Posts Tagged ‘ 1968 ’

The Moody Blues “In Search Of The Lost Chord”

| Classic Rock,Pop,Prog,Psych

In Search of the Lost Chord

It took a while for the Moody Blues to catch on in the US, though their retrospective catalogue scored quite well there after 1971. At home in the UK, however, the Moodies were huge during what I think was their best period, 1968-1970, when their highly individual and sophisticated mix of psych and prog was always spinning on the platters of more cerebral music lovers.
After the band’s 1967 reshuffle their yearning to combine pop and classical musics surfaced strongly. The first effort, Days Of Future Passed, interleaved some good early Moodies songs with second-rate orchestral interludes resembling B-movie soundtracks, and was therefore a patchy affair. Then Mike Pinder discovered the Mellotron, and everything clicked into place.
Pinder is probably the most accomplished Mellotron practitioner of the era, and during the period 1968-70, when miking of acoustic pianos was still hit-and-miss, it was the only onstage keyboard he employed. Its sound in his hands is absolutely fundamental to the Moodies’ output of the times. This is not to downplay the musicianship of the other members; especially notable are John Lodge’s bass playing, his picked Fender Jazz lines and arpeggios functioning as a further lead instrument, and Ray Thomas’s flute solos and obligatos, this instrument being rare in rock at the time.
The songs on In Search Of The Lost Chord feature lyrics of the sort that would ultimately make the Moodies a bit of a laughing stock for a while: plenty of hippie mysticism and Oriental metaphysical musing typical of the era. But they are delivered by four fine solo voices, often combining to produce immaculate harmonies. The melodies and accompaniments are top quality and there’s plenty of variation in keys and time signatures. Above all this there’s a spirit of experimentation typical of the times, with band members tackling unfamiliar instruments “ Pinder on harpsichord, Justin Hayward on sitar, Lodge on cello, Thomas on oboe, Grahame Edge on a kit of cardboard boxes – and a production which belies the limitations of the recording equipment then available to the band, with segues, fade-ins and fade-outs galore.
Legend Of A Mind is part of a short suite, bookended by House Of Four Doors Parts One and Two, but stands alone quite capably. Like many other tracks on the album, this tongue-in-cheek paean to LSD guru Timothy Leary and its bracketing tracks feature some breathless sound effects. These achieve their zenith in The Best Way To Travel, whose stereo effects were quite startling to a generation unused to the new mode of sound reproduction. Of the other tracks, Ride My See Saw is a galloping rocker often reserved for a show closer on stage, while Om incorporates an Oriental chant with huge drum sounds and vocals that sound like a revved-up football crowd.
Very much of its time, and subject to ridicule a decade later, today In Search Of The Lost Chord represents what was best in the days when psychedelia was mutating into progressive music. The follow-up, On The Threshold Of A Dream, offered the same high quality and experimental edge, with subsequent works becoming rather safer and more predictable, if even more grandiose.
PS: this is one that doesn’t work in mono!

It took a while for the Moody Blues to catch on in the US, though their retrospective catalogue scored quite well there after 1971. At home in the UK, however, the Moodies were huge during what I think was their best period, 1968-1970, when their highly individual and sophisticated mix of psych and prog was always spinning on the platters of more cerebral music lovers.

After the band’s 1967 reshuffle, their yearning to combine pop and classical musics surfaced strongly. The first effort, Days Of Future Passed, interleaved some good early Moodies songs with second-rate orchestral interludes resembling B-movie soundtracks, and was therefore a patchy affair. Then Mike Pinder discovered the Mellotron, and everything clicked into place.

Pinder is probably the most accomplished Mellotron practitioner of the era, and during the period 1968-70, when miking of acoustic pianos was still hit-and-miss, it was the only onstage keyboard he employed. Its sound in his hands is absolutely fundamental to the Moodies’ output of the times. This is not to downplay the musicianship of the other members; especially notable are John Lodge’s bass playing, his picked Fender Jazz lines and arpeggios functioning as a further lead instrument, and Ray Thomas’s flute solos and obligatos, this instrument being rare in rock at the time.

The songs on In Search Of The Lost Chord feature lyrics of the sort that would ultimately make the Moodies a bit of a laughing stock for a while: plenty of hippie mysticism and Oriental metaphysical musing typical of the era. But they are delivered by four fine solo voices, often combining to produce immaculate harmonies. The melodies and accompaniments are top quality and there’s plenty of variation in keys and time signatures. Above all this there’s a spirit of experimentation typical of the times, with band members tackling unfamiliar instruments “ Pinder on harpsichord, Justin Hayward on sitar, Lodge on cello, Thomas on oboe, Grahame Edge on a kit of cardboard boxes – and a production which belies the limitations of the recording equipment then available to the band, with segues, fade-ins and fade-outs galore.

Legend Of A Mind is part of a short suite, bookended by House Of Four Doors” Parts One and Two, but stands alone quite capably. Like many other tracks on the album, this tongue-in-cheek paean to LSD guru Timothy Leary and its bracketing tracks feature some breathless sound effects. These achieve their zenith in The Best Way To Travel, whose stereo effects were quite startling to a generation unused to the new mode of sound reproduction. Of the other tracks, Ride My See Saw is a galloping rocker often reserved for a show closer on stage, while Om incorporates an Oriental chant with huge drum sounds and vocals that sound like a revved-up football crowd.

Very much of its time, and subject to ridicule a decade later, today In Search Of The Lost Chord represents what was best in the days when psychedelia was mutating into progressive music. The follow-up, On The Threshold Of A Dream, offered the same high quality and experimental edge, with subsequent works becoming rather safer and more predictable, if even more grandiose.

PS: this is one that doesn’t work in mono!

“The Best Way to Travel”

:D CD Reissue | 2008 | Polydor | at amazon ]
:) Original Vinyl | 1968 | Deram | at ebay ]
8-) Spotify link | listen ]

uReview: The White Album

| Pop,Psych,RnB,uReview

White Album

[ratings]

Okay, The Beatles are everywhere again and we haven’t got a single post about them anywhere. Here’s why. When I list my top five bands, I usually just ignore these guys. Like an automatic number 1. “Besides the Beatles.” Of course, no contest.

That said. I’ve never had a strong opinion on the White Album. Very curious to hear your thoughts. What’s your take? As Len wondered:

Flawed but indispensible masterpiece, or overlong self-indugent monument to a crumbling institution?

:D CD Reissue | 2009 | EMI | at amazon ]

John Mayall “Blues From Laurel Canyon”

| Psych,RnB

Blues From Laurel Canyon

John Mayall is of course the Godfather Of British Blues, first recording in 1965 and still touring and recording prolifically today, well into his seventies. My favourite of his many albums is this offering from 1968, which is both a collection of original blues-based songs with contemporary psych overtones and also a diary in music of his three-week vacation in Los Angeles that summer: either a song cycle or a concept album, according to your own definitions, but certainly unique among the slew of straightforward blues albums being produced by white performers on both sides of the Atlantic at the time.

Starting with the roar of a jet swinging across the stereo plane – a device cheekily lifted from the Beatles’ White Album – the record chronicles Mayall’s discovery of the heady delights of late sixties LA, his first sojourn in Laurel Canyon where he would later make his permanent home, his stay as a guest of Canned Heat with whom Mayall struck up a strong and lasting rapport “ later, both Harvey Mandel and Larry Taylor would leave Heat to join Mayall’s band “ and, in considerable detail, his mission to get laid. It ends with a rueful recollection of the brief love affair and a moody anticipation of returning home to the UK.

In fact this is a collection of many moods, from joyous exploration of glamourous new surroundings, to irritable self-examination following a bust-up with an unidentified companion, to deep and intimate relations in the bedroom. The changes of mood are emphasised by Mayall’s constant switches of instrumentation “ he was already virtuosic on piano, Hammond, and mouth-harp and capable on guitar “ and by the careful segue of each track into the next, plus the pitching of each song in a different key. Every one of the twelve keys of the chromatic scale, except F#, is used (try playing blues in Db or Ab, if you will).

Backup is provided by the rock-solid rhythm section of drummer Colin Allen and 18-year-old bassist Stephen Thompson, while guitarist Mick Taylor, on his final studio outing with Mayall prior to joining the Stones, wields his Les Paul always tastefully and often excitingly throughout. Production by Decca’s veteran producer Mike Vernon is commendable for those eight-track days.

My standout tracks are Ready To Ride, on which Mayall’s overactive hormones fuel some explosive harp work, The Bear, whose intro pays tribute to a well-known Heat riff before segueing into a delightful piano-led country blues dedicated to Bob Hite, and Miss James, in which the Hammond reels through jazzy changes in their best Jimmy Smith style. But individual tracks cannot do justice to this album; for best effect it demands to be heard in sequence at a single sitting.

“Ready to Ride”

:D CD Reissue | 2007 | United UK | amazon ]
:) Original Vinyl | 1968 | Decca | search ebay ]
;) MP3 Album | download ]
8-) Spotify link | listen ]

Harvey Mandel “Cristo Redentor”

| Art,Prog,Psych

Cristo Redentor

This gently psychedelic album is another of my vinyl bargain bin discoveries from the early ˜70s, which I picked up only because I knew Harvey Mandel had played with my favourites Canned Heat and John Mayall. Best known as a sideman – he later auditioned for the Rolling Stones on Mick Taylor’s departure – this was Harvey’s first solo work, dating from 1968, and an impossibly young-looking Mandel is pictured on the back artwork, a diminutive figure dwarfed by his big Gibson 355. The grooves within demonstrate not only his virtuosity on guitar, but also why his tenure with Heat and Mayall was so brief and why the Stones declined to hire him. Mayall described his technique as Harvey’s wall of sound, which aptly encompasses his early mastery of controlled feedback through his customised Bogan amplifier, and his later featuring of two-handed tapping, well before EVH got hold of that particular trick.

This album is completely instrumental, a rarity in pop-psych terms; the only voice to be heard is that of a wordless soprano singer on the title track. However, the stylistic diversity of the tunes and the variety of the backing tracks means that it is by no means repetitive. It was mostly recorded in LA and Nashville, using the top rhythm section sessioneers of both camps: Art Stavro and Eddie Hoh from the Wrecking Crew, stalwarts of the early Monkees sessions, and Bob Moore and Kenny Buttrey, soon to anchor Dylan’s Nashville Skykine. The LA tracks also feature tight string and brass arrangements, while the Nashville ones benefit from Pete Drake’s sympathetic pedal steel accompaniment.

The album as a whole is the best late-night-listening record I know of, beautifully laid-back funky arrangements fronted by a bewildering array of restrained guitar tricks from Mandel, dazzling but never flashy or tasteless. The titles give the idea: “Lights Out”, “Nashville 1AM”, “Before Six”. “Cristo Redentor” is Portuguese for Christ The Redeemer, and this title track is the exception to the rule of funk, being a solemn, operatic piece.

“Before Six” features some of Harvey’s most mind-boggling sustain work, the sound looping wildly between the stereo speakers, plus a mouth-watering cameo on Hammond by longtime LA collaborator Barry Goldberg and tasty brass stabs throughout. “You Can’t Tell Me” is funkier than your average Nashville session, with Harvey wringing out the best Memphis scale licks I’ve ever heard, intertwining with Pete Drake’s slippery steel chords.

The CD reissue, on the estimable Raven label from Australia, dates from 2003 and includes bonus tracks from Harvey’s Canned Heat days and from his own short-lived instrumental band, Pure Food & Drug Act. None of these quite live up to the quality of the solo album tracks, though Heat’s “Let’s Work Together” “ the nearest Harvey ever got to being a pop star “ has a certain boozy charm.

On this CD release the two sides of the original vinyl have been reversed, probably to make the best-known track, “Wade In The Water”, the leadoff track. The original running order works better, so if you get hold of this CD, play tracks 6-10 followed by tracks 1-5 for the most satisfying programme.

“You Can’t Tell Me”

:D CD Reissue | 2003 | Raven | buy ]
:) Original Vinyl | 1968 | Phillips | search ]

The Plastic Cloud “The Plastic Cloud”

| Psych

Plastic Cloud

The Plastic Cloud were a psychedelic rock band based out of Bay Ridges, Ontario.  Had their homebase been located elsewhere (San Fran, NYC, or LA) things may have been very different for the Plastic Cloud but instead this sole album has languished in obscurity.  Psych fans and collectors remain divided, however: collectors consider Plastic Cloud one of Canada’s best psych albums (or indeed the best from anywhere) while some jaded day-trippers merely find it just ok/ nothing special.   All lyrics were written by guitarist/vocalist Don Brewer but other members were drummer Randy Umphrey, bass player Brian Madill, and guitarist Mike Cadieux.

At first listen I was not impressed with the Plastic Cloud’s only offering.  After reading all the hype about mind-jarring fuzz guitars and John Lennon-like vocals I found the disc rather mediocre and unimpressive.  After several more spins I began to appreciate the band’s intensity and lysergic charm: this disc truly does deliver the goods if you’re into hardcore, late-night psych sounds.  Two of the tracks (“Civilization Machine” and “You Don’t Care”) come close to or exceed the ten minute mark and both are repetitive but also very good.   “You Don’t Care” features nasty eastern style fuzztone and powerful drum work that never bores despite its 10.5 minute length.  Other tracks like “Epistle To Paradise” and the superb “Bridge Under The Sky” show a dreamy, softer folk-rock side which is equally appealing.  These tracks have a nice trippy production and attractive ringing guitars.  Another gem, the “Dainty General Rides Again” sounds like a lost British psych pop nugget and features a nice brief fuzz guitar break.  While not a major classic, Plastic Cloud is surely one of the better Canadian psych albums and is consistently good throughout.  The guitarists’ tones vaguely remind me of Jorma Kaukonen’s work with the Jefferson Airplane: these guitar tones coil, uncoil, and burrow deep into your head like all great psych guitar solos should.  Once again, if you enjoy great, ripping fuzz guitar and sinister vocals (check out “Shadows Of Your Mind”) this album is definitely for you.

Originals came out on Allied in 1968 and are very expensive.  The group also released a single off Allied in 1968 (“Shadows Of Your Mind” coupled with “The Dainty General”).  The best and only official cd reissue I know of is by Pacemaker (from 2005) although it offers nothing in the way of liner notes, just a couple of photos.  If Canada produced acknowledged, underrated classics like Spirit Of Christmas’ Lies To Live By (prog), The Guess Who’s It’s Time (garage/beat), The Sinners Vox Populi (psych pop/garage) and Kensington Market’s Aardvark (psych pop) then Plastic Cloud is just a notch or so below these records but still a great album.

“Dainty General Rides Again”

:D CD Reissue | 2008 | Phantom | amazon ]
:) Original Vinyl | 1968 | Allied | ebay ]

Cat Mother & The All Night News Boys “The Street Giveth…and the Street Taketh Away”

| Classic Rock,Pop

Street Giveth

I first bought this 1969 release on Polydor vinyl the following year when I saw a copy for fifteen shillings in a bargain bin in Woolworth’s and noticed that it had “produced by Jimi Hendrix and Cat Mother” on the cover. I’d also heard the track “Marie” on John Peel’s radio show on Radio One, and been impressed by its bittersweet theme and clever production. On the basis of these two recommendations I handed over the fifteen bob. Well, this tentative bargain turned out to be, IMHO, one of the best rock albums, not just of 1968, which is itself saying something, but EVER, and remains to this day my favourite pop/rock album of all time. 

Despite its quality, and despite the celebrity co-production credit, it sold only modestly in the US and hardly at all in the UK, hence its appearance in Woolies’ bargain bin. It’s since been re-released twice in CD format, probably just for Hendrix completists (being the only album ever officially known to have been produced by Jimi for another artist), both times in very small quantity production runs, and I was lucky enough to score a copy of the second (2003) CD release whilst it was current and therefore available at a sensible price. 

The five unknown musicians, all vocalists, all writers, and all multi-instrumentalists to session musician standard, produce a string of self-penned songs in a breathtaking variety of styles, from funky riff-rock (“Can You Dance To It”) through tramping Steeleye-style electric folk (“Boston Burglar”), sixties Baroque (“Marie”) and tongue-in-cheek revivalist rock’n’roll (“Good Old Rock’N’Roll:” the medley covered by The Dave Clark Five) to string-laden hippy-dippy epic (“Bramble Bush”) and swamp-tinged, chilled-out instrumental jam (“Track In A”). Musicianship, vocals, and production are faultless throughout. 

When the original album came out the track listing on the sleeve omitted the three final tracks from side 2, namely “Bramble Bush,” “Probably Won’t” and “Track In A” (“Nebraska Night”). Instead, the seven components of the “Good Old Rock’N’Roll” medley were credited as separate tracks. Oddly, the CD release, with completely redesigned packaging, repeated this mistake. Rest assured, the three aforementioned tracks are all present on the CD as they were on the original vinyl. 

Pending a further CD re-release, if one ever happens, copies are now available only rarely and at collector prices. However, if you happen to chance on a used copy at a sensible price, don’t hesitate: snap it up. You won’t regret it.

“Boston Burglar”

:D CD Reissue | 1997 | Polygram | buy amazon ]
:) Original Vinyl | 1968 | Polydor | search ebay ]

Double Zappa |FZ| 1968-1969 Solo

, | Art,Double Zappa,Pop,Psych

zappa 68-69

These two mostly instrumental albums are the first Frank Zappa solo records. Sans Mothers, Zappa used these forays to assert his interest in serious composition, drawing on influences like Igor Stravinsky, Edgar Varèse, and of course, popular rock and roll music.

Lumpy Gravy (1968-)
Lumpy Gravy is a wildly impressive collection of musical ideas, set in two musical suites. Incorporating surf and pop rhythm sections with musique concrete and absurdist vocal samples (recorded inside a piano with all the keys pressed down, nabbing harmonics from the resonating strings nearby), it does in fact feel like “phase two of We’re Only in It for the Money,” borrowing its wonderful sped-up, tape manipulated feel. The composition is loaded with themes that would be recycled on later releases (“Bwana Dik,” “Oh No,” “King Kong”). Recorded with the Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony and meticulously spliced and diced by FZ, Lumpy Gravy is a monumental achievement – but only a drop in the bucket from one of rock’s most prolific composers.

“Duodenum (Theme From Lumpy Gravy)”

:D CD Reissue | 1995 | Zappa Records | from amazon ]
:) Original Vinyl | 1968 | Verve |  search ebay ]

Hot Rats (1969)
I wouldn’t say this album is notably better than any other FZ record, but it caught on big. Maybe it’s the short, catchy title; may be the toned down weirdness;  could be that Zappa just cut all the bullshit and delivered an undeniable slab of rock that the masses could dig and critics would acclaim. Two of these tracks (“Peaches En Regalia” and “Son of Mr. Green Genes”) even made the legendary (albeit illegal) jazz standards tome, The Real Book, proving the album was the equal of contemporary ‘musician’s music.’ While “Peaches,” featuring Shuggie Otis on bass guitar, may have been the zaniest track ever to become a standard (played on baseball stadium organs to this day), the rest of the album eschews condensed complexity in favor of long form jams and sickening guitar work. Captain Beefheart’s vocal performance on the hot-licked “Willie The Pimp” might be one of his defining moments, though certainly not from Capn’s viewpoint – his distaste for FZ’s production prowess begins here. The rest of the album is fully instrumental – groovy, melodic, jazzy, brilliant, essential listening. In case you haven’t heard it by now:

“Peaches En Regalia”

:D CD Reissue | 1995 | Zappa Records | from amazon ]
:) Original Vinyl | 1969 | Reprise | search ebay ]

Moby Grape “The Place And The Time”

, | Classic Rock,Country Rock,Pop,RnB

The Place And The Time

If you’re not convinced Moby Grape were one of the hippest, baddest, realest, and rawest bands of the late 1960s then grab this new outtakes and live cuts compilation from Sundazed and try to explain otherwise.

The Place and the Time collects unissued recordings by Moby Grape and presents them more or less chronologically from 1967 to 1968 over 2 LPs. Side One combines auditions (“Indifference,” “Looper”) and demo cuts (“Stop,” “Loosely Remembered”)  with “Rounder,” an instrumental outtake from the sessions for the Grape’s legendary debut album. Side Two focuses on outtakes from the Wow album sessions, ending with a scorching version of Bob Mosley’s “Soul Stew.” Side Three rounds out later 1968 Grape demos, many of which would form the Moby Grape ’69 album, and Side Four includes a triplet of killer live cuts from 1968 – just listen to the overwhelmed crowd react to the onslaught of “Changes.”

I love the Sundazed mono pressings, but the stereo live cuts are particularly atmospheric; it puts you right on the stage with the band and hearing these tracks pressed to vinyl (for the first time in their sadly neglected lifespan) is a real warp zone. Moby Grape fans who haven’t picked up the recent reissues (where some of these are bonus tracks) should clamber to get on board with these discs, the recordings are rock solid in sound and it’s a treat to spin these dusty gems and listen to the mighty Grape tear shit apart.

“Soul Stew”

:) 180 Gram Vinyl | 2009 | Sundazed | buy from sundazed ]
:D CD | 2009 | Sundazed | buy from sundazed | amazon ]

uReview: The CCR Discography

, , | Country Rock,uReview

I gotta be honest. I grew up with a ton of Creedence, but I’m not exactly familiar with their LPs. My experience with the band comes largely thru massive classic rock radio exposure and the Chronicle I and II collections. Late last year Fantasy Records reissued CCR’s first six albums on CD and MP3, but I want to hear from you before I dive in:

[poll id=”3“]

Q. Give us your low-down on CCR. What was your runner up album?

The 13th Floor Elevators “Live”

| Garage,Psych

Elevators Live!

International Artists released this live album of dubious quality in 1968.  Live is in fact studio outtakes with applause dubbed over the beginning and end of each track.   At this point the 13th Floor Elevators were crumbling due to drug complications and other legal disputes.  New material was short and International Artists knew this.   So a live album must’ve seemed like a good idea at the time – it would satisfy hungry fans of the group and fulfill contractual obligations.  In the end the above LP didn’t sell and the sound quality is a bit iffy but for the Elevator fan this disc is mandatory listening.  It’s a solid album with quality performances and 5 songs that are unique to this disc only.

“She Lives In A Time Of Her Own,” “Tried To Hide,” “Roller Coaster,” “You’re Gonna Miss Me” and “I’ve Got Levitation” are certainly familar and had been on the Elevators’ prior two groundbreaking LPs.  These cuts are all classic performances that capture the band at the peak of their powers.  But you’re buying this record/CD for the five outtakes that make Live unique.  The Elevators do excellent covers of Buddy Holly’s “I’m Gonna Love You Too” (Erickson nails Holly’s vocal style)  and Solomon Burke’s “Everybody Needs Somebody To Love.”  The latter is given a raunchy garage rock rendition and is one of the LP’s clear highlights.  The two originals are classics too.  “You Can’t Hurt Me Anymore” must have been an outtake from the first album as it’s loaded with crazed vocals,  primitive sound quality, and a tremendous energy (pure mid 60s garage rock at its best).  The other track, “You Gotta Take That Girl,” is more of a folk-rock ballad: an excellent one that shows a sensitive side to this great group.  Note:  Before You Accuse Me and I’m Gonna Love You Too would be released as IA singles in 1967/1968.

Live has been marginalized for many years, perhaps for its fake crowd sound FX, but I think it’s held up pretty well over time.   Much has been made of the Elevators in recent years.  Some say they were the very first psychedelic group and their music represents the purest form of this experience.  Others have acknowledged Erickson’s vocals and personality coupled with Stacey Sutherland’s acid leads as an enormous influence.   If anything, this release proves the 13th Floor Elevators were a great, down-to-earth rock n roll band that knew how to have fun.   Live is recommended to both the novice and experienced fan.

“You Gotta Take That Girl”

;) MP3 Album | Elevators Live! ]
:) Original Vinyl | 1968 | International Artists | search ebay ]
8-) Spotify link | listen ]