---------------------------------------------------------------------
Majic Ship - Majic Ship
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Artist...............: Majic Ship
Album................: Majic Ship
Genre................: Classic Rock
Source...............: CD
Year.................: 1970
Information..........: GEAR FAB REISSUE-GF 215
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Tracklisting
---------------------------------------------------------------------
1. (00:03:02) Majic Ship - Sioux City Blues
2. (00:03:07) Majic Ship - Wednesday Morning Dew
3. (00:02:52) Majic Ship - Life's Lonely Road
4. (00:03:19) Majic Ship - We Gotta Live On
5. (00:02:36) Majic Ship - Where Are We Going
6. (00:04:20) Majic Ship - Free
7. (00:10:54) Majic Ship - Down By The River-What It's Worth
8. (00:02:40) Majic Ship - Night Mare
9. (00:03:38) Majic Ship - Too Much
10. (00:03:45) Majic Ship - Cosmo's Theme
Playing Time.........: 00:40:13
Total Size...........: 216,37 MB
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Personnel:
JEFF BILOTTA keyb'ds A
ROB BUCKMAN drms A B
MIKE GARRIGAN vcls A B
TOMMY NIKOSEY gtr, vcls A B
PHIL POLIMENI ld gtr A B
COSMO (GUS) RIOZZI bs, organ, vcls A B
ALBUM:
1(B) MAJIC SHIP (Bel-Ami BA-711) 1970
NB: (1) reissued on vinyl (Heyoka Hey 203) 1985 and counterfeited on CD (Afterglow 009) 1993. More recently the album has been reissued on CD officially by Gear Fab, as The Complete Authorized Recordings together with many bonus tracks (Gear Fab GF 107), and on double vinyl (Akarma AK 084/2) 2000.
45s:
1(A) Night Time Music/To Love Somebody (Crazy Horse 1322) 1968
2(A) Hummin'/It's Over (Majic L 519) 1969
3(A) Hummin'/It's Over (Crazy Horse 1311) 1969
4(A) And When It's Over/On The Edge (Crazy Horse 1317) 1969
5(A) Green Plant/Nite Time Music (B.T. Puppy 548) 1969
6(B) Wednesday Morning Dew/We Gotta Live On (PIP 8936) 1970
From Long Island, New York. The above album is rare and contains a stunning version of Neil Young's Down By The River, which merges into For What It's Worth. Many other tracks, such as Free contain some pulsating guitar work, but there are some mellow ones too. A highly recommended album, now available officially on CD by Gear Fab, together with many bonus tracks.
Majic Ship evolved out of The Primitives, an outfit formed by Ray Rifice and Tommy Nikosey whilst at Saint Anselm's school in New York at the tender age of thirteen! By June 1965, they had learned to play their instruments somewhat, recruiting Mike Garrigan on vocals and the following year recording an acetate of On The Edge / Mustang Sally at a local studio. When original bass-player John Kharouf quit, Gus Riozzi was introduced, and they became The New Primitives, performing locally and adding keyboardist Jeff Bilotta in the process.
As the Summer of '68 approached, the bands high school years were coming to an end, and Ray Rifice moved to Florida. Days before he moved, ex-50s singer turned manager, Johnny Mann saw the band perform at a local gig and offered them a deal. Fortuitously, the day after the gig Philip Polimeni was found as a replacement for the departing Ray and with a new name given to them by their management company, Majic Ship, they recorded the Night Time Music 45.
Shortly after its release, Night Time Music was selected as WMCA's "Pick Of The Week" in Dec '68, and the soulful Hummin' was picked as its follow-up, charting regionally, and allowing the band to tour around the East Coast. After a further two singles, including the excellent Green Plant, Jeff Bilotta quit... and the band, wishing to return to their rock roots, went back into the studio to record their debut album.
Like many bands of the era, their album was largely overlooked at the time, although it is in retrospect a definite 'classic', with the years spent gigging and recording 45s resulting in a well produced and 'rounded' album that flows with a graceful beauty absent in many chart acts. However also like many of their counterparts, their progress was brought to an untimely end when in 1971 their rented apartment in Staten Island burned down together with all their equipment. With no insurance, the band called it quits.
The Gear Fab retrospective includes The Primitives acetate, all of Majic Ship's 45 cuts, the entire album and one new cut Blow Me Away, recorded by the band in 1997. It also comes with detailed liner notes, from which this article has been compiled, and many rare photos of the band. The package can only really be faulted in that the running order is a little dis-jointed, with the bonus tracks coming before the album cuts, and the band interview sections being too quiet. Still an essential reissue though!
|
