I didn't hear Caravan until our drug years 1980-82 but then I fell hard for them. It was the ‘If I Could Do It All Over Again…’ album. Their English whimsey combined with a proggy amplified Hammond sound was in a way more related to jazz than rock
On that record it was 'For Richard' as part of the flutey, dreamy. stoned ‘Can’t Be Long Now’ that encapsulated their utter brilliance, with a memorable keyboard riff launching it out of its slumbering, liminal sleep space and off it goes for a quarter of an hour.
Richard Sinclair’s amplified Hammond drives their music. At times you can hear the click as he presses the volume pedal to overdrive the amp in those organic ‘you have to be able to really play’ days.
I could wax lyrical about all the records but the 6 album run from If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You (1970), In the Land of Grey and Pink (1971),Waterloo Lily (1972), For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night (1973),Cunning Stunts (1975,) Blind Dog at St. Dunstan's (1976) is an exceptional run of brilliance, along with the live Caravan and the New Symphonia in 1974
They’re such great, imaginative musicians. Listen to the drumming, it's both frenetic and subtle by Richard Coughlan. Completely ignored in the pantheon of great drummers, but an amazing musician.
They don't rely on the guitar, though it's there and features occasionally to great effect. They never had a charting album apart from CunningStunt and Blind Dog which nboth reached the 50s but were a popular live draw and remained so when they got back together a few years ago. Commercially quite unsuccessful but very successful in all the important ways.
