Episode 344 – Trapeze (1976) - The Deep Purple Podcast

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Core Band:

Technical:

Producer – Steve Smith (3)
- https://www.notc.com/Content/Spotlights/1977/Steve_Smith-4-77.pdf
- He stayed in England and became a producer for Island Records, producing Jim Capaldi and Bob Marley & The Wailers. Also produced Robert Palmer, Toots And The Maytals, Rough Diamond, No Dice, Gillan, Supertramp and others.
Engineer, Remix – Phil Brown*, Trapeze
- https://tapedemon.net/
- His career started as a Junior Technician in 1967. Credits include mixing, sound recording and production, notably working in conjunction with British artists such as Talk Talk, China Crisis, Robert Plant, Faithless, Dido and British Sea Power to name a few.
- He has also worked in an assistant studio role with many other European acts.
- Started at Olympic Studios, worked as house engineer at Island Studios/Basing Street Studios (1970s), freelance engineer since.
The album was reportedly mixed by Eddie Kramer who was uncredited.

Album Art & Booklet Review

Design [Sleeve Design] – Seabrook Graves Aslett
- Worked with The Everly Brothers, Faces, Buffalo Springfield, ELO, Wizzard.
Photography By – Carl Dunn
- Did photos for the cover of “You Are The Music” and “Play Me Out.”

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Album Tracks:

Side One:

Star Breaker
- Written-By – Mel Galley, Tom Galley
It’s Alright
- Written-By – Mel Galley
Chances
- Lead Vocals – Glenn Hughes
- Written-By – Glenn Hughes, Mel Galley, Tom Galley
The Raid
- Written By – Mel Galley
Sunny Side Of The Street
- Written-By – Jimmy McHugh & Dorothy Fields
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_McHugh
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Fields
- 4579 songwriting credits on Discogs for this songwriting team!
- Jimmy composed and Dorothy was the lyricist.
- Dorothy Fields was one of the first successful Tin Pan Alley and Hollywood songwriters.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Sunny_Side_of_the_Street
- Jazz standard from the 1930s.

Side Two:

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Bustin’ Out The Spreadsheet

Reviews

Drew Thompson on AllMusic 2 out of 5 stars:
- User rating of 3.5 out of 5.
- Drew Thompson
- https://www.allmusic.com/album/trapeze-1975-mw0002562435
- By 1975, Trapeze were a long, long way from the exquisite pastures of their debut album — and a long way, too, from the days when the Moody Blues could be ranked among their biggest fans, as well as their employers (the band was originally signed to the Moodies‘ Threshold label). But maybe hoping for at least a splash of that old magic to resurface, the band titled its final LP after its first — plain ol’ Trapeze — and the bandmembers did their best to look their imminent demise full in the face. Maybe they didn’t know what fate had in store for them as they recorded this, but Trapeze is still a dour little disc, desperately missing the funk infusions of Glenn Hughes and, for the most part, overshadowed even by its disappointing predecessor. “Star Breaker,” the opening cut, is probably the best thing here; for the most part, though, Trapeze is lumpen rock by rote, dull and dismissed by all but the most desperately faithful.

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