LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

Label: Free Records

Ancient Grease’s Women And Children First is a heavy, blues-soaked psychedelic rock album from the Welsh scene of the early 1970s. Originally released in 1970 on Mercury, it has the feel of a band caught between hard rock, underground psych and progressive rock: rough-edged, guitar-led and full of restless changes rather than simple verse-chorus writing.

The group had previously been known as Strawberry Dust, and the album was produced with the involvement of John Weathers, later of Gentle Giant. That connection helps explain some of the record’s unusual character: the music can be heavy and direct, but it also has odd turns, organ colour, long guitar passages and a distinctly British underground atmosphere. This Free Records CD edition adds an alternate version of Freedom Train as a bonus track.

1. Freedom Train
2. Don't Want
3. Odd Song
4. Eagle Song
5. Where The Snow Lies Forever
6. Mother Grease The Cat
7. Time To Die
8. Prelude To A Blind Man
9. Mystic Mountain
10. Women And Children First
11. Freedom Train (alternate version)