them. I'm talking of course of a time before file-sharing - before CD's even. 30 years after this album's original release a (semi-bootleg) CD reissue on the Radioactive label became widely available and the world got to listen what collectors paid $600-$700 for. For once, the hype was right: this is an undisputed acid rock masterpiece that deserves a place among the genre's classic albums of the 60's - with the notable exception that it was recorded in '75, way after those bands had disintegrated or moved to stadium rock (e.g. Jefferson Starship). Despite the fact that the LP cover mentions no less than 8 players, One St. Stephen was really a one-man-show: Don L. Patterson wrote the music and lyrics, was lead vocalist, played electric guitars, produced the album and designed its cover. Although he was evidently a quite talented musician, Don was primarily a visual artist and started work in these songs with the intention of including them in a film he was making with the working title The Devil's Reservation. But the music got such an enthusiastic reception that he decided to cut an album (around 1000 privately funded copies) and distribute it among friends. I believe the movie was never actually finished - probably because of the lack of funds, film was really expensive back then. The music is heavy acid rock, typical of the late-60's and strongly reminiscent of The Doors thanks to the similarities between Patterson's and Morrison's voice. Opener "November Edgar" is a perfect showcase for the album, a mid-tempo psychedelic rocker with dark lyrics inspired by Edgar Allen Poe, soft vocals and great lead guitar and synth solos. "November" sounds like Phantom's Divine Comedy, which means like a harder, darker, second rate Doors. Second rate, mind you, only in comparison to the real thing - it's an otherwise great funk rocker with jazzy licks and vocals eerily similar to Morrison's. On the fuzzed-out hard rocker "You May Be Religious", he employs a very different voice, shouting the lyrics aggressively like The Fall would do after a couple of years. He uses the same punky voice on the Hendrix/Captain Beefhart pastiche "Junkie's Lament" and "Richer You Get", while he delivers his best Morrison impersonation and intricate guitarwork in the sensual "Nightly Drift". "Old Man" is a nice folk rocker with piano and flute and "Twelfth St. Shuffle" a T Rex-style boogie. Closer "Dash In The Rocks" is proto-new wave dominated by spacey synth sounds. A consistently good and varied album, it was very well received and got Patterson a contract offer by a major label, which he refused as he didn't want to be a professional musician. Indeed he would never make another record, but with these 9 songs he's left more of a legacy than other musicians who worked in the field for decades. I guess sometimes talent and inspiration are more important than ambition and hard work...

***** for Nightly Drift

**** for November Edgar, November,You May Be Religious, Old Man, Junkie's Lament, Twelth St. Shuffle, Dash In The Rocks

*** for Richer You Get