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John Phillips

Songs of Gentleness 1969-1976

Strawberry Rain & Sharp-Flat

JPS101

4LP Black

$120

February 2026 Early-Bird Copies Sold Out
Selected as a must-have by the New Yorker 2025 Holiday Gift Guide
4LP box set that casts John Phillips of Rhodesia as the last great outsider folk discovery of the 20th century
Stoughton Tip-On Jackets with deluxe enclosure
Features large Format 16-Page Booklet

Description

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Songs of Gentleness 1969-1976 is a 4LP box set that casts John Phillips of Rhodesia as the last great outsider folk discovery of the 20th century. The set resurrects Phillips' beguiling debut John for the very first time since its inaugural South African release in 1969 and unveils three new albums of previously unreleased works from the 1970s. Songs of Gentleness 1969-1976 presents every surviving recording by this hitherto mysterious Southern African musician.

Born in 1945, John Phillips was the first child of an English couple living in India. The Phillips family went on to settle in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1957. A sensitive and bookish teenager coming of age in the 1960s, Phillips embraced the bohemian world of literature and song and studiously evolved into a proficient guitarist and skilled songwriter. After a brief period working as a journalist in Zambia, he relocated to South Africa to pursue music and recorded John for the independent RPM label in Johannesburg. With no international distribution, the album couldn't reach its niche audience at the time but is a worthy companion to contemporaneous cult folk classics from the Anglosphere like Nick Drake's Five Leaves Left and Linda Perhacs' Parallelograms.

While confronting depression, substance abuse and gender dysphoria in the 1970s, Phillips remained a passionate and prolific songwriter and studio sessions from 1972 and 1976 document the breadth of his talent and the depth of his soul. Songs of Gentleness 1969-1976 details his remarkable story with guidance from his brother Gordon Phillips and input from late musical collaborator John Oakley-Smith (creator of the 1976 album Matinees on Saturdays) in a booklet featuring archival photographs and drawings. John Phillips retreated into a life of isolation over the course of the 1980s and died of cancer in England in 1995. These gentle songs are his enduring gift to the world.

JPS 101 – FIRST EDITION 4LP BOX SET WILL INCLUDE:

JPS 169 // John Phillips – John (1969) • First Reissue LP

JPS 272 // John Phillips – John 1972 • First Edition LP

JPS 376 // John Phillips – John 1976 • First Edition LP

JPS 476 // John Phillips – Demos (1976) • First Edition LP

1 JOHN 1969:
2 Ballad of a Tall Man
3 Peppermint Wind
4 The Rock
5 Willow Brook
6 Paint Box Jester
7 Scaramouche
8 Pre Ante Pen Ultimatum
9 Mulberry Avenue
10 Whisper to the Wind
11 The Bird with Plastic Feathers
12 Sylvia
13 Permutation Child
14 Look at the Time Fly
15 JOHN 1972:
16 Parting is Never Forever Goodbye
17 The World Doesn't Care
18 Interlude
19 Let my Feet be Free
20 Season of the Witch
21 Looking Glass
22 Mary Jane
23 Rahatiakhoum
24 Quavatina
25 Iwi Neni Tinenamo
26 JOHN 1976:
27 Lonelier than Alone
28 Sweet Mountain Air
29 Time Will Tell
30 Looking Glass
31 Whisper to the Wind
32 Pretty Garlands
33 Parting is Never Forever Goodbye
34 Train Song
35 Novelette
36 Quavantina
37 What Do You Know?
38 Blue
39 JOHN DEMOS:
40 Blue
41 The Unisong
42 Cherry Obscure
43 Silhouette
44 Indigo Blues
45 I'll Try for the Rain
46 The Minstrel
47 The Busker's Song
48 Pslam
49 Winter Blues
50 The Crock of Gold
51 The Cherry Blossom Bough

Songs of Gentleness 1969-1976

Preview Tracklist

1 JOHN 1969:

2 Ballad of a Tall Man

3 Peppermint Wind

4 The Rock

5 Willow Brook

6 Paint Box Jester

7 Scaramouche

8 Pre Ante Pen Ultimatum

9 Mulberry Avenue

10 Whisper to the Wind

11 The Bird with Plastic Feathers

12 Sylvia

13 Permutation Child

14 Look at the Time Fly

15 JOHN 1972:

16 Parting is Never Forever Goodbye

17 The World Doesn't Care

18 Interlude

19 Let my Feet be Free

20 Season of the Witch

21 Looking Glass

22 Mary Jane

23 Rahatiakhoum

24 Quavatina

25 Iwi Neni Tinenamo

26 JOHN 1976:

27 Lonelier than Alone

28 Sweet Mountain Air

29 Time Will Tell

30 Looking Glass

31 Whisper to the Wind

32 Pretty Garlands

33 Parting is Never Forever Goodbye

34 Train Song

35 Novelette

36 Quavantina

37 What Do You Know?

38 Blue

39 JOHN DEMOS:

40 Blue

41 The Unisong

42 Cherry Obscure

43 Silhouette

44 Indigo Blues

45 I'll Try for the Rain

46 The Minstrel

47 The Busker's Song

48 Pslam

49 Winter Blues

50 The Crock of Gold

51 The Cherry Blossom Bough