An exercise in pomposity

From the back cover of the Acker Bilk album, Stranger On The Shore, in which Side One is called "Upon Side The First" and Side Two becomes "Upon the Obverse", there's this little note: The Recording committed to Posterity upon the 12th Day of August and upon the 8th Day of November in the Year of Grace Nineteen Hundred and Sixty. Recording first published in Nineteen Hundred Sixty and One.

But there's more:

MR. ACKER BILK, a taciturn Stalwart reared in the Welch Border Country, is a Virtuoso of the Clarionet. Customarily, he heads a small Ensemble devoted to the Purveyance of that extempore Polyphony or "Jazz" associated traditionally with the Inhabitants of New Orleans - in which Guise (it would seem scarcely necessary to remind the gentle Reader) he looms as a Colossus over his raucous Contemporaries, overcoming by his Expertise and Dexterity both the Intricacies of his Instrument and any Claims to Parity which his Rivals might be foolish enough to advance.

Since first the incandescent Brilliance of this Congregation of sonic Adventurers burst, like a display of St. Catherine's Fire on a musical Scene illumined previously only by the fitful Flickerings of lesser Talents, the Music so ably plucked, blown, bashed and thumped by Mr. Bilk and his Entourage has increasingly commanded the Plaudits of the Swells. Through the Media of Wireless Telegraphy, the electrified Loud-hailer, the Concert Hall, the Cathode Ray Tube and others too numerous to list, they have startled great Shouts of Acclaim which ring ever more freely from each Corner of the Land.

There are, however (as the Sage has aptly remarked), more Ways of destroying a Feline than suffocating the Beast with Cream. And the gigantic Talent which sits so lightly upon the wide Shoulders of Mr. B. cannot easily be restricted to so confined a Channel. What more noble an Embodiment of Man's most cherished Aspirations (thought he) than the dulect Cadences of that tender Instrument, the Clarionet! What more suitable a Vehicle for the rapt Expression of that Exaltation which burns the Breast, for the Lamentations of the Disconsolate, for the relation of a stirring Theme! And accordingly he presents here, in a Fashion never before essayed, a Collection of the more lyric Pieces illustrative of these distinguished Emotions, for the edification of the Intelligent - what Time Mr. Leon Young and his String Chorale achieve a seemly Display of Virtuosity in his Aid.

The Results, as you shall hear, are splendid in the Extreme: in themselves sufficient for the consequent Elevation of the Artiste from the coarse "Mister" to the Style and Title of "Esquire."

I swear never before in my life that I've read such pomposity in any album liner note (the writer sniffed and called his work a "Commentary")!