Cunning Stunts (Caravan album)

Cunning Stunts is the sixth studio album by the progressive rock band Caravan, released in 1975. It was their first album with the bass guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Mike Wedgwood. The title of the album is a spoonerism for "Stunning Cunts", which is typical of their cheeky use of language. Three previous Caravan albums with titles that are also sexual plays on words are If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You (1970), In the Land of Grey and Pink (1971) and For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night (1973).

Cunning Stunts
Studio album by Caravan
Released	25 July 1975
Recorded	September 1974 – May 1975
Studio	Tollington Park Studios, London
Genre	Progressive rock, Canterbury scene
Length	41:47
Label	Decca
Producer	David Hitchcock
Caravan chronology
Caravan and the New Symphonia (1974) Cunning Stunts (1975) Blind Dog at St. Dunstans (1976)

Background and recording

For a stretch of several days David Hitchcock was simultaneously producing Cunning Stunts and Renaissance's Scheherazade and Other Stories, so that he would have to work on Cunning Stunts at Tollington Park Studios during the day and on Scheherazade and Other Stories at Abbey Road Studios at night, an arrangement which Hitchcock felt negatively impacted both albums.

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic

AllMusic described it as "a solid, varied, and interesting album with plenty of character."

Track listing

Side one

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"The Show of Our Lives"	John Murphy, Dave Sinclair	5:47
2.	"Stuck in a Hole"	Pye Hastings	3:09
3.	"Lover"	Mike Wedgwood	5:06
4.	"No Backstage Pass"	Pye Hastings	4:34
5.	"Welcome the Day"	Mike Wedgwood	4:01

Side two

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"The Dabsong Conshirtoe" a.  "The Mad Dabsong" (2:15) b.  "Ben Karratt Rides Again" (2:42) c.  "Pro's and Con's" (2:29) d.  "Wraiks and Ladders" (0:58) e.  "Sneaking out the Bare Quare" (4:25) f.  "All Sorts of Unmentionable Things" (5:11)	John Murphy, Dave Sinclair	18:00
2.	"Fear and Loathing in Tollington Park Rag"	Geoffrey Richardson	1:10

Bonus tracks

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
8.	"Stuck in a Hole" (single version)	Pye Hastings	3:10
9.	"Keeping Back My Love"	Pye Hastings	5:14
10.	"For Richard" (Live at the Fairfield Halls, 1974)	Richard Coughlan, Hastings, Sinclair, Richard Sinclair	18:34

Personnel

Caravan in 1974. From left to right: Hastings, Richardson, Wedgwood, Coughlan, Sinclair.

Caravan

• Pye Hastings – electric guitar and acoustic guitars, vocals
• Dave Sinclair – piano, organ, synthesizer, keyboards, string co-arrangement on "No Backstage Pass", brass co-arrangement on "Ben Karratt Rides Again" and "Sneaking out the Bare Quare"
• Geoffrey Richardson – viola, electric guitar, Western concert flute, flute, night-shift whistle
• Mike Wedgwood – bass guitar, congas, vocals, Moog brass on "Stuck in a Hole", string arrangement on "Lover" and "No Backstage Pass"
• Richard Coughlan – drums

Additional personnel

• Jimmy Hastings – brass arrangement on "Ben Karratt Rides Again" and "Sneaking out the Bare Quare"
• David Hitchcock – producer

Charts

Chart (1975)	Peak position
UK Albums (OCC)	50
US Billboard 200	124

External links

• Caravan - Cunning Stunts (1975) album review by Lindsay Planer, credits & releases at AllMusic.com
• Caravan - Cunning Stunts (1975) album releases & credits at Discogs.com
• Caravan - Cunning Stunts (1975) album credits & user reviews at ProgArchives.com
• Caravan - Cunning Stunts (1975) album review at Calyx: the Canterbury Music Website
• Caravan - Cunning Stunts (1975) album to be listened as stream at Play.Spotify.com
• Eric, Grey. "Where but for Caravan Would I? No. 6" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 August 2007. Retrieved 15 July 2007.