Judy Henske Farewell Aldebaran CD - Import

 Rosy with her stockings rolled....
In spite of the fact that doubt has been cast on the veracity of Radioactive's recording techniques (copied from vinyl?)it is worth going to any lengths to procure this quite extraordinary album. Apparently, Zappa loved it but my God, we all loved it at Edinburgh University in 1969/70 too. I loved it so much that I bought several copies, one from the Flea Market in Paris. It was not easy to come by. Judy Henske, with the contralto voice of an angel, was reading the Oxford Book of English Verse when she and Loving Spoonful musical director Jerry Yester made this nugget. Judy is the only popular musician who really deserves the title poet. Snowblind is a sort-of rocker whose protagonists are Fullbrook Sedgwind and Rosy (with HER STOCKINGS ROLLED), sung with gusto, let us say. Horses on a Stick is a ride through life on a fairground roundabout where your horse is shod with starlight, his hooves strike sparks in the night. Almost too beautiful to bear, with a jingle jangle musical arrangement and lovely harmonies. Lullaby has a tune of really rare beauty, and St Nicholas Hall (sends greetings to all, of the lambs who have strayed from the fold ..... you remember her as your Dean - She is Mean and Incredibly old) is a liturgical request from a convent to help out with all manner of requests from missionaries to the organ, ending with a heavenly chorus and a sharp single note at the end. Unique. Three ravens, about a knight dying after battle with only a deer to protect him (the racing moon will trace his resting place, 'til dawn, when above him, with hungry eyes, and shining wings, three ravens fly.....). It has the loveliest tune and chorus I have ever heard (she lifted up his head, and kissed his wounds so red, and by his side, she wept and died, in bitterness) with beautiful harmonies too. Raider (stole a Morgan mare) is about the reevers, I think, who made forays into other counties to steal livestock, heavy on the banjo and country rhythms, and Mrs Connor is about an ageing, ill prostitute who is on her own and near her end (and when death comes to Mrs Connor, he'll lay lays his hoary length on her and groan..), to a city jazz arrangement. Rapture is a tour de force about rapture beyond the susl human pleasure, ie, almost religious rapture (divers asleep, dream of the deep, towering over their heads) with a soaring end-line and a voice that I have not heard before, anywhere, or again since. Charity is about a magic ship with a wierd cargo (ivory rings, singing peacocks and things from the East: there's a beast on a chain made of gold ...) and the ship is called the Charity .... and you can hear the sea is the ocean harmonies and major seveths of the final chorus. Farewell Aldebarn is about the the death of a galaxy (see, she is descending now, starting the slide), set to a bossa nova, I promise you, and ending up with a vocoder nightmare as she slips away. I cannot stress enough how odd and how heartstoppingly beautiful this album is. If one each of these songs had been on ten albums, all ten would have been worth buying. Judy's voice is, well, unique, and the arrangements, words and tunes are unforgettable. This is a one-off and Judy is a genuine poet/singer. Even Dylan never produced images or beauty like this.
Submitted by tom.thatcher (Salisbury, Wiltshire, England)
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