If You Saw Thro' My Eyes Explained

If You Saw Thro' My Eyes
Type:Album
Artist:Ian Matthews
Cover:Ian_if_you_saw.jpg
Released:May 1971
Recorded:1970
Studio:Morgan Studios, London
Genre:Folk rock
Length:39:18
Label:Vertigo
Producer:Ian Matthews
Prev Title:Later That Same Year
Prev Year:1970
Next Title:Tigers Will Survive
Next Year:1972

If You Saw Thro' My Eyes is the 1971 album by country rock/folk rock musician Ian Matthews. It was the first of two Ian Matthews solo albums released on Vertigo, a subsidiary label of Philips/Phonogram (the second being Tigers Will Survive released in 1972). Guest musicians were former Fairport Convention bandmates Sandy Denny on vocals and keyboards, and Richard Thompson on accordion and guitar. The album also featured guitarist Tim Renwick, jazz pianist Keith Tippett and Matthews' future bandmate in Plainsong, Andy Roberts.

The second track on the album, ‘Hearts’, was released as a single on April 23, 1971; the album itself (catalogue number VEL-1002) was released worldwide on May 1 that year.[1]

If You Saw Thro' My Eyes remained unavailable on CD until 1993 when it was released as a 2-on-1 reissue on Vertigo coupled with Tigers Will Survive.The original album on its own was remastered and reissued on CD in 2003 on MK2 Records. It has since been reissued again several times, the most recent version being in 2012 on Esoteric Records.

A live version of the album, If You Saw Thro' My Eyes - Live, recorded in October 2003 at Cambrinus Cafe in Horst, The Netherlands (where Matthews now lives), was released as the second CD of the 2-CD set Sparkler: The Best of the Texas Recordings 1989-2004 on the Blue Rose record label.

Track listing

(All tracks composed by Ian Matthews except where noted)

  1. "Desert Inn" – 3:29
  2. "Hearts" – 3:01
  3. "Never Ending" – 2:52
  4. "Reno Nevada" (Richard Fariña) – 4:47
  5. "Little Known" – 2:50
  6. "Hinge I" – 1:20
  7. "Hinge II" – 1:10
  8. "Southern Wind" – 3:10
  9. "It Came Without Warning" (Jerry Burnham, Allan Jacobs) – 3:45
  10. "You Couldn't Lose" – 3:35
  11. "Morgan The Pirate" (Fariña) – 6:42
  12. "Thro' My Eyes" – 2:37

Personnel

Production

Notes and References

  1. Music paper article in the Iain Matthews cuttings book It’s About Time
  2. Book: Kent, David. David Kent (historian). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. illustrated. Australian Chart Book. St Ives, N.S.W.. 1993. 0-646-11917-6. 195.