'Music In a Doll's House' - Fifty Years

The 1968 debut album from the British rock band Family, released fifty years ago this week (the exact anniversary date is July 19), Music In a Doll's House, isn't necessarily the best debut rock album of all time, but it is definitely in contention for the best debut rock album of 1968 - and the fact that it gets serious competition from Fairport Convention's self-titled debut and the Band's Music From Big Pink (the title is a reference to another tiny abode, the little pink house in upstate New York that the Band rehearsed in with Bob Dylan) means that even that distinction is not assured.  But in terms of innovation, imagination, and sheer chutzpah, Music In a Doll's House clearly has the edge.  Fairport Convention and the Band both aimed their music toward more traditional folk and pop form, while Family set out to create a new sound altogether.  And although it was recorded in the heady days of post-Sgt. Pepper psychedelia, Music In a Doll's House went beyond mere trendiness. Family incorporated all sorts of forms, from standard balladeering and blue-eyed soul to heavy rock and avant-garde experimentation, into their music.

While many rock acts, including the Beatles themselves, answered Sgt. Pepper with a return to basics, and various bands who were more adventurous were in a quandary in trying to push rock music farther, Family set a course that honored tradition while being open to new ideas.  Ironically, their mindset restricted them to a cult following; they had qualified commercial success in Britain and continental Europe and no such success whatsoever in North America.  Leaders Charlie Whitney and Roger Chapman refused to compromise their vision, and their unique approach restricted Family's appeal.  But they set a standard with Music In a Doll's House that remained resolute with each subsequent album they recorded, the music changing with each LP but still retaining a distinctive Family identity.  That identity was what made this LP and all six of their subsequent albums so essential to Family's fan base.           

Music In a Doll's House was, in some ways, a vision of what rock could be as the sixties were coming to an end.  Eventually rock stopped going forward, the roots-oriented sound of groups like the Band and Creedence Clearwater Revival homogenized into a standard country-rock sound, hard rock and heavy metal played themselves out, and progressive rock become innovative for the sake of innovation but rarely produced anything lasting.  Punk and grunge only bought rock a little more time as other pop forms gained on and overtook it.  But in 1968, Family found a way forward that kept them grounded in rock and R&B but allowed them to innovate, and they carried that ideal through their recording career (and many personnel changes) to the point where they felt they could go no farther, wisely calling it quits in 1973 as their well began to run dry.  Music In a Doll's House is an important debut album because it showed how the promise of musical progression could be achieved . . . and was.  That message resonates fifty years on.

This blog entry is not so much a proper review of Music In a Doll's House as it is a celebration of it as I mark its golden anniversary.  For a more detailed review, please consult my Family review page. :-)