Comments on: Help Yourself “Help Yourself”

By: ron sanchez

ron sanchez — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 21:04:21 +0000

Garden of Delights dismisses this fine debut with the famous line “pub rock, avoid”. Helps are near and dear to my heart. I met Malcolm and Ken when they came over as part of Man, 1974. Since then, I’ve got to meet Dave Charles and work extensively with guitarist Richard Treece.

One should not dismiss the four albums that followed. One correction, this album is paired with the 3rd release, Beware The Shadow, which is a masterpiece. The two long pieces, American Mother, and the classic, Reaffermation.. phew. The second album, Strange Affair is just that. Management brought in Ernie Graham and JoJo, fired Ken and moved Treece to the bass position. Malc wasn’t in good shape, so they thought two more song writers would help. The moody instrumental, All Electric Fur Trapper must be heard. The completion of the fifth album 30 years after it was started surprised everyone. It’s very good too. I think there were four new songs recorded to fill it out.

Malcolm recorded a solo album 10 years ago, and a “lost” album from 1976 has been released. Richard and Ken perform as Green Ray. A recent live album has Nick Saloman guesting. Richard, Ken and Malc have appeared on several records by Donovan’s Brain, a sprawling psych band from Montana…

I can not say enough about the Helps, just get all the records.

By: Aquarium Drunkard: Music Blog » Ernie Graham :: S/T 1971

Aquarium Drunkard: Music Blog » Ernie Graham :: S/T 1971 — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:27:43 +0000

[...] sounding like Springsteen jams. After this record, Graham would play guitar and pen tunes for Help Yourself, who released their own Cali-flavored gem from the pub rock scene, and would later form his own [...]

By: Sir Thomas of Brooklyn

Sir Thomas of Brooklyn — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:37:44 +0000

yes. I’ll say it again, yes.

By: philspector

philspector — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 18:06:48 +0000

Great Great stuff…… again!!!

After Ernie Graham, Brinsley Schwarz and now Help Yourself, just one more album is needed :

“Good’N'Cheap” the wonderful (and unfortunatly) only album by the greatest pub-rock band
EGGS OVER EASY!

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 03:08:16 +0000

Never heard of it before but I really like these two tracks. Thanks!

By: The Matching Mole

The Matching Mole — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 15:17:33 +0000

This is good stuff. Back in 1995 I read a Robyn Hitchcock interview in “Ptolemaic Terrascope” magazine and he mentioned this band. This is the first time I’m hearing Help Yourself, and I’m liking it.

Hey, it turns out Help Yourself was interviewed in the same magazine in 1992. Neat!