Lighthouse - Can You Feel It? (1973 canada, exciting jazz rock, 2008 remastered)

One of Canada's most original pop groups ever, Lighthouse was formed in Toronto early in 1969 when drummer Skip Prokop (ex of The Paupers, Janis Joplin, Al Kooper and Carlos Santana) had a vision of incorporating horns and strings with modern rock, sort of a heavy-hitting 'big band' sound. After a chance meeting in New York with Paul Hoffert - who was actually trained in more classical stylings and already an established sessions-player. Ralph Cole joined soon after. Originally a native of Kalamazoo, Michigan, Cole knew Prokop when he was in Thyme, who had actually performed on many bills with The Paupers during the latter half of the decade. They added mul

The 'full orchestra sound' which would become the band's trademark was at first rounded out by an additional 10 members including singer Pinky Dauvin. Their sound was as diverse as their listening audience, and contained cellos, violas, an array of horns and a full percussion section. The band was doing their first gig outdoors by May of that year and were signed to a deal with RCA shortly thereafter. They went to Toronto's Eastern Sound Studios in the spring of '69 and released their self-titled debut that same year. Produced by Prokop and Hoffert, it was met with critics' praises, following the success of such tracks as "Mountain Man" and the cover of the Byrds' "Eight Miles High".

"Can You Feel It"? came out in '73, recorded in New York's Record Plant. The upbeat pop-smash "Pretty Lady", along with the title track and "Set The Stage" fetched the band more gold. But despite following their proven forumula, they were finding themselves in the middle of a changing musical environment.
Canadian-Bands

Tracks
1. Set the Stage (Cole) - 4:56
2. Same Train (Prokop) - 6:03
3. Magic’s in the Dancing (Cole) - 4:04
4. Pretty Lady (Prokop) - 3:57
5. Disagreable Man (Prokop) - 5:29
6. Can You Feel It (Prokop) - 4:36
7. Is Love the Answer (Cole) - 3:14
8. Lonely Hours (Prokop) - 6:25
9. No More Searching (Hillary) - 4:04
10. Bright Side (Cole) - 4:26

Lighthouse
*Skip Prokop - Drums, Percussion, Vocals, Guitar
*Ralph Cole - Guitar, Vocals
*Alan Wilmot - Bass
*Don DiNovo - Five-String Electric Viola
*Dick Armin - Electric Cello
*John Naslen - Trumpet
*Dale Hillary - Tenor Sax, Alto Sax, Vocals
*Larry Smith - Piano, Vocals
*Rick Stepton – Trombone

1969  Lighthouse (2012 extra tracks edition)
1971  One Fine Morning
1972  Sunny Days (2008 RDI issue)
Related Acts
1967  The Paupers - Magic People
1968  The Paupers · Ellis Island  (2008 remaster)
1969  The Live Adventures Of Mike Bloomfield And Al Kooper
1969  Michael Bloomfield with Nick Gravenites & Friends - Live At Bill Graham's Fillmore West (2009 remaster and expanded) 

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Bobak, Jons, Malone - Motherlight (1970 uk, heavenly psychedelic experimental pop)

One of the most curious developments in the record collecting world over the last two decades has been the astonishing rise in values of late 60s/eorly 70s UK progressive and psychedelic albums, which were transformed almost overnight from bargain bin fodder to bank loan status. This was particularly true of the various independent releases of the era, which rapidly became known in the trade as 'private pressings'.

In this bizarre Alice Through The Looking Glass world, familiarity was spurned and obscurity become positively desirable: a fifth-rate, fifth form impersonation of the Incredible String Band, invariably limited to a tax-exempt pressing of 99 copies, escalated in value almost daily while the original ISB albums went untouched. The irony of this situation, almost inevitably, was that the identities of some very successful people were hidden away in the Xeroxed small print on the bock sleeve.

The Forever Amber album (current value: £1500) included Chris Barren, who went on to contribute keyboards to George Michael's chart-topper "Careless Whisper", while another English psychedelic band, Complex, featured Steve Coe, later a member of 80s hit makers Monsoon and one of the stalwarts of WOMAD. Perhaps the most successful of all the 'unknowns' who cut a highly coveted album in the late 60s, however, were Bobak Jons Malone - not a group of solicitors, but three backroom boys at the Morgan Sound Recording Studios in Willesden, London.

Their sole album Motherlight emerged in 1969 and promptly disappeared again, leaving another generation to discover its idiosyncratic charms (by which time, of course, the price tag had increased alarmingly). The genesis of the Motherlight album can be traced back to the mid-60s. Monty Babson, an old-fashioned crooner who'd been recording as a solo act since the 1950s, hod crossed over to the other side of the fence: establishing his own publishing company, Morgan Music, he also worked as one of the independent producers based at Denis Preston's lansdowne Studios in Holloway Pork, London, licensing completed masters to the major labels.

During the mid-60s Babson produced recordings for, amongst others, the Barron Knights and Shawn Phillips, though freakbeat connoisseurs will doubtlessly prefer to remember his production work on the Shots single "Keep A Hold Of What You Got". By the summer of 1967 Babson was working with on outfit called Orange Bicycle, whose mainmon was Wilson Malone - a multiinstrumentalist who could write, sing, produce and arrange with equal dexterity. Malone's emergence as a creative force coincided with Babson's desire to set up his own autonomous little empire, and by early 1968 he had founded the Morgan Sound Recording Studios. Surrounding himself with familiar faces,

Babson utilised such studio autocrats as Malone and the similarly accomplished all-rounder Danny Beckerman, while the Shots' psychedelic incarnation, the Smoke, were employed pretty much as the Morgan house band. As well as continuing to licence material to the likes of EMI, Babson had established the Morgan label, a predominantly MOR outlet that also released idiosyncratic efforts by organist Jerry Allen and jazz fusion outfit the Gordon Beck Trio, though the strangely strange- but oddly-normal 1968 album Funnysad Music (credited to the Wilson Malone Voiceband) succeeded in muddying the waters between MOR and the avantgarde.

By the end of the year, however, it was obvious to even the rather staid Babson that, though the album market was beginning to take over from the traditional singles scene, it was the nascent progressive and underground bands who were capable of making the serious money. Babson's response was to introduce the Morgan Blue Town label, which was to cater for the left-of-centre rock and pop audience. Danny Beckerman was entrusted with the nurture and development of the Pussy Plays LR cut by the Hertfordshire/London band Pussy, while a folk/pop crew called the Academy were called in for the album Pop- Lore According To The Academy. The third Morgan Blue Town album, however, was a sfrictly internal affair. With Chris Blackwell at Island making good use of the facilities at Morgan, staff engineers Mike Bobak and a teenage Andy Johns (younger brother of Stones producer Glyn) were already experienced studio hands. Equally relevantly, they were also accomplished musicians.

Bassist Johns had helped out the likes of Spooky Tooth and the Deviants, while Bobok hod previously been guitarist with a London-based band known at various times I as Fogin and the End (not to be confused with the Bill Wyman-managed group of the same name). "We played Kingston I Polytechnic two or three times with the Sweetshop, who later shortened their name to the Sweet", remembers Mike. "They asked us to support them at a gig in the Midlands - Birmingham, I think - but we couldn't, because the guy whose van we used for transport needed it to go to work! With Wil Malone on drums, keyboards, vocals and songwrrting duties, Bobak on guitar and Johns (not Jons, despite the spelling on the album!) contributing bass as well as performing various feats of studio trickery, the ad hoc studio trio agreed to create their own Morgan Blue Town long player.

"Monty Babson had a deal with Wil Malone", recalls Mike Bobak, "and it went from there. The album was definitely a low-key thing, really just us having fun. We used dead studio time late at night to record the music, and part of the agreement was that we lost ail rights to the frocks as soon as we created them. But that was alright – the album wasn't going to sell a million, though someone did tell me that it reached the charts in Holland." The opening track, "Motherlight", set the mood for the entire album. Obscure, almost literary lyrics (the title had been taken from James Joyce's Ulysses), a dominant piano leitmotif, breathy vocals low in the mix, some frustrated guitar hero fretwork and an eerie studio vibe coalesced to confirm that, though Malone was ostensibly the prime mover, this was a collaboration in which all three members played their part.

"On A Meadow-Lea pinpointed the trio's sound to somewhere between Procol Harum and the early Floyd, with some more fractured wordplay, heavy-lidded vocals and monstrous fuzztone guitar, while the tight little rocker "Mono Lose was offset by some gently spiralling vocals and a continuation of that weird but impressively unselfconscious lyrical imagery ("thimble full of empty grooves"?!). With its references to "smiley smiles* and "you'll see a hero rise as every villain dies", "Wanna Make A Star Sam" (possibly aimed at Babson, who owned a company called Mr Sam?) narrowed the imagery down to suggest some obscure Beach Boys homage, though anyone who'd been following Malone's work with both Orange Bicycle and Wilson Malone's Voicebond would hardly have been surprised by his admiration for Brian Wilson.

Next up was "House Of Many Windows", which built from a dramatic opening (very similar, incidentally, to the first few seconds of the Kaleidoscope single "Flight From Ashiya") to a fully-fledged psychedelic/progressive crossover epic, with more evocative lyrics and another deliciously non-sequitur piano break. By way of contrast, the Andy Johns-penned "Chant" featured an almost Pythonesque opening before developing into swathes of white noise, then switching again to a hypnotic, repetitive chant. Generous amounts of phasing and backwards tapes confirm the period piece nature of this track, which featured fellow Morgan engineer Robin Black on backing vocals. From its mock-country opening, "Burning The Weed" was a clearly tongue-in-cheek tale of stoned hillbillies that had wholly unexpected repercussions three decades later.

"A couple of years ago I played the track to my nephew, who's a club DJ", laughs Mike Bobak. "It gave him the inspiration to write a song called "I Don't Smoke" which, after he recorded it as DJ Dee Kline, became a UK Top Ten single." "Burning The Weed" was pure light relief compared to the ominous, unsettling closing track "The Lens, which sounded like Procol Harum on downers. The second half of the song acted as a precis of the entire album over Malone's ponderous, quasi-classical piano motif, thereby reinforcing the impression that Motherlight was a unified, fully cohesive body of work.

Motherlight duly emerged in the summer of 1969, but without a band to promote it, the Morgan sales team were facing an uphill struggle. The album came and went: Wil Malone continued to involve himself with Morgan and Orange Bicycle, recording a solo album for Fontana in 1970 before becoming on integral part of late period Smoke. After orchestrating the Who's Tommy in the mid-70s, he has enjoyed more sustained success over the last few years as the highly-respected producer/arranger of such acts as Iron Maiden, Simple Minds, Massive Attack and the Verve. Mike Bobak, meanwhile, continued to work at Morgan, though he was briefly sacked by Monty Babson after one of his charges, Quintessence, set fire to a studio piano!

He later settled his differences with Morgan's boss and returned to the fold: his work at Morgan and various other London consoles like Olympic and IBC encompassed acts of the calibre of Jimi Hendrix, Paul McCartney (specifically the superb "C Moon" single), Led Zeppelin (actually a mixing session with Jimmy Page), Cat Stevens, Donovan, Lou Reed and no less than five Rod Stewart albums, including Rod's breakthrough LP Every Picture Tells A Story. He eventually quit as an engineer in 1982 after working with Rick Wakeman.

Andy Johns also continued at Morgan, where he followed in the footsteps of his elder brother by working with the Stones ("my first session with them was at Morgan - they came in to do a version of "You Can't Always Get What You Want", which was a disaster, so they went to Olympic and did it properly"). He also worked with Led Zeppelin ("I don't know why they chose Morgan - it certainly wasn't to work with me!"), Jethro Tull, Free and Van Halen, as well as acting as joint producer for the astonishing debut LP from Television, Marquee Moon.

Still, it's a fair bet that none of the releases featuring input from Mike Bobak, Andy Johns and Wil Malone are worth the sums of money attracted by original copies of Motherlight, which now gains its first-ever, long-overdue official CD release.
By David Wells, With thanks to Mike Bobak

Tracks
1. Motherlight (Malone) - 3:26
2. On a Meadow-Lea (Malone) - 4:36
3. Mona Lose (Malone) - 2:57
4. Wanna Make a Star, Sam (Malone, Bobak, Jons) - 2:06
5. House of Many Windows (Malone) - 3:36
6. Chant (Jons) - 4:08
7. Burning the Weed (Malone, Bobak, Jons) - 3:21
8. The Lens (Malone) - 6:48

Musicians
Mike Bobak - Guitar, Vocals
Wilson Malone - Keyboards, Drums, Vocals
Andy Jons - Effects

Related Acts
1969 - Pussy - Pussy Plays

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Pussy - Pussy Plays (1969 uk, supreme psychedelia)

One of the most valuable vinyl artefacts of the UK’s psychedelic era. the Pussy album "Pussy Rays" nevertheless has remained something of a mystery even amongst hardcore collectors: despite counterfeit releases on both CD and vinyl formats over the last decade or so, the group's origins and personnel have continued to elude the best sleuthing efforts of fans and researchers alike.

So let's hear it for Edsel, who have undertaken the first-ever official reissue of the album, and the band's drummer Steve Townsend. who has kindly provided the full, previously unknown story behind the album's obscure genesis. The story of "Pussy Plays" really begins in the mid-1960s in Hertfordshire, where Townsend, singer Dek Boyce and bassist Jez Turner were all involved in the local music scene. "We played together in local bands who were well quite well known in the area", recalls Steve. "Initially we were called the Creepers, but when the psychedelic era came along, we used to come up with some silly names - for a while we were known as We Shake Milk I after the old milk posters! We cut a few demos, but nothing serious really, and certainly nothing that was commercially available".

During the middle of the decade, the Creepers had played the Hertfordshire beat/R&B circuit, supporting the likes of the Graham Bond Organisation as well as the Who just before the release of "My Generation". But while the beat boom had thrown up all kinds of regional strongholds, the arrival of the psychedelic era coincided with the country's capital city firmly re-establishing itself as the epicentre of the British music industry. Like most provincial acts of the era, Townsend and his colleagues slowly tired of being big fish in a small, increasingly stagnant pool.

The drummer duly placed an advertisement in the musicians' bible, Melody Maker, which was answered by a couple of London musicians guitarist Barry Clark and keyboardist Peter Whiteman. Clark turned out to be that most intriguing of animals: a fellow musician with contacts. He was particularly friendly with Danny Beckerman, an in-house writer/producer/ arranger/ musician at the Morgan Sound Recording Studios in Willesden. London.

The proverbial studio whizzkid, Beckerman had already released material under such names as Fortes Mentum and Barnaby Rudge. "Morgan already had their own label, and were in the process of setting up a progressive offshoot called Morgan Blue Town", explains Townsend. "Barry Clark and Danny Beckerman had agreed a deal to cut an album for Morgan Blue Town, but they were looking for a band to record it". With Clark, Whiteman and Townsend all on board, the I If drummer recruited two of his old colleagues in We Shake Milk, and the new band duty expanded to a five-piece with the addition of Dek Boyce and Jez Turner.

With additional vocals and I instrumentation supplied by - producer Beckerman, recording began for the album that was to become Pussy Plays. Eight songs were recorded, with Ihe Clark/Townsend composition  "The Open Ground" being the only non-Beckerman selection. Though one or two were purely instrumental workouts, there were no throwaways: tracks like Tragedy In F Minor" (inspired by the recently-issued Electric Prunes album Mass In F Minor, perhaps?) were assured I ill examples of the distinctive, quasi-classical piano approach that shaped so much of Beckerman's work, while "Comets" was a deliciously squally theremin and moog duel, presumably intended as some kind of Joe Meek style space adventure updated for the psychedelic era.

Other songs, however, seemed to suggest that the band were pulling in a slightly different direction, and "We Built The Sun" and "The Open Ground" in particular hinted at the otherworldly lysergic wispiness of early Pink Floyd, with the faux naif, wide-eyed vocals uncannily pitched somewhere between Syd Barrett and Dave Gilmour. So was the album an accurate representation of the band's musical style, or purely a studio project on which they were no more than hired hands? "Half and half, really", muses Steve Townsend. "Even though we more or less came together in order to make the album, we still had considerable input. For example, I wrote and recited the lyrics to The Open Ground", which was a real product of the era I wanted it to have that Tolkienesque, Lord of the Rings-type feel. But Danny Beckerman was really an old-fashioned pop songwriter, so we attempted to give his material a slightly tougher, more contemporary approach."

"We were also responsible for the album's overall concept – the band name, the album title, even the original artwork. Dek Boyce's brother-in-law was Gordon Beningfield, one of the country's leading wildlife artists - he was also commissioned to design a series of stamps for the Royal Mail. We asked him to help us out, and he came up with a cartoon cat design, which we sent to Morgan's publicity department as the proposed front cover. But for some reason they decided to go with their own version, which woo absolutely nothing like his original design!

The irony is that, if they'd used the original design, it would have become collectable amongst Beningfield's followers purely as an example of his work." By the summer of 1969 sessions were complete. Released as the second Morgan Blue Town album (the first had been by the Academy, a pop/folk outfit led by future soap actress Polly Perkins), the appearance of Pussy Plays was marked by a press launch at the Two Decks Club in Rupert Street, Soho. Sadfy this failed to have any noticeable effect on sales - like most of the smaller labels of the time.

Morgan found that issuing quality product counted for nothing without the sales support and distribution network that was necessary to break the album. The UK issue duly sank without trace as did an Italian release on the even more obscure Saint Martin label. The same Italian label also released a single from the album that coupled two of the strongest tracks. "All Of My Life" and "Come Back June", and boasted a picture sleeve (sadly this was merely the same design as the album's front cover).

It would appear that this coupling was only issued in Italy: no other Pussy singles are known to have been pressed in any other territory (and in case you were wondering, a 1972 Pussy 45 on the Deram label is the work of another band). Undeterred, Pussy kept going for a while, recording a handful of further tracks ("roughly half-a-dozen", reckons Steve Townsend) at Morgan Studios that sadly failed lit to gain a release. The group also played in and around the London/Home Counties area, as Townsend relates. "We got the live band together at the same time as the album, and we were doing gigs like the Scotch of St James (on 8 Jury 1969, trivia buffs) and one or two colleges as we were recording.

We didn't play all the numbers from the album, just the more straight-ahead ones. We were all pretty much into that sort of early Pink Floyd type sound, but we were probably rockier when we played live. We also played some old standards – Cannonball Adderley, Mose Allison, some of the blues stuff that was going round as well, and based the act around that." In addition to the Scotch of St James date, psych buffs may be interested to team of a gig at the Rhodes Centre in Bishop's Stortford on 3 February 1969, when Pussy shared the bill with another cult UK psych outfit, Tintern Abbey.

Now if only we had a video of that one... Barry Clark left and was briefly replaced by Gary Peters, before the band slowly disintegrated. "I can't remember exactly why the band drifted apart", admits Townsend, "but it basically split into two halves again – the original Hertfordshire trio and the two Londoners". While Danny Beckerman continued to mastermind a series of pseudonymous releases from the Morgan console room, Steve Townsend, Dek Boyce and Jez Turner returned to the relative tranquillity of Hertfordshire as the heart of a band called Twilly, leaving copies of Pussy Plays to fester in the bargain bins for the next decade or so until the album's eventual rediscovery during the Great Prog/Psych Stampede of the mid-1980s.

So it goes. Still, as you can now hear for yourselves, for once this is an album whose musical strengths come close to justifying the £300-odd price tag currently demanded for original copies.
By David Wells, with thanks to Steve Townsend.

Tracks
1. Come Back June - 3:59
2. All Of My Life - 4:08
3. We Built The Sun - 5:00
4. Comets - 4:16
5. Tragedy In F Minor - 5:02
6. The Open Ground - 3:35
7. Everybody's Song - 4:20
8. G.E.A.B. - 5:28

Pussy
*Dek Boyce - Vocals
*Barry Clark - Guitars
*Peter Whiteman - Keyboards
*Jez Turner - Bass
*Steve Townsend - Drums

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Richard Last Group - Get Ready (1972 italy, fine progressive folk rock)

Italian Progressive Folk/soft-psychedelia, a rare and very hard to find album, original released 1972 under the title "Get Ready" and reissued by the Italian label Akarma.

A wonderful mix of psychedelic and folk progressive sounds with the peculiar use of the flute wich refer to Jethro Tull, there's a song by the Tulls including and also the Donovan's Lalenia.

Hard to find any further information about the band or the members but If we take as an element  the last song of the album, we can assume that the group originated from Southern Italy and in particular from Naples.

Tracks
1. Sad And Deep As You (Mason) - 3:25
2. Eye To Eye (Werth-Williams) - 1:44
3. I Have A Dream (Werth, Williams) - 3:25
4. Dharma For One (Bunker, Anderson) - 4:22
5. He Has Gone Away (Richard) - 3:06
6. Confusion (Richard) - 1:53
7. Fire And Rain (J.Taylor) - 3:23
8. Break Down (R.Thomas) - 3:24
9. Lalena (Leich) - 4:09
10.Thank You (Stewart, Stone) - 2:30
11.Colour My World (Pankow) - 2:58
12.Naple In Rock (Richard) - 1:55

*Richard Coley - Vocals

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The Sidetrack - Baby (1969 us, baroque psych pop, with some colourful melodic clarity in expression)

Very little information is known from this group. This seems to be a professionally recorded demonstration copy for an intended Elektra release, which never happened. The Sidetrack consisted of Alan, Christopher and Peter Brown, Kenneth Gullmartin, Andrew Higgs and John Lewis.

The album has is own special atmosphere, which is end of ‘60’s styled, song driven –with some colourful melodic clarity in expression-. It is well arranged, often with multilayered keyboards (piano’s, harpsichord, organ), bass and drums but almost no guitars. The songs fit well together as if there’s a story line between them. The baroque elements are also very special which are worked out now and then, at first only a little bit on “Baby”, and well adapted into the composition on “Sweet Substitute”.

“Blues for Matthew” has true Bach-like arrangements, a complex almost symphonic track with string-,band- and vocal arrangements. A blues element of harmonica is mixed greatly into this rather unique track. The first tracks on the second side are rather short. A separate song easily remembered into as a pop standard and to take out of the context of the album, might be “Summership”. “2314-B” is the second long track, with a jazzy/bluesy, half composed, half improvised evolution of organ, harpsichord, bass, harmonica, and some complex rhythms. Also this track has a rather baroque symphonic theme further on, which is equally successfull and in a catchy way mixed with the other styles.

After such an impressive complex track, “Knowing what you hold so dear” is held much simpler, a short song accompanied by some acoustic guitar arrangement only.  A very enjoyable album which deserves this first reissue. Only a shame there isn’t a real cover designed for it, we don’t have real band info, not even a photograph.

Andrew Higgs wrote on PHROCKBlog
Yes it's too bad it wasn't produced and released by Elektra, but it was our fault not the label's. The label's offer of a contract was firm. We opted (we were young!) to create our own record to market to labels as a finished product but, certainly in my opinion, the professional production offered by Elektra would have resulted in a much better recording... and no label offered to release our independent effort. (And fyi my vote was to accept the Electra contract) We had even received an expression of interest from Dick James at Apple Records at one point (that was really exciting!), but alas didn't hear from them again. Thanks for your very nice write up... especially the bit about the bass playing.
Andrew Higgs, Sidetrack bass player.
May 3, 2010 6:25 PM

Tracks
1. Rock 'n' Roll - 3:33
2. Peace Of Mind - 2:54
3. Summership - 2:08
4. 3214-B - 3:00
5. Knowing What You Hold So Dear - 3:54
6. Baby - 6:23
7. Colors - 2:30
8. Wild Eyes - 3:22
9. Monkey - 2:49
10.Sweet Substitute - 11:05
11.Blues For Matthew - 1:50

The Sidetrack
*Alan Brown
*Christopher Brown
*Peter Brown
*Kenneth Gullmartin
*Andrew Higgs - Bass
*John Lewis

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The Steve Gibbons Band - Rollin' On (1977 uk, awesome Rock 'n' Roll, with bonus tracks)

Critics have labeled Gibbons as the English Bob Seger, but such a comparison is little more than superficial, doing credit to neither party. The two share a love for basic, no frills rock and roll but that's pretty much where the comparisons end.

Produced by Ken Laguna, 1977's "Rollin' On" is simply prime Gibbons and stands as one of my all time favorite albums. Credited with penning twelve of the 14 tracks, original material such as 'Light Up Your Face', 'Please Don't Say Goodbye' and a live 'Tupelo Mississippi Flash' showcased Gibbons' knack for crafting material that was tuneful, commercial, yet rocked with an intensity that's all but absent from music these days.

How could songs like 'Wild Flowers' and 'Low Down Man' not have garnered top-40 airplay? Other highlights included the atypical country-flavored 'Now You Know Me' and the gorgeous ballad 'Till the Well Runs Dry'. Interestingly, the album's lone cover of Chuck Berry's 'Tulane' provided Gibbon's with an unexpected UK hit 'Tulane' b/w 'Now You Know Me'.

 Tracks
1. Wild Flowers - 4:09
2. Light Up Your Face - 3:07
3. Now You Know Me - 3:36
4. Mr. Jones - 4:33
5. Till the Well Runs Dry - 4:13
6. Tulane (Chuck Berry) - 2:52
7. Low Down Man - 3:06
8. Till the Fire Burns Out - 3:00
9. Cross Me Over the Road - 3:13
10.Right Side of Heaven - 0:55
11.Rollin On - 3:53
12.Please Don't Say Goodbye - 3:07
13.Tupelo Mississippi Flash (Jerry Reed) - 4:39
14.Rounden (Instrumental) - 0:19
15. Gave His Life To Rock 'N' Roll (Bonus Track) - 3:22
16. Make The Good Times Last (Bonus Track) - 2:39
17. Dick Leaps In (Bonus Track) - 3:03
All Songs by Steve Gibbons except were indicated.

The Steve Gibbons Band
*Dave Carroll - Lead Guitar
*Steve Gibbons - Vocals
*Bob Lamb - Drums
*Bob Wilson - Lead Guitar
*Trevor Burton - Bass

1976 Steve Gibbond Band - Any Road Up

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July - The Second Of July (1967-68 uk, glorious technicolor psychedelia)

"I sang like a complete prick - a quivery, frightened little jerk," exclaims Tom Newman with a look of despair. "It's totally obvious to me why our LP didn't impress anyone. It's fucking terrible compared to what we were capable of." Tom can't understand why copies of his JULY album sell for 250 Pounds. Recorded in a panic-stricken weekend early in '68, "July" was a rush-job, thrown together by their low-budget label Major Minor, in the vain hope of cashing in on the success of the BEATLES' "Sgt. Pepper", issued almost exactly a year earlier.

Tom's old colleague, Jon Field, agrees: "It's cringingly embarrassing. I'd prefer to forget about it, to be honest! We weren't given enough time." Poppycock! "July" is a psychedelic classic, overflowing with inventiveness and imagination. "My Clown" and "Dandelion Seeds", which were coupled on the band's first single, contain all the exotic ingredients of the best in British psychedelia. Newman's dreamy other-worldly melodies drifted alongside some wonderfully eerie keyboards, and fuzz guitar passages that'd make your hair fall out. Aside from a couple of dated pop whimsies, "July" was a corker - a little tentative and strained at times, true, but a glorious Technicolor explosion of an album nevertheless.

Despite its obvious qualities, little is known about "July". It sold a measly number of copies at the time, and the band imploded almost immediately. Tom's place in rock history was later sealed when he set up the Manor recording studios for Richard Branson, first working on "Tubular Bells" before carving out a solo career. Jon Field, meanwhile, formed JADE WARRIOR (see and listen to our CD "JADE WARRIOR - Eclipse") with fellow JULY member Tony Duhig. Meanwhile, "The Second Of July" or "The 2nd Of July" presents a collection of home demos recorded by Tom back in 1967, which offer a glimpse of how - to his mind - the band's "Sgt. Pepper" might have sounded.

If you, too, want to create your own psychedelic masterpiece, just follow the same step-by-step career path. It's easy really... First were the TOMCATS (see and listen to our CD "The TOMCATS"). Then they were re-named JULY, replaced its bassist to Alan James and built a repertoire around the new songs Tom was writing in his Ealing flat. The next stage was to attract the attention of a record company. "We got involved with Spencer Davis Management," explains Tom, "and were spotted by a DJ named Pat Campbell, who pointed us out to the head of Major Minor, Phil Solomon.

We secured an album deal and the whole session was done in one weekend!" With producer Tommy Scott and engineer Mike Ross at the helm, the band seized upon every possible instrument, electronic gadget and studio trie k they lay their hands on, within the limited facilities of a Wardour Street studio (which later evolved into Trident) using the same equipment that “Sgt Pepper” was recorded on. Aside from Allen, who stuck to his Bass each member tried their hand on variety of instruments: Tom dabbled with the sitar, John Field played tabla as well as old congas. Tony Dug took occasional breaks from his fierce Lead Guitar passages to play organ and vibes and Chris Jackson also added some Keyboards.

The album’s release in June 1968 was promoted by a single coupling its two most commercial sides. Then the second single followed. But it was all to no avail. Major Minor failed to promote the album and none of the band's release sold more than a hand full of copies. Under the cloud of disappointment JULY called it a day. Meanwhile, interest in JULY has blossomed since psych specialists Bam-Caruso reissued their album in 1987. And now there’s 'The Second Of July". "I didn't realise how awfully nervous I was on the LP until I heard these demos," admits Tom. "I left the tapes in this trunk of junk in Mike Oldfield’s garage! Not all the tracks were chosen from the final LP.  A whole bunch of demos were done over a few months - I tended to record them myself because Pete Cook and I wrote the songs, and then we’d present them to the band”.

Most of 'The Second Of July sounds radically different and somehow more mature than the Major Minor LP. "Dandelion Seeds" has a far more complex rhythm, for example The stinging guitar work strewn across the resulting LP is lacking, but there's a wonderfully confident atmosphere. The exclusive material is fascinating too from the shiny psych pop of ' The Stamping Machine" and the romantic Syd Barrett-like whimsy of "The Girl In The Cafe" to the pleasant acoustic nature of "Look At Her” (File under "Waterloo Sunset” era KINKS) and the singer/songwriter styled "Man Outside", the only track over three minutes Tom's biographical pack notes that he’s produced dozens of records, with accumulated sales of over 5O million world wide.

"July" probably sold only few hundred of this mammoth total, and yet it stands as the one of the ultimate psychedelic artefacts of the late ‘60’s. But then music quality and sales quantity rarely go hand-in-hand – aside from “Sgt Peppers” that is.
Still

ENJOY OR LEAVE IT

Tracks
1. You Missed It All (Tom Newman, Peter Cook) - 1:57
2. My Clown - 2:31
3. Dandelion Seeds - 2:40
4. Stamping Machine (Tom Newman, Peter Cook) - 1:41
5. (A) Bird Lived (Tom Newman, Peter Cook) - 1:54
6. Look At Her  (Tom Newman, Peter Cook) - 2:17
7. The Way - 2:03
8. Friendly Man  (Tom Newman, Peter Cook) - 2:01
9. I See (Tom Newman, Peter Cook) - 2:23
10. The Girl In The Cafe - 1:57
11. You See Me I See You - 2:11
12. Man Outside (Tom Newman, Peter Cook) - 3:27
13, Move On Sweet Flower - 2:10
14. Hello To Me - 2:13
All the songs are written by Tom Newman, except where noted

July
*Peter Cook - Vocals, Guitar

*Chris Jackson - Drums, Piano, Organ
*Tom Newman - Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar, Sitar
*Allen James - Bass Guitar
*John Field - Vocals, Tabla, Conga Drums
*Tony Duhig - Lead Guitar, Organ, Vibes

1968  July (2008 remaster) 

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The Steve Gibbons Band - Any Road Up (1976 uk, good guitar rock with funk, boogie and glam flashes)

Gibbons' career actually dates back to the very end of the '50s. A rock 'n' roller with a special love of Elvis Presley's work, Gibbons was working as a plumber's apprentice in his native Birmingham, England, when he made the leap to a professional career, replacing Colin Smith as lead singer in the Dominettes, a local rock & roll band. He remained with the Dominettes -- who were renamed the Uglys three years later -- for the next eight years, as they went through numerous lineup changes and their sound evolved from rock & roll to R&B to psychedelia.

Gibbons himself became heavily influenced by the music and songs of Bob Dylan during the mid-'60s, which manifested itself for years after (and, indeed, into the '90s), starting with the Uglys' single "Wake Up My Mind." The group experienced many false-starts and thwarted efforts at chart success, and by 1968 Gibbons was the only original member of the Uglys still in the lineup. And the band essentially dissolved in a disastrous series of behind-the-scenes machinations of manager Tony Secunda, and Gibbons was among those left to find a new gig.

He initially joined former Move bassist Trevor Burton, ex-Moody Blues guitarist/singer Denny Laine, and his former Uglys bandmate Keith Smart in an outfit called Balls. by April of that year they had formed a new group called Balls, which didn't last long but did leave an album behind. Gibbons then joined the Birmingham band the Idle Race, which had lost Jeff Lynne to the Move not too long before. That configuration lasted for a few months, before it renamed itself the Steve Gibbons Band.

It was in this guise that Gibbons finally began his rise to stardom, at least in England. Gibbons fancied himself a modern-day rock & roll outlaw: dark features, surly countenance, mean disposition. His songs were essentially Chuck Berry updates (in some cases, simply Chuck Berry covers) about thugs, dealers, and good lovin' gone bad. Tight with Who bassist John Entwistle, Gibbons was able to land a contract with the Who's American label, MCA, and share the same management company.

The trouble was that Gibbons' career never amounted to much in the U.S., he was fairly popular in England, though. Following Down in the Bunker, Gibbons released two early-'80s records for RCA, and On the Loose for Magnum Force in 1986.
by John Dougan - Bruce Eder

Tracks
1. Take Me Home - 4:04
2. Johnny Cool - 3:55
3. Rollin' - 5:53
4. Spark Of Love - 4:14
5. Standing On The Bridge - 3:13
6. Natural Thing - 4:21
7. Speed Kills - 3:32
8. Strange World - 5:17
9. Sweet Heart - 4:20
10.Back Street Cat - 3:21
11.Dick Malone - 4:01
All Songs by Steve Gibbons

The Band
*Steve Gibbons - Lead Vocals
*Dave Carroll - Guitar, Vocals
*Bob Wilson - Guitar, Vocals
*Trevor Burton - Bass, Vocals
*Bob Lamb - Drums

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Junior's Eyes - Battersea Power Station (1967-69 uk, awesome heavy psych prog blues rock)

Junior's Eyes are one of the more well-known unknowns -- if such an oxymoron can be applied -- of the late-'60s British psychedelic scene. Most people who have seen any reference to them at all are apt to know them only as an act that served as David Bowie's backup group briefly in the late '60s. Mick Wayne, Junior's Eyes' lead guitarist and songwriter, played guitar on Bowie's "Space Oddity" and some of Bowie's other recordings.

Prior to forming Junior's Eyes, he had briefly been in the Hullaballoos, a lightweight British Invasion band that had a bit of success in the States. He had also been in the Bunch of Fives with ex-Pretty Things drummer Viv Prince. As part of the Tickle, he wrote their sole 1967 single, "Subway (Smokey Pokey World)," one of the greatest obscure psychedelic 45s. He also played acoustic guitar on James Taylor's Apple album.

All of these interesting peripheral contributions might lead one to suspect that Junior's Eyes' 1969 album, Battersea Power Station, could be a hidden nugget of psychedelia. Other than Wayne, Junior's Eyes' personnel was variable during its brief existence. Members of some note who played in the lineup at some point included drummer John Cambridge, who went on to another David Bowie backup band, the Hype; guitarist Tim Renwick, who much later would play with Pink Floyd; and Steve Chapman, who later played drums with Poco.

After Junior's Eyes broke up in early 1970, Wayne went on to session work and a stint with the Pink Fairies. Battersea Power Station was reissued on CD by Castle in 2000, with the addition of three non-LP singles, four demos, and both sides of the Tickle's 1967 single.
by Richie Unterberger

Tracks
1. Total Power - 1:11
2. Circus Days - 3:42
3. Imagination - 6:09
4. My Ship - 2:47
5. Miss Lizzie - 2:53
6. So Embarrassed - 3:18
7. Freakin' - 1:51
8. Playtime - 3:55
9. I'm Drowning - 1:25
10.White Light - 6:38
11.By the Tree - 5:02
12.Mr. Golden Trumpet Player - 2:25
13.Blake Snake - 2:39
14.Woman Love - 2:39
15.Starchild - 3:57
16.Sink or Swim - 3:24
17.Circus Days (Single Version) - 2:56
18.White Light (Demo) - 5:14
19.By The Tree (Demo) - 3:52
20.Imagination (Demo) - 3:46
21.Playtime (Demo) - 3:57
22.Subway (Smokey Pokey World) - 2:39
23.Good Evening - 2:37

All songs by Mick Wayne

Songs 22-23 as The Tickle

Junior's Eyes
*Mick Wayne - Guitar, Vocal
*Tim Renwick - Guitar
*Graham Kelly - Guitar
*John Lodge - Bass
*John Cambridge - Drums

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Muddy Waters - Electric Mud (1968 us, electric acid blues masterpiece, 2013 japan remaster)

Muddy Waters is obviously one of the most recognized and influential blues artists of this century. When his name is mentioned phrases like "slide guitar" and "electric Chicago blues" are associated with it, but what about "wah-wah" and "psychedelic"? For a small period in history, Muddy Waters' image became one of a psychedelic icon and if there weren't records still around from then, most people would doubt it had ever happened. The sixties were a strange time for music and musicians- none felt stranger than musicians from the previous decade trying to stay afloat then. Many times in music, established artists will try to expand upon their work and take a chance with something different. They should at least be praised and encouraged when they try to experiment with their sound. If music were condemned to always following a strict guideline of rules, it would be pretty boring. Music should be allowed to grow and explore new territories because everyone can agree that it's not exciting if it's always predictable.

We've already heard the story of Muddy's rise from a Mississippi planation to a Chicago blues legend but that only took his career so far, at least in his chosen style of music. Eventually, bands that were influenced byMuddy like the Rolling Stones (named after one of his songs), Animals, Yardbirds, Cream and Hendrix became big, raising Muddy's profile but not getting him the same level of success his descendants were having. Marshall Chess, son of the president of the label who worked at the company had the idea to try something different by putting Muddy's music into a psychedelic setting to appeal to a younger audience. After discussing the project with Muddy, he went for it. He wasn't forced into it as some have been led to believe.

Marshall Chess assembled in his words "the hottest, most avant garde rock guys in Chicago" for the album sessions consisting of Pete Cosey (lead guitar, later with Miles Davis) Phil Upchurch and Roland Faulkner (rhythm guitar), Louis Satterfield (bass) Gene Barge (tenor sax), Charles Stepney (organs) and Morris Jennings (drums). Since Muddy wasn't as accustomed to this style, he only contributed vocals, but he still played an essential part in this recording. Electric Mud (1968) was mostly recorded in live takes with few overdubs and that off-the-cuff live feel that's captured on it makes it stronger. On the opener, "I Just Want To Make Love to You," pounding drums and Cosey firing out raw screaming guitar grabs your ear with Muddy's confident singing pushing the music along. The solo on this song is nothing short of phenomenal.

The guitar starts playing some distorted melodic notes then morphs into this gigantic screeching feedback riff becoming louder and wilder then continues to morph from a tearing solo until it reaches this intense mind-bending groove that sounds on the brink of collapse. At this point, the guitar cuts out, leaving you breathless, with just drums and Muddy's voice building up back to the verse, then with an out-of-your-mind guitar and organ playing off each other to the end. The next song, "Hoochie Coochie Man," begins with an incoming guitar sound and has the opposite feel of the last track. Muddy's vocals seemingly come out of the speakers at you as alternating lines come from the left and then right, giving the listener a disorienting acid-like effect.

A liquidy sounding guitar that washes over like a wave accompanies the verse and changes into an expressive wah-wah lead on the chorus. There's a great, fun cover of "Let's Spend The Night Together" which the Stones must have taken as a huge compliment, having their idol cover one of their songs. Muddy and the band turn it, around making it appear like he wrote it with a big mean sounding back melody, soulful distorted guitar lines and Muddy's commanding voice sounding the way he might have sung in a club in Chicago. "She's Alright" has a trippy beginning with bass notes fluttering up then swaying back down to open up to smash your head against the wall along with crashing cymbals matched by a dirty guitar that has real spirit to it. The song makes great use of cross-overs with a screeching guitar bouncing back and forth between speakers and then somehow transforms and ends with a pleasant distorted instrumental version of "My Girl." Original material was also written for this record like "Tom Cat" and "Herbert Harper's Free Press News," with the latter as a vaguely topical song about the sixties with lines like "world is moving much too fast" and "where ya gonna run to, where ya gonna hide" and a fuzzed out guitar that parallels the confusion and outrage of the lyrics. "The Same Thing" closes Electric Mud with a slow heavy blues feel to it and a stretched out, aching guitar on top.

When Electric Mud was released, it was a huge success, selling 150,000 in the first six weeks. It was also the best selling Muddy Waters record at Chess ever, entering Billboard's Top 200 Chart. It was a triumph of a record that updated his sound and put him elbow to elbow with the bands that had influenced him. The record broke down restrictions of genres with its inventiveness and ability to re-arrange songs and have them come out as something radically different. Unfortunately, narrow-minded blues purists across the board denounced it as atrocious, offensive and a big "sell out." There's a direct similarity between this and what happened to Bob Dylan a few years earlier when he decided to go electric, making his folk-purist fans angry that he was "selling out" to rock and roll. Since Muddy is primarily a blues artist, overviews of his career would be written by a number of blues historians who would automatically dismiss this record for years to come.

But not everyone hated the album. Pete Cosey was later told by Hendrix's valet that before he would perform live, he'd listen to "Herbert Harper" for inspiration. In the '70's, when Marshall Chess went to visit the Rolling Stones rehearsal space, he saw a poster on the wall for the Electric Mud album. Led Zeppelin's bassist John Paul Jones cites Electric Mud as the inspiration for the basic riff behind "Black Dog." Marshall Chess also notes "the English accepted it; they are more eccentric." Strangely enough, rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy has emerged over the years as the biggest supporter of the record, stating "To me, it's a brilliant record. I've played it a thousand times." Chuck D also explained part of the intent of the record saying "It took me a while to warm up to traditional blues, but what struck me right away was the Electric Mud thing." Based on the success of Electric Mud, another blues musician on Chess, Howlin Wolf, was forced into recording a psych record. This Is Howlin Wolf's New Album (subtitled And He Doesn't Like It) (1969) isn't as good as Electric Mud although it did yield a minor hit with a psyched out version of "Evil." Chubby Checker even released a psych record (Chequered (1971)) that sounds better than you'd expect, though it only came out in England.

Over the years, Muddy has famously criticized EM, but around the time of its release, he seemed to have a different attitude. Blues fans claim he always hated it but the following proves otherwise. Six months after EM, the same line-up reassembled and recorded a sequel called After The Rain (1969) that still has distortion on it but isn't as overtly psychedelic. If Muddy hadn't liked EM, he would have had enough say at Chess to dismiss a follow-up, but instead he went along with it. In fact, Pete Cosey says "I'll never forget as soon as I walked into the studio for the follow-up and Muddy saw me he threw his arms around me and said ‘Hey, how you doing, boy, play some of that stuff you played on the last album." After The Rain's songs alternate between Chicago blues and distorted guitar tracks.

There's a marked difference on After The Rain with Paul Oscher (harmonica) and Otis Spann (piano) from Muddy's old band joining in and Muddy playing lead guitar on several tracks. On the Chicago blues tracks, more prominent bass and drums put the music into a rock setting, but it's Muddy's slide guitar playing that highlights them. Muddy really let's loose with some striking, tenseful slide work on tracks like "Honey Bee," "Rollin and Tumblin" and "Blues and Trouble" that just send a chill through your bones. On the other side of the album, the guitar on "Ramblin Mind" lashes and cries out in dense fuzz while on "Bottom of the Sea," the fuzzy leads seem to hang in the air along with an innovative bowed bass and harmonious organ in the background (the bowed bass is also used on the record on "I am The Blues").

By the time After The Rain came out, the blues critics created enough of a backlash that it started affecting sales. Muddy must have realized that the records were upsetting his blues fanbase which had been loyal to him for over twenty years. Perhaps he feared he'd lose them forever if he stayed in this direction and that the young fanbase he had now might not stick with him as long. It wasn't until 1970 and after a more normal electric blues record (Fathers and Sons) that Muddy started talking badly about Electric Mud and then only mildly at first. Muddy released some great records in the rest of his lifetime, but he never experimented much with his music again.

In the years following Electric Mud and Muddy's Death in 1983 from heart failure , the record itself started building a cult around it, comprised of acid rock fans, record collectors and curious people. By 1996, the resurgence of popularity in the record matched with its scarcity led it to being reissued in a deluxe edition by Chess with new line notes by Mark Humphrey and Marshall Chess. Despite all the bad press Electric Mud received, Marshall Chess never stopped claiming it was a brilliant, misunderstood record.

In 2003, The Blues, a PBS-TV series produced by famed director Martin Scorsese, traced the roots of the blues from Africa to modern day society, showing how it inspired other generations of musicians. While in production, Marshall Chess got an e-mail from Chuck D saying that he heard he was doing a film that connected the blues to hip hop and that he wanted to be part of it. Chess was happy to hear Chuck D say "Electric Mud was one of his favorite, most influential albums and that all the early hip hop guys were inspired by it," affirming a connection he thought had happened.

In the episode titled Godfathers and Sons, the focus is on the Chicago blues, Chess records and the effect of Electric Mud on Public Enemy, with Chuck D coming to Chicago, led on a historic blues tour by Chess. There, Chuck D's feverant appreciation of EM got him to reassemble the musicians from the sessions to perform material from it for the upcoming 20th Anniversary Chicago Blues Festival. In keeping with the experimental vein of the record, Chuck D added a turntablist (Juice) and a rapper (Kyle Jason) to the band, re-naming the group the Electric Mudcats. Having the material played at a blues festival showed how the album had finally come full circle, from being hated to being respected and enjoyed.
by Tim Shannon

Tracks
1. I Just Want To Make Love To You (Willie Dixon) - 4:17
2. I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man (Willie Dixon) - 4:51
3. Let's Spend the Night Together (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) - 3:09
4. She's Alright (McKinley Morganfield) - 6:33
5. Mannish Boy (McKinley Morganfield) - 3:48
6. Herbert Harper's Free Press News (Sidney Barnes, Robert Thurston) - 4:37
7. Tom Cat (Charles Williams) - 3:38
8. The Same Thing (Willie Dixon) - 5:43

Musicians
*Muddy Waters - Vocal
*Gene Barge - Tenor Saxophone
*Phil Upchurch - Guitars
*Roland Faulkner - Guitars
*Pete Cosey - Guitars
*Charles Stepney - Organ
*Louis Satterfield - Bass
*Morris Jennings - Drums

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Funkadelic - Maggot Brain (1971 us, fantastic soul funk psych, 2005 bonus tracks remaster)

"Maggot Brain" is far more than something that can be defined by any individual genre. It's a fusion of so many musical ideas that it simply should not work. After all, any album that is defined by the label of "funk", traditionally an upbeat style of music really should not start with a 10 minute guitar solo owing more to the blues than anything else. It's hard to really compare this solo to much else (it's been described as the greatest solo ever, and with very good reason), but if you really want a point of comparison it's probably a good idea to listen to Shine On You Crazy Diamond by Pink Floyd, since there are some definite similarities there, not least in the blues influence, and in the way that the songs builds and builds.

However, and remarkably, this solo (played by the late Eddie Hazel) actually outdoes that song in terms of pure emotion. As some of you will know, Shine On You Crazy Diamond is a tribute to Syd Barrett, the former member of Pink Floyd, and as such really is an emotional song, but it simply can't live up to this. Whereas Gilmour plays with feeling, and not much speed, here the guitar is both dripping with emotion as well, at times, sounding like it's going to fall in on itself, such is the passion and speed with which it's being played.. The fact that Hazel was simply told by funk legend George Clinton (the creative force behind this album) to "play like your mother just died" may account for the quality of this song, but the fact that it was recorded in one take makes it a truly remarkable piece of music, as well as being completely and totally atypical of anything that could really call itself "funk". You see why I put that disclaimer at the top yet?

Although that's by far and away the biggest oddity on the album, it's by no means the most thrilling track here, beautiful though it is. The next two songs, Can You Get To That and You And Your Folks, Me And My Folks are far more upbeat, although hidden deep under the waves of bubbling funk is the dark secret of this album, namely how political it is. And here's another thing that makes this odd. Funk simply isn't meant to be like this. Funk is meant to be James Brown, singing about feeling like a sex machine. In spite of George Clinton's reputation though, the lyrics here include lines such as:

?But if in our fears, we don't learn to trust each other
And if in our tears, we don't learn to share with your brother
You know that hate is gonna keep on multiplying
And you know that man is gonna keep right on dying".

While this is obviously very much a product of the times (in Vietnam war era America it would have been hard to have some political references somewhere in your music), and the idealism of the record can grate on some people, in a way that merely strengthens the album still further. After all, although some of the lyrics here focus on the staple of women, and Clinton?s love for them, ideas such as "You've lost the fight and the winner is fear" would be considered as lyrical genius if more conventionally respected songwriters wrote them. What am I trying to say here? Basically, don't write this album off because of the politics that's in here at times. Although it can be corny, it's genuine, and adds yet another layer to the intense musical experience that's available with this album.

On the subject of musical experiences, I perhaps haven't talked about just how many influences this album has, and how much it subsequently influenced. Although, as I've said, there are blues influences clearly obvious here, there's also jazz, soul, psychedelica, as well as a clear precursor of what would become metal, on Super Stupid, which is built around a blazing guitar performance from Hazel. If the title track sees him displaying his most sensitive side, this song shows how well he can write a truly memorable riff of the sort that Jimmy Page would rip off Willie Dixon for, before following it with a virtuoso solo. Not only do the band play many styles, but my God do they do it well. Bernie Worrell, who plays keyboards on this album often takes a back seat to the other members of the band, but on Hit It And Quit It gives a demonstration of his talents, as well as being the proud possessor of a chorus that can probably be heard from outer space, as well as being the spiritual twin of Can You Get To That, which features greatly diverse vocals, with a gospel choir providing the bulk of the singing, with a deep baritone occasionally entering the mix.

If there's one criticism of this album, it's that Back In Our Minds is on it. While not a bad track in its own right (in fact it's quite enjoyable when listened to by itself), it simply isn't up to the standard of the rest of the record. Although it features some really odd effects that I'm not even going to try and attribute to a particular instrument, it sounds as if it was recorded as an afterthought, with vaguely dissonant voices moaning away in the background, and no real structure to the song existing. Other than that though, the record's near perfect. Unlike some other great albums they've also put the record together pretty much to perfection. With the opening and closing track both being over 9 minutes long and no other song going over the 4 minute mark it's short enough to be easily listenable to, but with enough themes and ideas on never to get boring. And on final song Wars Of Armageddon, all hell breaks loose.

The most obvious immediate comparison is to something like Revolution 9; The Beatles's famous ambient piece that they never really sounded like either before or after, but that's to ignore the genius of the song. Although there are lyrics to it (mainly freedom chants of one sort or another), these very much fade in and out of the music, and aren't the focus at all. Latin drumming, constantly shifting guitars, and electronic effects that sound as if they're gatecrashing the band's private party make this sound as if the band just sat down, turned on every machine they could find in the studio, and recorded what happened for the next 9 minutes. Now I think of it they may have done just that, but the fact remains that no matter how they got there, Wars Of Armageddon is a true masterpiece, with both musical skill and effects such as cows mooing, airport announcements, and background whispers combining to keep the listener intrigued for the full duration of the song.

Who would I recommend this album to? In a word, everyone. It's undoubtedly a definitive album, although of what genre I'm not really quite sure. At times emotionally pure, at others sounding like an aural orgasm, this is a work of music that most bands would be forced to hold their hands up to and admit that they just don't have the creativity to even begin thinking about making an album like this. If you hate all the genres that I've shamelessly namechecked in this review (just for clarity's sake I've worked my way through jazz, soul, funk, psychedelica, metal, blues, and I'm now adding rock, just because I can), then at the very least download the title track. As an exhibition of how good the guitar can sound, that's pretty much unsurpassed. For everyone else, just get the album. It's quite possible that you'll never look at music in quite the same way again.
by Sputnik Music

Tracks
1. Maggot Brain (George Clinton, Eddie Hazel) – 10:20
2. Can You Get to That (George Clinton, Ernie Harris) – 2:50
3. Hit It And Quit It (George Clinton, Billy Bass Nelson, Garry Shider) – 3:50
4. You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks (George Clinton, Judie Jones, Bernie Worrell) – 3:36
5. Super Stupid (George Clinton, Eddie Hazel, Billy Bass Nelson, Tawl Ross) – 3:57
6. Back in Our Minds (Fuzzy Haskins) – 2:38
7. Wars of Armageddon (George Clinton, Tiki Fulwood, Tawl Ross, Bernie Worrell) – 9:42
8. Whole Lot of BS (George Clinton, Bernie Worrell) - 2:11
9. I Miss My Baby (Eddie Haskins) - 5:02
10.Maggot Brain (Eddie Hazel, George Clinton) - 9:35

Musicians
*Eddie Hazel - Lead Guitar
*Tawl Ross - Rhythm Guitar
*Bernie Worrell - Keyboards
*Billy Bass Nelson - Bass
*Tiki Fulwood - Drums
*George Clinton - Vocals
*Fuzzy Haskins - Vocals
*Calvin Simon - Vocals
*Grady Thomas - Vocals
*Ray Davis - Vocals
*Garry Shider - Vocals
*Bernie Worrell - Vocals
*Tawl Ross - Vocals
*Eddie Hazel - Vocals
*Billy Bass Nelson - Vocals

1970  Funkadelic
1970  Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow 

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Funkadelic - Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow (1970 us, super heavy soul psych, 2005 bonus tracks remaster)

Conventional wisdom has it that Maggot Brain is the definitive early Funkadelic record, but for me, Free Your Mind… And Your Ass Will Follow best represents what the band – in their first acid drenched psychedelic funk incarnation – were really all about. Allegedly recorded in a single 24 hour session so that producer and band leader George Clinton could “see if we can cut a whole album while we’re tripping on acid”, Free Your Mind… is a nasty, clawing, scratching, messed up concoction of pysch funk guitar mayhem from start to finish. It’s easily Funkadelic’s noisiest and least immediately accessible album. It’s also a stone cold killer.

The opening title cut, ten minutes of squalling feedback drenched sound effects, drone rock and freaky lyrical chants, immediately demonstrates everything that’s wrong with trying to cut a record while heavily under the influence of hallucinogenics… and everything that’s so right about it. A more reflective (or sober) producer would surely have brought Eddie Hazel’s chugging guitar riff out to the forefront and rocked the track out from the get go. Instead, it’s faded teasingly in and out of the mix in a white squall of space age studio effects. Somehow, it still manages to work. “Free your mind and your ass will follow – the kingdom of heaven is within” the band chants amid the chaos, kicking off Funkadelic’s characteristic subversion of religious themes into quasi mystical party jams. The track resolves itself by breaking down into an extended, trancy organ solo by Bernie Worrell. Heady stuff.

Friday Night, August 14th, to my mind, is one of the most underrated cuts in the Funkadelic canon. It’s possibly the band’s hardest rocking track - a great slice of Hendrix inspired heavy guitar groove. Hazel’s riffage is thick, fuzzy and dirty sounding on this one, and the sound mix is rough as hell, but, if anything, this only serves to accentuate the track’s primal urgency. George Clinton was still learning his trade behind the production decks at this point. Later releases would feature a much more accomplished studio sheen, but in the early years the lack of polish became a part of Funkadelic’s signature sound. Free Your Mind… is an angry, buzzing, hissing record, fairly seething with an atmosphere of proto-punk menace.

Funky Dollar Bill is one of Funkadelic’s classic early singles. It’s a loose, raunchy funk rock stomper with more instant appeal than any other cut on the album. The band’s lyrics would get more pointed and wildly creative as time went on, but Funky Dollar Bill is an early example of Funkadelic’s wry, playful and slightly cynical worldview. Everybody knows that chasin’ a dollar ultimately gets you nowhere, but everybody keeps chasin’ a dollar anyway.

It’s immediately followed up by another classic single, and arguably the greatest of all the early Funkadelic tracks, I Wanna Know if it’s Good to You. The Eddie Hazel riff that drives the song is nothing less than inspired; an insanely funky wah-wah guitar lick that taps directly into the brain’s auditory G-Spot and then refuses to let go. It was the sound of Hazel’s guitar that was front and centre on all of the early Funkadelic records, his licks poured out all over them like white hot liquid gold. Criminally overlooked in the usual, tiresomely predictable magazine polls listing the greatest ever rock guitarists, Hazel was nothing less than the lineal successor to Jimi Hendrix. Not quite as flashy, maybe, but with a greater knack for turning out instantly killer funk rock riffs. Hazel breaks out into a searing, stinging guitar solo in the second half of the track – one of his finest in a terrific arsenal of inspired solo work – as Bernie Worrell vamps away on the organ. Tantalisingly, the tape fades out just as Hazel is poised to bust out with another lyrical passage of solo play. Man, I’d love to hear the studio out takes from this track.

The album shifts gears somewhat at this point with Some More, a rather more sedate number that trundles along on an amiable blues rock groove. It’s hardly one of Funkadelic’s most memorable moments, but it’s inoffensive enough and settles the palette after the preceding 25 minutes worth of psych guitar freak outs. The album closes with Eulogy and Light, one of the more bizarre experiments in Funkadelic’s back catalogue. It’s essentially snippets from Open Our Eyes – an early Funkadelic song – played backwards and mixed in with spaced out studio effects. It’s accompanied by an eerie chant that subverts the Lord’s Prayer into a satirical comment on consumer culture, before descending into abstract, vaguely sinister wordplay. It’s very much a product of its time, and as with many such acid fuelled ventures into studio experimentation – like say, The Beatles’ Revolution 9 – it’s not something you’d necessarily want to listen to repeatedly.

Clocking in at just under 31 minutes, Free Your Mind… And Your Ass Will Follow is a brief album, even by the standards of its 1971 release date. But it’s stripped of extraneous fat and there’s a refreshing lack of dud tracks, even if the last couple probably won’t be played through on every listen. It’s too rough and unevenly formed an album to be declared an outright masterpiece, and those in search of perfectly realised composition or elegant song craft had better look elsewhere. But Funkadelic were never really a “song” band. They were all about kickin’ out the jams. You either get on board and follow them deep into the groove, or you stay at home altogether. But if you can’t get enough of nasty sounding guitar freak out music, fulminating in a lethally funky psychedelic stew, then it just doesn’t get any more intoxicating than
Free Your Mind… And Your Ass Will Follow.
by The Grand Inquisitor 

Tracks
1. Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow (George Clinton, Ray Davis, Eddie Hazel) - 10:04
2. Friday Night, August 14th (Clinton, Hazel, Billy Bass Nelson) - 5:21
3. Funky Dollar Bill (Clinton, Davis, Hazel, Tawl Ross) - 3:15
4. I Wanna Know If It's Good to You? (Clinton, Clarence Haskins, Hazel , Nelson) 5:59
5. Some More (Clinton, Ernie Harris, Hazel ) - 2:56
6. Eulogy and Light (Clinton, Harris) - 3:31
7. Fish, Chips and Sweat (William Nelson,Eddie Hazel, George Clinton) - 3:22 
8. Free Your Mind Radio Advert - 0:55
9. I Wanna Know If It's Good to You (William Nelson, Edward Hazel, Clarence Haskins, George Clinton) - 2:50 
10.I Wanna Know If It's Good to You (instrumental) (William Nelson, Edward Hazel, Clarence Haskins, George Clinton) - 3:12 

Musicians
*George Clinton - Vocals
*Ray Davis - Vocals
*Fuzzy Haskins - Vocals
*Calvin Simon - Vocals
*Grady Thomas - Vocals
*Eddie Hazel - Lead Guitar, Lead Vocals (Tracks 4,5)
*Tawl Ross - Rhythm Guitar, Lead Vocals (Track 3)
*Billy Bass Nelson - Bass, Lead Vocals (Tracks 2,4)
*Bernie Worrell - Keyboards, Piano (Track 3), Organ  (Track 9)
*Tiki Fulwood - Drums

1970  Funkadelic

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Funkadelic - Funkadelic (1969-70 us, superb soul heavy psych, 2005 bonus tracks remaster)

Funkadelic, arguably the greatest "black rock" band ever...Actually, strike that, they are far and away the best black rock band ever. In fact, screw everything, they're one of the greatest rock bands period, up there with any classic rock dinosaur you care to name. And though it's tempting to launch an essay on the racism of rock radio-- or rock journalism for that matter-- I'll stick to the band. Even as they're revered as legends and purveyors of the some of the best funk of the 70s, I've read relatively few accounts on their greatness as a pure rock band. But they had it all: great players, great singers, a great look, a great concept, actual hits, great albums, great drugs, freaky sex, disputes over money-- everything Led Zeppelin (or Spinal Tap) taught us was necessary to make the world's greatest rock music.

They started small, backing up ringleader George Clinton's Parliaments in the late 60s. When Clinton got into arguments with his label Revilot over money and rights, he decided to start recording his backup band instead, using the original Parliaments singers (Clinton, Ray Davis, Clarence "Fuzzy" Haskins-- and come on, dude's name is "Fuzzy"-- Calvin Simon and Grady Thomas) as "guests." Guitarists Eddie Hazel and Tawl Ross, bassist Billy Nelson, drummer Tiki Fulwood, and eventually, master keyboardist Bernie Worrell were the band that would turn this fairly traditional soul group into the intense live act that wowed Detroit's Westbound Records head Armen Boladian. He signed them, and from the get-go, their music cut through genres and money bullshit like neither had ever existed. Never mind that half the band quit and came back again during recording sessions for their first record, Funkadelic was destined for greatness. Ace's reissues of the band's Westbound catalog is long overdue-- they sound a world better than the terribly mastered original CD pressings, and contain a wealth of bonus tracks, alternate mixes, and liner notes.

Funkadelic from 1970 was a bomb dropped all over rock and soul. No matter Hendrix, no matter James Brown, no matter the MC5, nobody had ever heard anything like this. This music was slower than sludge, dirtier than the "raw funk" Herb "Sparky" Sparkman talks about in "Music For My Mother". It was a great big fucking mess, and a lot of people didn't know what to make of it. I remember reading a Rolling Stone review from the time that ended with "who needs this shit?" and a writer from the Blues & Soul 'zine from a year later admitted, "Funkadelic has never been one of my favorite R&B; acts". Still, the record sold (peaking at #16 on the Soul LPs chart), and planted the seed of a cult worship that would balloon in the latter half of the decade, making the P-Funk enterprise the most successful soul act on the planet.

"Mommy, What's a Funkadelic?" started out with the sound of Clinton's wet mouth and the best ever opening line for an album: "If you will suck my soul, I will lick your funky emotions." When the beat hits with Hazel's guitar line, there can be no doubt that Funkadelic were without peer as far as this stuff was concerned. This stuff-- hell, tunes like "Mommy" and "Good Old Music" are slams to the gut as powerful as anything Zep ever did, and with beats to spare. "Music For My Mother" is like a Southern myth, detailing a loner's travels through "Keep Runnin' Mississippi", hearing music he thought long dead, yet getting trapped by its sticky black allure. "What Is Soul?" drops more classic lines ("soul is a hamhock in your cornflakes," "Soul is chitlins foo young," "soul is a joint rolled in toilet paper") in seven minutes than most bands muster up in a career. Bonus tracks like the tight instrumental "As Good As I Can Feel" and several single versions of album cuts make this album one of the most indispensable of all indispensable Funkadelic records.
by Dominique Leone

Tracks
1. Mommy, What's a Funkadelic? (George Clinton) - 9:04
2. I Bet You (George Clinton, Patrick Lindsey, Sidney Barnes) - 6:10
3. Music for My Mother (George Clinton, Eddie Hazel, Billy Nelson) - 5:37
4. I Got a Thing, You Got a Thing, Everybody's Got a Thing (Clarence Haskins) - 3:52
5. Good Old Music (George Clinton) - 7:59
6. Qualify and Satisfy (George Clinton, Billy Nelson, Eddie Hazel) - 6:15
7. What Is Soul (George Clinton) - 7:40
8. Can't Shake It Loose (George Clinton, Sidney Barnes, Joanne Jackson, Rose Marie McCoy) - 2:28 
9. I Bet You (George Clinton, Patrick Lindsey, Sidney Barnes) - 4:10 
10.Music for My Mother (George Clinton, Eddie Hazel, Billy Nelson) - 5:17 
11.As Good as I Can Feel (George Clinton, Clarence Haskins) - 2:31
12.Open Our Eyes (Leon Lumpkins) - 3:58 
13.Qualify and Satisfy (George Clinton, Billy Nelson, Eddie Hazel) - 3:00 
14.Music for My Mother (George Clinton, Eddie Hazel, Billy Nelson) - 6:14 

Bonus Tracks 8-14

Musicians

*George Clinton - Vocals

*Eddie Hazel - Lead Guitar, Vocals (Tracks 1,9)

*Lucius "Tawl" Ross - Rhythm Guitar, Vocals (Tracks 3,10)

*Ray Monette - Guitar (Track 4)

*Billy "Bass" Nelson - Bass (Track 1), Vocals (Tracks 3,4,10)

*Bob Babbitt - Bass (Track 9)

*Mickey Atkins - Organ (Track 1)

*Bernie Worrell - Organ (Track )

*Earl Van Dyke - Keyboards (Track 9)

*Ramon "Tiki" Fulwood - Drums (Tracks 1,4,9,6,13) 

*Brad Innis - Drums (Tracks 3,10)

*Gasper Lawal - Conga (Tracks 3,10)

*Herb Sparkman - Lead Vocals (Tracks 3,10)

*Clarence "Fuzzy" Haskins - Lead Vocals (Track 4)

*Calvin Simon - Lead Vocals (Tracks 6,13) 

*Ray Davis, Grady Thomas and some unknown Female Vocalists - Additional Vocals 

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