Grave New World

For the Discharge album, see Grave New World (Discharge album).

Untitled

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Robert Christgau	D

Grave New World is a studio album by English band Strawbs. It was the first album to be released after the departure of Rick Wakeman, under circumstances about which band leader Dave Cousins was very bitter. Cousins has admitted that the track "Tomorrow" was written about Wakeman. Happily their friendship survived and the two have since performed and recorded together, releasing an album Hummingbird in 2002.

Wakeman's departure to join prog-rockers Yes caused a lot of predictions of Strawbs demise. Cousins was into the I Ching at the time and he asked the book what he should do. The answer was used in the lyrics for the first track on the album, "Benedictus".

Blue Weaver, late of Amen Corner, was recruited and considered by most fans to be a more than adequate replacement for Wakeman.

The album depicts the story of one man's life. For instance, the track "Hey Little Man" represents an older man giving advice to his young son. The songs themselves show the continuation of the movement away from Strawbs' original folk leanings. Founding member Tony Hooper began to be increasingly uncomfortable with this and left after the recording sessions of this album.

The original vinyl album had lavish artwork and included a pamphlet showing the lyrics of each track together with details of instrumentation. The front cover is a reproduction of William Blake's Glad Day.

The album reached number 11 in the UK Album Charts.

Track listing

Side one

1. "Benedictus" (Dave Cousins) – 4:24
2. "Hey Little Man ... Thursday's Child" (Cousins) – 1:06
3. "Queen of Dreams" (Cousins) – 5:32
4. "Heavy Disguise" (John Ford) – 2:53
5. "New World" (Cousins) – 4:11
6. "Hey Little Man ... Wednesday's Child" (Cousins) – 1:06

Side two

1. "The Flower and the Young Man" (Cousins) – 4:17
2. "Tomorrow" (Cousins, Tony Hooper, Ford, Blue Weaver, Richard Hudson) – 4:49
3. "On Growing Older" (Cousins) – 1:56
4. "Ah Me, Ah My" (Hooper) – 1:24
5. "Is It Today, Lord?" (Hudson) – 3:07
6. "The Journey's End" (Cousins, Weaver) – 1:46

Bonus tracks

The following were featured as bonus tracks on the A&M 1998 reissue CD.

1. "Here it Comes" (Cousins) – 2:42
2. "I'm Going Home" (Cousins) – 3:14

"I'm Going Home" originally appeared on Dave Cousins's solo album Two Weeks Last Summer. This track is the first occasion on which Dave Lambert recorded with the band. He had occasionally been appearing on stage for encores but after this album and the departure of Tony Hooper, Lambert joined the band full-time.

Personnel

• Dave Cousins – lead vocals, backing vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, dulcimer, recorder
• Tony Hooper – lead vocals, backing vocals, acoustic guitar, autoharp, tambourine
• Blue Weaver – organ, piano, harmonium, mellotron, clavioline
• John Ford – lead vocals, backing vocals, bass guitar, acoustic guitar
• Richard Hudson – backing vocals, drums, sitar, tablas

Additional personnel

• Trevor Lucas and Anne Collins – backing vocals on "Benedictus"
• Robert Kirby arranger ("Heavy Disguise")
• Tony Visconti arranger ("Ah Me, Ah My")

The track "Ah Me, Ah, My" credits "The Gentlemen of the Chorus" with vocals and "Tony Visconti's Old Tyme Dance Orchestra" (actually the Ted Heath Orchestra) as musicians.

Recording

Recorded mainly at Morgan Studios, London with additional work at Island Studios and Landsdowne Studios.

Produced by Dave Cousins, Richard Hudson, John Ford, Blue Weaver and Tony Hooper

• Tom Allom – engineer at Morgan Studios
• Martin Levan – assistant engineer
• Frank Owen - engineer at Island Studios
• John Mackswith - engineer at Landsdowne Studios
• Tony Visconti - producer, "Benedictus"
• Gus Dudgeon - original producer, "Ah Me, Ah My"

Release history

Region	Date	Label	Format	Catalog
Vereinigtes Königreich	February 1972 (1972-02)	A&M	stereo LP	AMLH 66078
Vereinigte Staaten	February 1972 (1972-02)	A&M	stereo LP	SP 4344
Japan	1987 (1987)	A&M/Canyon	CD	D32Y3578
Südkorea	1997 (1997)	Si-Wan	CD	SRMC 0075
Worldwide	1998 (1998)	A&M	remastered CD	540 934-2

References

• Grave New World on Strawbsweb
• 30th anniversary article on Strawbsweb
• Sleeve notes CD 540 934-2 Grave New World