Track Listing

1. Give Me, Take You
2. Ninepence Worth of Walking
3. Dwarf in a Tree (A Cautionary Tale)
4. Ghost Walks
5. Waking You, Pt. 1
6. Chloe in the Garden
7. Waking You, Pt. 2
8. On the Bombsite
9. I Was, You Weren't
10. Gabilan
11. Alfred Bell
12. Death of Neil
13. On the Bombsite [Mono Single Version][*]
14. Alfred Bell [Mono Single Version][*]
15. On the Bombsite [*][Demo Version]
16. Resurrection Joe [*]
17. Final Asylum [*]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #347452 in Music
• Released on: 2000-10-30
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import

Album Description
First time European CD reissue of the singer/guitarist's 1968 debut album that originally appeared on Andrew Oldham's Immediate label. Compared to Paul McCartney, Donovan and the Moddy Blues, Duncan later joined the power-pop band Metro. Five bonus tracks for a total of 17, including mono & single versions. 2000 release. Standard jewel case.

Customer Reviews

A gem for those who love Nick Drake, Sandy Denny, et al
I will always remember the first time I bought this album back in 1969 -- I still remember the record store in Camarillo, California where I found it and Lindisfarne's "Fog On the Tyne" on the same day. What a phenomenal duo of vinyl that day wrought! :o) I bought it and Lindisfarne for their covers, having never heard either -- but the instrumentation was intriuging. Both proved treasures! But this album is one that were I to have to give up all of the thousands of titles I've bought over the years since then, this album would definitely make the last handful. I love Nick Drake and own everything he ever recorded -- even the unreleased stuff. This is better. (I hate to say this and feel almost as if I were betraying an old friend -- but it is the truth.)

Duncan Browne's "Give Me Take You" is one of those rare albums where humanity, mytholgy, poetry, spirituality and the innocence of childhood somehow all converge into a wondrous work that seems out of place in this world. The beauty of this album is haunting and once you hear it, it is tough to forget the experience. Duncan charted his own classical arrangements and choir and did it with a stark yet amazingly beautiful compactness that works even better than Robert Kirby's work on Nick Drake's "Five Leaves Left."

When Rolling Stone's producer Andrew Loog Oldham signed Duncan to his Immediate Records label (the original label), Oldham knew he had a magic like what Oldham had set to vinyl in songs like "Lady Jane" and "As Tears Go By." But Duncan did not have any lyrics and so on this album Duncan recruited his friend from art school, David Bretton. His poetry is part and parcel of this album. It is the perfect stylistic companion to this recording. Bretton's imagery possesses all of the majesty and power of other British poets of the time -- like Keith Reid with Procol Harum, Peter Sinfield with King Crimson, et al. But where these wordsmiths sometimes wandered into the vague and ponderous, the same can never be said about David Bretton; his only excess is in the sometimes bright innocence of youth -- of which he can be forgiven, especially considering that this album was a product of the Sixties and he was but a lad himself.

The production of this album is both at once beautiful and raw. By the time Andrew Loog Oldham was finished with it, he was tired of it. His company was falling apart, he was in financial ruin and so he cut the sessions short. But that is an asset not a detriment to this album. It left all of the beautiful baroque and other classical embellishments penned by a young Duncan Browne to stand without being buried in over-production. The gorgeously airy choir which joins in from time to time can be overbearing on a track or two but this is by no means a warning to avoid this album. Do so, and you will miss one of the greatest English folk-classical albums ever recorded.

Like I said, if I had to give up every album and get down to just a handful -- this would be one of the last albums in the stack. There are few recordings that I could ever place alongside this one -- let alone, above it.

David Bretton's inside look at the project in this reissue's liner notes make it even more special. (Duncan passed away from cancer in 1993 and David's remembrances are even more appreciated because of Duncan's death.) I give the reissue high marks and would end this by saying that if you love the music of Nick Drake, Sandy Denny, Lindisfarne, The Left Banke's "Walk Away Rene" and the near classical edge of the Stone's songs earlier mentioned -- don't miss this treat. Yes it's a rarety but then you don't find wondrous gemstones laying all about on the ground, do you???

A Gem From a Tender Soul of British Folk
This man was an unknown to me until so very recently -so if you stumble into this page by those strange turns of internet life, you have a companion in me ... I guess.
Now, as I'm sure you experienced many a time, the newness of one's encounter with something beautiful does not preclude the depth of one's experience, nor the value of what one has seen.
Duncan Browne, musically speaking, is a younger brother to Donovan Leitch, a childhood friend of Vashti Bunyan's, and a soft-spoken cousin to the Incredible String Band.
This is bonafide British Folk, the psychedelic variety as it is now know as ... soft melodies, strings caressed rather than strummed, tales of young girls in wondrous places and magical beings, the obligatory harpsichord, tasteful and simple strings, and chorus voices seeming to float in the Summer's air.
Well ... you get the picture -I'm sure- and either you are still reading on suddenly called by your love for this kind of music, or I'm now speaking to myself.

The whole album is a trove of treasures which manage to sound tender, after all these years, rather than naïve and outdated -a remarkable feat in itself for any work over thirty years old.
So, because you are still reading, I must tell you that this album can -must!- be listened from beginning to end. That is how consistently delightful it is, but if I must make some choices I'd choose both versions of "Alfred Bell," pure, sad nectar, the single the never took off -On The Bombsite, studio and demo versions alike- and "Give Me, Take You" which gives this gem its title.
Treat yourself to the sounds of a gentle soul, the kind of young man you may wish your son to become ... or hope you still are.

McCartney Fronts Left Banke!
I begin my review with the question, "Can you judge an album by it's cover?" If "Give Me Take You" is that album, I say, "Sure you can." The artwork is classical in design, refined and ornate in style. It is suggestive of the music contained herein. I hear the McCartney allusion in these songs (most especially in the vocals and melody lines), but the "Moddy" Blues?! No sir!

This is Duncan Browne's first album, released on (Andrew Loog Oldham's, the one-time Rolling Stones producer) Immediate Label in 1968. Each song is a short story, self-contained, poetic and literate, and I believe that is what the lyricist (David Bretton) intended. I hear the McCartney of "Junk," "For No One," and "She's Leaving Home" in these mini-suites. The entire album has its own gentle and warm feel, tinged with sadness and slight melancholy. Nick Drake sounds evident here, in that most of the songs center around an acoustic guitar, played in a similar fashion to Drake or John Renbourn, touched with woodwind, string and brass embellishments (see "Left Banke" in headline above).

The one and only single from this album was "On the Bombsite," but there's so much more to find here. "Alfred Bell" is both wonderful and sad. The bonus track "Resurrection Joe" COULD have been a McCartney single from 1970, with its pleasant piano and homegrown sound. There is not a dud in this bunch.

If you have found yourself to the end of this review, you must be interested still. So, please purchase this album. Browne, unfortunately, passed away of cancer in May of 1993 (as the excellent liner notes state). May his memory live on in the melodic music he left behind.