Rare Bird

In October 1969 organist Graham Field joined keyboardist Dave Kaffinetti, drummer Mark Ashton, and vocalist Steve Gould to form Rare Bird, aiming for a guitar-free rock approach built around two keyboards. Their first album appeared before the year closed and contained the minor radio hit “Sympathy.” The following year saw the release of As Your Mind Flies By, a darker and heavier record that placed greater weight on Gould’s melodramatic vocal delivery. Field and Ashton departed ahead of Epic Forest, after which new drummer Fred Kelly recruited guitarist Andy Curtis and steered the band toward a folk-oriented style. Gould himself took up the guitar at this stage, shifting the focus squarely onto the interplay between the two instruments. Interest had faded considerably by the 1973 album Somebody’s Watching, leaving the group with a steadily shrinking audience. They nevertheless issued one final studio effort, 1974’s Born Again, whose sound departed entirely from the progressive rock of their opening two records. After the band dissolved, the compilation Sympathy appeared, drawing its tracks solely from those first two albums.