Stray - All in Your Mind

My friend Elvin Baptist, who was a year older than me (I was 15 then) and introduced me to loads of '60s and '70s "underground" bands, lent me the eponymous first album by this West London group whose members were barely out of their teens when it was released in 1970. It's "fill it up Joe" British acid rock that's kinda loose and lumbering, but so gloriously full of mood and space, thanks to echo chamber-style production.

The notorious Krays apparently tried to help Stray get their big break in their later years by twisting an arm here and breaking a leg there, but it didn't do diddly!

This 1997 two-pack offers their punky debut ('Stray', 1970) and third album ('Saturday Morning Pictures', 1971), plus the bonus track, 'Mama's Coming Home'. You'll find quite distinct echoes of Free and Black Sabbath in the music, but who was stealing from whom? Before you form your own conclusion, look at the release dates of these albums again!