You Can't Get It

The Zoo Crew has been spinning "You Can't Get It" by John Lees from the album A Major Fancy for the Zoo Freaks tuning into THE ZOO, and this one carries a real story from the rock and roll trenches. Back in 1974 John stepped out for a solo single, covering the Eagles track Best of My Love on the A side while putting his own composition on the flip. That B side is the song we are hearing, and the label credit reads Rider instead of Lees. In a 1989 interview for the fan club magazine Nova Lepidoptera John explained it plain: Rider was his wife Olwen's maiden name before they married, so the publishing sat in her name even though he wrote every note and lyric. The sessions happened at Olympic Studios with producer Rodger Bain, the same man who had worked with Black Sabbath and other heavy outfits, and the single even picked up some BBC airplay from Annie Nightingale along with a polite letter from the Eagles' camp before it disappeared from the shelves in a hurry.

The lyrics themselves walk a road that feels pure early seventies reflection. A man dressed in white, one of four, stands for Lennon and the Beatles load that could not be shared. Then comes the man in black, one of five, pointing straight at Jagger and the Stones. Lines about planets dying, mass equaling velocity, and stars rising under the spotlights while comets come and go sit right in the middle of that "you don't always get what you want" refrain. It is not a bitter complaint so much as a clear-eyed look at how fame works, or does not, for the people who chase it. John has never talked the song up in big interviews the way he has some of the Barclay James Harvest anthems, but the credit detail and the single session story have stayed alive in the fan club archives and later CD notes for decades.

That single eventually found a home as a bonus track when A Major Fancy finally appeared on CD in 1999 and again on the expanded Esoteric edition in 2010. The album itself had a long strange trip of its own. John recorded the bulk of it in late 1972 at Abbey Road and Strawberry Studios in Stockport, with Wally Waller of the Pretty Things handling production. Guests included Rod Argent on organ, Eric Stewart and Kevin Godley from 10cc on guitar and percussion, and a small string and choir arrangement from Graham Preskett. One track, Kes (A Major Fancy), gave the record its title after John and Olwen hand-reared a pair of baby kestrels when one parent bird was shot and the other left the nest. The instrumental carries that northern English sense of a "major fancy" as someone's main interest or hobby, and it also nods to the key of A major for anyone keeping score.

The whole project sat on the shelf for five years. Barclay James Harvest left EMI's Harvest label for Polydor, the solo tapes got tied up in the contract change, and EMI only dusted them off in 1977 for a Harvest Heritage release once the band had scored bigger success in Germany with albums like Gone to Earth. One song from the sessions, Child of the Universe, had originally been turned down by the other members of the band. They later re-recorded it for Everyone Is Everybody Else and turned the live version into a genuine hit single in Germany. John has mentioned in later interviews that the original solo take was the first version, and the band never quite matched it to his ear even after multiple attempts. The 2010 deluxe set restored some of those early mixes and an unreleased track, giving listeners a fuller picture of what he was chasing on his own in 1972 while the band was still finding its commercial footing.

John Lees got his start the old fashioned rock and roll way in Oldham, Lancashire. Born on 13 January 1947, he picked up a guitar at fourteen with no formal lessons and just kept at it. He went on to Oldham School of Art, where he crossed paths with keyboard player Stuart "Woolly" Wolstenholme in 1964. The two played together in the Sorcerers, covering Eddie Cochran-style rock and roll, then moved into the Blues Keepers. By 1967 they had joined forces with Les Holroyd and Mel Pritchard to form Barclay James Harvest. The band name itself came from words pulled out of a hat: Barclay after the bank they hoped would fill with money, James after an earlier singer who had been around, and Harvest after the farmhouse where they were living and writing. They turned professional under manager John Crowther, moved into that farmhouse full time, and started building the melodic progressive sound that mixed guitars, mellotron, and classical leanings. John has said in interviews that he pestered his parents for that first guitar and never really considered any other path once the music took hold, even after a short stretch studying graphic design and working in advertising.

Those early years still color the way he writes and plays. The same guitar style that came up through rock and roll covers and blues outfits sits underneath the longer, more atmospheric pieces he later built with Barclay James Harvest and then with John Lees' Barclay James Harvest. Fans who dig the full discography will find the A Major Fancy sessions right at the hinge between the Harvest years and the Polydor breakthrough, a moment when John was already exploring solo ideas while the band was still sorting its direction. The official site at barclayjamesharvest.com keeps the current line-up and recent releases in view, while the long-running archive at bjharvest.co.uk holds the album portfolio, full lyrics for You Can't Get It, interview transcripts, and the complete discography that traces every step from those 1972 tapes to the later CD editions. On Facebook the page John Lees' Barclay James Harvest posts updates and photos from the road, and the X account @jlbjh carries the same band voice. The Instagram handle @jlbjhinsta gets tagged in newer posts about the music, and the active fan forum linked from the archive site remains the place where long-time listeners trade stories about the solo single, the kestrel track, and everything else that never quite fit the main albums. The Zoo Freaks who have been with the station for a while already know how these deep cuts connect the dots between the early rock and roll bands and the progressive work that followed, and You Can't Get It is one more piece of that chain that still sounds fresh when the needle drops.