THE GRAHAM BOND ORGANIZATION
Wade In The Water: Classics, Origins & Oddities REPERTOIRE
Deep dive into the roots of a prog-adjacent R&B legend.
When budding singer-songwriter Peter Hammill, recently signed to Mercury Records, came down to London in 1968, his label asked a more experienced player to take their fledgling artist under his wing awhile. “He was the first professional musician I ever met,” said Hammill some years later about his brief time spent in organist Graham Bond’s company. By then, Bond was well on his way down a path leading to a dark abyss of drink, drug addiction, depression and a deepening obsession with all things occult. When he died in 1974, under a train in London’s underground, he was just 36.
THESE 96 SONGS ARE ENTHRALLING FROM FIRST TO LAST.
Before that sad end, however, there was an abundance of raucous, joyous music, much of it spread across these four CDs packed with recordings that date from 1963 to 1967. The extent of Bond’s raw talent is overwhelmingly clear. Here is an artist at the top of his game infusing his bluesy shout with energy and authority. Such is his commitment, even when plagued by laryngitis at an audition for Decca in 1964, Bond can be heard gamely pushing through the pain barrier like the true professional he was.
In his affectionate and insightful sleeve notes that accompany the set, Cream lyricist Pete Brown argues that the Graham Bond Organization was “one of the three or four greatest British bands ever,” going on to add that, “in terms of influence, the GBO was to musicians what The Beatles were to the public.” Given that the GBO included Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce as well as John McLaughlin and future Colosseum founders Dick Heckstall-Smith and Jon Hiseman, Brown’s claim isn’t as fanciful as might first appear.
The gusto of Bond’s attacking organ, roaring and roiling against whip-cracking backline performances, is a thing of wonder, with Bruce’s propulsive bass also a particular beneficiary of the clutch of sparkling new remixes peppered over these discs. Bond was an early adopter of the Mellotron and hearing him, in 1965, punch out raunchy chords with so much heart and soul on prog rock’s signature instrument, it’s nigh impossible to listen without grinning from ear to ear. Even Ginger Baker’s first recorded vocal on Cold Rain emanates a strange if dubious charm.
There’s so much previously unreleased material to feast on throughout these 96 songs; a bonus live recording from 1964 is an absolute scorcher that renders some of the GBO’s more storied contemporaries somewhat tepid by comparison. Enthralling and exciting from first to last.