The announcement of the reunion album featuring all five original Byrds raised expectations to the point where whatever emerged was almost bound to be an anticlimax. (Imagine the effect of the Beatles reforming around the same time, if you will.) Despite a general thumbs-down from the critics, fan loyalty and eager anticipation made the new long-player highly successful at the record store: in the States, the biggest-selling new-material Byrds album since Turn, Turn, Turn. Subsequent reviews expressed varying degrees of disappointment, but recent re-evaluation with almost forty years of hindsight portrays the project as fascinating historically and not without merit artistically. Interest in it has never waned and it’s been re-released on CD no fewer than four times. The Wikipedia article on it is almost a book.

The theory behind the reunion varies. According to one version, the famously unreticent David Crosby visited Roger McGuinn in mid-1972 and panned the well-loved White/Battin/Parsons Byrds lineup, saying, “you’ve done some OK stuff but you’ve also done stuff that is pretty bad. Please stop doing it under the Byrds name”. Crosby then suggested reforming the original band to record an album showing where the founder members “are at today”. Another version has the ever-opportunistic David Geffen seeing the lucrative potential of a reunion and planting the suggestion in McGuinn’s mind, noting that McGuinn himself had become dissatisfied with the long-standing lineup and replaced Gene Parsons with salaried sessioneer John Guerin. Either way, McGuinn acquiesced and the other members, all having found themselves between longterm engagements, followed.

The nature of the final work supports the first theory: the album is The Crosby Show in almost every respect. Although on the surface democracy seems to be served by each of the four principals furnishing two original compositions, two of the three accompanying covers are Neil Young songs and the third is by Joni Mitchell, both being longtime Crosby cronies (though Clark takes lead vocal on the Young ditties). It’s been suggested that the other three writers were saving their best material for their own solo projects, but though none of their offerings is a blockbuster they’re all engaging enough, especially Gene Clark’s delicate “Full Circle” and Dylanesque “Changing Heart” and McGuinn’s ersatz-traditional “Sweet Mary”. By contrast, Crosby’s “Long Live The King” is characteristically ebullient, while his “Laughing” is itself actually a cover of the original that appeared on his sublime 1971 collection If Only I Could Remember My Name. Crosby also has the sole production credit; the only tracks that show real spirit in the lead vocals are his; and in the cover photographs he’s the only one who really looks like he wants to be there. (Chris Hillman looks like he’d rather be anywhere else at all.)

The sound of the album is also heavily redolent with Crosby’s aural fingerprint. Acoustic guitars predominate, with the electrics and bass mostly mixed way back and only Hillman’s vibrant mandolin and Clark’s plaintive harmonica forefronted strongly as solo instruments. Apart from “Laughing”, all the songs have short, terse arrangements, never really catching fire. While Crosby’s lead vocals soar, Clark’s and Hillman’s are more subdued and McGuinn’s particularly sombre. The block harmonies are immaculate but display the sweetness of CS&N rather than the engaging rough edge of latterday Byrds. One is led to conclude that with this album Crosby finally achieved, albeit temporarily, belatedly and with questionable success, the domination of the Byrds that he’d craved during the classic years.

mp3: Full Circle
mp3: Long Live the King

CD Reissue | 2004 | Wounded Bird | at amazon ]
Original Vinyl | 1973 | Asylum | search ebay ]

Kaleidoscope was one of England’s purest and most beloved psychedelic bands.  Prior to their ventures into psychedelia, Kaleidoscope had been known as The Sidekicks and then, The Key.  These groups played a rather ordinary brand of British pop and R&B.  Kaleidoscope debuted in 1967 with their fabulous Tangerine Dream LP.  This disc featured some of the finest psychedelia England had produced up to that point.  More than half the album is fleshed out with lost classics; check out trippy tracks such as ”Please Excuse My Face,” “Dive Into Yesterday,” “Flight From Ashiya,” “The Murder of Lewis Tullani,” “Mr. Small, The Watch Repairer Man,” and the superb “Further Reflections In The Room Of Percussion.”  Many of these cuts are on par with the best of Pink Floyd’s early work.  Kaleidoscope was making imaginative music featuring plenty of interesting chord progressions, jangley guitars, bizarre lyrics, and smart production trickery.  Much of the rest of Tangerine Dream is very good too, but sales and critical recognition stiffed due to the adventurous nature of the group’s music.

Faintly Blowing (Fontana) came out sometime later, in 1969.  While it may lack some of the key album cuts that made Tangerine Dream so special, Faintly Blowing is consistently strong and features influences as diverse as folk and hard rock.  Some of the highlights include “Poem,” a soft folk track similar to “Please Excuse My Face,” the phased out hard rocker “Music” and the edgy psychedelic title cut.  Abrasive numbers “Snapdragon” and “Love Song From Annie” represent Kaleidoscope’s new hard rock approach while still retaining the group’s clever edge – these cuts are both gems.  Some songs’ lyrics, like that on the tuneful folk-rocker “A Story From Tom Blitz,” deal with morals and important life lessons to be learned.

The music on Faintly Blowing is a bit more professional sounding, lacking the reckless energy and psychedelic feel of the debut.  But make no mistake, this is a very good album full of sharp ideas, fairytale lyrics, fine songcraft and pretty vocals.  If you’re intrigued by psychedelic, progressive or folk sounds, this disc is not to be missed.

Faintly Blowing (1969)

mp3: Faintly Blowing
mp3: Poem

Tangerine Dream (1967)

mp3: (Further Reflections) In The Room Of Percussion

CD Reissue | 2005 | Repertoire | at amazon ]
Original Vinyl | 1969 | Fontana | search ebay ]

Running Time: 34:08 | File Size 46.9 MB
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PUNKCAST

1. Testors “You Don’t Break My Heart” 1977

2. Customs “Long Gone” 1979

3. Fun Things “Savage” 1980

4. Dead Boys “Ain’t Nothin to Do” 1977

5. Crime “San Francisco’s Doomed” 1978

6. Gears “Heartbeat” 1980

7. Pagans “What’s this Shit Called Love” 197

8. DMZ “Bad Attitude”

9. Zeros “Don’t Push Me Around”

10. Saints “Erotic Neurotic” 1977

11. The Eat “Communist Radio”

12. Weirdos “Solitary Confinement”

13. Nervous Eaters “Just Head”

14. Radio Birdman “Burn My Eye”

The fine folks at the University of Texas Press have cleared us a couple copies of this new bio for two (2) lucky Rising Storm readers. This is the first biography of the legendary Doug Sahm, a great read which I previously reviewed here. (Back to albums soon I swear it.)

To enter for a chance to win, leave a comment below (with your email address) listing your favorite Doug Sahm tune. If you don’t got one, how about any old Country, Rhythm & Blues, Tex-Mex, Conjunto, or otherwise related groove you think we ought to hear.

Two (2) winners will be selected at random in a week or two and get free books mailed to them! Good luck and thanks for reading.

For a long time I wondered why four guys from the musical wellhead that was late ‘60s San Fran set out to sound like a swamp’n’roll band from the backwoods of Louisiana, whilst accepting as perfectly natural that five young long-haired white boys from London, England should have bust their guts to emulate a black 1950s Chicago bar band. Eventually I stopped wondering and started trying to pin down why this album has remained Creedence’s most underestimated, least discussed collection, despite coming closest to the ideal they sought. Not that it didn’t sell; just that nobody ever seems to mention it till near the end of a CCR conversation, if at all. And at the time of writing it’s running a distant fourth in The Rising Storm’s Creedence discography uReview vote.

The undeniable ability of John Fogerty’s outfit to produce immaculate three-minute power-pop singles shines throughout CCR’s oeuvre, from “Suzie Q” to “Sweet Hitch Hiker”. But this album finds the band stretching out on what is to all purposes a live stage set performed in the studio: raw and honest, high energy, no discernable overdubs. The three long, sweaty, riffing jams – “Born On The Bayou”, “Graveyard Train” and “Keep On Chooglin’” – and the shorter but similar “Bootleg” get as close as CCR ever did to the authentic swamp-rock of Tony Joe White. On the mandatory classic rock’n’roll cover “Good Golly Miss Molly” John does what Paul McCartney did on the Fabs’ version of “Long Tall Sally”: his eviscerating vocal simply leaves the original for dead. “Proud Mary” is the hit single, but despite its prettiness it’s the weakest cut on the album, as the pace and energy level dip temporarily. The real surprise, and true gem, of the whole collection is “Penthouse Pauper”, an uncharacteristic twelve-bar blues on which both John’s voice and his Telecaster are fit to strip wallpaper.

The straightforward, no-frills nature of Creedence’s music enabled them to record and release an astonishing six albums in two-and-a-half years, from July 1968 to December 1970. (Think on that, Coldplay.) Whilst on an extended vacation in western Canada in 2007 I got to talk to and play with a number of young musicians who weren’t born till years after these albums came out. I was surprised to find that CCR was right up there as one of their favourite acts to cover. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised: the simple but irresistable songs, the natural, unaffected guitar sound and that unique banshee voice have a genuinely timeless quality.

mp3: Born on the Bayou
mp3: Penthouse Pauper

CD Reissue | 2008 | Fantasy | at amazon ]
Original Vinyl | 1969 | Fantasy | search ebay ]
MP3 Download | at amazon ]

This Youngstown, Ohio band hit pay dirt in 1967 with their version of the Isley Brothers’ classic “Nobody But Me.”  The group featured Mel Pachuta (bass guitar), Ting Markulin (rhythm guitar), Mike Tatman (drummer) and Richard Belley (lead guitar).  Prior to Evolutions the group had released a split LP with the Mammals and a legit 1967 debut followup titled Nobody But Me.

Most of the Evolutions material was penned by producer Lex De DeAzevedo.  While the album is a bit self-indulgent in spots, overall it’s a very classy garage psych platter; a wreckless landmark for the genre.  Only the mellotron speckled pop number ”Mrs Applebee” sounds dated today.  The fuzz guitar instro “April 15th” and country-rocker ”Two Of A Kind” are over the top psychedelic madness but in the best possible way.  The last few minutes of “Two Of A Kind” are devoted to the group destroying a piano in-house.  The rest of the lp is given over to short compact folk-rock numbers, psychedelic pop, and menacing garage punkers.

Evolutions opens with “The Face,” an excellent psych pop track with production values (strings, horns, harpsichord and lots of fuzz) that are a good deal more sophisticated than the typical Human Beinz outing.  This cut sets the tone for the lp nicely and features a smooth mixture of acoustic and electric guitar textures.  The mellow numbers, “Close Your Eyes” and “Cement,” are solid folk-rock cuts that hint at a softer, introspective side.  “My Animal,”"I’ve Got To Keep On Pushing,” and “Every Time Woman,” are worthy gems that give lead guitarist Richard Belley ample breathing room to stretch out and produce some wicked fuzztone solos.  “Every Time Woman” along with Nobody But Me’s “Flower Grave”, may be the group’s finest moment on vinyl.  This cut features blasts of lacerating fuzz guitar and neurotic punk vocals.  Behind Belley’s fab fuzz work are the Beinz locked-in rhythm section, who whip up a storm here.  Out of control and unhinged, this performance is one of the all-time garage punk classics – mandatory listening.  Evolutions is a long way from the Human Beinz frat rock, soul influenced origins.  Listening to sounds from within and taking a quick glance at the album’s fine cover art should tell you these guys were no longer fooling around.   It’s a great album by an underrated band.

Evolutions has been reissued on cd several times (Ascension and Collectables Records are the best versions) and is relatively easy to score on vinyl.

mp3: My Animal
mp3: Every Time Woman

CD Reissue | 2006 | Collectables | 2fer w/ Nobody But Me | at amazon ]
Original Vinyl |  1968 | Capitol | search ebay ]

The Rolling Stones may still elicit the soubriquet “the greatest rock’n’roll band in the world”, but in my opinion they’ve produced in a 42-year recording history (to A Bigger Bang, 2005) just two albums really worthy of the full five stars. Both came in the 1960s when they were still comparatively young and hungry, and both interestingly represent periods of transition. Aftermath was a product of their move from faux American R’n’B garage band towards a British pop-psych sensibility motivated by the success of mid-period Beatles and the demand by their manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, that they develop as songwriters; and Beggars’ Banquet the corresponding move back to their roots, post-psychedelia.

Aftermath was the Stones’ first album to comprise only their own compositions, and can be compared to Rubber Soul in its mix of adventurousness and commercial appeal. Although Jagger’s and Richards’ songs are in general not as strong harmonically as Lennon’s and McCartney’s – the Stones lacking the Fabs’ insight into such diverse musical fields as jazz, Tamla, country and showtunes, not to mention a studio Svengali of the calibre of George Martin – the best of them are right up there, and the eclectic instrumentation brought to bear by Brian Jones, Jack Nitzsche and the invisible “sixth Stone” Ian Stewart is every bit as effective as Martin’s baroque embellishments. “Under My Thumb”, “Take It Or Leave It” and “Out Of Time” were all considered commercial enough to be covered immediately as singles by high-profile acts. The eleven-minute bluesy jam “Going Home” (not the Ten Years After song) was unprecedented on a British pop album, yet works brilliantly in the context of the wider work. The one dubious quality is the mysogynous nature of many of the lyrics; “Stupid Girl”, “Thumb”, “Time”, “Dontcha Bother Me” and “Take It” unambiguously reveal Jagger’s prevailing frame of mind.

Despite the classic British Invasion sound of the album, it was recorded in RCA’s Hollywood studios and engineered by Dave Hassinger, who would fall out big-time with the Grateful Dead a year or two later but who got along famously with the Stones if his sleeve notes are to be believed. Production was, as usual, credited to Oldham, but Nitzsche was ever-present at the sessions and the hallmarks of his touch are all over the record. North American readers should note that Aftermath UK is a greatly superior artefact to the US release of the same name, benefitting from omission of the superfluous previous hit single and from the band’s preferred sequencing, not to mention offering fourteen tracks against the US version’s eleven.

mp3: Mother’s Little Helper
mp3: Lady Jane

CD Reissue |  2002 | Abkco | at amazon ]
Original Vinyl |  1966 | Decca | at ebay ]

The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band was pulled together by Elektra/Asylum supremo David Geffen to be, as one critic described it, “a country Crosby, Stills & Nash” (notwithstanding that CS&N had plenty country roots of their own, cf. “Teach Your Children”). More likely, Geffen set out to cynically rehash his previous Frankensteinian creation, the Eagles, at a time when the latter had mutated from an honest country-rock quartet into an intolerably precious stadium-rock act. SHF would follow the same path, but on a drastically shortened timeline and with conspicuously less success, as tensions immediately mounted between the three talented but mismatched principals: the reclusive, sensitive Souther, the hard-living, hard-boozing Hillman and the born-again evangelist Furay, not to mention ill-fated schizophrenic drummer Jim Gordon. Sometimes the whole just isn’t greater than the sum of the parts.

SHF’s eponymous debut from 1974, breezily labelled “Greetings from Glamour City”, had turned out to be a reasonably satisfying, if by then somewhat dated, LA country-rock trip comprising unspectacular but mostly upbeat songs from all three principals, the whole elevated by their scintillating three-part harmonies plus honey-sweet pedal steel and scorching lead guitar from Al Perkins and inspirational piano and Hammond from Paul Harris, all mixed gratifyingly upfront. Their second effort a year later would be a very different animal, its title instantly giving the lowdown: now the songs were subdued and pessimistic, symbolising the tensions in the band and reflecting the same disillusionment with the sleazy Los Angeles scene evinced in the Eagles’ contemporaneous Hotel California. The accompaniment was considerably stripped down, with Perkins mixed much further back and most tracks carried by Harris’s plaintive piano. In place of the garish, solarised band portrait on the debut’s elaborate gatefold sleeve, the follow-up offered simple, sombre, Bible-black artwork. The faces tell the story; even Richie Furay’s ubiquitous smile is wry and forced. Needless to say, the album faltered chartwise and the inevitable breakup followed in short order. SHF’s entry on Wikipedia is one of the briefest on record.

Yet for all this, to me Trouble In Paradise is still a rewarding listen. The songs themselves are better than those on the debut, Souther’s in particular being more expressive and explorative, and the Big Three rely less on the stellar talents of their sidemen to raise the quality. The self-explanatory title track features untutored but amazingly confident drumming by Souther himself, and its centre section moves unerringly into a jazz groove with immaculate flute and Fender Rhodes from Harris; the “gold plated room” motif consciously echoes Gram’s classic “Sin City” theme. “Mexico” sets its tale of infidelity and guilt against an exquisite faux Norteño accompaniment, decorated with Hillman’s shimmering mandolin and offering superb mariachi harmonies in the middle eight. “Follow Me Through” allows Perkins and Harris to stretch out briefly and funkily, and could almost have been lifted from a Manassas album. Ironically, a cover of the gorgeous, keening “Prisoner In Disguise” would headline Linda Ronstadt’s immensely successful next album.

Perhaps the tensions and prevailing bad atmosphere perversely instigated an unexpectedly strong work; after all, there were numerous precedents for this, not least the Fabs’ Abbey Road and the Stones’ Beggars’ Banquet. None of the three SHF principals would ever again produce genuinely first-division product (unless you consider Hillman’s Desert Rose stuff to be in that bracket, which I don’t), but this isn’t a bad valedictory effort.

mp3: Trouble in Paradise
mp3: Mexico

CD Reissue | 2002 | Wounded Bird | at amazon ]
Original Vinyl | 1975 | Asylum | at ebay ]
MP3 Download | at amazon ]

Sierra-Briar Records released the original Nashville West vinyl LP in 1978.  Initially panned by rock critic Noel Coppage in ‘Stereo Review‘ magazine, the Nashville West album has since been proclaimed one of the “20 Essential Country Guitar Albums” (Guitar Player magazine) and has seen subsequent releases in Italy, Holland, and England.

Nashville West is indeed a solid record that features the talents of Gib Guilbeau (vocals), Wayne Moore (bass), Gene Parsons (drums), and of course Clarence White (guitar).  These recordings were laid down live at the Nashville West Club in El Monte, California (1967).  The four musicians traveled back and forth from Bakersfield to LA in a beat up 1954 Mercury station wagon, playing all the local dive bars and clubs along the way.  These songs were recorded before Guilbeau formed Swampwater and also before Parsons and White would become full-time members of the Byrds.  The group’s name was actually the Reasons and these recordings were laid down before the invention of the B-Bender – Clarence White played it straight, with just a tele.

The song selection is eclectic (blues, cajun, rock, country, and instros) and the sound quality a bit rough in spots but this gives the Nashville West album its intimate feel and unique character.  No bullshit here, just hard hitting drum work via Gene Parsons and dazzling Clarence White guitar solos.  The early version of “Nashville West” kicks things off nicely.  Many of the performances are low key but forceful, give a good listen to “Sweet Mental Revenge” and “CC Rider”  for an example of this.  My favorite number is the instrumental “Ode To Billy Joe.”  This cut features outstanding, slightly spacey guitar work that sounds pretty fresh 40+ years after the fact.  Other worthy cuts are “By The Time I Get To Pheonix,” a sturdy rendition of “Love Of The Common People,” “Greensleeves,” and “Mom & Dad’s Waltz.”  The band’s sound here is bar-band tight and Gib’s vocals are appealingly world weary.

Nashville West was really the beginnings of country-rock.  The performances are fun, honest and the guitar playing is absolutely top notch.  A very good disc.  The Sierra Records CD is the best version to get, as it features a handful of bonus tracks and nice liner notes.

mp3: Ode To Billy Joe
mp3: CC Rider
mp3: Nashville West (Reprise Instrumental)

CD Reissue | 2001 | Sierra | buy at sierra | at amazon ]

I recently finished reading Jan Reid’s (cowritten with Shawn Sahm) new Doug Sahm biography, Texas Tornado: The Times & Music of Doug Sahm out now from The University of Texas Press. This post isn’t so much a review of the album above, but more of a short audio compendium to the book, highlighting some of Doug’s favorites, standards, where he came from and what he inspired.

Read our book review at Aquarium Drunkard.

mp3: Bobby “Blue” Bland – I Pity The Fool
mp3: Claude King – Wolverton Mountain
mp3: Freddy Fender – Wasted Days and Wasted Nights
mp3: Doug Sahm – Sometimes You’ve Got To Stop Chasing Rainbows
mp3: Sir Douglas Quintet – At The Crossroads

“Why can’t you just groove!”

Texas Tornado | 2006 | Collectors Choice | at amazon ]