Innocence & Despair

by

The Langley Schools Music Project

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This is an astounding CD. The story that I read in the Vancouver Sun was that a hippie elementary school music teacher in 1976 recorded a choir of students from several schools singing classic rock/baby boomer music. The resulting album was pressed and copies were given to the students in the choir. Recently someone found the album on vinyl in a thrift store and fell in love with it. The recording was passed to radio stations and it was picked up by a record label.

While on vacation I heard the CD in a small coffee shop in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia and was immediately amazed. Covers of Wings, Beach Boys, David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, etc. are transformed from standard FM radio fare into something more meaningful and strange as sung by children. The lyrics of Wings' "Band on the Run" come through as rather sad and downbeat yet very touching. The most arresting moment on the CD has to be a little girl singing The Eagles' "Desperado". The strangest moment is when the kids take on David Bowie's "Space Oddity". The background arragements are wonderful.

Want something unusual in your music collection? This is it!