Stephen Spano – Eye To Eye
A nice, rural listen on this snow day… makes me pine for Spring.
From The Acid Archives:
Here’s a terrific private press rarity [ed: not a private press] that’s completely fallen under the radar. It’s way better than multi-hundred-dollar singer-songwriter/folk-rock/soft pop rarities like Richard Soutar or Mick Stevens and the entire brigade of albums inaccurately compared to Michael Angelo. Like all of those records, there’s scant amount of fuzz guitar or trippiness here. But there’s some excellent lead guitar, occasional use of hippie instruments like conga and flute, a bit of moog, unusual chord progressions and thoughtful, intelligent songwriting to go along with the requisite vocal harmonies and acoustic guitars. It’s also much less wimpy than your average CSN-influenced private press album. The highlights are “…and dream,” which has some great lead guitar, and “Eye to eye,” which rocks out (and, admittedly, veers a tad toward prog). The rest of the album is quite good too. Neat album cover; you’d think that alone would have attracted attention to it. Snap it up quick before it gets discovered and the price balloons. About 1500 copies were pressed. [AM]
Download HERE
March 2nd, 2009 at 10:22 pm
Hi-
This is really great, thanks so much.
I called the other day to see if you’d post up some tracks from the Doctor Delay REM sleep Psych Mix. I really loved it when I heard it the other day, and you can’t find it anymore, as you know.
I heard this incredible organ track, sounded like Procol Harem or Traffic (Winwood) or something. It was either the Bonneville Music Machine or the Art track I think. Could you post these up??
Thanks again for everything. Love you guys.
March 26th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
I played with Stephen in Pegasus 1976-1978..we played Eye to Eye and other songs from the album. I still have my copy!
April 7th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
I played with Stephen and his brother Victor in the early 1970’s. I sure would love to reconnect with them. Bothe were very talented musicians with great heart.
April 12th, 2009 at 2:44 am
I found a copy of this LP in the cut out bin for sixty seven cents. What can I say, it’s a “kaleidoscope of styles, featuring all origional material.” Will it appreciate in value? Not in my lifetime, I’m afraid.
April 12th, 2009 at 11:40 am
I think it’s appreciated fairly well – seems to fetch anywhere from $50-$100 on a good day. If you’d like to sell it I can offer you TEN TIMES what you paid! (wink)
April 13th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
Here is a tidbit of interest. Get a copy of The Nighthawks Live At The Phycodelly. The band is photographed in front of the club, and you can see a copy of Eye To Eye taped to the front window in the background.
April 13th, 2009 at 11:49 pm
That’s awesome!
April 23rd, 2009 at 12:11 pm
I have this album and remember “Pegasus”, with Dave, Stephen, Josh, Joe & Mike. Those were the days. Anyways-this is a great album. Shout out to Dave J.
July 31st, 2009 at 11:57 pm
Hey Dave Johnson you probably don’t know me but I was friends with Mike Custer and watched you guys at practice and live in the clubs many times. I just found a copy of a 45RPM with “The Hook” and “Winters Run” with Stephen singing and posted it on you-tube. Great band and a great bunch of guys. I’m a little fuzzy on the details of everyones name and instrument.