Ceremony (Spooky Tooth and Pierre Henry album)

Ceremony
Studio album by Spooky Tooth with Pierre Henry
Released	December 1969[1]
Genre	Avant-rock, electronic
Length	45:13
Label	Island
Producer	Spooky Tooth, Pierre Henry
Spooky Tooth chronology
Spooky Two (1969) Ceremony (1969) The Last Puff (1970)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
The Rolling Stone Record Guide	[3]

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

History and critical reception

The album takes the form of a mass.

Despite the project being instigated by Gary Wright,[4] 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".[4] 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."[5] Wright left the band following the release of the album.

On the 2024 album, Vultures 1, by superduo ¥$, the song "Jubilation" was sampled on 15th track, "Problematic."

Track listing

All tracks are written by Pierre Henry and Gary Wright

Side one[a]

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Have Mercy"	7:51
2.	"Jubilation"	8:25
3.	"Confession"	6:53

Side one[a]

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Prayer"	10:50
2.	"Offering"	3:26
3.	"Hosanna[b]"	7:33

Personnel

• Pierre Henry – musique concrete, electronics

Spooky Tooth

• Mike Harrison – vocals, keyboards
• Luther Grosvenor – guitars
• Gary Wright – vocals, electronic organ, keyboards
• Andy Leigh – bass
• Mike Kellie – drums, percussion

Production

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

Notes

1. 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]
2. A Pierre Henry-free version of "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".

References

1. "Album Reviews" (PDF). New Musical Express. 20 December 1969. p. 8. Retrieved 15 September 2021.
2. AllMusic review
3. 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.
4. Jim Farber, What Happened To Spooky Tooth?. Musicaficionado, 2017. Retrieved 2017-12-12.
5. Gary Wright: Vintage Rock interview (advert)
6. "Discogs". discogs.com. Retrieved 20 January 2017.

External links

• Ceremony at Discogs (list of releases)
• mutant-sounds.blogspot.com