Focus Plays Focus (also known as In and Out of Focus) is the debut studio album from the Dutch rock band Focus. Released in 1970, the album was recorded at the Sound Techniques Studios in London, England and produced by Hubert Terheggen. It was the first and only album by the band to feature the original line-up of Thijs van Leer (organ, flute), Jan Akkerman (guitar), Martin Dresden (bass guitar, vocals) and Hans Cleuver (drums, vocals).
Original UK version (Polydor 2344 003)
| Original Dutch version | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | |
| 1. | "Focus" (instrumental version) | Thijs van Leer | 9:45 | |
| 2. | "Why Dream" | van Leer, Hans Cleuver | 3:57 | |
| 3. | "Happy Nightmare (Mescaline)" | van Leer, Martin Dresden, Mike Hayes | 3:56 | |
| 4. | "Anonymous" | van Leer, Jan Akkerman, Dresden | 7:00 | |
| 5. | "Black Beauty" | van Leer, Cleuver | 3:05 | |
| 6. | "Sugar Island" | van Leer, Dresden, Jan Staal | 3:03 | |
| 7. | "Focus" (vocal version) | van Leer, Cleuver | 2:44 | |
| Total length: | 33:30 | |||
| Original German version | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | |
| 1. | "Focus" (instrumental version) | van Leer | 9:45 | |
| 2. | "House of the King" | Akkerman | 2:20 | |
| 3. | "Why Dream" | van Leer, Cleuver | 3:57 | |
| 4. | "Happy Nightmare (Mescaline)" | van Leer, Dresden, Hayes | 3:56 | |
| 5. | "Anonymous" | van Leer, Akkerman, Dresden | 7:00 | |
| 6. | "Black Beauty" | van Leer, Cleuver | 3:05 | |
| 7. | "Sugar Island" | van Leer, Dresden, Staal | 3:03 | |
| 8. | "Focus" (vocal version) | van Leer, Cleuver | 2:44 | |
| Total length: | 35:50 | |||
| United States version; Japanese 2006 reissue | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | |
| 1. | "Focus" (vocal version) | van Leer, Cleuver | 2:44 | |
| 2. | "Black Beauty" | van Leer, Cleuver | 3:05 | |
| 3. | "Sugar Island" | van Leer, Dresden, Staal | 3:03 | |
| 4. | "Anonymous" | van Leer, Akkerman, Dresden | 7:00 | |
| 5. | "House of the King" | Akkerman | 2:20 | |
| 6. | "Happy Nightmare (Mescaline)" | van Leer, Dresden, Hayes | 3:56 | |
| 7. | "Why Dream" | van Leer, Cleuver | 3:57 | |
| 8. | "Focus" (instrumental version) | van Leer | 9:45 | |
| Total length: | 35:50 | |||
| United States 1973 reissue | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | |
| 1. | "Focus" (instrumental version) | van Leer | 9:45 | |
| 2. | "Why Dream" | van Leer, Cleuver | 3:57 | |
| 3. | "Happy Nightmare (Mescaline)" | van Leer, Dresden, Hayes | 3:56 | |
| 4. | "Anonymous" | van Leer, Akkerman, Dresden | 7:00 | |
| 5. | "Black Beauty" | van Leer, Cleuver | 3:05 | |
| 6. | "Sugar Island" | van Leer, Dresden, Staal | 3:03 | |
| 7. | "House of the King" | Akkerman | 2:15 | |
| Total length: | 33:01 | |||
Read more about Focus Plays Focus: Personnel
Famous quotes containing the words focus and/or plays:
“If we focus mostly on how we might have been partly or wholly to blame for what might have been less than a perfect, problem- free childhood, our guilt will overwhelm their pain. It becomes a story about us, not them. . . . When we listen, accept, and acknowledge, we feel regret instead, which is simply guilt without neurosis.”
—Jane Adams (20th century)
“Man is neither angel nor beast, and the unfortunate thing is that he who would play the angel plays the beast.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)