It's a Beautiful Day (album)
| It's a Beautiful Day | ||||
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| Studio album by It's a Beautiful Day | ||||
| Released | 1969 | |||
| Genre | Psychedelic rock | |||
| Length | 40:42 | |||
| Label |
Columbia CBS San Francisco Sound |
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| Producer | Matthew Katz, David LaFlamme | |||
| It's a Beautiful Day chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| Rolling Stone | (negative) |
It's a Beautiful Day is the self-titled debut album by San Francisco Records psychedelic band It's a Beautiful Day. This album's song "White Bird" was the band's biggest hit. The album rose to #47 on Billboard's Top LPs American albums chart.
The cover was designed by George Hunter and painted by Kent Hollister based on the cover of a housekeeping magazine from around 1900. The cover used an old version of the Columbia logo that George Hunter felt fit with the feel of the rest of the cover. The album cover is number 24 on Rolling Stone's list of 100 greatest album covers.
A 1972 reissue of the album in the Netherlands on CBS used a modern painting of a beach scene as the front and back cover because the original cover art of the first two It's A Beautiful Day albums became the sole property of San Francisco Records. IABD was formed by Matthew Katz and the group had a record contract with San Francisco Sound Records. Katz settled with CBS where in it was agreed that "In No Event Will CBS Duplicate The Cover Art or Duplicate The Same songs as included in those two albums." The same is true of the first two Moby Grape albums which are all part or the same court settlement. The only legal source for those IABD and Moby Grape albums are from San Francisco Sound.
The group's signature song "White Bird" was inspired by the experiences David and Linda LaFlamme had while living in Seattle, Washington. For a few weeks in December 1967 the group members lived in the attic of an old house while playing and rehearsing at a Seattle venue originally known as The Encore Ballroom. The band's manager Matthew Katz had recently assumed control over the club and renamed it "San Francisco Sound". In an ironic twist on the band's name, the song was partly inspired by Seattle's rainy winter weather. In a later interview David LaFlamme said:
Where the 'white bird' thing came from ... We were like caged birds in that attic. We had no money, no transportation, the weather was miserable. We were just barely getting by on a very small food allowance provided to us. It was quite an experience, but it was very creative in a way.
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Wikipedia