L (Steve Hillage album)

Infobox Album
Name = L
Type = Album
Artist = Steve Hillage


Released = 1976
Recorded = May - June 1976
Genre = Progressive rock
Length =
Label = Virgin
Cat no. = V2066
Producer = Todd Rundgren
Last album = "Fish Rising"
(1975)
This album = "L"
(1976)
Next album = "Motivation Radio"
(1977)

L is the second studio album by British progressive rock musician Steve Hillage.

It was recorded primarily in New York, at the Secret Sound, Woodstock, N.Y., and was produced and engineered by Todd Rundgren, using musicians from Todd Rundgren's band Utopia and others.

According to liner notes supplied with the US pressing, Rundgren had only just become aware of Hillage, and following a letter from Hillage to Rundgren, and a reply from Rundgren, Hillage travelled to New York to meet, and the agreement to work together flowed from that.

The cover features a clean shaven Hillage (most of the publicity shots of Hillage during the 1970's show him with a full beard) holding his guitar, brightly backlit. The album cover illustrated here is of the US pressing, and is a promotional copy, still with the "Not for Sale" sticker on it. The UK version is identical (but without the sticker).

Unusually for Hillage, half the songs on this album are covers. Hurdy Gurdy Man was written by Donovan P. Leitch, Om Nama Shivaya was written by Kesar Singh Nariula and Uma Nanda, and It's All Too Much was written by George Harrison, and appeared originally on the album Yellow Submarine in 1969 by the Beatles.

The original Virgin catalogue number for this album on vinyl was V2066. An American pressing was issued on Atlantic records, catalogue number SD 18205.

Charts

The album entered the UK charts on 16 October 1976, where it stayed for 12 weeks, hitting a peak of number 10 [The Guinness book of British Hit Albums, 1983, page 80.] . This was the most sucessful of Steve Hillage's solo career albums, the next most successful being Motivation Radio and Green, which reached numbers 28 and 30 respectively.

Track listing

"Side One" -
Hurdy Gurdy Man (6:32)
Hurdy Gurdy Glissando (8:54)
Electrick Gypsies (6:24)

"Side Two" -
Om Nama Shivaya (3:33)
Lunar Musick Suite (11:59)
It's All Too Much (6:26)

References