Gordon Jackson (no, not the one from The Professionals and Upstairs, Downstairs) was a contender from Worcester who very nearly made it.
Playing with Dave Mason and Jim Capaldi in The Hellions and Deep Feeling (the latter imploded when Capaldi left to form Traffic with Steve Winwood), he signed to Yardbirds‘ manager Giorgio Gomelsky’s label and retained his famous friends for his 1969 psych-folk oddity, Thinking Back.
Dave Mason produced the record, while the rest of Traffic contributed – as did Julie Driscoll and half of Family.
It’s a melodic distillation of folk, pop and psychedelia and, with its Eastern-tinged melodies, jazz wanderings and lysergic whimsy, the record sounds like a confluence of The Low Spark Of High-Heeled Boys and Tomorrow‘s My White Bicycle.
