After looking for this LP to even come up for sale anywhere - eBay, my local stores - anywhere! - I started looking elsewhere from my normal haunts. I found a copy in France for 120 Euros, one in the UK for 70 GBP and started to think I was gonna have to save some serious cash to get this record.
On a whim, I checked Amazon.com as strange stuff pops up from time to time. I typed in "Freedom At Last" at pulled up the page for the album. It listed a few copies of the rare and expensive Japanese CD re-release and one copy of the LP used for $39.99. I was so sure that this couldn't possibly be the actual record that I emailed the seller and made sure I could return it if I wasn't happy and a few days later it arrived.
Opening it, I was super stoked and more so when I pulled it out. It's not in amazing shape, being 41 years old, with some yellowing on the mainly white cover, but the vinyl is in great shape and I'm really excited to own a copy of this amazing LP.
Being a big 1960's and 1970's jazz fan, I have been collecting the BYG/Actuel releases over the years and this is one of the few non-jazz records that came out on that label while it was active, from 1969-1972. I picked up a copy of the CD re-release from Dusty Groove here in Chicago (an excellent store specializing in Jazz/Funk/Hip-Hop) to add one of the Actuel releases to my collection and it was on my stereo for a solid month.
This is Freedom's second LP, the first being a recording made for an Italian film called Black and White and the sound here is much different. It's a psych/blues thing with some very good early psych sounds from tracks like 'Enchanted Wood' (the cut 1/side 1 track), 'Deep Down In The Bottom,' Fly' and 'Dusty Track' - a song they reprised for their S/T release later that year. There are a few blues covers as well, like 'Built for Comfort' and 'Hoo Doo Man' done with some solid chops and a good British Blues sound.
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