H. P. Lovecraft was an American psychedelic rock band, formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1967 and named after the horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. Combining elements of psychedelia and folk rock, the band’s sound was marked by the striking vocal harmonies of ex-folk singer George Edwards and the classically trained Dave Michaels. The band was signed to Philips Records in 1967; their first album, H. P. Lovecraft, followed in late 1967 and included what is arguably the band’s best-known song, “The White Ship”. The band then became a frequent attraction at various San Francisco Bay Area venues, including The Fillmore and the Winterland Ballroom. In 1968, a second album, H. P. Lovecraft II, appeared, but the group disbanded in early 1969. (More from Wikipedia)
H. P. Lovecraft is a well regarded psychedelic rock band that was named after one of my very favorite authors, H. P. Lovecraft long before he gained any mainstream recognition. I knew he had arrived when I went through a big-city Barnes & Noble store 20-some years ago and saw a list of authors in their Horror section, with H. P. Lovecraft listed just below Stephen King. Their first album, H. P. Lovecraft came out in 1967 and is rated 4½ stars from Allmusic and (as noted in the article on the album by Richie Unterberger) “included an underground FM radio favorite, ‘White Ship’” (named after a Lovecraft short story, “White Ship”).
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Drummer Michael Tegza was the only original bandmember left when he reinvented the band under the name Lovecraft and released an album called Valley of the Moon in 1970. Joe Viglione, writing for Allmusic says of this album: “For this 1970 Reprise release, they are dubbed Lovecraft and have abandoned the psychedelic Jefferson Airplane sound for a progressive Crosby, Stills & Nash-meets-Uriah Heep flavor. In 1975, drummer [Michael] Tegza re-formed the band again and separated the two words; their Love Craft album, We Love You Whoever You Are, took things into an almost Santana-goes-soul direction.”
I have the Love Craft album, and the addition of soulful vocals by LaLomie Washburn atop a dreamy pop-psychedelic sheen makes this a fascinating listen, though it has little similarity to the original H. P. Lovecraft. This record gets some grudging admiration by Joe Viglione in Allmusic: “The record sounds better than it looks, for they look like a glorified Holiday Inn band; but the creative spark is still there, with Michael Tegza producing this with LaLomie Washburn, and the band dipping into progressive jams, expertly played, but with little chance of obtaining Top 40 success.”
(June 2014)
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Items: H. P. Lovecraft
