Revelation

Personnel: Ian Green; Madeline Bell, Rosetta Hightower (vocals).
Arranger: Ian Green.
Ian Green's Revelation belongs to that peculiar genre of late-'60s music that was essentially easy listening at its heart, but dressed up with period trappings from rock, soul, and even some psychedelia. It's hard to imagine who the audience was; actual rock and soul listeners would have much preferred the harder, more authentic stuff, and if easy listening buyers weren't exactly scared away, you wouldn't think they'd be unduly impressed by (or even recognize) the contemporary touches. Like many such albums, it contains quite a few covers of outside material by other popular acts, including Gene Pitney's "Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart" and Cannonball Adderley's "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy." A medley of the Beatles' "A Day in the Life" and "She's Leaving Home" with "Step Inside Love" (a Lennon-McCartney song given to Cilla Black) makes for a more offbeat entry, as does Traffic's "No Face, No Name, No Number." It's still a rather overly lush mesh of orchestrated instrumental music with more up to date trends and material, though arranger/producer Green did have one genuinely hipper asset at his disposal than most such figures: soul singer Rosetta Hightower (formerly of the Orlons), whose genuinely good singing boosts several of the tracks. The pair's talents were put to much better use on Hightower's Green-produced 1971 album Hightower, which is a decent soul-rock record for the actual general rock audience, with outstanding session players. Revelation is trivial stuff by comparison that certainly doesn't make the most of Hightower's talents, though hardcore fans of the singer might want the CD reissue, which adds a couple similar tracks from Green's non-LP 1969 single "Santa Maria"/"Groover's Grave." ~ Richie Unterberger