Back in 1970, up in the cold North of Ontario, Canada hailed a group that had already had prophetic visions of the corporate, strictly-business, profit-driven, polluting, oil addicted, don't let the environment-get-in-the-way-of-a-buck bullshit world that we currently live in. Their epic title track Mr. Oil Man" spoke of 'oil being slick in the Gulf Of Mexico' and 'Mr. Oil Man, you're killing all the fish again, you ruin all that water again,' fully equipped with sounds of splashing water and trippy effects. I could go on and on about how great the record is..." -Helios Chrome
Poised between Toronto and Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Ontario became the refuge for every touring band in Canada; a mandatory break while crossing the perilously vast Canadian Shield. No doubt, Canada's vastness can be heard in much of the Northernly musical output. There is perhaps no better example of this than Thunder Bay's Jarvis Street Revue. Their lone LP, leased to Columbia for release in 1971, leaves no one untouched by the band's sheer avalanche of psychedelic heaviness, wasted acid leads and harrowing vocals. Every song is laced with a conviction born from the physical landscape they called home. Jarvis Street Revue spent (literally) a month of Sundays recording the album and bouncing tracks to create effects. "Chuck Williams was so freaked out, he used to leave the room," Jarvis leader and Neil Young running mate Tom Horricks said. "It was so anti-establishment." Creative and far-seeing... and not without some chemical support. The albums's (and band's) concern with the environmental-including bold statements on the use and abuse of the oil reserves, rapacious business men, and the depletion of Earth's natural resources-were truly visionary. Heavy tip-on gatefold jacket. Insert has band history by Tom Horricks, plus photos, images of sheet music for several songs, and lyrics for the band's greatest statement, 'Mr. Oil Man.'
