Elephant's Memory 1972 Album

Elephant's Memory

The Elephants had the good fortune (or misfortune) to catch the ear of John Lennon and Yoko Ono and essentially be hired as their backing band in late 1971. The only problem was Lennon's ongoing political situation which prevented him and the Elephants from touring on a regular basis. For their one album under the now long-defunct Apple label, we find a more jovial spin on their radicalism (no doubt affected by John & Yoko's absurdist bent) backed by advanced musicianship thanks to recent arrivals "Tex" Gabriel, Gary Van Scyoc, and Adam Ippolito. This is a professionally executed street record from start to finish, which even contains some nice detours like Van Scyoc's country ballad "Wind Ridge". The one thing missing, ironically, is the boiling-over anger which was a calling card of the previous album, and on the lengthy "Baddest of the Mean" it feels like they are taking a sarcastic potshot at that version of the band. Still, this is a really good record, and I have no idea why it has not been re-packaged on CD or a new run of vinyl.