Joy of Cooking - Joy of Cooking (Album)

Artist  :  Joy of Cooking

Album  :  Joy of Cooking  (1971)

Genre  :  Folk Rock

- Tracks (favorites in pink) -

01. Hush
02. Too Late, But Not Forgotten
03. Down My Dream
04. If Some God  (Sometimes You Gotta Go Home)
05. Did You Go Downtown
06. Dancing Couple
07. Brownsville/Mockingbird
08. Red Wine At Noon
09. Only Time Will Tell Me
10. Children's House

    Joy of Cooking was a short-lived folk-rock band, formed in 1967.  This is their debut, eponymous album.  It came out in 1971; by 1972 the band was split up.

    I picked this LP in Seattle for about $8.  Amazon has a 2011 CD version of it for $39.99 (an import, probably), and a much more reasonably-priced MP3 version for only $9.49.  There are no bonus tracks included.  Visually, the album was in good shape, but it had a lot of scratches, and I had to use the de-scratcher program to clean it up.  The software did a nice job.

    The two stellar tracks are Did You Go Downtown and the hybrid Brownsville/Mockingbird.  The whole album is good, and a fine example of a "hippie California" sound that sprang up in the greater San Francisco area (Joy of Cooking is out of Berkeley) in the late 60's.

    According of Wikipedia, Joy of Cooking is reputed to be the first rock band to be fronted by a pair of women.  The band's sound is a pleasant fusion of rock, folk, jazz, and blues.  A number of the songs were feminist-themed, which put them 5-10 years ahead of their time.

    Sadly, Joy of Cooking only put out three albums before disappearing into the San Francisco fog.  I searched YouTube for live videos of their performances, but didn't find any.  I also picked up their third album, Castles, at the record store in Seattle.  It is equally good, and I will post a review of it sometime in the future.

    The Wikipedia article on JoC is sparse.  I have no idea whether any or all of the founding members are still with us, but I for one would love to see them get together again, if only for a single reunion tour.