“Soft Soundin’ Music” is my pick from the LP | Harpers Bizarre – ‘Harpers Bizarre 4’ (Warner Bros ‘ Seven Arts WS-1784) May 1969
Harpers Bizarre, a four-man pop group, here offers its distinctive brand of smooth, easy going, gentle sounds on an album of twelve tunes, four of which were penned by members of the act.
Selections on the set include “Soft Soundin’ Music,” “Knock On Wood,” Lennon and McCartney’s “Blackbird,” and the title song from the film “I Love You, Alice B Toklas.”
Many listeners should get a great deal of pleasure from this LP. (Cashbox, 03/05/69)
Harpers Bizarre | “Harpers Bizarre 4” | (Warner Bros) 1969
Single taken from the album:
“Knock On Wood” / “Witchi Tai To” (Warner Bros / 7 Arts 7296) June 1969
Stylized, soft and polished Memphis oldie is re-tailored for combined pop/MOR appeal. With the seasonal movement toward easybeat sides, the lid could click. (Cash Box, 14/06/69)
Harpers Bizarre | “Harpers Bizarre 4” | (Warner Bros) 1969 | The original group’s final album, 1969’s ‘Harpers Bizarre 4‘, pulled back from the eccentric invention of ‘Secret Life’ with a leaner, straightforward, and more intimate sound – in part because the band’s own rhythm section made more of an impression along with guest guitarists Ry Cooder and the returning Eddie James.
Harpers Bizarre | “Harpers Bizarre 4” | (Warner Bros) 1969
One-third of the album (like the others, produced by Lenny Waronker) was composed by Scoppettone and Templeman including the opening “Soft Sounding Music” which wasn’t a sunshine pop anthem but rather a guitar-driven rock tune name-checking B.B. King and Jimmy Reed.
The covers were expectedly eclectic, though: a slow, lysergic cover of “Knock on Wood,” the hypnotic “Witchi Tai To,” Barry Mann and Gerry Goffin’s pretty “Something Better” (also recorded by Marianne Faithfull) and The Beatles’ “Blackbird” in gentle Jack Nitzsche arrangements, the Elmer Bernstein psych-pop movie theme “I Love You, Alice B. Toklas,” and even Otis Redding’s “Hard to Handle.”
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