NICK DRAKE / ELTON JOHN - WARLOCK SESSIONS SAMPLER LP (ORIGINAL COPY - WWW 101/102). Superb piece of British recording history with this incredibly scarce original white label test pressing of the incredible 1970 Warlock Sessions set up by Joe Boyd. While trying to launch his solo career in early 1970, Elton John continued to do session work for other musicians. "Saturday Sun" aka the "Warlock Sampler" was one such project. At the time, Joe Boyd was procuring a network of young sogwriters and wanted to put together a promotional album to encourage other artists to record their songs.
The Warlock sampler features songs by Nick Drake, Mike Heron of the Incredible String Band, and John and Beverly Martyn. The sessions were rumoured to have been recorded with six or seven musicians, including Drake, Martyn, Caleb Quaey and Roger Pope. Elton played piano on all the tracks billed under his real name Reg Dwight and sang Stormbringer (John Martyn), Go Out and Get It (Mike Heron), Sweet Honesty (Beverly Martyn), and Way To Blue, When The Day Is Done, Time Has Told Me and Saturday Sun (all by Nick Drake). Linda Peters, the future wife of Fairport Convention's Richard Thompson, sang female leads on the remaining tracks. The record is housed with an original Trident studios sleeve. It is thought only a handful of these original copies still exist with Record Collector (UK) listing it in their '100 most valuable records of all time' article.