BOB LIND – Since There Were Circles (2022 Reissue) – LP – Vinyl

LP – Black Vinyl

Originally released in 1971 on Capitol Records. Recorded at the Record Plant with Doug Dillard, Gene Clark, Bernie Leadon and Carol Kaye. Recommended for fans of Gene Clark’s No Other, Bobby Charles’ self-titled album and Lee Hazlewood’s Cowboy in Sweden.

Singer-songwriter Bob Lind will forever be immortalized by his 1965 hit, “Elusive Butterfly,” but his career is so much more interesting than the fading wonder of that one hit. Once a hard-partying buddy of Charles Bukowski, Lind was the inspiration for the character “Dinky Summers,” a down-on-his-luck folk singer in Bukowski’s 1978 novel Women. Lind also doubled as a writer, penning a number of novels and plays as well as serving as a long-time staff writer at the lowbrow tabloid Weekly World News.

If that wasn’t enough, Lind is also responsible for one of the greatest major-label “loner” albums of all time, 1971’s Since There Were Circles. After several years languishing without a second hit for the World Pacific label, Lind signed to Capitol and went into the studio with some of the biggest names in the LA country-rock scene including Doug Dillard, Gene Clark, Bernie Leadon and legendary session bassist Carol Kaye. While the record was well-received critically, it sold poorly and marked Lind’s bitter departure from the music business for several decades.

The intervening half-century has been incredibly kind to Since There Were Circles, and it is now regarded as a cult masterpiece that pairs perfectly with Gene Clark’s No Other, Bobby Charles’ self-titled Bearsville album and Lee Hazlewood’s Cowboy in Sweden. Lind’s songwriting here is vastly darker and more self-reflective than anything from his folk-pop period, and the production is simultaneously loose and rootsy, yet lushly orchestrated and occasionally bombastic. Lind somehow manages to bring it all together with wry delivery and literate detail.

Tracklist;

A1. I Love To Sing / Sweet Harriet
A2. City Scenes
A3. Love Came Riding
A4. Loser
A5. Not That I Would Want Her Back
A6. Theme From The Music Box

B1. Anymore
B2. Spilling Over
B3. She Can Get Along
B4. Up In The Morning Me
B5. Since There Were Circles