Focus not Focus

There are a small number of almost forgotten tracks that are not exactly by Focus but that technically do feature the band.

The oldest of these are the 1969 or 1970 recordings of the Amsterdam cast of the controversial musical Hair. Van Leer, Akkerman, Dresden and Cleuver form the nucleus of a 10 piece orchestra led by Del Newman with the cast singing. They can be heard, for example, on the opening introduction to Aquarius and the closing Hare Krishna. From that period there is also a short recording with Ronald Snellenberg called Mijn Overtuiging.
In the same period Van Leer was working with Ramses Shaffy and on an album containing two long tracks on each side, Sunset and Sunkiss, the whole band plays on Sunset. In 1969 a Ramses Shaffy single (the highly didactic The shrine of God b/w Watch out for the ugly people) appeared with Focus as the backing group. Slightly later, Van Leer was involved in producing an album by Hans Cleuver's wife Bojoura (Beauty of Bojoura) and the band again appear on The Last Thing On My Mind. (The Akkerman, Van Leer composition Why do they go back home seems to feature Akkerman, Van Leer and Dresden but not Cleuver.)
In 1973 Focus' bassist Cyriel Havermans left to make a solo album (Cyril) and called on his former colleagues for help. Pierre Van Der Linden is on several tracks usually with Van Leer but Share Those Dreams is the only track featuring Van Leer, Akkerman and Cyril.

It is perhaps also worth mentioning here that Jan Akkerman performed with the Van Leer Band in the 1980s but no official recordings were released.
(For the Ramses Shaffy single check here)

Track by track 16 Sylvia

Archive number: 16

Title: Sylvia

Main Album: Focus 3 (also a single in 1972 and 1973)

Track number: 3

Genre: Jazz Rock Instrumental

Studio: Olympic Studios 'B', 117 Church Road, Barnes, London SW13 9HL

Length: 03' 24"

Composer: Thijs van Leer

Musicians: Jan Akkerman – Electric guitars (Gibson Les Paul Customs?); Thijs van Leer – Hammond organ, Voice; Bert Ruiter - Bass; Pierre Van Der Linden – Drums

Producer: Mike Vernon

Engineer: George Chkiantz

Label: LP – Imperial, Polydor, Sire CD – Capitol, EMI-Bovema, IRS, Red Bullet, JVC Victor

Date of recording/release: July 1972/November 1972, 1975 CD - 1988, 1993, 2001, 2002, 2004

Alternative version: A live version appears on the Rainbow album. Van Leer has done acoustic versions (Hommage aan Rogier van Otterloo, etc). Akkerman likes to do what he calls Sylvia's grandmother emphasising his own contribution to the original hit. There have been some covers.

Notes: Apparently this was always intended as a single and so was probably recorded before the other material for Focus 3. One of Focus's most famous tracks, still played on the radio today, it was originally written by van Leer in the late sixties for Sylvia Alberts, when both were working as backing singers for Ramses Shaffy and Liesbeth List. The original piece used a lyric by Linda van Dijk, beginning "I thought I could do everything on my own, I was always stripping the town alone" (!). Alberts did not like the track and so it was shelved until being dusted down and used by Focus in its instrumental form. The Focus track begins with that famous jazz riff on guitars, reminiscent of the work of David T Walker, Louis Shelton and Don Peake on the 1969 Jackson 5 hit I want you back. The ambience is enhanced by heavy reverb from the one channel acting as a sort of drone against the chopped chords. (This is not found on live versions, of course). The organ and bass join in (00:09) then drums (00:15). The whole opening section lasts until 00:24, when the guitar leads the band into the main theme (00:25-00:42). The chopped chords then return (00:43-00:50) to be followed once again by the guitar-led theme (00:51-01:47). At 01:09-01:12 there is a brief bridge that features again at 01:48-02:00 where it is repeated three times, accompanied by van Leer's vibrato voice. In 02:01-02:45 we visit the main theme once again (note the distinctive variation around 02:18). This leads to a false ritartando ending when the chopped chords break in for the last time (02:46-02:54) again joined first by organ and bass (02:55-03:01) then drums (03:02-03:24) before the fade.

Track by track 1 Focus (vocal)

Archive number: 1*

Title: Focus (vocal)
Main Album: In and Out of Focus (previously known as Focus Plays Focus)
Track number: 1 (sixth and final track on Sire release)
Genre: Jazz Pop Vocal
Studio: Sound Techniques Studio, 46a Old Church Street, Chelsea, London SW3
Length: 2' 43"
Composer(s): Thijs van Leer (music) Erik Cleuver (words)
Musicians: Jan Akkerman - Electric guitar (Fender telecaster); Thijs van Leer - Vocals, Hammond organ; Martijn Dresden – Bass; Hans Cleuver – Drums
Producer: Hubert Terheggen (RTM)
Engineer: Jerry Boys
Label: LP - Imperial, Sire, Polydor; CD - EMI Bovema, IRS, Red Bullet
Date of recording/release: Late January 1970/Autumn 1970 (1973 in the US. In 1974 the album appeared in Brazil as Pop Giants). Also 1971. CD – 1988, 1993, 2001.
Alternative version: A longer instrumental version appears elsewhere on the album and in rearranged form on van Leer's first Introspection album.

Notes: This track, which still features in the act today, is the first of a series bearing the eponymous title Focus and the only one of those to boast a vocal (although only 10 words at that). The same tune features as an instrumental elsewhere on the album. One of the earliest originals the band played, it is notable for Akkerman's pioneering use of volume swell or 'violining' without a pedal. The sound itself is very much a sixties rather than a seventies one. The number is basically recorded live with echo or reverb, especially on the vocal.

The band (bass, organ, drums) begin together setting up a slow jazz style rhythm (00:00-00:11) over which first van Leer tentatively sings (00:12-00:36) then Akkerman does his stuff, the track ending with just the guitar and eight hits of the cymbal, four slow and four quick.
Although Focus became primarily an instrumental band, the first album is about half and half vocals and instrumentals and every album has vocals on it somewhere.

The words act as a sort of manifesto for the band. They are

"Focus yourself on the love
You owe mankind.
Communication again."

We are still only three years on from the "summer of love" and such sentiments were in the air. The track can drag a little perhaps and was probably not the best choice for an opener, as is reflected in its postponement to the end of the American release. On the other hand, as originally conceived, the second track comes with some impact after this laid back opener.

*It is true that the original Focus line-up appeared on record together before this track was released (for the Dutch version of Hair, on Ramses Shaffy's album Sunset Sunkiss and on certain tracks for the album The Beauty of Bojoura but this is the first time they appeared on record together and alone as Focus).

It has been suggested that there was a previous recording of the first album in Amsterdam before the London version we have today. Apparently this is not so.