My Top 1000 Songs #981: Movie Star

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

My love of obscure/overlooked early 70s rock tends to focus on rare no-hit wonders, which makes Help Yourself--who released 4 LPs between 1971-1973 (actually 5 if you count the one that sat in the vaults until 2004)--a little overqualified. A British band often grouped with the Pub Rock acts of the era, Help Yourself, like early Brinsley Schwarz, are more comfortably slotted in with early Americana, their sound incorporating elements of the Grateful Dead and the Band and CSNY. So you had folky, country-rock ballads interspersed with more psychedelic jams, all perfect for a hazy, slightly stoned Saturday afternoon on the lawn.

"Movie Star," off second LP Strange Affair, isn't exactly original--it pretty blatantly rips off Neil Young's "Down By The River," from the two-chord vamp in the verses through the extended jam in the middle (albeit sounding more like Young-acolytes America than Neil himself). But it's still great, amicably laid-back with gorgeous harmonies but perked up with some raging jamming. It's a heady vision into an alternative 70s where acts like Help Yourself became classic rock staples rather than the like-minded familiar chestnuts that have grown a little stale with time & overplay.