Fame&price/Price&fame/Together.
Georgie Fame and Alan Price
CBS 1971
S64392
Brilliant!
According to the Mike Ledgerwood blurb on the back of the sleeve, Fame and Price kept getting double booked for shows, and from this was borne their lasting friendship and a brief collaborative relationship.
At first listen none of the songs seems like a real masterpiece, but then you begin to question your judgment when you find yourself singing them in the shower the next day.
The first side is pretty Randy Newanish and "Bonnie and Clyde"-y, very distinctly both Price and Fame, especially the incredible "Time I Moved On". The first two songs on the second side have, for some reason, a vague Afro-Caribbean influence, while the last songs default to what you'd expect from Alan Price and Georgie Fame. "That's How Strong My Love Is" (in which you can, at some points, really see why Georgie Fame and Van Morrison compliment one another so well) even features some beautiful vocal harmonies. Given Fame and Price's backgrounds, a lot of Together is surprisingly guitar driven (and very bassy).
Without doubt, though, the single best thing about the album is how much fun they clearly had while making it. A lot of the tracks do seem like cheap, one-off twenty-minute compositions, but they're still infinitely superior to most other songs of their class, just because of who Fame and Price are.
Lindsay Anderson describes this perfectly:
Alan Price and Georgie Fame have always been my favourite pop artists--I mean the only ones whose records I have always looked forward to and bought and listened to. Though I don't really like using the word "pop" in connexion with them--they don't follow trends--they have the magic gift of popularity, of speaking to and for the people: but that is quite a different thing.
They were my friends before I met them. When we were making IF... I carried a lot of their music around on my transistor tape recorder, and I used to play it as we drove to and from locations, to keep my courage up. It was their lyricism I liked best; and I still think it is for this that they are most truly unique. Each of them has his own, absolutely individual way with a song. Each seems to have been born with a natural delicacy, musicianship, and continual, refreshing energy.
It's amazing that two such different artists can work so well together. Perhaps they complement each other. And of course they are both Northerners--Georgie from the level streets of Leigh in Lancashire, Alan a touchy Geordie, blessed (or cursed) with the Celtic charm. They both have the Northern style of directness: mocking pretension: humourously sceptical. They are persistent and don't compromise. English stamina at is best.
In evidence of the cheer that pulls the album together, here's a performance of the single "Rosetta" (which made it into the Top 20), from TOTP:
You can see that Price is playing his RMI Electra-Piano, which he played on the O Lucky Man! soundtrack as well. I'd really like to know who comprised the band they recorded with, but this information isn't immediately available on the internet for some reason.
Song Highlights: "Rosetta", "Time I Moved On", "That's How Strong My Love Is", "I Can't Take It Much Longer"
