IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY
Columbia CS 9768, 1969
David LaFlamme arrived in California in 1962. He was twenty-one years old; he had been playing violin since he was five. During the Sixties he picked up all manner of musical influences: he played jazz with John Handy, he jammed with the band that would eventually become Big Brother and the Holding Company, and he was one of Dan Hicks' very first Hot Licks. Some time during all this activity, he fronted a band called Orkustra, which at one time also included the legendary Bobby Beausoleil; their one and only album is apparently lost to history.
A revamped IABD Linda had split from the band and from David issued a second LP in 1970 (Marrying Maiden, with a cameo appearance by Jerry Garcia and a song dedicated to the legendary Don "Sugarcane" Harris), but by then things were already starting to unravel. The LaFlammes' divorce and seemingly endless personnel changes took their toll on IABD, until you practically couldn't tell who was in the band anymore, a situation no doubt noticed by Matthew Katz, who claimed that he owned the rights to the name "It's A Beautiful Day". Litigation ensued. Litigation, in fact, continues to this day; in 1993, Columbia's Legacy label was scheduled to release a two-CD IABD compilation (on C2K 53038; don't ask them when it's going to show up), presumably comprising tracks from all six IABD albums, produced by reissue ace Bob Irwin with David LaFlamme consulting, but Sony and Matthew Katz couldn't come to any agreement. As of this writing, they still haven't; Katz has also apparently been upset with Napster. Presently Katz sells It's a Beautiful Day (SFS 11790) and Marrying Maiden (SFS 04800) through his |