Released 1975 Release date 1975 | Artist If Label Capitol Records | |
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Recorded July & August 1974 at Pyramid Sounds. Mixed at The Hit Factory. Tea Break Over, Back on Your 'Eads
(1975) Forgotten Roads The Best of If
(1995) Genres Jazz fusion, Progressive rock Producers Cliff Davies, Lew Futterman If albums Not Just Another Bunch of, Double Diamond, Forgotten Roads: The Best of If, Waterfall, If 3 | ||
Tea Break Over–Back on Your 'Eads!, released in 1975, was the eighth and final studio album by British jazz-rock band If. It was followed by compilation CDs covering tracks from the first four LPs featuring the band's previous line-up.
Contents
The album reflects the band's more rock-influenced style, perfectly balanced with Dick Morrissey's harsher hard bop/bebop sax playing. The title track "Tea Break", referring to the hardships of being "on the road", is the punch line to an old musicians' joke and contains a tribute to Charlie Parker in the lyrics ("The Bird was the man to be heard" and "The music was the word") as well as in a swirling bebop tenor solo. The "Ballad of the Yessirom Kid", a tribute by the band to Dick Morrissey, finishes with a roaring bebop tenor solo. "Song for Alison" features the flute more than holding its own with a rock accompaniment. The song "Don Quixote" opens with an extensive acoustic Spanish guitar solo by Whitehorn.
Track listing
(LP version - the CD re-release varies the order slightly)
Side one
- "Merlin the Magic Man" (Davies) – 5:05
- "I Had a Friend" (Davies) – 4:30
- "Tea Break Over, Back on Your 'Eads" (Whitehorn, Davies, Monaghan) – 6:05
Side two
- "Ballad of the Yessirrom Kid" (Davies) – 5:20
- "Raw Sewage" (Davies) – 6:13
- "Song for Alison" (Morrissey) – 3:55
- "Don Quixote's Masquerade" (Davies) – 7:50
Line-up
Songs
1Merlin the Magic Man5:05
2I Had a Friend4:30
3Tea-Break Over - Back on Your 'Eads!6:05