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| A New Generation-Smokey Blue's Away/She's A Soldier Boy |
U.K.quartet The New Generation (re-titled "A New Generation" here and on some European releases) had three singles back home for the tiny Spark label. Today's specimen was their third in Britain (Spark SRL 1007 May 1968) and their only American release, which was launched to no avail in August 1968. Imperial released a handful of odd U.K. releases during this period (The Bonzo Dog Band, Spice, The Eggy etc) which always made me curious about their motivation.
My introduction to them came back in the early 90's when my pal and musical guru Ron Rimsite put their track "Sadie And Her Magic Mr. Galahad" on a cassette mix tape. A year or so later their "She's A Soldier Boy" popped up on a Rubble collection CD that I bought and so began my interest in the band.
"Smokey Blue's Away" I will admit is probably not one of my favorites by them. It's absolutely dead boring orchestrated MOR pop. Next...
"She's A Soldier Boy" has a grammatically confusing title (and the lyrics are pretty vague too!). Regardless it's a mellow track with a minimal musical backing with just bass,guitar, drums and organ. It has some cool harmonies, a catchy melody and this interesting part where a sped up flanged piano precedes the chorus. I like it because the melody is pretty catchy and sticks in my brain frequently.
"Smokey Blue's Away" is on the Spark records compilation "Hello Everyone: Popsike Sparks From Denmark Street 1968-1970" on Grapefruit and available through streaming as well. "She's A Soldier Boy" is on a streaming compilation "Spark Singles Vol.2" as well as the Rubble LP "A Trip In A Painted World" (Rubble 17) and the earlier mentioned Rubble CD comp.
Hear "Smokey Blue's Away":
Hear "She's a Soldier Boy":
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