Mark-Almond is one of those bands that can send me down a rabbit hole pretty quickly. You start looking at the people involved, and suddenly John Mayall, Marianne Faithfull, Zoot Money and the Alan Price Set all start showing up. But none of that matters if the music isn’t good. The City is good.
Mark-Almond was formed in 1970 by Jon Mark and Johnny Almond. The name can be a little confusing if you don’t know the band. It wasn’t one guy named Mark Almond. Jon Mark was the guitarist and singer, and Johnny Almond played saxophone, flute, and other woodwinds.
The two had met while playing with John Mayall. They appeared together on Mayall’s The Turning Point in 1969 and Empty Rooms in 1970. That period of Mayall’s music was moving away from straight electric blues into something quieter and more open. You can hear some of that approach in what Mark and Almond did next.
They left Mayall and formed Mark-Almond with keyboard player Tommy Eyre and bassist Roger Sutton. Their music wasn’t easy to put into one category. There was jazz, blues, folk and rock, sometimes all within the same song. The City appeared on their self-titled debut album in 1971.
The song develops naturally. Jon Mark’s guitar gives it a loose rhythmic foundation while Johnny Almond’s saxophone helps give the band its identity. That’s probably what I like most about Mark-Almond. They leave room in the music. Nobody sounds like they are trying to win.
The band developed a following, particularly through its live performances, but never became as commercially successful as some of the musicians they had worked with. They broke up in 1973, reunited a couple of years later, and continued recording in different forms into the early 1980s.
They left behind some music that doesn’t sound much like anything else from the period. This one is a good place to start.
What Am I Living For came from Mark-Almond’s 1972 album Rising. Written by Jon Mark, it’s a completely different kind of song from The City. The focus is on Mark’s vocal and a man looking at his life and wondering what all of it is for. A live version appeared on Mark-Almond 73 and became one of the band’s best-known songs on American FM radio. It’s quieter and darker than The City, but it shows the other side of this band. They could stretch out and play, but they could also get out of the way and let a song tell the story.
This is a live performance by them.
The City
Well last night I slept in the open
Down by the redwood trees
Yes last night I slept in the open
Just to let, just to let, just to let my soul free
I don’t wanna go, I don’t wanna know
I don’t wanna go back to the city
I don’t wanna go, I don’t wanna know
I don’t wanna go back to the city
It’s just a long, long, long, long
Lonely taxi ride
Going nowhere
To no one
No day
No way
Well I woke in the morning early
I could feel the good green earth beneath my tread
Yes I woke in the morning early
That’s when I knew, yes I knew
I knew that the city was dead
I don’t wanna go, I don’t wanna know
I don’t wanna go back to the city
I don’t wanna go, I don’t wanna know
I don’t wanna go back to the city
It’s just a long, long, long, long
Lonely taxi ride
Going uptown
And downtown
And round and round and round and round
Round and round and round and round
It gets so hot in the city
It gets so hot in the city
It gets so hot in the city
It gets so hot in the city
It gets so hot in the city
It gets so hot in the city
It gets so hot in the city
It gets so hot in the city
It gets so hot in the city
It gets so hot in the city
It gets so hot in the city