Natural High

by Bloodstone

Description by OLDIES.com:

The group's biggest-selling album (originally released in 1973), featuring the Top 10 R&B hit "Never Let You Go," the classic title song, six rare bonus tracks, and newly penned liner notes!

Product Description:

This reissue of NATURAL HIGH contains several tracks that did not

appear on the original release: "Girl (You Look So Fine)," "Judy, Judy," "Sadie Mae," "Take These Chains," "You Don't Mean Nothin'" and "Little Green Apples."

Bloodstone: Willis Draffen Jr., Charles Love (vocals, guitar); Eddie Summers (vocals, piano, vibraphone, drums, congas); Charles McCormick (vocals, bass); Harry Williams, Roger Durham (vocals, percussion); Melvin Webb (drums, congas, timbales).

Additional personnel: Samuel Boghossian, Erno Neufeld, Paul C. Shure, Carla Spencer (violin); Nathan Kaproff, Dan Neufeld (viola); Raymond L. Kelley, Jacqueline Lustgarten (cello); Richard L. Mackey, Arthur N. Maebe (French horn); Gene Cipriano (cor anglais); Hense Powell (piano, electric piano, organ); Gordon Dewitte (organ); Mike Vernon (glockenspiel, tubular bells, castanets); Pip Williams (arranger).

Producers includes: Mike Vernon, George Braunstein, Ron Hamady, Bloodstone, George Braunstein.

Reissue producers: David McLees, Ted Myers.

Engineer: Tony Reale.

Principally recorded at The Village Recorder, West Los Angeles, California and Command Studios, London, England in 1972. Originally released on London (620). Includes liner notes by Wayne Edwards.

If you went by the name alone, you'd expect a group of gothic heavy-metallers, but in fact Bloodstone is one of the most underrated R&B groups of the '70s. Though best known for the mellow hit that gives this album its name, the band used R&B/soul music as a foundation for a fresh new style that owed as much to the Beatles as to Smokey Robinson. NATURAL HIGH was Bloodstone's commercial and artistic peak (it reached number 30 on the pop-albums chart). Throughout the album, psychedelic/experimental touches like backwards tapes and heavily-processed lead guitar mingle with soulful ballads and hard-edged funk.

The title track, a top-10 hit, is a beautiful ballad featuring classic falsetto soul vocals and jazzy guitar playing. Bloodstone pays homage to one of its rock and roll influences on a funked-up medley of "Bo Diddley" and "Diddley Daddy." The band can even take a pop song like "Little Green Apples" (one of several bonus tracks on this reissue) and personalize it in its inimitably soulful fashion.