Friends Past Reunited (partially found full version of choir sample from "The Caretaker" song; 1950s-1970s)
The Recording of Unknown Choir Piece comes from a 1960s recording of a choir performing a rendition of Bach's St. Luke Passion. The recording was sampled by The Caretaker (Leyland Kirby) in various albums, though it is most notably used in his song Friend's Past, Re-united from the 2002 album A stairway to the stars. Several tracks from the recording can be seen throughout The Caretaker's discography, most famously in the finale of The Caretaker's magnum opus, Everywhere at the end of time.
The record itself is known to be pressed by Eroica Recording Services Ltd., a company who made private recordings in England in the 50s and 60s. Due to the nature of how it was recorded and when, the recording has become very rare, and records pressed by Eroica have been seen as highly valuable to some record collectors as far back as the 90s.
It was known to have been purchased from a record store known as The 78 Exchange, a now closed record store where Kirby sourced many records for which he used in his music under the Caretaker moniker. Another notable lost record was also purchased from the same store. Dubbed the 'organ record', it is used throughout The Caretaker's discography, and is sampled in full in the album Deleted scenes, forgotten dreams, similarly to the St. Luke Passion recording.
Availability
Only 50-60 copies on vinyl were made for the members of the choir and conductor. Leyland Kirby was able to find two copies of it in a shop in the 1990s though he has not released them publicly, and the rest of the copies are "impossible to find".[1] Also, the choir/church in the recording is unknown.
False Identifications
The melody to the ending of Friends past, re-united has been falsely identified as "Lord, let me know mine end" by Maurice Greene,[2] and was thought to be a recording by the Lichfield Cathedral Choir.
Another false identification is the Milford Parish Church recording of St. Luke Passion from April 8, 1966. Although there are many similarities between the two recordings, they are not from the same church, nor the same recording company. Although the original recording still remains at large, the Milford Parish recording is the closest thing available.
Gallery
References
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCiAqZlsTdI You can't link to specific YouTube comments, sadly. Should be under a thread by Mr. Mister.
- ↑ Falsely identified piece/recording.