Blossom Toes - What On Earth (1967) [Mono UK EP]

Blossom Toes - What On Earth (1967)

Original 1967 Mono UK 45 RPM EP
Marmalade – 598002 (Discogs)
~ThePoodleBites rip in 96 kHz / 24 bit FLAC + full high-resolution scans!~

When I posted my restoration of the rare mono mix of the Blossom Toes' debut 1967 LP back in 2022, I certainly thought that it would be the definitive word on the matter. However, someone under the moniker "Doc" (who I guess was probably "Doctor Robert" from HRM -- R.I.P.) commented there that the band's even rarer debut EP had a better version of the best track, "Look At Me I'm You," which intrigued me enough to track one down. Well, four years and three "M-" copies later (British grading...), and I've finally obtained one that plays with blog-worthy sound.

This awesome EP was the Blossom Toes' first release and featured three songs later to appear on their debut full-length album. While the mixes here are qualitatively the same as the ones that would appear on the LP, the sound is quite different. "What On Earth" has a bit less audio in the "introduction words" intro; "Mrs. Murphy's Budgerigar" has a tiny bit more audio and is 4% faster than the LP, giving it a much poppier edge; and, indeed, this is doubtlessly the definitive upgrade to the mono "Look At Me I'm You," finally to be heard with treble comparable to the stereo mix.

Rare picture sleeve front image for the Blossom Toes' debut EP

Period articles in New Musical Express indicate that this EP became the debut Marmalade release on 06 Oct 1967. The full-length LP was released about a month later, on 03 Nov 1967. This was therefore the band's premier chance to appear on British radio airwaves, and it's clear that a correspondingly significant amount of polish went into making these Toes really Blossom. The roughly ten minutes included on this single are nearly continuous in overdubs and studio experimentation, a clear attempt by producer Giorgio Gomelsky to prove the band's (and his) potential.

A small number of these Toes EPs (or singles, as they were referred to in the press) came with a picture sleeve, shown in the images above & below this text. The artwork depicted a superimposed/multi-exposure image of the band holding flowers and frowning at the camera in a fashion not unlike the Pink Floyd debut LP. The back cover image features an egg with a funny face markered on, and is encircled by the EP's three song titles inscribed in cursive font.

Rear image from the original UK picture sleeve

Ad for the band's appearances in Sweden.
New Musical Express, 04 Nov 1967

As the band was to begin gigging around Europe, Polydor released versions of this single in several other countries with unique cover variants. For whatever reason, however, these foreign releases featured only one song on either side. The French and German variants disposed of the longer "Look At Me I'm You" in favor of the two shorter pop-radio-oriented tracks. Germany's release came out on the red Polydor label (the parent company of Marmalade was German, after all) and featured sound quality essentially identical to the UK release. Sweden exceptionally dropped "Budgerigar" to include "Look At Me," and for some reason this variant is quite valuable on the collectors market -- perhaps because Kevin Westlake(?) appears to give a middle finger to the camera on the cover's photo collage. As Polydor did not enter the US market until 1969, there was no stateside release, and the band is still essentially unknown in the US.

Despite the availability of these other pressings, for this remaster I have opted to use the original home-country UK release, as I suspect that its audio is not only marginally superior having been closest to the original master tapes, but it's probably the only version that the band would have seen or approved. As usual, I've applied careful manual restoration to keep the sound of the original mastering intact while removing non-musical noise. Given these efforts, I hope and suspect that the book on these particular mono mixes can finally and definitively be closed.

Cover artwork from the German picture sleeve, with band image apparently taken from the same photo session as the UK release

Track listing:
1) "What On Earth" -- 2:55
2) "Mrs. Murhpy's Budgerigar" -- 2:34
3) "Look At Me I'm You" -- 4:01

Vinyl condition: M-
Dynamic Range: DR 11

Equipment / Lineage:
– Audio-Technica VMN40ML stylus on AT150MLx dual moving-magnet cartridge
– Audio-Technica AT-LP1240-USB direct drive professional turntable (internal stock preamp/ADC removed)
– Pro-Ject Phono Box S2 Ultra preamp with dedicated Zero Zone linear power supply
– Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 MkII (96kHz / 24bit)
– Adobe Audition CC 2024 (recording)
– iZotope RX 11 audio editor (manual declicking, EQ subtraction, additional adjustments)
– Audacity 3.x.x (fades between tracks, split tracks)
– Foobar2000 v2.x.x (tagging, dynamic range analysis)

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