There's never a year goes by here on the Calendar when someone doesn't ask a) Where do you find this stuff? or b) Why the hell do you do it?
The answer to the first one is I spend an obscene amount of time looking - more than is reasonable for any supposedly sane person - and the answer to the second is I genuinely don't know, although I fear there is something very wrong with me... but then... but then... I come across something like the Rotary Connection's 'Peace' album and it all suddenly makes sense.
This album came out in 1968. 1968! Over a half-century this has been out there to enjoy yet I discovered it just two weeks before the end of 2022. After unearthing it I've since found out that it figures in several august lists as one of the Greatest Christmas albums ever made. I'd probably not argue.
The whole album is superb and, in many ways, 'Silent Night' isn't really indicative of the rest of the collection but Christmas Day falls on a Sunday this year, I needed a Carol and this seemed an ideally bonkers way to go out for what has been another chaotic year.
The track starts slowly with a '60s sounding orchestral piece that put me in mind of a Moody Blues concept album, drops into a swirling Temptations psychedelic soul vocal segment, then goes into a section that reminds me of the Ray Conniff Singers that my Dad used to play (there's one for the teenagers!) and then morphs into what sounds to me like Trip-Hop (just 25 years early there) with an - understandably given the date - 5th Dimension feel before a Hendrix-style guitarist drops in to rip the whole thing apart.
And to top it all if you're wondering about the astonishing five-octave range of the female singer that's a young Minnie Ripperton making her first recordings.
My only concern is that this is just too 'outta sight, man' and people may pass on the rest of the album but if you saw and loved (and how could you not?) the 'Summer of Soul' film from 2021, then the rest of the album is certainly worth checking out.
I'll be back on Boxing Day for a one-off treat but otherwise Merry Christmas and, hey, 'Peace' Yea?