Track by track 116 Sylvia's Stepson UbaTuba

Archive number: 116

Title: Sylvia's stepson Ubatuba

Main Album: Focus 9 (New Skin)

Track number: 4

Genre: Progressive Rock Instrumental

Studio: Fieldwork Studios, Schoten, Belgium

Length: 04:46

Composer: Bobby Jacobs

Musicians: Thijs van Leer – Hammond organ, voice; Niels van der Steenhoven – Guitars; Bobby Jacobs - Bass; Pierre van der Linden - Drums

Producer: Bobby Jacobs and Thijs van Leer

Engineer: Han Nuijten

Label: Red Bullet

Date of recording/release: Summer 2006

Alternative version: None

Notes: Organ and guitar begin together, backed by bass and cymbals, as this beautiful piece is introduced (00:00-00:31). The drums announce the main theme, a typical piece of Focus guitar - slow, yearning and thoughtful - with occasional volume swells or violining (00:32-02:00) before quiet (02:01-02:10) then louder (02:11-02:24) guitar-led sections. At 02:25-02:56 we have the “ubatuba” section featuring guitar and “ubatubing” from van Leer's voice. A caesura at 02:57 announces the return of the yearning guitar lead with some exquisite finger work from van der Steenhoven, especially towards the end (02:58-04:14). Finally, we have a quieter section (04:15-04:35) that is rounded off with a coda of 10 violined harmonics (04:36-04:46).

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.