Posts Tagged ‘ 1967 ’

Love “Forever Changes”

| Folk,Psych

Forever Changes

I think everybody must remember where they were the first time they heard Alone Again Or. For me it was a high school summer, driving my car, just marveling at the beautiful guitar line and mariachi rhythms, and the building drama of the chorus that goes so close to the top and never over. Any sucker riding shotgun over the next two months would be subjected to this powerhouse lead-off track from Love’s third record.

It’s important to not let Alone Again Or overshadow the rest of this classic disc. The masterful songs on Forever Changes manage to accept and transcend the sound of the era. In a Los Angeles scene where the Byrds were absent heroes and the Doors would shortly become immensely more popular, Love was and will remain the coolest, baddest group from this time and place.

Forever Changes is one of those albums where every moment of sound is as thoughtful as the last. The tunes are led with an acoustic rock combo and string orchestra with horns. Lyrically, the album represents both the light and dark sides of the 60s; these were reportedly Arthur Lee’s last words, as he believed he was soon going to die, and in reality his band was falling apart.

Tracks like Maybe The People Would Be The Times Or Between Clark And Hilldale drive with a southern California sound forged by Love, part folk-psych and nearly part tropicalia. Lee’s voice is authoritative but welcoming on A House Is Not A Motel and lean electric guitar leads provide quintessential psych sounds. The poetry can get dark sometimes, in The Red Telephone with its suicidal hint, but it remains somewhat down-to-earth when “The snot has caked against my pants…” opens Live And Let Live.

I have read all manner of scandal from contemporaries of Love, including one wondering why the band hadn’t chosen Hate for their band name. Their story, revolving around the genius of Arthur Lee won’t equal the story told on this record; while not a concept album or rock opera, it gives an eerie glow of some tale, or lesson never learned. A beautiful, haunting suite.

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“Maybe The People Would Be The Times Or Between Clark And Hilldale”

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Buffalo Springfield “Again”

| Classic Rock,Country Rock,Pop,Psych

Again

Buffalo Springfield recorded three albums from 1966-1968 and the first two are essentials. Again is their 2nd and affords some improvement over their near perfect debut. This is the group that launched the careers of Stephen Stills and Neil Young; Buffalo Springfield is a must for fans of Manassas, the Byrds, CS&N, Neil Young. At times, it’s almost as if they were all the same band.

Songs like Stills’ “Everydays” offer a mellow jazz feel with feedback guitar. Neil’s “Mr. Soul” is like the Byrds and the Stones with Neil Young on vocals, a great song as well as his orchestral “Expecting To Fly.” “Bluebird” sounds like a CS&N preview with its hard riffin’ acoustic guitar lead, solidified by its postscript: an acoustic ‘take two’ on the track, genius. “Hung Upside Down” is a great track that caught the attention of Colin Blunstone (check out his rendition here). “Rock and Roll Woman” is total Manassas preview material and Neil closes it up with the lovely “Broken Arrow,” maybe the nicest track (and certainly most interesting, with its sound collages) on here. There are different directions on Again, but its all still cohesive enough to contain that magic like only a classic 1967 record could.

What really drives this record for me is the rhythm section. That plucky electric bass and the punchy airless drums, it’s just the sound you want from the rhythm section on any rock record. If all you know of Buffalo Springfield is “For What It’s Worth,” get your shit together and find this record. (Don’t settle for Retrospective!)

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“Bluebird”

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The Outsiders “Songbook”

| Garage

Songbook

After the Outsiders delivered their super raw, half live half studio lp in 1966, they released perhaps one of the finest records of the mid 60′s, Songbook (1967). At the time, this record was viewed as a proper sophomore release. In recent years Songbook has been seen as a compilation, consisting of 3 compositions from the debut album along with 11 singles only tracks recorded throughout late 1966 to mid 1967.

Songbook showed that Wally Tax and the band within a years time, had grown substantially as musicians and songwriters. The first four songs of the album were out of the box classics. Bird In A Cage is a sizzling live cut with studio quality fidelity that opened the album. The excellent static fuzz blues of Bird In A Cage gives way to two classic folk-rockers, Keep On Trying and Lying All The Time. This is arguably the Outsiders at their peak, making tough engaging outlaw rock n roll that few have equaled before or since. Filthy Rich was one of the few cuts from the debut, a proto slice of pure punk rock and angst.

It’s been reported that they even upstaged and outplayed the Rolling Stones at around the time of these recordings.

Other killers on this classic Nederbeat record are an eloquent european folk ballad, Summer Is Here, a forlorning but stately I’ve Been Loving You So Long and the bitter Monkey On Your Back. The latest recording sessions yielded the above fruits and hinted at the direction the Outsiders would take on a future release, the immortal CQ. Monkey On Your Back is a catchy pop rocker with Tax’s soulful world weary vocals and it’s priceless stuff. Tax’s vocals were always so brutally honest and had a matter of fact quality about them. It’s what made the Outsider’s so special, along with Ron Splinter’s blazing fuzz leads. Touch was another frantic, brutal rocker that had a unique euro-folk bridge and wild guitar riffs.

The Outsiders were one of the best of a fertile Holland scene that produced great bands like the Q65, Ro-d-y’s, Group 1850, Sandy Coast, Focus, the Zipps, Brainbox, the Motions, and the Golden Earring amongst many others. In recent years I have seen quotes floating around the rock critic world claiming the Outsiders to be one of the greatest unknown rock bands of the 60′s that are from a non-English speaking territory. I believe them to be one of the greatest underground groups period, regardless of territory or timeframe.

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“Summer Is Here”

Below, one of their earlier tracks, the great punk classic, Won’t You Listen:

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“Won’t You Listen”

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The Music Machine “The Bonniwell Music Machine”

| Garage,Psych

Bonniwell Music Machine

Fans of garage and psych are probably familiar with this LA band of Talk Talk fame. Sean Bonniwell and the Music Machine released two records and a plethora of quality outtakes and are sadly remembered, if at all, for their sole hit record, Talk Talk.

The Music Machine covered themselves in black and played a grinding, relentless form of experimental garage rock.

Their music was full of tension and uneasiness, and many consider Bonniwell a tortured genuis.

Sean Bonniwell is really one of the grandfathers of punk rock. Rock critics and fans alike often forget how good the original band was. Talk Talk’s follow up was the brilliant People In Me which barely dented the charts and in early 66 Bonniwell unleashed Point of No Return, a track with a swirling mass of organ and futuristic blasts of guitar.

The Bonniwell Music Machine album above was recorded mostly with the original lineup who had recorded the 1966 debut. That debut was sabotaged, managers and producers forced Bonniwell to fill half the record with cover versions of current popular hits. Stellar originals battled it out with covers of Neil Diamonds’ Cherry Cherry and a respectable gutsy stab at Hey Joe. Their second album was released in 1967 and was a small victory for a band who had fought for absolute creative control. The recording sessions were tension fuelled wars between management, Bonniwell, and the band. Eventually, the band left Bonniwell, feeling that he sided with management and ruled with an iron fist. Bonniwell Music Machine saw the band forge ahead and move beyond their garage roots.

The most popular song off the album, Double Yellow Line, was a real flame thrower, supposedly written while Sean was behind the wheel driving to the recording sessions! It was a unique statement that featured Bonniewell’s rants and hangups over some razor sharp guitars, a killer beat and strange fish bowl-like organ. Talk Me Down, Bottom of the Soul and the Eagle Never Hunts the Fly were just as vital and displayed Bonniewell’s alienation in spades. The Eagle Hunts was a monstrous, intense rocker with a wonderful fuzz meltdown that was supposedly disowned by the band during the recording sessions. Other strange pop songs like the psychedelic harpsichord-laden, harmony-rich Trap were a welcomed change in direction. Absolutely Positively was a fantastic fist pounding garage-punk anthem and Discrepancy was notable for two distinct vocalizations.

It’s always great to see a garage band enter the studio stoked about the possibilities of recording and come out creating their acid punk masterpiece. Bonniwell was definitely a rock star in his own mind, making this record their definitive statement. In 1969 Bonniewell would take a drastic left turn and release Close, a solo album of crooner pop that showed little signs of the Music Machine’s past glories.

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“Double Yellow Line”

Their brilliant 1966 single:

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“Point Of No Return”

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The Paupers “Magic People”

| Psych,Sunshine

Magic People

In 1967 the great band from the North released their debut record. The Paupers, along with the Guess Who, were one of the first Canadian bands to capitalize on the British Invasion. They started releasing singles in 1965 with a lineup consisting of Denny Gerrard (Bass), Skip Prokop (Drums), Bill Marion (Guitars) and Chuck Beal (Guitars). Prokop and Marion handled all the songwriting chores on their first clutch of singles.

Their early sound was a classy mixture of roots music, blues and folk-rock (think early Byrds or Lovin’ Spoonful crossed with the Blues Project circa 1965). The band began rehearsing 14 hours a day, honing their setlist and evolving into one of the tightest bands around. They hit the hip Yorkville District of Canada, playing to packed out venues daily and in return this gained them immense popularity. Rumor has it that the Paupers blew the mighty Jefferson Airplane off stage one night. In 1966/1967, Bill Marion exited the band for reasons unknown, prompting the Paupers to recruit Adam Mitchell. Mitchell (guitar and vocals) proved to be an excellent songwriting partner for Prokop, and at this point the band set out to create their debut lp.

Magic People has a good mid 60′s sound and is anchored by the band’s folk-rock leanings. There are a trio of good psychedelic sunshine pop fuzz rockers on the record. These songs, Magic People, It’s Your Mind and Think I Care, are highlighted by Prokop’s distinct drum patterns, special guitar effects, and great raga soloing. The only dud on the album is One Rainy Day, which is a jaunty good time Lovin’ Spoonful rocker. The remaining six songs are good to great folk-rockers, that recall the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and the Beau Brummels. The catchy You and Me feels like a throw back to a 1965 Byrds or Brummels folk-rock sound. Tudor Impressions is excellent, reflective, and abstract, including horns, sparkling accoustic guitars and a Beach Boys-like harmony pop ending. Black Thank You Package and My Love Hides From Your View have a great outsider feel. Black Thank You Package has a distinct, exciting intro and a catchy chorus while My Love Hides is an absolute haunting masterpiece of acid-folk.

Later on in the year the band would play at the seminal Monterey Pop Festival. Everything that could go wrong for them did. Band members took doses of acid that were way too strong and had equipment/sound check problems. Thus, it was the beginning of the end for the Paupers, a group of individuals who had began with so much promise. In 1968, beneath all the internal turmoil, the Paupers were able to squeeze one more lp out. Ellis Island is a little mini psychedelic gem and fans are strongly urged to check this great album out as well.

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“My Love Hides From Your View”

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The Amboy Dukes “The Amboy Dukes”

| Garage,Psych

Amboy Dukes

The Amboy Dukes were Ted Nugent’s first band (or one of). They came from the same Detroit scene as SRC, The Stooges, Mitch Ryder, Bob Seger, The Frost, The Rationals, MC5 and so forth. They began playing the clubs and ballrooms of Detroit in the mid 1960′s. In 1967 they released their self-titled debut. It was a legendary mix of psychedelia, blues, garage rock, and folk.

The album/music above is also a far cry from Ted Nugent’s mid to late 70′s prime cock rock anthems. At the time, Nugent was content playing his guitar in a rock n roll band. The reality shows, money, politics, redneck concerns and overproduced rock to come had not yet inflated his ego.

The five and a half minute version of Baby Please Don’t Go is an absolute acid garage classic with some fantastic feedback and great guitar sustain. Nugent creates some serious guitar noise on this number and shows off his brilliant chops. The album closes with another garage classic, Gimme Love. This song has some laser fuzz guitar riffs and angry Mike Drake vocals. In between these two garage monsters are many other great compositions. There are a few covers, two work really well (the splendidly bluesy Let’s Go Get Stoned and the gritty Who cover It’s Not True) while the Cream song I Feel Free is ill-advised (it’s the album’s only weak spot). The Amboy Dukes hit real hard with Colors, a furious acid rock song with some sinister soloing. Other psych songs like The Lovely Lady are excellent, recalling the Velvet Underground at their trippiest with spiraling guitar pyrotechnics. Phillip’s Escalator is very Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd with brit vocals, clanging chords and first class guitar scrape. It’s a true classic on this exceptional outing. Night Time and Young Love show the band effectively sticking to their garage band roots.

The Amboy Dukes would go on to release two or three other great albums throughout the late 60′s and early 70′s. None of them have that vintage, exciting 66/67 sound like this debut. The guitar freakouts, Who-like energy and great songs make this debut a prime slice of early Detroit rock.

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“Down On Philip’s Escalator”

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The Wild Cherries “That’s Life”

| Psych

That’s Life

The above album is a compilation of the Wild Cherries’ 4 singles (the B-sides all being respectable soul rock songs) and 16 live cuts. The live cuts are entirely covers in weak fidelity and as such, do not represent a band who was considered exciting and explosive on stage.

The Wild Cherries or also known as the Wild “Indian” Cherries were one of Australia’s first genuine psychedelic groups. Aussie guitar legend Lobby Loyde came to this band in or around 1967, after doing time with yet another legendary band, the Purple Hearts. The Purple Hearts were a wild garage r’n'b group that released 6 very good singles during the mid 60′s (think early Pretty Things or Sorrows). Loyde would go on to make quality proto punk albums with the Coloured Balls and achieve greater fame as a solo artist throughout the 70′s. But it was the Wild Cherries who had a unique sound, a look, and that special something that only comes around every so often.

In early 1967 the Wild Cherries released their first single, Krome Plated Yabbie (Yabbie is an Australian crayfish) off the Festival label. Krome Plated Yabbie is now rightfully considered an Oz classic. This song sounds vaguely similar to the Small Faces or even the early Move, a superb, bouncy mixture of British style r’n'b and blasting Hendrix influenced guitar distortion. Loyde’s playing is incendiary and foward looking while vocalist Danny Robinson turns in an extremely soulful performance. This single made a big splash throughout the Aussie underground, giving the Wild Cherries much needed notoriety. Krome Plated Yabbie was a hard single to follow up, but in late 1967 the Wild Cherries released That’s Life.

In 1967, nothing on the airwaves sounded quite like That’s Life.

Even today, That’s Life is considered one of the most imaginative singles that ever came out of the Australian underground. It reached the top 40, and opens with a huge fuzz guitar riff which gives way to a pounding psych punk masterpiece. Throughout the song there are spacey organ runs and a great phased Loyde guitar solo.

In 1968 the Wild Cherries released another psychedelic gem, Gotta Stop Lying. This was a hard rocking, punkish original with a great paisley guitar solo, emotive vocals and trippy organ work. Later on in the year, the band released their final single, I Don’t Care. This song was a total departure from their earlier, raw sound, being a ballad with strings, backup singers and a heavily phased ending. Some fans consider this single their experimental peak, though I am not one of them. Lack of commercial success effectively ended this innovative group’s career in late 68/early 1969. In the early 1970′s, Lobby Loyde revived the Wild Cherries name (with none of the original members) and released a solid, spacey hard rocking acoustic single that dealt with environmental concerns.

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“That’s Life”

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The Left Banke “There’s Gonna Be A Storm”

| Baroque,Pop,Sunshine

There’s Gonna Be A Storm

Noted as one of the trailblazers of baroque pop, the Banke –  little known beyond their huge hit, Walk Away Renee - were original twee. Think of a classical Zombies, with harpsichord, and dramatic, classically-influenced arrangements.

Pretty Ballerina is their lesser known hit, and the singing is drop dead gorgeous. Steve Martin (not that Steve Martin) was one of the most under appreciated rock vocalists of his generation and his tender delivery, combined with the delicate string arrangements assured Pretty Ballerina. Michael Brown wrote great melodies, lyrics tuned to the woe of teenage heartbreak.

Key tracks include Shadows Breaking Over My Head, She May Call You Up Tonight, I Haven’t Got The Nerve, Barterers And Their Wives, There’s Gonna Be A Storm. The 2nd half of this collection covers the material surrounding the Left Banke’s unfortunate demise.

Only a country-rocker falls flat on a completely solid album that many people call “baroque pop.” The way I see it, She May Call You Up Tonite is everything power pop can be. If they had released 1 or 2 other great albums people would be referring to the Left Banke as the American Zombies. Their second album Too, is respectable but lacks the fire of the debut and does not benefit from Michael Brown’s absence. Essential stuff!!

For the complete recordings of the Left Banke in one package, essential is half the word.

Desiree plus Men Are Building Sand would be included on the faux-follow up record, Montage.

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“I’ve Got Something On My Mind”

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The Rolling Stones “Between The Buttons”

| Pop,RnB

Between The Buttons

You’d think that we’d recommend Satanic Majesty instead of Between the Buttons, but no. The Stones were getting hang of the studio, and starting to experiment before they decided to try and get all psych on Their Satanic… but man, just because an album is psychedelic, or at least just because the cover is psychedelic, it don’t make it good. We’re not all about psychedelic music, we’re all about good music.

Anyway, there are interesting sounds sprinkled all throughout this record. A swell dose of xylophone, flutes, glass clinks, tambourines, crunch guitar, and weird sounds in general gracing each track on this killer LP. It’s psychedelic enough, and the Stones are doing what they do best… not faking it. Some of my favorites include the driving Connection, a staunchy Something Happened To Me Yesterday, and the rocking My Obsession and Complicated. All the songs on this record are great, it’s a classic Stones record with wild sounds.

If you can live without the big hits, Ruby Tuesday and Let’s Spend The Night Together, you’d be well off picking up the UK record, it’s the original lineup (on remastered Super CD or whatever they are calling it these days) because in the UK they would save the big ones for greatest hits records. Back Street Girl and Please Go Home are featured only on the UK release of “Btw” and are also available on Flowers (US). Between the Buttons is probably their best record?

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“Cool, Calm, Collected”

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The Rising Storm “Calm Before…”

| Garage,Pop,Psych

Calm Before…

Hardcore fans of unknown 60s psych and garage all search for that taste of magic once committed to rare grooves of vinyl, a glimpse into an era when any rock combo with a few fans could get enough studio time to immortalize a set of their wildest sounds, and with Calm Before.., you get the full dosage.

If you have an original copy of this record, you ought to encase it in 15 sheets of mylar and lock it up in the safe, as garage rock hounds are probably sniffing you down as you read this. Only 500 LPs were pressed in 1967, just as these six young lads from Phillips Academy in Massachusetts were graduating prep school.

Typically, impossibly rare albums tend to get seriously over-hyped, but not so in this case. Collectors don’t go nuts over this one because it’s so rare, it’s because it’s so good! The Rising Storm rocks with the controlled frenzy of The Remains (even tearing open the album with their explosive “Don’t Look Back”), but manage to layer in a thin film of psychedelia. The contemplative original numbers are the real gems on this record. “To L.N./Who Doesn’t Know,” “Frozen Laughter,” and “The Rain Falls Down” are three must-hear folk-tinged treats.

“Mr. Wind”  with it’s lovely, lilting melody and the rollicking “Bright Lit Blue Skies” were both tunes borrowed from local Boston garage rocker contemporaries, The Rockin’ Ramrods, clearly heroes to the Storm. Another laid back treat is “A Message To Pretty,” a Love cover that proves the musical taste and cool sensibility of these young preps. Simply put, the rockers on here will start up the party, but the softer tunes give it all the sparkle.

Most of my favorite records take some time invested before they begin to reward, and Calm Before is a genuine grower.  The CD reissue includes the original LP lineup and follows with a 1983 reunion concert recorded in their home town of Andover. Surprisingly, the boys play with all the same energy and a little bit of welcome slop that actually recreates an authentic garage sound.

These guys arguably had one of the best band names of the time. ; )

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“Bright Lit Blue Skies”

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Check out the band’s current website.