Shape Of The Rain - Riley Riley Wood And Waggett (2000 Deluxe Edition)

Artist: Shape of the Rain
Title: Riley Riley Wood And Waggett (Deluxe Edition)
Year Of Release: 2020
Label: Grapefruit
Genre: Psychedelic Prog Rock
Audio codec: FLAC | lossless
Total Time: 03:54:49

Tracklist:
CD1
1. Woman (3:58)
2. Patterns (3:25)
3. Castles (2:01)
4. Wasting My Time (3:11)
5. Rockfield Roll (0:51)
6. Yes (5:50)
7. Dusty Road (3:52)
8. Willowing Trees (3:51)
9. I'll Be There (3:41)
10. Broken Man (6:01)
11. My Friend John (2:39)
12. The Very First Clown (4:36)
13. What You Gonna Do Now? (2:08)
14. You're The One (2:00)
15. From Me And From You (0:57)
16. No Use Cryin' Again (2:26)
17. Watercolour Sunshine (4:48)
18. Nothin' You Could Do (1:43)
19. We Can Put It Right (3:19)
20. Lady Of My Dreams (3:17)
21. It All Depends On You (3:17)
22. Listen To Your Heart (1:08)
23. Now's The Time To Start (3:07)
24. Don't You Know (2:58)
25. Second Time Around (4:08)

CD2
1. Broken Man (Demo Version) (3:43)
2. I Don't Need Nobody (2:59)
3. I'll Be There (Demo Version) (4:16)
4. We're Not Their Boys (4:23)
5. Hallelujah (2:45)
6. Hello 503 (3:17)
7. I Doubt If I Ever Will (3:00)
8. Willowing Trees (Demo Version) (3:38)
9. Canyons (4:36)
10. Spring (3:33)
11. Words (5:23)
12. Look Around (3:07)
13. Advertising Man (2:46)
14. Go Around And See It (2:57)
15. It's So Good Here (3:29)
16. Big Black Bird (3:44)
17. Everyone The Fool (4:11)
18. You Just Call (1:48)
19. It's My Life (3:13)
20. Dusty Road (Demo Version) (3:57)
21. Too Many Lies (5:00)
22. Yes (Demo Version) (3:55)

CD3
1. Willowing Trees (Live, Alfreton Hall, 2 May 1970) (4:30)
2. Passing Of Time (Live, Alfreton Hall, 2 May 1970) (6:32)
3. Imagination (Live, Alfreton Hall, 2 May 1970) (5:01)
4. I've Been Wrong (Live, Alfreton Hall, 2 May 1970) (4:39)
5. Spring (Live, Alfreton Hall, 2 May 1970) (7:55)
6. Everyone The Fool (Live, Alfreton Hall, 2 May 1970) (5:30)
7. Vanishing Cottage (Live, Alfreton Hall, 2 May 1970) (5:21)
8. Ceiling (Live, Alfreton Hall, 2 May 1970) (9:12)
9. Big Black Bird (Live, Manchester University, 1973) (4:56)
10. Go Around And See It (Live, Manchester University, 1973) (3:57)
11. Say It's Goodbye (Live, Manchester University, 1973) (3:14)
12. Woman (Live, Manchester University, 1973) (6:00)
13. We're Not Their Boys (Live, Manchester University, 1973) (4:41)
14. Hello 503 (Live, Velvet Underground / Down Broadway Clubs, 1968) (4:59)

Personnel:
Keith Riley - electric and acoustic 6 and 12-string guitars, vocals
Lan Riley - bass guitar, maracas on 'Patterns'
Brian Wood - electric and acoustic 6 and 12-string guitars, steel guitar, vocals, tambourine on 'Broken Man'
Tag Waggen - drums, maracas on 'Broken Man', tambourine on 'Patterns'
Eric Hine - electric piano on 'Dusty Road', 'Broken Man', 'Willowing Trees' and 'Rockfield Roll'

Issued by underground imprint RCA Neon in mid-1971, the Shape Of The Rain album Riley Riley Wood and Waggett sold poorly at the time despite glowing reviews from the British music weeklies. A surging collision of Beatlesesque writing and harmonies and Byrds-like jingle-jangle guitars, sadly it would take another couple of decades before the LP was finally disinterred by a new generation of record collectors.

Half-a-century after its original release, that lost jewel of an album finally gets the attention it deserves as the cornerstone of Grapefruit’s definitive new 3-CD anthology of a criminally neglected late Sixties / early Seventies British band.

In addition to that 1971 album, our release features a post-LP single, a clutch of studio demos, taped rehearsals and alternative versions as well as more than a dozen previously-unissued demos of material for an aborted second album. Recorded in 1972 by band leader and chief vocalist/songwriter Keith Riley, these songs are a staggering new find, occupying similar musical territory to newly-solo McCartney, Badfinger man Pete Ham’s home demos and Chris Bell’s post-Big Star work.

The release also features some incendiary Shape Of The Rain live recordings, including a 50-minute show from May 1970 that stands as a rare and enthralling document of a West Coast-influenced English psychedelic band captured in full and glorious flow at the turn of the decade. Boasting a 24-page booklet that includes numerous rare photos as well as a new history of the band, this expanded, four-hour edition of Riley Riley Wood and Waggett features approximately two hours of previously unreleased music.

It’s a fascinating overview of a band that, with the right handling, could surely have joined the likes of Badfinger, The Raspberries and Big Star as early Seventies proto- power pop avatars of an immediately post-Beatles new dawn