Cunning Stunts (Caravan album)

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1975 studio album by Caravan

Cunning Stunts

Studio album by

Caravan

Released| 25 July 1975
Recorded| September 1974 – May 1975
Studio| Tollington Park Studios, London
Genre| Progressive rock, Canterbury scene
Length| 41:47
Label| Decca
Producer| David Hitchcock
Caravan chronology
| Caravan and the New Symphonia
(1974)  | Cunning Stunts
(1975)  | Blind Dog at St. Dunstans
(1976)

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Cunning Stunts is the sixth studio album by the progressive rock band Caravan, released in 1975. It was their first album with the bass guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Mike Wedgwood. The title of the album is a spoonerism for "Stunning Cunts", which is typical of their cheeky use of language. Three previous Caravan albums with titles that are also sexual plays on words[citation needed] are If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You (1970), In the Land of Grey and Pink (1971) and For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night (1973).

## Background and recording

[edit]

For a stretch of several days David Hitchcock was simultaneously producing Cunning Stunts and Renaissance's Scheherazade and Other Stories, so that he would have to work on Cunning Stunts at Tollington Park Studios during the day and on Scheherazade and Other Stories at Abbey Road Studios at night, an arrangement which Hitchcock felt negatively impacted both albums.[1]

## Reception

[edit]

Professional ratingsReview scores

Source| Rating
AllMusic| [2]

AllMusic described it as "a solid, varied, and interesting album with plenty of character."[2]

## Track listing

[edit]

Side oneNo.| Title| Writer(s)| Length

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|
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1.| "The Show of Our Lives"| John Murphy, Dave Sinclair| 5:47
2.| "Stuck in a Hole"| Pye Hastings| 3:09
3.| "Lover"| Mike Wedgwood| 5:06
4.| "No Backstage Pass"| Pye Hastings| 4:34
5.| "Welcome the Day"| Mike Wedgwood| 4:01

Side twoNo.| Title| Writer(s)| Length

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|
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1.| "The Dabsong Conshirtoe"

a.  "The Mad Dabsong" (2:15)
b.  "Ben Karratt Rides Again" (2:42)
c.  "Pro's and Con's" (2:29)
d.  "Wraiks and Ladders" (0:58)
e.  "Sneaking out the Bare Quare" (4:25)
f.  "All Sorts of Unmentionable Things" (5:11)
| John Murphy, Dave Sinclair| 18:00
2.| "Fear and Loathing in Tollington Park Rag"| Geoffrey Richardson| 1:10

Bonus tracksNo.| Title| Writer(s)| Length

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8.| "Stuck in a Hole" (single version)| Pye Hastings| 3:10
9.| "Keeping Back My Love"| Pye Hastings| 5:14
10.| "For Richard" (Live at the Fairfield Halls, 1974)| Richard Coughlan, Hastings, Sinclair, Richard Sinclair| 18:34

## Personnel

[edit]

Caravan in 1974. From left to right: Hastings, Richardson, Wedgwood, Coughlan, Sinclair.

Caravan[3]

* Pye Hastings – electric guitar and acoustic guitars, vocals
* Dave Sinclair – piano, organ, synthesizer, keyboards, string co-arrangement on "No Backstage Pass", brass co-arrangement on "Ben Karratt Rides Again" and "Sneaking out the Bare Quare"
* Geoffrey Richardson – viola, electric guitar, Western concert flute, flute, night-shift whistle
* Mike Wedgwood – bass guitar, congas, vocals, Moog brass on "Stuck in a Hole", string arrangement on "Lover" and "No Backstage Pass"
* Richard Coughlan – drums

Additional personnel

* Jimmy Hastings – brass arrangement on "Ben Karratt Rides Again" and "Sneaking out the Bare Quare"
* David Hitchcock – producer

## Charts

[edit]

Chart (1975)  | Peak
position

|

UK Albums (OCC)[4] | 50
US Billboard 200[5] | 124

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Dome, Malcolm (2021). Scheherazade and Other (Booklet). Renaissance. Cherry Red Records Ltd. p. 10.
2. ^ a b Planer, Lindsay. Cunning Stunts at AllMusic
3. ^ Caravan, Cunning Stunts (1975), vinyl LP cover notes
4. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
5. ^ "Caravan Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved November 8, 2023.

## External links

[edit]

* Caravan - Cunning Stunts (1975) album review by Lindsay Planer, credits & releases at AllMusic.com
* Caravan - Cunning Stunts (1975) album releases & credits at Discogs.com
* Caravan - Cunning Stunts (1975) album credits & user reviews at ProgArchives.com
* Caravan - Cunning Stunts (1975) album review at Calyx: the Canterbury Music Website
* Caravan - Cunning Stunts (1975) album to be listened as stream at Play.Spotify.com
* Eric, Grey. "Where but for Caravan Would I? No. 6" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 August 2007. Retrieved 15 July 2007.

* v
* t
* e

Caravan

* Pye Hastings
* Geoffrey Richardson
* Jan Schelhaas
* Jim Leverton
* Mark Walker

* Richard Coughlan
* Richard Sinclair
* Dave Sinclair
* Steve Miller
* Derek Austin
* Stuart Evans
* John G. Perry
* Mike Wedgwood
* Dek Messecar
* Doug Boyle
* Simon Bentall
* Jimmy Hastings

Studio albums|

* Caravan
* If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You
* In the Land of Grey and Pink
* Waterloo Lily
* For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night
* Cunning Stunts
* Blind Dog at St. Dunstans
* Better by Far
* The Album
* Back to Front
* Cool Water
* The Battle of Hastings
* The Unauthorized Breakfast Item
* Paradise Filter
* It's None of Your Business

Live albums|

* Caravan and the New Symphonia
* Live at the Fairfield Halls, 1974
* BBC Radio 1 Live in Concert
* Live: Canterbury Comes to London
* Songs for Oblivion Fishermen
* Ether Way: BBC Sessions 1975-77
* Surprise Supplies
* Green Bottles for Marjorie: The Lost BBC Sessions

Compilation albums|

* The Show of Our Lives
* The Best of Caravan – Canterbury Tales
* Travelling Man
* All Over You...Too
* The Show of Our Lives – Caravan at the BBC 1968–1975
* The World Is Yours – The Anthology 1968-1976

Related bands|

* Bruford
* Camel
* Delivery
* Earthworks
* Egg
* Gong
* Hatfield and the North
* In Cahoots
* Khan
* Matching Mole
* National Health
* Soft Heap
* Soft Machine
* Uriel
* The Wilde Flowers

Authority control databases |

* MusicBrainz release group

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