Having worked with George Martin on their self titled debut, Edward's Hand began recording at Morgan Studios in 1970, attempting to create a harder and more progressive sound than before. There where no nervous second album vibes here! The album is comprised of evocative and intelligent progressive pop songs immaculately produced featuring Edward's and Hand's distinctive harmonies to the fore.
The second half of the album is effectively a concept of alienation and isolation, covered in the seven minute title track and the twelve minute epic Death Of A Man. which includes an incredible "orchestra duelling-with-moogs" mid section followed by a beautifully majestic and Beatles like coda. Stranded marks its reissue here on CD with the inclusion of the original artwork by Revolver cover artist and long term Beatle friend Klaus Voorman.
The line drawing of a Southern Sheriff, ties in with the lyrics of Sheriff Myras Lincoln - a song about an American racist policeman - and was subsequently banned and replaced with different artwork by RCA in the US. Clearly more confident and adventurous lyrically on this album, Edward's Hand also had more time with George Martin during the pre-production stages. This preparation time, an intelligent lyric writing team and Georges complex yet concise orchestral arrangements give their second LP a much worldlier and unique feel.
Edwards Hand were the first group that George Martin arranged and produced after The Beatles. This is the band's second album and was originally released in 1970. It features some stunning string arrangements by George Martin from the first sessions to be mixed at his then new Air Studios.
The cover art is a controversial caricature of a US Sheriff by "Revolver" Beatles artist / friend Klaus Voorman. This artwork was banned by the US label and was subsequently replaced with different artwork on the original US pressing of the album. It is re-instated on this release. Edwards Hand were formally the short-lived Picadilly Line who released the ultra rare album The Huge World of Emily Small, whilst Rod Edwards was also a key member of legendary UK folk band Jade.
Stranded features John Wetton's first guest appearance on an album, just before he joined Family and Jimmy Litherland of Colosseum. The band is virtually the same grouping that backed Marianne Segal and Dave Waite on the legendary Fly On Strange Wings album by Jade.
This preparation time, an intelligent lyric writing team and George's complex yet concise orchestral arrangements give their second LP a much worldlier and unique feel.
Tracks
1. US Flag - 4:51
2. Sheriff Myras Lincola - 6:01
3. Revolution's Death Man! - 4:04
4. Encounter - 2:39
5. Hello America - 2:37
6. Stranded - 7:07
7. Winter - 1:40
8. Death of a Man - 12:11
....i. Die When You Must Die
....ii. The Strife Is O'ef the Battle Done
....iii. He Is Gone
....iv. This May Sound Strange
....v. The Sentence Is Life
All songs written by Rod Edwards and Roger Hand
Edwards Hand
*Rod Edwards - Keyboards, Vocals
*Roger Hand - Acoustic Guitar, Vocals
*James Litherland - Electric Guitar
*John Wetton - Bass
*Clem Cattini - Drums
Blossom Toes were the twee-est band of all time-- twice as twee as the Dukes of Stratosphear covering "(Listen to the) Flower People" in front of an audience of animated chipmunks, thrice as twee as a Keane painting magically brought to life by a sprinkling of fairy dust and singing the Fluff Fluff Fluff Fluff and Cuddleyness catalogue. Originally the Ingoes, one of ten million British blues bands who desperately wanted to be the Yardbirds, they hooked up with their idols' manager Giorgio Gomelsky; just as flower power was taking off, they were directed to become psychedelicists and change their name, for reasons having less to do with LSD than pounds-shillings-pence.
The Toes claim their songs were all written by the time somebody played them an acetate of Sgt. Pepper's in the studio. If so, "Penny Lane"/"Strawberry Fields Forever" seems to have hit them like an acid bomb, because virtually every song here can trace its DNA to the Beatles' psychedelic moment, from the harmonies to Kevin Westlake's Ringofied drumming to the quick-changing orchestrations accompanying the chime of their twelve-string guitars to their general sense of persistently tuneful music-hall whimsy as the corridor behind the doors of perception.
They don't waste time getting around to it, either: The opening track begins with a backwards-guitar fade-in before singer/guitarist Brian Godding exclaims "Look at me I'm you! Look at me I'm you!" Godding was the band's main songwriter, although guitarist Jim Cregan also gets in a couple of good ones, especially "When the Alarm Clock Rings" (later recycled as the closing track of the Nuggets II compilation), and Westlake contributes a song called "The Remarkable Saga of the Frozen Dog", which is as look-at-me-I'm-high as you'd guess.
And virtually everything on the original album works beautifully-- they'd spent years streamlining their attack on stage, including a stint backing up Sonny Boy Williamson, so the spaced-out playfulness of their lyrics and singing is balanced out by fine, tough musicianship. "Hurry up, sleep, take me/Or I'll be late for tea," they croon, but even as an overdubbed French horn paraphrases the "Penny Lane" coda, Westlake and bassist Brian Belshaw are playing crushingly hard.
The bonus tracks appended here mostly just demonstrate how quickly the bloom came off the blossom: a few demos and live tracks meant to suggest what the "real" Toes sounded like without the album's ludicrous overdubs (not nearly as much fun), and a forced-sounding cover of Bob Dylan's "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" from a 1968 A-side. Two years later, they made a heavy, dull second and final album, If Only for a Moment, which has also just been reissued; the new edition includes the single "Postcard", the only trace of whimsy that remained in them after Clean.
The summer of 1967 produced lots of phenomena, and the historical condition for the Blossom Toes to be not just twee but wonderful might have been one of them. The only reasonable response in 2007 to hearing them chirp "I will bring you plastic flowers/You can play with them for hours" in druggy harmony is to conclude that they're a brilliant put-on. But they were for real-- or at least not wholly fictional-- and, for a few gorgeous, candy-colored months, they kicked ass up and down the Royal Parks.
by Douglas Wolk
Tracks
1. Look at Me I'm You (Brian Godding,Giorgio Gomelsky) - 3:55
2. I'll Be Late for Tea (Brian Godding) - 2:42
3. The Remarkable Saga of the Frozen Dog (Kevin Westlake) - 3:02
4. Telegram Tuesday (Brian Godding) - 2:37
5. Love Is (Brian Godding) - 2:41
6. What's It For? (Jim Cregan) - 3:03
7. People of the Royal Parks (Kevin Westlake) - 2:20
8. What on Earth (Brian Godding) - 2:52
9 .Mrs. Murphy's Budgerigar (Jim Cregan, Kevin Westlake) - 2:38
10.I Will Bring You This and That (Brian Godding) - 2:55
A French Canadian band from Montreal, Quebec, whose album features some tasty guitar work, all the lyrics are sung in French. The band saw Dominique Sciscente playing in a dusty little club and was excited, he managed a contract and studio recording for RCA. Their influence was a magma of classic and hard blues rock.
Tracks
1. Pas Besom De Personne - 3:56
2. Un Employe - 3:41
3. Mei Je Crois En Toi - 3:52
4. Tout Cela Pour Nous - 3:40
5. Tu M'as Eu - 3:32
6. Elle Ne Veut Plus De Moi - 2:43
7. J'ai Pas Le Temps - 3:45
8. Comprendre - 5:42
9. Fais-Moi Sourire - 3:28
10. Le Vieux Du Coin - 4:50
11. Faut Pas Lacher - 2:31
All compositions by Vezina, Barbier, Sciortlno, Verrlllo
In 1972 the Human Instinct saw a single on the Zodiac label called 'Down The Hall On Saturday Night'/'Simple Man' and then in 1975 the final single on Family 'Tropical Paradise'/'Dixie Holiday'.
Between 1972 and 1982 there were many combinations of the group. Others to have had a stint with the band were Paul Whitehead, Steve McDonald, Peter Cuddihy, Andrew Kaye, Chris Gunn, John Parker, Malcolm Weatherall, Len Whittle, Kevin Fury, Steve Hubbard, Murray Hancox, Stuart Pearce and Peter Woods. Around 1982, the Human Instinct was formally disbanded by Maurice Greer. After his time with the band, Billy TK went on to form Powerhouse.
In late 1975, when the line-up consisted of Greer on drums, Whitehead on guitar, Mikkelson on bass, and McDonald on keyboards, a recording session for an impending album was done. The group at that time had been playing together for around 18 months at the Shantytown nightclub under Auckland's Civic Theatre. Several months passed before a rough mix-down of the tapes were performed. By the time the sessions were finished, the Human Instinct had moved on to a new residency at Crofts and there style of music had changed, along with new members in the band. The project was subsequently shelved.
This completely restored and re-mastered recording was thought to have been lost forever until it was discovered in mid-2001 hidden away in the dusty shelves of the Stebbing Recording Studios Ponsonby warehouse. The search to resurrect the album began after band founder Maurice Greer, armed with a rough cassette copy of the 1975 sessions, began making inquiries about what happened to the master. Studios boss Eldred Stebbing, who was present at the sessions 27-years ago was surprised to hear how well the sound had stood the test of time and began the search for the 16-track master.
In 1974-75 the sessions featured a tight unit that had worked solidly together during an 18 month residency at the Shantytown nightclub under Auckland's Civic Theatre. Maurice Greer was still playing his modified stand-up drum kit and singing, Phil Whitehead was on guitars, Steve McDonald on keyboards and vocals and Glenn Mikkelson on bass and vocals. According to Greer, by the time the sessions were completed the band and the style of music had completely changed.
He didn't feel that releasing the album would be fair on new members or the expectations of club-goers. It was several months after the old line up went its way that Peg Leg was mixed. There was a fall out with the original engineer and a young Phil Yule, later to record such greats as Herbs, took over the desk. His rough mix, which was misplaced shortly after is what impressed Eldred Stebbing to pick up the project again.
Tracks
1. Freebird (A. Collins, R. Van Zant) - 9:17
2. All Time Loser (Zaine Griff) - 4:32
3. Find Your Heart (Steve McDonald, Phil Whitehead) - 7:39
4. Peg Leg (Maurice Greer) - 3:05
5. For a Friend Pt.1 (Steve McDonald, Phil Whitehead) - 5:25
6. For a Friend Pt.2 (Steve McDonald, Phil Whitehead) - 3:41
7. Fallen Star (Zaine Griff) - 5:09
8. Hey You (Phil Whitehead) - 4:11
9. Tight Rope Lover (Zaine Griff) - 4:46
10.Instinct (M. Greer, Z. Griff, S. McDonald, P. Whitehead) - 2:22
Human Instinct
*Steve McDonald - Keyboard, Vocals
*Phil Whitehead - Lead Guitar
*Maurice Greer - Lead Vocals, Drums
*Zaine Griff - Bass Guitar
In 1965, Barry Seidel formed a music company called Traydel Productions. The first band Seidel signed was The Mad Hatters from Washington DC. In the course of one year the band released three stunningly great singles- “I Need Love”, “Go Find A Love” and “I’ll Come Running”, all with Dylanesque-PF Sloan sounding folk-rock songs as the b-sides.
Mad Hatter live shows were legendary as well, as is exemplified by the explosion of the amps during their electrifying medley of “Since You’ve Been Gone>I’m All Right>The Mad Hatter Theme” and their rocking version of “I Need Love”, both included on this album along with all their singles, making this the most complete collection of Mad Hatters’ material ever released.
The Mad Hatters were originally from Annapolis, Maryland and had been around for almost a year before Barry Seidel saw them one Monday night in September 1965. He went to The Roundtable (Riley Carter's Club) on M Street in Georgetown. The band did an original song written by lead guitarist, Tom Curley, called "I Need Love".
The Fallen Angels were the second band Seidel signed and they are represented by a six song set of singles and unreleased recordings from 1966. These are the earliest recordings by the band and range from folk-rock (Pebble In My Sand, Hello Girl, I Have Found) to “Love”(Arthur Lee) type ballads (Have You Ever Lost A Love, Every Time I Fall In Love) and garage (Who Do You Love). In addition to all this excitement are two previously unreleased 1966 folk-rock Byrds sounding gems from The Loved Ones, plus a 1967 version of “I Need Love” by The Time Stoppers. Rare photos and radio promos make this a complete trip back to 1966, when The Mad Hatters and The Fallen Angels were the two hottest bands in Washington DC and “I Need Love” mania swept the airwaves.
Tracks The Mad Hatters
1. I Need Love (Curley) - 2:33
2. Go Find A Love (Curley) - 2:46
3. I'll Come Running - 2:22
4. Hello Girl - 2:06 The Fallen Angels
5. Have You Ever Lost A Love - 2:56
6. I Have Found - 2:45 The Loved Ones
7. Where You Gonna Run To - 3:02
8. Being Here With You - 3:39 The Mad Hatters
9. This Is How It's Gonna Be (Curley) - 2:36
10.Blowin' In The Wind (Dylan) - 2:55 The Fallen Angels
11.A Pebble In My Sand (Jones) - 3:04
12.Hello Girl - 2:10
13.Every Time I Fall In Love - 2:44
14.Who Do You Love (McDaniel) - 2:36 The Time Stoppers
15.I Need Love (Curley) - 2:54 The Mad Hatters
16.The Mad Hatters Theme (Set 1) - 1:48
17.I Need Love - 3:26
18.Since You've Been Gone - I'm All Right - The Mad Hatters Theme (End Of Live Set) (Curley, McDaniel) - 8:40
19.I Need Love - Weam Pick Hit ToGo Go Go Go !!! - 0:40
The Mad Hatters (1965 – 1966)
*Dave Vittek - Lead Vocals
*Tom Curley - Lead Guitar, Harmonica
*Alan Folwer - Bass
*Richard Kumer - Drums
The Fallen Angels
*Charlie Jones C.J..- Lead Vocals, Lead Guitar
*Jack Bryant - Lead Vocals, Bass
*Wally Cook - Rhythm Guitar
*Ned Davis - Drums
*Rocky Isaac - Drums
Killer West Coast psychedelic monster that took many years to be completed!!! West Coast Natural Gas began life in 1965 in Seattle. In early 1967 they went to San Francisco to work for a local music manager named Matthew Katz.
Katz was the original manager for Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape and later It’s a Beautiful Day. He talked West Coast Natural Gas into signing a contract with him but they didn’t realize at the time, being young and stupid. That basically they signed over everything to him. They went to the studio and recorded some original tunes: A Favor, Go Run and Play, The Jumping Frog, Hashish, Water or Wine, Beyond This Place, and Two’s A Pair.
In early 1968 the band broke up and went back to Seattle. Katz released a single – Go Run and Play / A Favor on his S.F. Sound label under the name West Coast Natural Gas. Later he released a compilation album - the first San Francisco Sound sampler - called “Fifth Pipe Dream”. The four songs mentioned before, Water or Wine, Hashish, Beyond This Place and Two’s A Pair were the ones recorded by WCNG and relabeled by Katz as Indian Puddin’ and Pipe.
This superb release includes all the above mentioned songs, plus others from acetates. As a big surprise another four never before heard songs recorded 1966 in a local Seattle Recording Studio before they went to San Francisco are included.
Tracks
1. Go Run And Play (Kris Larsen) - 2:33
2. A Favor (Steve Mack) - 3:41
3. A Favor Version 2 (Steve Mack) - 3:44
4. The Jumping Frog (Pat Craig) - 3:33
5. Two's A Pair (Steve Mack) - 4:15
6. Beyond This Place (Pat Craig) - 2:32
7. Hashish (Kris Larsen) - 3:03
8. Water Or Wine (Steve Mack) - 3:40
9. The West Coast Natural Gas White Levis Commercial 'Never Break' (Pat Craig) - 0:46
10.Radio Promo from the Galaxy Club ca. 1968 - 0:37
11.Mr. You're A Better Man Than I (M. Hugg, B. Hugg) - 2:56
12.Younger Girl (J. Sebastian) - 2:11
13.You Make Me Feel So Good (C. White) - 2:12
14.He Was A Friend Of Mine (Traditional, lyrics by J. McGuinn) - 2:38
Welcome to Country Weather, "a chaos that once in a while generated perfection and on ocassions intense frustration”. The band came out of the suburbs of San Francisco in Walnut Creek. Like the English bands, when they went on stage it was a "battle of the bands". It was in an era when actual "battle of the bands" were being staged and the audience actually voted.
Nothing probably motivated Country Weather more than when they felt they were being short changed, not appreciated or underestimated. I think I enjoyed them the most when they had that little extra motivation along with a nice touch of anger. In those moments something incredible could crawl out and would amaze, who? Themselves! That was the simple magic of it all. For my money (which is extremely prejudiced) they rank as one of the greatest live on stage bands of their era (and they never got the proper credit.) I often said that if you could see them 10 nights in a row you could then begin to grasp just how far out on the wire they could walk.
They could jam and improvise with the very best. Many of their classic songs "Carry a Spare", "Fly to New York" and the Blues Project's "Wake me, Shake Me" were just mini stages to launch wonderful improvised jams. Everything being equal I can't name a bay area band that could compete with them. Their set lists, like their influences and personal tastes knew no musical boundaries or definitions, it was everything from Country to Blues to Psychedelic to Rock and everything else in between.
I will never forget the first time 1 saw them and they played a perfect absolutely beautiful, rendition of The Beatles "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". Nobody really touched "Beatle Music" then, nobody!! You could close your eyes and you swear it was actually the Beatles playing. They had so much respect and feel for them. Country Weather were an amazing coincidence coming from Walnut Creek staring up at the alter of the San Francisco music scene and wanting to be a part of it and later becoming part of it. When it came down to challenging themselves to be the very best, there was no band in the bay area to compare.
They were haunted by such high standards, which so rarely achieved, created immense inferiority at times that I think it probably held them back sonic. As the Who said, Country Weather could "see for miles and miles and miles" and were hardly ever satisfied with their playing and when they played they would go all-out to outdo their previous performance and that is what made them such a great band. I believed in these four people more then they can ever know.
I viewed the "Whole" and communicated my vision while they sat on the inside and communicated theirs, it was a perfect match. They got no easy breaks. At the Fillmore they played with the very best. 1 remember when they played with Jeff Beck, holding our own, sitting in the dressing room knowing, very simply, this was a "Battle of the Bands" (Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood and Mickey Waller) versus Country Weather, nothing more, nothing less.
For me it was scary and unacceptable to hear Bill Graham respond (after I got Country Weather on a week-end long Jeff Beck Group show)"Beck is a cunt". I remember Greg Douglass had just brought over the "Truth" album to hear "Beck's Bolero". Yeah right, Bill, "he is a cunt". Graham my mentor I don't think so. At that point, believe it or not. 1 realized Bill had no clue about real rock music. Me even hated The Rolling Stones then, his roots were Latin and blues and ho lacked any feel for "in your face rock", period! I don't know if I made mistakes (shot too high) but I do know this.
Till this day 1 will never forget when suddenly the beast would awake and take you to a place not imagined. They could never predict it, but just like me; once in a while they were the best they could be. Can anyone ever ask for more man that? I want to end with this. I really like the album cover it's very cool, very pretty, but, maybe a little too peaceful though because, Country Weather always had the threat of a thunderstorm or even a tornado lurking somewhere. As I told Mike Somavilla from day one I just want a collection of music that the band and I can be proud of. I don't think that it is really possible from everything I have listened to.
The Church Tapes certainly, the Sierra Sound Labs recordings? Those were never meant to be released; I only made those up to get them some gigs. "Fly To New York" was just in its infancy then and it was pretty much the same with "Carry A Spare" too, but is something from "this magnificent ghost" better then nothing, you bet! Can everyone agree to what's in and what's out? Probably not but, that is Country Weather.
by Bob Strand
Tracks 1969 Studio Recordings
1. Over And Over (Steve Derr) - 4:35
2. Boy With Out A Home (Steve Derr) - 3:50
3. Out On The Trail (Steve Derr) - 3:11
4. Yes That's Right (Steve Derr) - 3:40 1971 Recorded at The Church, San Anselmo, CA.
5. Why Time Is Leaving Me Behind (Greg Douglass, Steve Derr) - 2:23
6. New York City Blues"(Keith Relf, Chris Dreja) - 4:27
7. Carry A Spare (Greg Douglass) - 4:56
8. Fly To New York (Words by Steve Derr, Music by Country Weather) - 6:38
9. Black Mountain Rag (Traditional, arranged by Greg Douglass) - 1:23 1970 Live recordings at the Walnut Creek Civic Center July 31 and August 1
10.I Don't Know (Steve Derr) - 3:56
11. lack Mountain Rag (Traditional, arranged by Greg Douglass) - 7:00
12.Pakistan (Ring Around The Moon) (Steve Derr) - 2:42
13.Fly To New York (Words by Steve Derr, Music by Country Weather) - 9:03
14.New York City Blues (Keith Relf, Chris Dreja) - 4:20
15.Yes That's Right (Steve Derr) - 3:14
16.Wake Me Shake Me (traditional, arranged by Country Weather) - 14:38
Country Weather
*Dave Carter - Bass Guitar, Vocals
*Steve Deit - Rhythm Guitar, Vocals
*Greg Douglass - Lead Guitar, Vocals
*Bill Baron - Drums
The history books will tell you all you need to know about the great recording centres of the past such as Nashville, New Orleans, Memphis and Chicago, as well as the hit factories of New York and Detroit. By contrast, there are parts of America that hardly figure at all in the annals of rock‘n’roll, and the farming state of Wisconsin in the upper mid-West is one of them. It is the state rock‘n’roll forgot, more famous for the breweries of Milwaukee and for its dairy produce.
Amid this oasis of indifference, Jim Kirchstein set up a small studio-cum-label-cum-workshop which came to dominate the South Wisconsin scene for a decade without the benefit of publicity or even very many hits. Several hundred singles ranging in style from rock to country to polkas were released on Kirchstein’s Cuca label and its subsidiaries during that time, and dozens of young Wisconsin musicians owed him their start.
Located on the Wisconsin River, about 25 miles northwest of the state capital Madison, Sauk City could not have been further removed from the mainstream of the record business. One of Cuca’s first releases, Muleskinner Blues by the Fendermen, a rocked up version of an old hillbilly tune, caught on internationally in 1960 and, despite some legal difficulties, Kirchstein was able to plough back some of the profits into his own studio. By prudently keeping things small and manageable, Cuca gradually came into its own as its reputation as a recording locale began to spread.
Wisconsin boasted an awful lot of working rock bands, almost as many, in fact, as Merseyside in the early 60s. Wisconsin kids, weaned since infanthood on polkas, were so starved of rock that they lent their keen support to the thriving local scene and by 1962, the local rock scene had gradually coalesced. By the mid-60s, as more and more performers gravitated towards his self-contained little operation, Kirchstein even took to mastering and pressing his own records in-house.
This second release in Ace’s exploration of the Cuca legacy, taps into a rich vein of raw garage and psych rock released locally on Cuca, Night Owl, Wright and other off-shoots between 1965-69.
Bands such as the Plague, the Sandmen and the Willing Mind were by their very nature short-lived. Most of the participants were youngsters from middle-class families which placed education above the vagaries of the record business. Tellingly, most bands came together at their local high school, enjoyed a brief blossoming, before disintegrating in the aftermath of graduation. With the Vietnam conflict being at its height, the draft would also play a part in breaking up many bands.
Prospects weren’t always helped by the fact that Wisconsin was so far removed from the main hubs of the record industry. To be fair, most of the bands took a realistic view. In 1968 Mark Johnson, who played drums in the Willing Mind, a high school band from Horicon, Wisconsin (whose sole 45, Decide, can be heard here), told a local newspaper, “When a group like ours isn’t nationally or regionally known, it’s best to start with a few hundred records. A key factor to success seems to be the involvement of a distribution man. He listens to the song and if he thinks it will sell, he’ll send it to the radio stations and start it circulating. Unfortunately, distribution men are very hard to find and, so far, we’ve had to do it on our own.”
Only a handful of these relative novices were to remain in music for any length of time and, essentially, “Garagemental” offers a microcosmic glimpse into the rock bands of small town America in the years following the so-called British Invasion moving through to psychedelia. Though the influences are many and varied, they stem from the tougher end of the 60s rock spectrum.
Most of the original 45s were pressed in very small quantities and were only promoted in the immediate environs, making them extremely rare today. Add to this six previously unissued sides (including two by the legendary Joey Gee & the Come-Ons) and “Garagemental!” more than lives up to its ultra-rare tag and, more importantly, doesn’t waver from start to finish in kinetic intensity.
by Rob Finnis
Artists - Tracks
1. The Scarlet Henchmen - The Crystal Palace - 3:06
2. Joey Gee And The Come Ons - She's Mean - 2:48
3. Kiriae Crucible - The Salem Witch Trial - 2:53
4. Joey Gee And The Come Ons - 'Til The End Of Time - 2:10
5. The Wanderer's Rest - Don't Know What I'd Do - 2:33
6. The Trodden Path - Don't Follow Me - 2:06
7. The Trodden Path - Keep Me Hangin' On - 2:22
8. The Henchmen VI - All Of The Day - 2:36
9. The Henchmen VI - Is Love Real - 2:11
10.The Trodden Path - In This World I Need Love - 3:25
11.The Willing Mind - Decide - 2:25
12.The Wanderer's Rest - Love Is A Beautiful Thing - 2:52
13.The Challengers - Challengers Take A Ride On The Jefferson Airplane - 2:13
14.Raylene And The Blue Angels - Shakin' All Over - 2:10
15.Sundog - Gimme Some Lovin' - 3:16
16.Joey Gee And The Come Ons - Jenny, Jenny - 1:54
17.Joey Gee And The Come Ons - Little Latin Lupe Lu -2:35
18.The Wanderer's Rest - The Boat That I Row - 2:52
19.The Hitchikers - Feel A Whole Lot Better - 2:43
20.The Wanderer's Rest - You'll Forget - 2:45
21.The Sandmen - World Full Of Dreams - 2:07
22.The Wanderer's Rest - In Good Time - 2:03
23.The Plague - When I See That Girl Of Mine - 2:06
There was no shortage of good psychedelic albums emerging from England in 1967-1968, but Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake is special even within their ranks. The Small Faces had already shown a surprising adaptability to psychedelia with the single "Itchycoo Park" and much of their other 1967 output, but Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake pretty much ripped the envelope.
British bands had an unusual approach to psychedelia from the get-go, often preferring to assume different musical "personae" on their albums, either feigning actual "roles" in the context of a variety show (as on the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album), or simply as storytellers in the manner of the Pretty Things on S.F. Sorrow, or actor/performers as on the Who's Tommy.
The Small Faces tried a little bit of all of these approaches on Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake, but they never softened their sound. Side one's material, in particular, would not have been out of place on any other Small Faces release -- "Afterglow (Of Your Love)" and "Rene" both have a pounding beat from Kenny Jones, and Ian McLagan's surging organ drives the former while his economical piano accompaniment embellishes the latter; and Steve Marriott's crunching guitar highlights "Song of a Baker."
Marriott singing has him assuming two distinct "roles," neither unfamiliar -- the Cockney upstart on "Rene" and "Lazy Sunday," and the diminutive soul shouter on "Afterglow (Of Your Love)" and "Song of a Baker." Some of side two's production is more elaborate, with overdubbed harps and light orchestration here and there, and an array of more ambitious songs, all linked by a narration by comic dialect expert Stanley Unwin, about a character called "Happiness Stan."
The core of the sound, however, is found in the pounding "Rollin' Over," which became a highlight of the group's stage act during its final days -- the song seems lean and mean with a mix in which Ronnie Lane's bass is louder than the overdubbed horns. Even "Mad John," which derives from folk influences, has a refreshingly muscular sound on its acoustic instruments.
Overall, this was the ballsiest-sounding piece of full-length psychedelia to come out of England, and it rode the number one spot on the U.K. charts for six weeks in 1968, though not without some controversy surrounding advertisements by Immediate Records that parodied the Lord's Prayer. Still, Ogdens' was the group's crowning achievement -- it had even been Marriott's hope to do a stage presentation of Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake, though a television special might've been more in order.
by Bruce Eder
Tracks Disc 1
1. Ogden's Nut Gone Flake (Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan, Kenney Jones) - 2:39
2. Afterglow - 3:33
3. Long Agos And Worlds Apart (Ian McLagan) - 2:36
4. Rene - 4:06
5. Song Of A Baker - 3:15
6. Lazy Sunday - 3:10
7. Happiness Star - 3:38
8. Rollin' Over - 2:13
9. The Hungry Intruder (Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan) - 2:15
10.The Journey (Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan, Kenney Jones) - 4:03
11.Mad John - 4:20
12.Happydaystoytown (Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan, Kenney Jones) - 3:02
Disc 2
1. Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake (Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan, Kenney Jones) - 2:28
2. Afterglow of Your Love - 3:29
3. Long Agos and Worlds Apart (Ian McLagan) - 2:34
4. Rene - 4:31
5. Song of a Baker - 3:16
6. Lazy Sunday - 3:06
7. Happiness Stan - 2:37
8. Rollin' Over - 2:49
9. The Hungry Intruder (Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan) - 2:15
10.The Journey (Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan, Kenney Jones) - 4:09
11.Mad John - 2:50
12.Happy Days Toy Town (Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan, Kenney Jones) - 4:18
Disc 3
1. Lazy Saturday/ Whatcha Gonna Do About It (Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Ian Samwell, Brian Potter) - 3:49
2. Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake (Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan, Kenney Jones) - 4:08
3. Afterglow - 5:34
4. Long Agos And Worlds Apart (Ian McLagan) - 3:23
5. Rene - 2:50
6. Rene/ Song Of A Baker - 3:44
7. Lazy Sunday - 4:45
8. Untitled Spoken Word Track - 2:35
9. Happiness Stan - 2:57
10.Rollin' Over - 4:32
11.The Hungry Intruder (Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan) - 4:18
12.The Journey (Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan, Kenney Jones) - 3:46
13.Mad John - 4:39
14.Untitled Spoken Word Track - 0:52
15.Happydaystoytown (Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan, Kenney Jones) - 2:57
16.The Universal - 4:10
All songs by Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane except where stated
Small Faces
*Steve Marriott - Vocals, Guitar
*Ronnie Lane - Backing Vocals, Bass Guitar
*Kenney Jones - Drums
*Ian McLagan - Keyboards
By early 1968,The Paupers were heading towards meltdown.The group had lost its inspirational bass player Denny Gerrard, its debut album had been a commercial failure and debts were mounting. Against all odds, the group rallied and recorded its second album, Ellis Island, arguably one of the best records to emerge from the Canadian rock scene during the'60s.
The first step towards re-establishing The Paupers as a major act was finding a new bass player; no easy feat considering Gerrard's near legendary status. An impossible task, many would agree, but the remaining musicians came up with an excellent substitute in Brad Campbell from The Last Words. Campbell's group were no strangers to the Toronto scene. Having released three singles between late 1965 and early 1967, only one,"l Symbolise You" issued on Columbia, had seriously troubled Toronto's CHUM chart, reaching #14, although it reportedly reached #1 in some Canadian cities.
No doubt Campbell was delighted to be offered the job. The new line up hit the road in a bid to revive The Paupers'flagging fortunes,and a notable highlight during this "difficult" period was a memorable set at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto on 24 February, supporting The Jimi Hendrix Experience and The Soft Machine. Taking time off the road,The Paupers stopped in Nashville to record three tracks -"All About Me""Words I Say" and "See Yourself "but according to Seal the sessions did not go well and the recordings were shelved.
Despite the failure to complete any tracks towards a new album, Beal says the Nashville trip was far from being uneventful. "For me the highlights included meeting Tex Ritter, listening to Flatt and Scruggs record, watching one of the Jordinaires get so rapped up in a game of ping pong, he forgot that he left his car with the engine running and it ran out of gas, and above all having Floyd Cramer play on our session. It was nuts, we just called his answering service and within 15 minutes, he was there." In early May,The Paupers travelled to New York where their new producer Elliot Mazer hooked them up with keyboard player Al Kooper, who had recently been ousted from his group, Blood, Sweat & Tears.
Turning his creative energies to The Paupers, Kooper's contributions complement the group's performances brilliantly and the resulting album, Ellis Island, recorded at Columbia Studios over several months, remains a hidden gem of late '60s rock. Lacking the consistency of the group's debut outing, the record's strength lies in its individual tracks. These range from extended hard-rock workouts like "Southdown Road" and "Numbers" (featuring Brad Campbell on lead vocal),to more reflective pieces such as Prokop's"0h That She Might"with a rare vocal outing from the drummer.
Adam Mitchell emerges as the dominant writing force and his "Cairo Hotel" apparently written about a hotel in Washington DC where most of the tenants were down and outs, is particularly poignant. Another noticeable difference on the album, compared to its predecessor, is the group's experimentation with exotic sounds - one particular track, "Ask Her Again' 'features Prokop on the koto, a Japanese stringed instrument (and a present given to the drummer by Peter, Paul & Mary after a Japanese tour).
Complete with a flick book gimmick, Ellis Island garnered favourable reviews. Chris Keen, writing in the Toronto Telegram's After Four section on 19 October, raved about the album, arguing that it was a huge improvement on The Paupers'debut outing."Whereas Magic People was a shallow album containing numbers from their stage show, all of which were musically similar, Ellis Island is a experience," he noted."It is a deep album - there is so much happening in each song that even after hearing it many times you will probably still be making new discoveries."
With the album in the can, the band realized that it needed to reproduce Kooper's keyboard parts in a live format, and duly recruited former Fraser Loveman Group member John Ord during late July. As Ord recalls, "I had a little trio called The Nuclear Tricycle that was playing in a bar on YongeStreet.lt was a summer job for me and I was at university. Skip heard about me and came in to see me. I went out to Brad Campbell's house in Oakville to meet the band and they played me the album. I was able to play off the keyboard parts pretty fast and they thought it would be a good fit." The quintet quickly reconvened to Ord's parents 'farm in Fenwick in the Niagara peninsula.
Rehearsing intensively for a week in a nearby farmhouse, the new Paupers line-up soon launched in to a small tour. The band's debut show at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit on 2-4 August proved memorable, not least because the club still had bullet holes in it from the race riots earlier in the year. During this period, some of the band members flew to New York between dates to do studio work. For newcomer Ord, the musicians 'extra curricular activities contributed to the group's collapse the following month."I found out that the band was in a state of conflict and frustration perhaps partially because some musicians were recording and the others were stuck on the road.
In the end, the band broke up and everyone went home to Toronto." Things had come to ahead when Prokop announced his decision to leave the band after The Paupers' engagement at the Electric Circus in New York, which ran from 29 August to 1 September. Although he would subsequently form his own outfit, the big band Lighthouse, Prokop nearly joined Janis Joplin's new group, soon to become better known as The Kozmic Blues Band, but declined her offer. Brad Campbell meanwhile landed on his feet.
After briefly gigging with the Pozo Seco Singers, he did accept an offer to play with Joplin.The bass player would remain with the troubled singer until her untimely death, appearing in both The Kozmic Blues Band, and its successor, the Canadian-dominated Full Tilt Boogie Band. With Prokop and Campbell out of the picture but with debts of $40,000, the remaining members decided to carry on. "l recall advocating that we reform The Paupers in Toronto as the band was well known and we could probably do well with a change of members," says Ord.
The Paupers recruited local drummer Roz Parks from The Creeps and Magic Circus fame and perhaps more importantly, in terms of credibility, brought original bass player Denny Gerrard back in to the fold. Though Gerrard had spent most of 1968 recovering from his drug exploits, he had recently returned to studio and live work with Toronto's highly rated blues combo, McKenna Mendelson and was in fighting form. After intensive rehearsals,The Paupers returned to the local club scene, debuting at the Night Owl on 26-27 October.
Journalist Ritchie Yorke writing that November in the local RPM magazine, reviewed the show and captured perfectly the new line-up's potential."They emerged as a tight, cohesive musical unit, devoid of pseudo-hippiness and brimming over with confidence." True the group may have found a new confidence, but this was soon shattered by Gerrard's erratic behavior. As Ord recalls, "we did well for a while getting quite a bit of work and playing a lot. Then Denny started to lose it again...missing rehearsals and eventually not showing up for an important concert. In the end we had to fire him and found a new bass player." Denny Gerrard made sporadic appearances on record throughout the 70s, most notably on Jericho's superb eponymous album for Bearsville Records in 1971, and in his work with Rick James's pre-Motown bands, Heaven and Earth and Great White Cane.
Still revered by his contemporaries, Gerrard remains a local legend. In 1997, after years of inactivity, he made a rare appearance on record, playing with Mike McKenna's blues band Slidewinder. Gerrard's departure prompted Adam Mitchell to exit the group in April 1969, and while the remaining members carried on for four months with guitarist James Houston from The Magic Circus and bass player Mel O'Brien, it was the same band in name only. "We did a bunch of local dates with Mel but it was clear that the band was going nowhere real fast, "says Beal."We knew we needed a record deal and booked some time into the RCA studios in Toronto to do some demos of Jaime's tunes. Mel didn't show up for the session and that was it for him. After that none of us had the energy or the desire to start over again so, we packed it in. A sorry end to what was once a pretty good band." While The Paupers' potential was never fully realized, the degree of talent within the band can be gleaned from its best work, and the subsequent achievements of its leading members.
Following a successful career with Lighthouse, Prokop leant his talents to a diverse range of projects, including working with street kids, running an advertising agency and doing jingles. In 1979, he issued a solo album,/4// Crowed Up, and in recent years has played in a reformed Lighthouse. He is currently writing his autobiography. Adam Mitchell worked as a producer and a musical director before emerging as a successful songwriter; his compositions covered by John Waite, Olivia Newton-John, Art Garfunkel and Kiss to name a few. He also found time to record a rare solo album, Red Head In Trouble, in 1979 and continues to produce, write and perform in the US and Canada.
Chuck Beal briefly worked as a music producer, promoter and manager for Canadian bands, including Jericho. Later, he worked at the Canadian National Institute For The Blind, producing the talking books series and also did some writing and research for CBC radio in Toronto. Looking back, Mitchell is philosophical about the band's premature demise."As incredible as the band truly was, we were victims of just plain bad luck," he says."Bad luck, not only that Denny did too many drugs at Monterey and Chuck had a bad guitar chord. But perhaps more importantly, bad luck that we had the wrong record producer, the wrong studio and the wrong label. We were young, the business was new and we didn't know any better."
by Nick Warburton
Tracks
1. South Down Road (Mitchell, Prokop) - 8:30
2. Cairo Hotel (Mitchell) - 4:10
3. Cant Go On (Mitchell, Prokop) - 3:35
4. Another Man's Hair On My Razor (Mitchell) - 4:15
5. Numbers (Mitchell, Prokop) - 5:33
6. Oh That She Might (Prokop) - 4:56
7. Yes I Know (Campbell, Mitchell, Prokop) - 6:23
8. Ask Her Again (Mitchell, Prokop) - 4:00
9. Juliana (Mitchell) - 2:49
10.If I Call You By Some Name (Rick Shorter) - 2:52
11.Copper Penny (Prokop) - 2:36
12.White Song (Prokop) - 2:55
Although these albums were made by an all-but-unknown Indianapolis band in the latter half of the 1970s, Inside the Shadow and No Longer Anonymous are prime '60s-style psychedelia that stands up to many of the genre's better-known releases.
The songs on 1976's Inside the Shadow, built around Marsha Rollings' lovely voice and Ron Matelic's heavily Byrds-influenced guitar (the ultra-jangly "Pick Up and Run" could be an outtake from 5D), are an impressive lot, with a stronger sense of melody and structure than the aimless jamming that typifies so many psychedelic albums.
Matelic's songs are determinedly on the poppy end of psychedelia, with catchy choruses, soaring harmonies, and plenty of hooky instrumental riffs to keep the listener's attention. Even the nine-minute "Baby Come Risin'," with its extended jam middle section, sounds more composed than one would expect.
No Longer Anonymous was recorded in 1977 by a revised lineup of the band -- Rollings, unfortunately, is gone, and the new version of Inside the Shadow's high point "We Got More" shows how much she's missed -- and originally released under the name J. Rider. Matelic's liner notes claim that this album was originally intended as a demo tape of the group's most commercial songs.
Indeed, this is a more determinedly rock-oriented affair. Despite the reissue's flaws, this CD is the best (not to mention least expensive) way to hear these two largely unknown but eminently worthwhile albums.
by Stewart Mason
Tracks
1. Who's Been Foolin' - 3:17
2. J. Rider - 4:27
3. Up to YouI, Pt. 1 - 3:18
4. Shadow Lay - 5:56
5. Pick Up and Run - 4:55
6. We Got More - 5:06
7. Sweet Lilac - 4:19
8. Baby Come Risin' - 9:09
9. One Sided Lover - 2:41
10.Kiss of Your Soul - 4:49
11.We Got More - 4:51
12.High Roller - 6:05
13.Pike River - 2:48
14.Sunday's Hero - 7:12
All songs by Ron Matelic
AIthough Pat Kilroy's 1966 Elektra album Light of Day attracted little attention upon its release, it's sjnce come to be recognized for what it is, a groundbreaking wedding of lysergically-enhanced mysticism and exotic instrumentation. Nowadays we call such music acid folk, and you'd be hard pressed to come up with an earlier example of it than this, predating as it does the Incredible String Band's 5,000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion by a year. That said, Light of Day is not a seamless listening experience.
The presence of straightforward blues numbers such as "Canned Heat" on an album otherwise devoted to far-out and eastern-leaning songs like "Vibrations" and "Star Dance" is indeed more than a little puzzling. Knowing something about how the album came to be, however, helps make sense of it all. Pat Kilroy grew up in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco, and Antonio Pineda, a classmate at the Jesuit prep school St. Ignatius, remembers Pat as "a capricious, well-humored bloke with a lot of prankster in him, as well as a penchant for reaching for the stars."
For whatever reasons, Pat left St. Ignatius and transferred to Galileo High, graduating in 1962. While enrolled at the University of California in Berkeley, he started getting serious about music, and his guitar teacher, Perry Lederman, turned him on to open tunings, something Pat would continue to explore for the rest of his short life. Once he started performing locally in folk clubs, Pat became known for his extraordinary vocal powers.
Greenwich Village musicians Stefan Grossman and Marc Silber, both of whom would later play on Light of Day, first saw Pat on a trip to California in the summer of 1964. "Pat was phenomenal then," remembers Stefan. "Whether it was a Child ballad or a slow blues, you could hear a pin drop. He sounded like a choir boy with soul." During his Berkeley sojourn, Stefan befriended Pat and his then-girlfriend Roberta, and this initial connection would eventually lead to Pat's Elektra album.
Pat's future musical partner Susan Graubard, then a freshman majoring in music and ceramics at Cal Berkeley, first heard Pat in the Student Union. "He was just sitting there by himself, singing these beautiful Child ballads," she remembers. "I was really drawn to Patrick, his voice and his singing." She would again occasionally see Pat on campus, but didn't share more than a few words with him before he left for Big Sur with Roberta. It wouldn't be until spring break of '65 that Susan next encountered Pat, under very serendipitous circumstances.
On her way down to Santa Barbara with some friends, the VW bus they were riding in broke down at the Big Sur Hot Springs, and Susan ran into Pat there. He was living in a lean-to with Roberta and working in the kitchen of the Esalen Institute. There Susan and Pat had a chance to get to know one another a bit, and found a musical connection in their shared fascination with eastern music. The Pat Kilroy of spring 1965 was a very different person from the coffee house ballad singer of the year before.
Through psychedelic experience, spiritual exercise, a vegetarian diet and immersion in both Indian music and esoteric literature, Pat had undergone something of an epiphany there in Big Sur, one that he would later describe in his liner notes for Light of Day as "a growing awareness of existing universal unity." There was also in him an emerging desire to bring this new-found awareness, through music, to the wider world. "He was definitely on a mission," says Bob Amacker, who met Pat in Big Sur that summer, and would later play tablas on Light of Day. "The mission was a little vague, but it was clear that he was on one." Apart from a hitchhiking excursion with Pat and Roberta, Susan wouldn't see Pat again until December '65, when he appeared in Berkeley with his guitar, his backpack, and an extraordinary proposal.
He and Roberta had split up. As Susan remembers it, "Pat said, 'I want you to come to New York with me and make a record together, and then we'll take the money and we'll go around the world seeking out indigenous musicians, playing music, and collecting instruments.'" Susan said yes, and met Pat in New York the following month. Upon arriving in New York, Pat stayed at Stefan Grossman's house on St. Mark's Place, which was, along with Marc Silber's Fretted Instruments in the Village, a favored musicians' hang out.
Although Pat didn't perform publicly while he was in the city, he soon got heard. "Pat Kilroy made quite a stir when he showed up," remembers Artie Traum. "Not only could he play and sing beautifully, Pat had a mysterious quality about him. At the time he reminded me of James Dean." Stefan introduced Pat to his friend and former band mate in the Even Dozen Jug Band, Peter Siegel, who'd recently been hired to do engineering and production work for Elektra.
Peter was impressed with Pat's singing, and in due course Pat was signed to the label. There was one potential problem, though: Peter thought he'd be getting a bluesy record, and that was not exactly what Pat had in mind. One of the first people Pat looked up in the city was Bob Amacker, who'd been studying tabla for several months.
As Stefan recalls, "Pat was very impressed, because Bob was really learning Indian music, the structure and rhythms of it, and Pat was trying to learn that from him." Once Susan got to New York, the three began rehearsing together. "At first I didn't know how we could do it," Susan remembers. "Neither Pat nor Bob could write nor read music and I was like, 'Well, I don't know how to play without music in front of me!" So, it took some time to figure out how to integrate her flute into what Pat and Bob were playing.
Pat wanted her on the album—that was why she'd come to New York, after all—and in the end convinced her that, with Susan playing on the record, they'd have a bit more money for their impending trip to Europe. Precisely which songs they recorded before leaving is something Susan can't recall, but believes they included numbers the trio had been initially rehearsing, "Light of Day" and the raga-like "Cancereal" (which derived its name from the fact that all three of them were Cancers).
After landing in Iceland, Pat and Susan worked their way through Europe, often sleeping under bridges or in cow pastures while they wrote and rehearsed new songs, checked out local musicians, played casual gigs, and collected instruments. As Pat was Irish on his father's side and Basque on his mother's, they made a point of hitting Ireland and Spain. They eventually ferried down to Tangiers, where Pat became seriously ill, forcing them to cut their trip short. They had an album to complete, in any case.
Pat and Susan were very high on the new songs, "Vibrations," "Fortune Teller" and "Star Dance," all of which featured the glockenspiel they'd found in London. According to Stefan, though, Peter Siegel didn't quite share their enthusiasm for the new material. "Pat was really adamant that this was his new music, and then it got to be 'Well, we don't want to record it; this is not what we signed you up to do.' Then it had to be negotiated, so you get these songs like 'Canned Heat' that has nothing to do with Pat—he'd never even played that song."
A compromise was reached: the new songs stayed, but Stefan, Marc Silber and Eric Kaz were brought in for the blues numbers. If the resulting album was disjointed, the haunting power of its best moments, like the title track and "Star Dance," is undeniable. With the album completed, Pat and Susan returned to the Bay Area. Though he'd been asked to join them, Bob Amacker declined, and Berkeley conga player Jeffrey Stewart was eventually brought in.
Pat's new direction was maybe a little too weird for the Greenwich Village of 1966, but the emerging Bay Area scene seemed to get it, and Pat Kilroy and the New Age regularly performed there and in Big Sur in the coming months. Says Barry Melton of Country Joe and the Fish, "A lot of us had at least some kind of investment in the spiritual side in those days -at least as much of it as was available on a sugar cube- but Pat was the real deal."
Pat was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma during sessions for a Warner Brothers debut album, and passed away on December 25, 1967. Upon hearing of Pat's death, Stefan Grossman wrote "Requiem for Pat Kilroy," which would appear on his 1968 album with Danny Kalb, Crosscurrents.
by David Biasotti
Tracks
1. The Magic Carpet - 2:02
2. Roberta’s Blues - 2:35
3. Cancereal - 4:24
4. A Day At The Beach - 3:43
5. The Pipes Of Pan - 2:37
6. Mississippi Blues - 3:38
7. Vibrations - 3:14
8. Light of Day - 3:00
9. The Fortune Teller - 2:46
10. Canned Heat - 3:01
11. The River - 4:08
12. Star Dance - 1:58
All titles by Pat Kilroy
