Innocence & Despair

by The Langley Schools Music Project

Overview

These 19 tracks are taken from the two albums Langley Elementary School students recorded and released in small quantities for themselves and their friends in British Columbia in the mid-'70s. Innocence & Despair is a subtitle etched onto the sleeve, to which could rejoin, is it the innocence of ineptitude, or the ineptitude of innocence? On its own merits, it's not great listening. The kids are engaged and having fun, certainly; there's not much despair here. But they sound close to what you would expect 50-strong vocal ensembles of nine- to 12-year-olds singing in a school gymnasium to sound like. What does probably lift this above most other vanity school music class pressings (and you know there must be plenty more where this came from) is the spooky, minimal strangeness of most of the arrangements. It does indeed sound refreshing and interesting to hear the Beach Boys, Paul McCartney, Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, and Neil Diamond songs with weird off-kilter xylophones, off-the-wall cymbal crashes, and teacher Hans Fenger's basic singalong acoustic guitar and piano. It's more valuable as a cultural curiosity and something to get the guffaws going at parties than it is a deep listening experience. There's something undeniably otherworldly about much of it, though, particularly the cover of "Space Oddity," with its scrape-slides and ridiculously over-tremoloed guitar. The strangest cover choice is undoubtedly Klaatu's "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" (well, Klaatu was Canadian). And there's an interesting comment about nine-year-old Sheila Behman's solo vocal showcase by Fenger in the liner notes: "I always felt [her version of] 'Desperado' was better than versions by the Eagles or Linda Ronstadt." If you're not a fan of those artists, which probably could be said of the majority of consumers purchasing this disc, you might well agree. ~ Richie Unterberger

Product Details

Release Date:	03/09/2018
Label:	Bar/None Records / None
UPC:	0032862012211
Rank:	34650

Tracks

Disc 1

1. Band on the Run
2. You're So Good to Me
3. Rhiannon
4. To Know Him Is to Love Him
5. Help Me, Rhonda
6. Little Deuce Coupe
7. Saturday Night
8. Space Oddity
9. I'm Into Something Good

Disc 2

10. Desperado
11. Venus and Mars/Rock Show
12. Good Vibrations
13. You're Sixteen (You're Beautiful, and You're Mine)
14. God Only Knows
15. Wildfire
16. In My Room
17. Sweet Caroline
18. I Get Around
19. Mandy
20. Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft
21. The Long and Winding Road

Album Credits

Performance Credits

The Langley Schools Music Project   Primary Artist

Technical Credits

Terry Draper   Composer
Paul McCartney   Composer
Irwin Chusid   Producer,Liner Notes,Cover Design
Carole King   Composer
Don Henley   Composer
Gary Usher   Composer
John Lennon   Composer
John Woloschuk   Composer
Richard Kerr   Composer
Scott English   Composer
Piet Schreuders   Cover Design
Mike Love   Composer
David Bowie   Composer
William Martin   Composer
Brian Wilson   Composer
Gerry Goffin   Composer
Glenn Frey   Composer
Phil Spector   Composer
Linda McCartney   Composer
Phil Coulter   Composer
Neil Diamond   Composer
Stevie Nicks   Composer
Laura Lindgren   Cover Design
Jeff Winner   Design,Cover Design
Theo Van Der Schaaf   Executive Producer
Hans Fenger   Music Supervisor
Tony Asher   Composer
Jeroen van der Schaaf   Executive Producer