Candy Rock Fountain - Love Can Make You Happy

Tracks

Side 1

		Track Name	Length
	1	Aquarius	05:03
	2	Kaleidoscope	03:30
	3	Nancy Brown	02:05
	4	Goodbye	02:50
	5	Paintbrush	01:48

Side 2

		Track Name	Length
	1	All I See Is You	03:56
	2	Love (Can Make You Happy)	03:48
	3	I Don't Want To Live	02:38
	4	Flower Generation	02:51
	5	In My Life	02:15
	6	Up Up And Away	03:55

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Information/Write-up

Birchmount Records came into being during September of 1969. The idea for the label, came from a want for their parent label “Quality Records” to offload some of their deleted or out of print vinyl records. They’d either create new artwork for an existing release (Earl Mitton, The Guess Who, Guido Basso, The Beau-Marks, etc.), or they’d just make a new compilation record with existing masters they owned by various artists. Though this may have been the initial intention, about half of the first 80 releases were unique Canadian content, exclusive to the label. Early on, the Toronto based company hired local producer, engineer and songwriter, Greg Hambleton to help with the procuring of local talent.

Greg Hambleton was the eldest of five siblings, many of whom were musically gifted. He and his brother Fergus were active and pioneering members of Toronto’s early rock and folk scene. After a few years performing and writing songs in Toronto’s Yorkville district, Greg grew interested in production and publishing in 1967. He began work as an independent recording engineer at Sound Canada and RCA’s Studios in Toronto; recording legendary singles by The Midnight Angels, The Boodly-Hoo, The Fringe, A Passing Fancy, The Humble Sponge and The Eighth Day, before his career really took off.

George Struth of Quality Records personally asked Greg to put together a few "shadow" albums to bolster the label's early catalogue. The key in his mind was for these albums to exude a psychedelic-pop energy. Greg knew this was the perfect opportunity to have these groups record some of his original songs. The albums had to contain at least 50% well known covers, but had no contracted artists featured and no stipulations regarding what made up the other 50% of the album's content.

Greg knew exactly who he wanted to hire for these "homebrew" projects; Paul Clinch (drums/guitar), Stan Theriault (guitar/bass) and Peter Goodale (organ/piano) of "The Magic Cycle." The band was augmented by Greg occasionally on piano and Pete Schofield on sax and clarinet. All in all, they recorded four albums; Suzanne (BM-501), Tuesday's Children (BM-508), Sultan Street Nine (BM-509), and The Candy Rock Fountain (BM-517).

The Magic Cycle were a Toronto based Psychedelic Rock band who were gaining considerable clout around the city's Yorkville district at the time. Shortly after their involvement with Greg and Birchmount, they rebranded as simply "The Cycle" and began work on their debut studio album.

The Candy Rock Fountain (BM-517) is a great instrumental pop album recorded by Greg Hambleton with his studio crew of: Paul Clinch (drums/guitar), Stan Theriault (guitar/bass), Peter Goodale (organ/piano) and Fergus Hambleton on clarinet. What sets this album apart when compared to the other Greg Hambleton projects for this label is, the disproportionate amount of original songs; Kaleidoscope, Nancy Brown, Goodbye, Paintbrush, All I See You (Fergus Hambleton), Love, I Don't Want To Live and Flower Generation (popularized by The Fringe).
-Aaron Lusch

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