Search - Eternity's Children :: The Lost Sessions

Group wows with versatility in rarites package

Fredric A. Cooper | Torrance, CA United States | 10/02/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This long-awaited collection of previously unreleased tracks joins the Rev-Ola CD as a must for late-60s music fans. Several Bruce Blackman-penned tunes (he wrote, but didn't get label credtit for, "Mrs. Bluebird") start things off in fine form, even if these are of demo quality. The band's choices for cover material are really top notch; not only do they perform Jimmy Webb and Randy Newman songs, but they do a sped-up arrangement of The Hollies' "Hard Hard Year" and perform "A Taste Of Honey", also found on The Hollies' "Beat Group" LP. From the band's Memphis sessions comes "Railroad Trestle in California", which sounds like The Box Tops hit that got away, with a terrific chorus. They even tackle soul and gospel convincingly with "Somebody's Watching You" (The Sly Stone song) , "Down the Aisle", and Laura Nyro's "Woman's Blues". Linda Lawley gets to display her vocal chops on the latter, and gives it all she's got. The group's musical instincts were on target with "Living Is Easy", which could easily be recorded by Britain's Swing Out Sister today.
A dynamite collection, surpassing my own expectations, and a great companion to the Rev-Ola CD."

Their best collection yet

Andy Agree | Omaha, NE | 12/20/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There are six songs in the collection that also appear in the album "From Us Unto You: The Complete Singles", and all are good. The other 10 songs are NOT included in any other Children album and are even better, making this their strongest collection to date, despite the fact that their most essential and perfectly realized song "Mrs. Bluebird" is absent. Musical labels are trite and unjust to good music, yet they can also be useful, so I'll venture to say that the Children evolved over a period of 3 years (1967-1969) from garage rock to sunshine pop to southern rock and soul. The two albums released in 1968 highlight the sunshine pop phase. This album focuses mostly on their earlier and later recordings. Consistent in their work is interesting melody and crisp instrumentation. The to-die-for multi-layered harmonies on their other albums are less present here, but these songs are less dependent on it. A special revelation on this album is the knock-out, soulful, alto-range vocals of Linda Lawley, who in a better world would have been famous in her own right. In particular, check out "Woman's Blues", "Didn't We?", and "Just One Smile" where her version competes with Dusty Springfield's while incorporating the horns from the Blood, Sweat and Tears version. There are some other gems sung by Linda that can only be found on "From Us Unto You", and probably their best southern rocker "Blue Horizon", that would have fit nicely in this collection. After hearing this album, I am more convinced than ever that this was one of the really fine groups of the late 60s. Was any group of this era both so good and so unjustly ignored?"