Track Listing

1. Scene Through The Eye Of A Lens
2. Gypsy Woman
3. Chase
4. Mellowing Grey
5. Never Like This
6. Me My Friend
7. Variation On A Theme Of Hey Mr Policeman
8. Winter
9. Old Songs For New Songs
10. Variation On A Theme Of The Breeze
11. Hey Mr Policeman
12. See Through Windows
13. Variation On A Theme Of Me My Friend
14. Peace Of Mind
15. Voyage
16. Breeze
17. 3 X Time
18. Weaver's Answer
19. Observations From A Hill
20. Hung Up Down
21. Summer '67
22. How Hi The Li
23. Second Generation Woman
24. From Past Archives
25. Dim
26. Processions
27. Face In The Cloud
28. Emotions

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #124997 in Music
• Released on: 2003-10-27
• Number of discs: 2

Customer Reviews

Music and Entertainment Together
I had forgotten how good these two albums were,they are classics from an era that had had many good bands around. The superb vocals of Roger Chapman are so distinctive,every track is a gem.
To have two of the best Family albums together is a bonus,a must for any Family fan.

Magical!
As an avid music collector I've been working my way through many of the 'classic' 60's psychedelia albums over the past 10 years (at 28, I sadly wasn't alive first time around), but for some reason I'd always overlooked Family. In hindsight this was absolutely criminal!

This is a fantastic double set of their first two albums, released in 1968 and 1969 respectively, elaborately packaged in a hardboard CD book with a 40 page booklet. Two bonus tracks are also included ('Scene Through the Eye of a Lens', and 'Gypsy Woman').

I thought it would be a great introduction to the band and I wasn't wrong. At first I found Roger Chapman's warbling vocals quite startling, and I wasn't sure I'd made a good choice. However his vocal style fits perfectly with the swirling psychedelic production, to make their sound very trippy indeed. The power in his vocal delivery is truly astounding.

Musically both albums are a melting pot of styles and production techniques that most of the bands around today should sit up and take notice of. There really are too many good melodies, riffs and orchestration on these albums to mention individual tracks, and I can't really think of any bands (around at the time or otherwise) who it would be possible to compare them to. There's folk, eastern influenced strings, lush orchestration and belting rock riffs, and often many styles are interwoven into one song.

That's not to say that these albums (or this band) are for everyone - this stuff may be way too 'out there' for some, and may sound too dated for 'da kids', but if you're into your late 60's music and like the Beatles ('Revolver' onwards) then you may want to have a listen. I love it anyway and would thoroughly recommend it!

Music in a Doll's House/Family Entertainment
A great introduction to the music of one of the best bands from arguably the most creative and boundary stretching period in the history of rock music. Family went on to produce another equally great record in Song For Me but sadly they do not get the recognition they deserve. Family were great musicians, multiinstrumentalists who absorbed all kinds of influences in a maeltstrom of styles and moods. Soaring over the top of the wonderful melodies is the unique voice of Roger Chapman, but the great thing about Family is the inventiveness and rich diversity of sound. Steve Marriott's Small Faces and the Edgar Broughton Band bear comparison, as much of their work was equally inventive and style shifting. The lyrics play a key role, often tinged with political overtones, but mixing social comment with humour and wry vignettes on relationships, on childhood, on growing up in the shadow of history. On balance the second of the two albums here is stronger, an album of extraordinary variety but consistently high quality. The pinnacle in Family's career came with Bandstand released in 1972, a more mature and at times overly self conscious production. Bandstand perhaps lacks the naive exuberance of the earlier work. In truth, if you are taken by any one of Family's records you will want them all. They reward constant playing and after almost forty years the music still sounds rich and vibrant. I have hundreds of albums from this period, but the ones I play most are Family's. If you don't know them, you have something worth discovering. Rare treasure.