| | Nosy Parker CD Nosy Parker Discography of CDs
 (3 Customer Reviews)
This rare and classic 1975 album from the New York band Nosy Parker is a collection of original songs and ballads written by founding members Joe Celano and Tom Viola. This music is heavily influenced by British folk-rock and progressive styles, combinin
Nosy Parker has been mislabeled as psychedelia, Baroque pop, folk-rock, and prog rock by zealous rare-vinyl dealers and collectors across the globe, but it doesn't quite fit in any of those categories exactly. It does, however, draw from each of those sources, some with more success than others. Regardless of whether the descriptions truly represent Nosy Parker's sound, with the Gear Fab reissue it can be easily judged on its own merits and against the claims of its proponents. By those standards, the album may be slightly disappointing to listeners searching for genuine lost treasure. Nosy Parker has its moments -- in fact, quite a few of them -- but according to objective criterion it is decidedly second-rate when stacked against some of the artists (the Byrds, Genesis) to whom it has been compared. In the band's defense, the recording may not be entirely representative of its sound, considering it was committed to tape without the benefit of overdubs in a two-day blur in 1975. Nevertheless the album alternates between rather pedestrian (and sometimes downright contradictory) hard and soft rock impulses, on the one hand, and, on the other, much more interesting, even novel amalgams of folk and progressive sensibilities ("Buskers and Street Musicians," "Song for a Gentle Lady," the lovely "Silver Wings") that blend delicately picked acoustic melodies, enticing synth tones, and intricate playing, even if they tend to stick around a little too long for their own good or grow full of themselves (as does the suite-like "Notre Dame") or get too wizard-and-warlock-y in the lyric department. Unfortunately, there is too much of the former quality to make Nosy Parker an effort about which the average fan (or even a partisan of the era's music) will get excited, though its stature does increase with each listen. Devotees of ridiculously rare prog-ish music, on the other hand, will probably benefit by giving this one a chance. ~ Stanton Swihart
Nosy Parker: Joe Celano (vocals, guitar, clarinet); Tom Viola (vocals, guitar); Tony Abbate (synthesizer, bass); Bill Viola (synthesizer, drums).
Nosy Parker Songs | 1. | Widow's Walk |
| 2. | Buskers and Street Musicians |
| 3. | Notre Dame |
| 4. | Wizards in the Afternoon |
| 5. | Song For a Gentle Lady |
| 6. | Lucy Gray |
| 7. | Silver Wings |
| 8. | Beyond Beaujolais |
| 9. | Leave the Last Day For the Sun - (bonus track) |
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Nosy Parker Music Review Average Rating: (3.3 out of 5 stars)   " DEMO-LP--TWO-DAY GEM "
I HEARD THAT THESE GUYS MADE THIS ALBUM,IN 2-DAYS!!-GOOD SONGS,AND GOOD PLAYING,TOUCHES OF STRAWBS,J.TAYLOR,BYRDS,WHAT IF THEY HAD A MONTH IN THE STUDIO & A PRODUCER.A RARE TREAT.
Submitted by AUDIOPHILE (FLUSHING.NY,USA) 
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 Timeless
It is remarkable to see an album like this re-released more than 25 years after its debut. I can listen to the songs over and over again and hear something new each time. Take an hour out of your day, sit and realy listen to the music and the lyrics and you may hear something that you never heard before.
Submitted by a reviewer (Long Island, NY)
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Re-issued folk-rock rarity!
Nosy Parker's original 1975 album is a rare collectable from the halcyon days of 70's rock. It was recorded in two days by a band whose sound was unlike any other NYC group at that time. The recording is influenced by folk and progressive styles, and this reissue
contains two tracks not included on the self-released vinyl album, of which only 500 copies were made. Fans of The Strawbs, Ralph McTell, Fairport Convention, Gryphon and Blondel and early Genesis may enjoy this one!
Submitted by a reviewer (New York City, NY)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No | Have you heard this album? |  |
Purchase Nosy Parker CD To buy, Click on price to add to cart | Shadrack Chameleon CD (1970)
Nosy Parker album
 $11.59 
For an album created by a revolving group of friends from three separate bands, Shadrack Chameleon is quite a cohesive little surprise. Steve Fox is the only constant on each of the eight songs on the album, and, in a way, could be considered Shadrack Chameleon since his guitar, bass, songwriting, and vocal talents come to the forefront. Fox's thinnish vocals can be an acquired taste, but he is a strong, instinctive writer. A Jimmy Page influence (almost inevitable during the period) is discernible in the interesting, mystical chords and changes on the album. The band is certainly not a Zeppelin soundalike, though, because the changes that Fox and sometime-partner Randy Berka conceived are countered by a gentle acoustic feel and a languid rather than dynamic pulse. The band can employ a beautiful, stomping country-rock style, as on the opening cut "I Wonder Why," with its ensemble vocal hook (reminiscent of Emerson, Lake & Palmer's "Lucky Man") and organ, or it can be a heavier progressive rock outfit, as on "Long Road to Ole' Miss" and "Granite Feast." Mostly, though, Shadrack Chameleon might be termed progressive folk, and songs like "That's the Way It's Gotta Be" and "Don't Let It Get You Down" reveal strummed chording that comes out sounding almost claustrophobic ...
| | Haymarket Square Magic Lantern CD (1968)
Nosy Parker CD music
$11.49 
The psychedelic reissue label Gear Fab peel back another layer of the history of underground psychedelic rock with this obscure 1968 album. It has remained a long-forgotten collectors ...
| | Family Entertainment CD (1969) (Import) Remastered; United Kingdom
Nosy Parker music CDs
$18.99
ENTERTAINMENT was a 1969 release by British progressive rock act Family.
Family's second album is a perfect distillation of all the power and promise of the band's debut, MUSIC IN A DOLL'S HOUSE. "The Weaver's Answer" is a stunning opener that neatly sums up what Family are all about. Inventive instrumentation (Leslie-d guitar, flutes, and saxophones) plays, while acoustic guitar and a snappy rhythm section provide a propulsive and forceful base. Family never sounds quaint or dated. Bassist and violinist Ric Grech's "Second Generation Woman" is a pared-down, riff-driven rocker. Sadly, it was his final contribution to the band, as he left to join the short-lived Blind Faith.
The beautifully produced ENTERTAINMENT is filled with some of Family's early classics--"Observations From A Hill," "Hung Up Down," "How-Hi-The-Li," and "Emotions." As always, vocalist Roger Chapman's roars out of the finely sculpted musical tapestries like a madman on a mission of vital importance. ENTERTAINMENT captures the heady experimental rush that swept the British Isles in the wake of The Beatles' SERGEANT PEPPER.
This 2003 CD reissue of Family ...
| | Perry Leopold Christian Lucifer CD (1973)
Nosy Parker songs
$11.69 
Although his incredibly rare first album, Experiment in Metaphysics, was a sensational and dynamic slice of progressive acid folk, Perry Leopold took a phenomenal leap forward on the follow-up, 1973's Christian Lucifer. (It is a small miracle that the recording ever saw the light of day, since the studio at which it was recorded was sold and then closed, and all the master tapes from the sessions were erased and used again, leaving only a few mixdown copies.) The songs on the first album, while all strong individually, didn't quite hold together, but Christian Lucifer is conceptually a whole, impossible to imagine as anything other than what it is. Leopold's melodies again shine like slowly uncovered gems. Complex melodic lines and protracted vocal melodies stretch and build ominously, like the sight of a wise, enigmatic monk concealed beneath a woolen cloak. The religious reference is not an empty simile. If the songs on his first album came across as parables or ancient narrative tales, then Christian Lucifer is a collection of hymns, prayers, and litanies conflicted with the dualities of life, full of metaphysical depth. Whereas the first album stuck ...
| | Douglas Fir Hard Heart Singin' CDs (1970)
Nosy Parker album
$11.59
By the sound of Hard Heart Singin', Douglas Fir must have been a smoking little blues-rock combo. They may have existed purely as a bar band, but the Pacific Northwest dives where they honed their sound must have been some pretty trippy little establishments, as evidenced by the brooding, ominous, mildly psychedelic (depending on your definition of the genre) nature of their rock & roll. Everything about the music is coated in a dense, smothering atmosphere (in a good way), as if it is all emanating from a small box rather than the band at the front of the room. The recording displays the same ponderous, cloistered, roadhouse blues edge of the Doors, and they share some of the Band's interest in old-time ambience, evident in the wonderful, rolling Ray Charles piano of "Smokey Joe's," and the perfectly placed soul horn charts of "Moratorium Waltz." Richie Moore's guitar work entirely avoids showy ostentation like Robbie Robertson and occasionally matches the sustained tone of Randy California (although it is not generally as distinctive as either guitarist's talent). The songwriting -- nine originals plus a lulling Moody Blues-like cover of Donovan's "Jersey Thursday" -- is solid ...
| | Astral Projection Astral Scene CD (1968)
Nosy Parker CD music
$11.19
A straight reissue of a 1968 album originally issued on Metromedia, The Astral Scene is one of those weirdly compelling pop albums that could have only emanated from the Age of Aquarius. A conceptual undertaking meant to reveal the wondrous cycle of the telepathic phenomenon of astral projection. The album somehow manages to communicate the complex precepts of astral experience in lay terms and remain deliciously frothy pop at the softest, most easy-listening end of the spectrum. It works the same sonic conceit as the Fifth Dimension (only in lily-white, soul-lite mode) or the stable of bands (the Association, Ballroom, ...
| | Love Reaction Best Of CD (1997) (Import) United Kingdom
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| | Harvey Milk Kelly Sessions CD (2004)
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| | Grape Wasuremono CD (2005) (Import) Import; Remastered
Nosy Parker album
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| | Chick Corea I Ain't Mad At You CD (2005)
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| | Sherry W & Go Y'All I Hear You Calling Me CD (2006)
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| | Black Francis Bluefinger CD (2007)
Nosy Parker songs
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| | Joe Battaglia Of Space & Time CD (2007)
Nosy Parker album
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| | Prodigal Son Lyricist Blueprints, Vol. 1 CD (2008)
Nosy Parker CD music
$16.45
Lyricist Blueprints Vol.1 was created with both amateur and professional songwriters in mind. This melody rich instrumental trilogy offers ...
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