High Tide featured the intense guitar playing of Tony Hill, the violin and keyboard skills of Simon House (later to join the Third Ear Band and then Hawkwind), bassist Pete Pavli and drummer Roger Hadden. Signing to Liberty Records soon after formation, the band recorded ‘Sea Shanties’ at Olympic studios, an album featuring some of the heaviest gothic progressive rock recorded at that time. This stunning album is now regarded as a true classic of its time notable for including the violin as a rock instrument. The cover artwork was drawn by Paul Whitehead..
On “Sea Shanties“, there’s nothing fey and flowery in Hill’s bleak lyrics or his doomy Jim Morrison-like delivery, and psychedelia’s melodic whimsy is supplanted by a physicality more in line with the visceral heft of metal progenitors…High Tide weren’t a power trio, though, and it was the interplay of Hill’s guitar with Simon House’s violin that created the band’s unique signature. Showing that rock violin needn’t be a marginal adornment, House whips up an aggressive edge that rivals the guitar… High Tide had the muscularity of a no-nonsense proto-metal band, but they also ventured into prog territory with changing time signatures and tempos, soft-hard dynamics, multi-part arrangements, and even some ornate faux-Baroque interludes… Far from the collection of nautical ditties its name suggests, “Sea Shanties” is an overlooked gem encapsulating the shifting musical currents in late-’60s British rock.
This official gatefold LP vinyl edition fully restores the original LP artwork, has been remastered from the original Liberty master tapes and has been cut at Abbey Road studios.
Though it met with a scathing review in Melody Maker, reviews in the underground press were universally positive, and sales were just enough to convince Liberty to give the green light to a second album
The Fat Angel Sings 