Released 1975 Release date 1975 | Artist If | |
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Tea Break Over, Back on Your 'Eads(1975) Forgotten Roads The Best of If(1995) 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