Label: Decca
Year of Release: 1968
Until recently, you could have written what most people in Britain knew about the career of Andy Forray on the back of your hand (certainly, compilation editors had nought on the man). His recording career seemed to involve a few flop singles for EMI/ Parlophone, followed by a stint in the musical "Hair" which lead to interest from Decca records who felt that they possibly had a star on their hands.
All that's changed, however, with the advent of an official MySpace page for the man, which plugs a few gaps without perhaps explaining terribly much. On there, you can hear disco recordings he did in the seventies and recent material without even so much as a "how do you do". Sometimes I can't help but feel that these obscure sixties artists aren't so much elusive as downright rude, ladies and gentlemen, like the mad Uncle you had who popped out for a pint of milk and only returned twenty years later, purely to ask what was cooking for dinner.
Whilst "Dream With Me" may be his best-known song by some considerable margin, with its odd noises and wibbly wobbly acid-tabs-in-the-vodka styled party atmosphere, the A-side "Epitaph To You" is clearly less talked about, and I've uploaded it here for you to ponder. It has to be said that it's the poor relation to its flipside, but one can easily understand why Decca thought that it would stand a better chance of getting airplay and acceptance than its partner. It's a big old sixties ballad propelled along with some impressive drumming and sympathetic orchestral arrangements. Still, whilst it would doubtless have pleased the Mums and Dads if given half a chance, psychedelic it ain't.
If you really want to hear "Dream With Me" - or if you haven't done so already - his MySpace page has a full version of it on his Nimbit player.
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