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The Nice - BBC Sessions: America (1970)

Track listing:
  1. America i) America, ii) Second amendment 6:42
  2. One Of Those People
  3. Azrael revisited 5:08
  4. St. Thomas 2:32
  5. For example 9:14
  6. Five Bridges Suite a) 2nd bridge, b) Choral 3rd bridge c) High level fugue 4th bridge 7:53
  7. Pathetique (Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 Third movement) 7:02
  8. Little Arabella 4:19
  9. Happy Friends
  10. Better than better 8:01
  11. Sombrero king 3:35
  12. Aries 5:24
  13. Diary of an empty day 3:35
  14. Ars longa vita brevis (2nd movement) 8:10

Notes

This collection of previously unreleased BBC session recordings, made from 1967 to 1970, has no better than bootleg sound quality, but fans will enjoy it nonetheless. The performances are good, with Keith Emerson showing off his furious technique, and four songs are featured that the band never released elsewhere. Two are presumably originals, and two are jazz covers; Roy Harper guests on Sonny Rollins's "St. Thomas," singing words he wrote at the session, and the track here called "Sombrero King" is actually a version of Charles Lloyd's "Sombrero Sam." The latter track is the only one in the collection that features guitarist Davy O'List. "Little Arabella" is a pointless inclusion, as it's identical to the album version on Ars Longa Vita Brevis, and "Happy Freuds" sounds like just a remix of its album counterpart, but aside from that this is a worthwhile addition to the Nice catalog.

This 14-track compilation isn't available in the US, which is a shame. It's a mixed bag, of course, with absolutely abysmal sound quality on several cuts ("America"), shoddy packaging, and several of those noxiously smug and insulting BBC voiceovers that mar similar releases by other 60's British rock bands. On the other hand, there are a half-dozen tunes you won't find anywhere else, several of them quite good ("One Of Those People"; "Better And Better"; the primitive, MG's-like "Sombrero King"). Unlike most bands the Nice dared to defy the BBC by playing long-format pieces. But the BBC versions of "For Example," "Ars Longa Vita Brevis," and three-fifths of the "Five Bridges Suite" all are focused and entertaining, and there are plenty of humorous, crafted pop songs like "Happy Freuds" to balance things out. Apart from 1970's "Five Bridges" and a 1967 instrumental ("Sombrero King") everything here dates from 1968-69; O'List appears only on the early cuts and has little impact.