When singer-songwriter-poet Rod McKuen teamed with composer-arranger-conductor Anita Kerr for the 1967 album The Sea, neither had any inkling that the record's success would lead to an entire series of albums under the San Sebastian Strings moniker through 1975.  The oft-imitated, never-duplicated, platinum-selling The Sea epitomized the now-moribund genre of "mood music," offering spoken word and music in a relaxing, spellbinding mélange.  Cherry Red's él imprint has recently reissued the box set The Sea/The Earth/The Sky as a 3-CD set, re-presenting the trilogy in complete form.

Kerr's lush, string-laden musical settings and choice sound effects proved the ideal complement to McKuen's meditative ruminations.  Nature had always played a large role in his poetry, and he put that lifelong fascination at the forefront of his Sea narration.  As he wrote in the original liner notes, "I don't believe a man can write about the sea and not include himself.  Much of me is here, and I have used the sea as a platform to speak about the times and the seasons and people's relationships to one another.  Most of all, I've used the sea to write about loving."  None of this would come as a surprise to fans of McKuen's poetry or songwriting in which he frequently addressed these themes with sensitivity and directness.  Though a composer himself, he had attempted to write The Sea with various other collaborators before finding his match in Kerr.

Though McKuen was growing in stature as a wildly successful poet (his 1967 tome Listen to the Warm would, in 1973, be touted as "not only the best-selling volume of poetry in current times - other than The Bible, it is the best-selling book in hardcover, as well"), Warner Bros. wasn't expecting The Sea to become a big seller.  Kerr, who had already recorded four well-received albums for the label, felt hamstrung by the relatively low budget of $10,000.00.  She was forced to cut strings and horns from her expansive and atmospheric arrangements.  Yet upon its release, the little album became one of Warner Bros.' all-time biggest sales champs.

Most of The Sea's text was original, though some portions were adapted from verse in McKuen's books Stanyan Street and Other Sorrows as well as the aforementioned Listen.  McKuen himself didn't narrate the smoky, perfect-for-late-night-listening album (though sharp listeners might hear a surprise on "Do You Like the Rain"); the honors went to (the initially-uncredited) Jesse Pearson, an actor with credits including the film adaptation of Bye Bye Birdie and the Glenn Ford comedy Advance to the Rear.  Kerr's melodic and varied music, cinematically drawing on pop, lounge and even classical styles, was as captivating and memorable as the spoken word which was subsequently translated into Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Dutch and other languages.

Rod did, however, bring his hushed, intimate tones as narrator of the second and equally transporting San Sebastian Strings album, The Earth.  Again primarily an original work, it drew on Listen to the Warm for selected material given new depth by Kerr's evocative music and often dramatic orchestration.  (Just listen to "Earthquake"...)  McKuen's affinities for nature and travel came to the fore here.  The third and final album in this innovative and unusual trilogy came with The Sky, on which McKuen ceded the narrator's role to Gene Merlino, one of The Anita Kerr Singers.  Both The Earth and The Sky were recorded by the globetrotting Kerr at London's Olympic Studios, presumably on a more generous budget!  The elemental trilogy was first reissued in the form of an LP box set, The Sea/The Earth/The Sky, which has been replicated in a clamshell box for this él set.

Later San Sebastian Strings albums were devoted to the four seasons (with all LPs narrated by McKuen) and the vagaries of love (spoken by Joey Benson on For Lovers and McKuen on With Love...).  Kerr and McKuen's studio group also returned to the milieu of the original album with Home to the Sea and The Soft Sea, both of which were narrated by Pearson and collected into a box set with The Sea.

The él release has all three albums in mini-LP jackets replicating the original front and rear artwork for each title, as well as a 16-page booklet reprinting original art elements as well as McKuen's original "Thoughts and Instructions to Anita Kerr" for composing each title in the box.  (So fluid was their collaboration that she would use these notes as a mere springboard for the completed musical ideas.)  There are no remastering credits, and The Sea/The Earth/The Sky has been released under license from Warner Music UK.

"Poetry is not a luxury," Rod McKuen once asserted.  "It's a necessity...The poet, by relating honestly his or her experiences, views, thoughts, wishes and even bigotry, helps us articulate our own feelings."  The San Sebastian Strings' odes to The Sea/The Earth/The Sky united the heartfelt words of America's most commercially successful "people's poet" with the shimmering soundscapes of one of its most prodigiously talented musicians.  This singular collection can be ordered at the links below!

The San Sebastian Strings, The Sea/The Earth/The Sky (Warner Bros. 3WS 1827, 1968 - reissued él WACME311BOX, 2016) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

CD 1: The Sea (Warner Bros. WS 1670, 1967)

1. My Friend the Sea
2. While Drifting
3. Gifts from the Sea
4. The Time of Noon
5. Afternoon Shadows
6. Do You Like the Rain?
7. The Days of the Dancing
8. Pushing the Clouds Away
9. You Even Taste Like the Sun
10. The Storm
11. The Ever Constant Sea
12. The Gypsy Camp
13. Beyond the Bend Ahead
14. The Sea

CD 2: The Earth (Warner Bros. WS 1705, 1967)

1. The Tender Earth
2. My Mother Wanted Me to Play Mozart
3. The Waltz
4. Sunday
5. Earthquake
6. Capri in July
7. Underground Train
8. The Flower People
9. The Mud Kids
10. The Day They Built the Road
11. Doorways I Haven't Found
12. Home
13. Song from The Earth

CD 3: The Sky (Warner Bros. WS 1720, 1968)

1. How Many Colors of Blue?
2. The Butterfly is Drunk on Sunshine
3. A Walk with the Angels
4. So Little Sun
5. Night Talk
6. When Winter Comes
7. My Dog Likes Oranges
8. The Forehead of the Morning
9. A Patch of Sky, Away from Everything
10. God's Trombones
11. Buy for Me the Wind
12. A New Lullabye (For Suzie and Kelly)
13. In Summing Up
14. Who Has Touched the Sky