Features / Holiday Gift Guide

As temperatures drop and winter approaches, a little sunshine is always welcome…and High Moon Records has delivered with a pair of reissues from the cult-favorite pop band known as Eternity’s Children.  The label behind Sly and The Family Stone’s The First Family: Live at Winchester Cathedral 1967 and the expanded edition of Lotti Golden’s Motor-Cycle has returned 1968’s Eternity’s Children and 1969’s Timeless to vinyl for the first time since their original releases.

By the time the Mississippi band arrived on Capitol Records’ Tower imprint for their debut LP, the ranks had been culled to a three-male, one-female lineup consisting of Linda Lawley on lead vocals; Charlie Ross on lead vocals and bass; Roy Whittaker, Jr. on drums; and Mike “Kid” McClain on keyboards.  But future Starbuck leader (and “Moonlight Feels Right” songwriter) Bruce Blackman played a major part in Eternity’s Children’s early days.  Mississippi native Blackman had been playing with The Lancers when he was enlisted to join an even more successful local group, The Phantoms.  In the summer of 1966 Bruce met Roy Whittaker, and as The Phantoms splintered, Blackman and Whittaker stuck together with Phantoms bassist Charlie Ross to form a new group with a current sound.  Steve Stanley’s richly detailed liner notes reveal that the name “Eternity’s Children” came to Whittaker in a dream.

Eternity’s Children cut their first sides in Louisiana for the small Apollo label.  With new vocalist Linda Lawley, an Oklahoma native who had relocated with her family to Mississippi, they hooked up with future Fleetwood Mac producer Keith Olsen, then bassist with The Music Machine.  Olsen helmed another single, this time in Dallas, and the band then relocated to L.A. during the Summer of Love.  The Olsen-produced 45 ended up on Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss’ A&M label, and the connection led the band to make an uncredited cameo in Mike Nichols’ future classic, The Graduate. But Bruce Blackman clashed with the band’s management, to be replaced by keyboardist Mike McClain (formerly of Neurotic Sheep).

Armed with songs that Blackman left behind, the newly-solidified lineup returned to the studio with Keith Olsen and his close associate Curt Boettcher, then best known for his work with The Association.  Eternity’s Children would end up featuring three Blackman compositions and two from Boettcher’s orbit.  It’s an album overflowing with melody and musical richness, and a veritable potpourri of late ’60s sounds from a versatile group: an echo here of The Mamas and the Papas, there of The Association, a hint of Brasil 66, a dash of The 5th Dimension.

It’s not long into the opening cut “Again Again” before the swooning vocal arrangements kick into high gear.  Baroque strings add tension to the mellow yet haunting production which sets the tone for the LP.    Michael Fennelly’s moody “Flowers,” accented by funereal organ, beautifully juxtaposes light and dark.  The ethereal, time-shifting “Little Boy” and story of (the highly successful young) “Rupert White” are further psych-pop gems.

Songwriter Steven Dell supplied the gently shimmering bossa nova “My Happiness Day,” recalling the best of both Francis Lai (“A Man and a Woman”) and Jobim (“Wave”), as well as the bouncy “Lifetime Day” with its shades of The Cowsills and Roger Nichols and the Small Circle of Friends.  Naturally, Bruce Blackman’s tailor-made compositions are among the album’s strongest, including the harmony-soaked lead single, “Mrs. Bluebird.” (Blackman co-wrote the song with Johnny Walker.)  Typically for a band which blended California sunshine with southern grit, though, it’s not all sunshine.  The edgy guitar grounds the otherwise-stratospheric track.  Linda Lawley confidently leads Bruce’s “Your World” while his uptempo “Sunshine Among Us” (the second 45 to be released by Tower) closes the album on an energetic note, nicely bookending the quieter “Again Again.”  Oddly, a Boettcher/Lee Mallory demo (with no participation from the members of Eternity’s Children) found its way onto the album.  Folk-rock meets sunshine pop on the short “You Know I’ve Found a Way.”

“Mrs. Bluebird” did well enough (No. 69 Billboard, No. 54 Cash Box) for Tower to commission a second LP.  This time, the producer was Gary Paxton of “Alley Oop” and “Monster Mash” fame, who brought along The Byrds’ Clarence White to add guitar.  While retaining the band’s signature harmonies, Timeless would feature a subtly different sound: a bit more straightforward and a bit more soulful (perhaps a nod to their Mississippi roots).  The bandmates also contributed more to its songwriting.

Mike McClain’s buoyant “I Wanna Be with You” boasts a more pronounced jazz flavor and a brass chart enhancing the intoxicating tight harmony blend.  McClain and Ross offered “Get Outta Here” with a more rough-hewn garage rock sound.  The band triumvirate of McClain, Lawley, and Ross also co-wrote the relaxed, carefree “Look Away.”

Gary Paxton’s wife Jan teamed with Clarence White to write “Nature’s Child” while another Byrd, Gene Parsons, penned “Christina in My Dreams” with Jan.  With its harpsichord break and jazz changes, it’s perhaps the album’s most spellbinding song.  Jan shares credit with Gary on “Till I Hear It from You,” with its blue-eye soul sound and a Laura Nyro bounce.  Eternity’s Children turned to “This Girl Is a Woman Now” songwriters Alan Bernstein and Victor Millrose for the bright “The Other Side of Me.”  It’s a Lawley/McClain composition, though, that sums up Eternity’s Children legacy: “Sunshine and Flowers.”  With Linda on lead, a prominent organ, and lush vocal arrangement, it’s among the finest moments from a band that deserved a longer life.

Unfortunately, Timeless (almost) never got the chance to live up to its title.  Tower’s U.S. operation declined to release the LP, and it was issued only in Canada in a pressing so small that, the liner notes inform us, the group members have still never seen an original copy.  Eternity’s Children pressed on with a couple more Tower singles and a final offering on Liberty before breaking up.  (The indispensable 2005 Rev-Ola CD collection From Us Unto You: The Original Singles, also co-produced by Steve Stanley, rounded up these tracks and more.  Rev-Ola also reissued both of the band’s original albums on CD in 2005, finally bringing Timeless to a wider audience.)

High Moon’s reissues do the fascinating story of Eternity’s Children full justice.  Steve Stanley’s liner notes are comprehensive and bring the bandmates’ stories up to date, while he’s lovingly designed the packages with precise period detail.  Both albums are presented in gorgeous gatefold jackets loaded with striking photos as well as his liner notes.  Dan Hersch has superbly remastered both LPs for these quiet pressings.

With sunshine, flowers, and southern grit around the edges, Eternity’s Children recorded some of the most beguiling pop of the late 1960s.  It can be enjoyed anew with these stellar vinyl reissues.  This is a “happiness day,” indeed.

Both LPs are available now from Amazon.  As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases:

Eternity’s Children (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) / Timeless (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)