Childhead’s Doll Original Cast LP 1971 Australian RCA Custom rare Ralph Tyrrell

	A$		75
	$		50

Childhead’s Doll Original Cast LP 1971 Australian RCA Custom rare Ralph Tyrrell

Original Australian pressing on RCA Custom (private)with libretto insert

William Yang was a member of the group The Performance Syndicate and had been developing Childhead's Doll in Brisbane with the composer Ralph Tyrrell. It was directed by Rex Cramphorn for the 1971 Jane Street Theatre season. The Performance Syndicate then worked with Cramphorn on several productions of classics beyond Jane Street.  (http://www.doubledialogues.com/issue_eleven/guthrie.html)

“Written and composed by a young musician Ralph Tyrrell and playwright William Yang (AKA William Young) from Queensland University and privately released on RCA Custom, this new discovery from 1971 is quite a trippy musical journey. 'Childhead’s Doll' is an experimental musical that follows the story of a man, Childhead, and his friends – an angel, a clown and his young apprentice, who all work in a market in the imaginary town of Sunshine Valley. The story covers Childhead and his friends’ long journey to retrieve Childhead’s life-like doll, Rocelli, who was stolen by the Black Prince of a place called Murguvor - a mystical and evil land that lies behind the horizon. On this extended adventure to recover this special doll - which holds 'men's fortunes in her eyes' - the group encounter many strange people including witches, talking snakes and wizards. Overall, the play exudes a strong ethereal Tolkien influence, and the weird and wonderful music on this album helps to perfectly paint this story.

This pop opera followed a series of experimental musicals performed in Brisbane by a group of Architecture students at the University of Queensland between 1967 and 1970. The plays often involved skits that drew on the left-wing political ferment of the counter-cultural movement of the 1960s and musical interludes performed by a group of musicians dubbed the ‘Architecture Revue Band’. Their own brand of theatrical music was said to be inspired by progressive rock bands such as Pink Floyd and Procol Harum and Classical music. Many of the musicians behind these experimental musicals contributed to ‘Childhead’s Doll’.

Broadly, the music on this record is youthful psychedelic / progressive / baroque pop and folk that includes imaginative and unpredictable chord progressions, experiments with dissonance and chromaticism, odd time signatures and suite-like songs. The songs often consist of male and female vocals, guitar, piano, drums and bass with plenty of lively accompaniment from wonky flutes, clarinets, violas, oboes, cellos and violins that are often slightly out-of-tune; varnishing the album with a bizarre, dissonant and unnerving texture that works perfectly with the story’s eccentricities. Unlike many pop operas and musicals of the era, which were often derivative copies of Hair or Jesus Christ Superstar, this Australian record thankfully has a totally peculiar and creative aura of its own that is difficult to put into one genre. The eclectic music on the album touches everything from: Arthur Brown-esque gothic psych-pop; circus-infused art-pop; nightmarish freak-folk with chanting and fuzzed-out guitar; haunting psychedelic folk that recalls Australian group Extradition; desolate Procol Harum-inspired piano ballads; wistful chamber music; and short grandiose progressive-pop suites with enough unexpected theme and time signature changes to satisfy prog fanatics. I was also at times reminded of the equally madcap theatrical sound of Principal Edward’s Magic Theatre.

Although it is not necessarily a masterpiece, as the album does start to run out of steam towards the end, it is nonetheless a very intriguing discovery and highly recommended to those who are interested in rare, private-pressed psychedelic / progressive music. Out of all the obscure Australian pop / rock musicals and rock operas that I have come across thus far, this one is the best and most unique. In terms of rarity, it is an album that is impossible to find, with the album only appearing once on the online collector’s market.” (ursamajor69 Jan 20 2015)

From Theatre Heritage: Ralph Tyrell was back at the Schonell 4 February 1971 for Childhead’s Doll, a pop-opera about a young man, Childhead, and his friends who search far and wide for a doll stolen from Childhood by the Black Prince. Working for the first time with librettist and director, Willy Young, who later changed his name to William Yang, the cast again included Geoffrey Rush. David Rowbottom in the Courier Mail called it “pretentious” but did concede “Tyrell composes music which is easy on the ear,” and that Young had written a “cross between Hans Christian Anderson and the Brothers Grimm and clothed it with a mixture of Hair and Greek tragedy.”

Brian Nason later directed a production of it at Jane Street Theatre, Sydney, in 1971, which was choreographed by Keith Bain, and featured Maggie Kirkpatrick, Ross Thompson, Elaine Cusick and Jeannie Lewis. It played 15 performances in Brisbane and 9 in Sydney.

William Yang has pursued a successful career as an artist and photographer.

Part One: The Market

A1 Clown Song

A2 Rock-A-Bye Angel

A3 Angel's in the Cage

A4 Childhead's Entry

A5 Rocelli's Dance Theme

A6 Procession of the Black Prince

A7 Evelyn's Fanfares

A8 Rocelli 1

A9 The Stealing of the Doll

Part Two: The Journey

A10 The Journey: Part A: They Set Off at the Break of Dawn

A11 The Journey: Part B: They Sailed by Night by Frigidick Point

B1 The Journey: Part C: They'd Been Away for 33 Weeks

B2 Rocelli's Dance Theme

B3 The Journey: Part D: They Met the North Wind on an August Day

B4 Pillidrone's Bower

B5 The Journey: Part E: Childhead Stood and Shouted!

B6 Rocelli's Dance Theme

B7 Lenara's Song

B8 Childhead Casts Out His Soul

B9 Soul's Song

B10 Narration

B11 Rocelli 2

B12 Hat Song

B13 The Marriage

CONDITION:

SLEEVE:  EX  Laminate is like new; rear has brown spotting (foxing)

RECORD: VG++ to EX— Vinyl looks EX+, labels have spindle marks, plays with surface noise.

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