Ceremony (Spooky Tooth and Pierre Henry album)

Ceremony is a 1969 album by progressive UK rock band Spooky Tooth in collaboration with French electronic and "found-object" composer Pierre Henry. The world premier was on September 2, 1970 at Olympia, Paris, France. The album was dedicated to Béatrice.

Ceremony
Studio album by
Spooky Tooth with Pierre Henry
ReleasedDecember 1969
GenreAvant-rock, electronic
Length45:13
LabelIsland
ProducerSpooky Tooth, Pierre Henry
Spooky Tooth chronology
Spooky Two
(1969)		 Ceremony
(1969)		 The Last Puff
(1970)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
The Rolling Stone Record Guide[2]

History and critical reception

The album takes the form of a church service.

Despite the project being instigated by Gary Wright,[3] the album is considered by him to have ended the band's career. The album is described by another as being "one of the great screw-ups in rock history".[3] As Wright describes it, "...we did a project that wasn't our album. It was with this French electronic music composer named Pierre Henry. We just told the label, 'You know this is his album, not our album. We'll play on it just like musicians.' And then when the album was finished, they said, 'Oh no no — it's great. We're gonna release this as your next album.' We said, 'You can't do that. It doesn't have anything to do with the direction of Spooky Two and it will ruin our career.' And that's exactly what happened."[4] Wright left the band following the release of the album.

Track listing[5]

All tracks composed by Pierre Henry and Gary Wright

  1. "Have Mercy" – 7:51
  2. "Jubilation" – 8:25
  3. "Confession" – 6:53
  4. "Prayer" – 10:50
  5. "Offering" – 3:26
  6. "Hosanna" – 7:33

(Note: on some European CD reissues, the song order has been changed to "Confession", "Have Mercy", "Credo" (previously titled "Jubilation"), "Offering", "Hosanna", "Prayer". "Confession" includes approximately ten seconds of electronic effects at the beginning edited out of prior releases.)[6]

Personnel
Spooky Tooth

Production
  • Produced by Pierre Henry and Spooky Tooth
  • Recorded and engineered by Andy Johns
  • John Holmes - cover painting

References
  1. AllMusic review
  2. Marsh, Dave; Swenson, John (eds) (1983). The New Rolling Stone Record Guide. New York, NY: Random House/Rolling Stone Press. p. 481. ISBN 0-394-72107-1.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  3. Jim Farber, What Happened To Spooky Tooth?. Musicaficionado, 2017. Retrieved 2017-12-12.
  4. Gary Wright: Vintage Rock interview (advert)
  5. A Pierre Henry-free version of the closing track "Hosanna" with different lyrics appears on 2015 Universal release The Island Years 1967–1974 under the title "When I Get Home". The release also includes an alternate take of "Have Mercy" (also without Henry) and a session outtake titled "Shine a Light on Me".
  6. "Discogs". discogs.com. Retrieved January 20, 2017.
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