The Yardbirds - Glimpses (1963-68 uk, classic influental blues garage 'n' roll, five disc box set, 2011 release)

Easy Action deserves an award for perseverance in the face of impossible odds, taking three years to realise the DVD of 2008’s historic MC5/Primal Scream Meltdown double-header, spending two years longer putting together this ultimate collection of aural Yardbirds documentation; they’ve used microsurgery where necessary to graft sections together and spice up ancient recordings.

This inestimably influential group was only active for five years, but gave the world three of its all-time stellar guitarists in Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, while creating a unique mystique through their string of evocative, groundbreaking singles between 1965’s For Your Love and 1968’s Goodnight Sweet Josephine swansong.

First of all, the packaging is gorgeous: a 45-shaped box accommodating 32-page booklet (boasting remarkably candid photos), gig postcards, 7” single coupling 1963’s Baby, What’s Wrong with I Wish You Would, and five CDs. With the aid of numerous radio interviews conducted in the US or Europe at the time, these effectively tell the band’s story, from the previously-unheard alternate take of 1963’s Honey In Your Hips to March 1968’s landmark Peel session, on which Dazed And Confused pointed to where Page’s creative seeds were soon to blow and change the world.

Disc One presents the bluesy 1963-64 Clapton days, with standards such as Good Morning Little Schoolgirl, Smokestack Lightnin’ and I’m A Man, captured at the Marquee, Crawdaddy or 1964’s National Jazz And Blues Festival (where they indulged in rarely-played Chuck Berry covers as Authentics singer Mick O’Neill stood in for Keith Relf, hospitalised with a punctured lung). That the set also boasts the only remaining previously unheard Yardbirds tracks with Clapton (cut from the acetate of an EMI demo session) perfectly illustrates the seriousness of a project which can also contain 1968’s MacLean‘s toothpaste advert.

By Disc Two and 1965, when Clapton departed for purer blues outlets, to be replaced by Jeff Beck, The Yardbirds are playing the songs which made their name: strikingly-original outings including Evil Hearted You, Heart Full Of Soul, You’re A Better Man Than I, Shapes Of Things and For Your Love, along with their motoring take on Johnny Burnette’s Train Kept A-Rollin’. Tracks are drawn from BBC sessions (some previously though lost), Dutch TV and that year’s Richmond Jazz And Blues Festival.

Disc Three covers the major changes of 1965-66, The Yardbirds’ ongoing rapid progression kicking off with the psych-charged Happenings Ten Years Time Ago, Psycho Daisies and Over Under Sideways Down, plus further versions from the previous disc’s tracklist. This material was culled from assorted London studios, French gigs, the NME Pollwinners Concert and further unearthed radio sessions.

By now, The Yardbirds were possibly the most cutting-edge pop group next to the Stones – and more experimental. Disc Four’s 1967-68 selection roars in with Shapes Of Things and other singles mainly drawn from European gigs, plus an August 1967 US Army broadcast. Disc Five consists entirely of BBC recordings, including March 1967’s overlooked mini-masterpiece Little Games and the aforementioned Peel session, which also included the West Coast-influenced Think About It and Page’s acoustic excursion, White Summer.

This lovingly-compiled, feverishly hyperactive set might include five different versions of some songs, but it’s fascinating to hear the band’s rampant evolution as musical trends catch up with them and they strive for the next phase. It’s to Easy Action’s credit that none of the 150 or so components sound superfluous or barrel-scraping while, even held against that exalted trio of axeman, the late Keith Relf emerges with his enigmatic charisma further boosted.

by Kris Needs

Tracks

Disc One 1963-64

1. Honey In Your Hips (Alternate Studio Take) - 2:24 

2. Baby What's Wrong - 2:41 

3. Eric Clapton-Interview - 0:43 

4. I Wish You Would - 3:32  

5. You Can't Judge A Book By Its Cover (Studio Demo) - 2:41 

6. Jim McCarty-Interview - 0:26 

7. Louise - 2:54 

8. Eric Clapton-Interview - 0:23 

9. Someone To Love - 2:15 

10.Too Much Monkey Monkey Business - 3:07 

11.I Got Love If You Want It - 4:16 

12.Smokestack Lightning - 5:52 

13.Good Morning Little Schoolgirl - 3:37 

14.Respectable - 5:30 

15.The Sky Is Crying - 6:40 

16.Eric Clapton-Interview - 0:40  

17.I Wish You Would - 2:52  

18.Chris Dreja-Interview - 0:22  

19.I'm A Man - 3:26 

20.Someone To Love - 1:56 

21.Boom Boom - 3:36 

22.I'm A Man - 3:12  

23.Little Queenie - 3:27 

24.Too Much Monkey Monkey Business - 2:53  

25.Respectable - 3:46  

26.Carol - 2:33  

27.Here 'Tis - 3:44 

28.Jim McCarty-Interview - 0:26

Tracks 1,2,4,5. Recorded R.G. Jones Studios, Morden, Surrey England, December 1963, January 1964.

Tracks 9-15. Recorded 7th August 1964 at the Marquee London. 

Tracks 7 and 17. Recorded 5Th April 1964 UK. 

Track 19. Recorded 26 July 1964, Live Crawdaddy, Richmond, Surrey. 

Tracks 21-27. Recorded 9th August 1964, Fourth National Jazz & Blues Festival, Richmond. 

Track 20. Re-Edit 7th August 1964, Marquee, London.

Disc Two 1965 

1. Evil Hearted You, Keith Relf-Introduction (27th Sept.) - 2:26

2. Keith Relf-Interview - 0:25

3. Heart Full Of Soul - Paul Samwell-Smith-Interview (1st June) - 3:15

4. Chris Dreja-Interview - 0:38

5. I Ain't Done Wrong (3rd July) - 2:27

6. Jim McCarty-Interview - 0:36

7. Smokestack Lightning (Full Version) (16th Nov.) - 4:56

8. You're Better Man Than I - Interview (16th Nov.) - 3:56

9. The Train Kept A-Rollin' (16th Nov.) - 2:39

10.Jim McCarty-Interview - 0:44

11.I'm Not Talking (16th March) - 2:33

12.Keith Relf-Interview - 0:15

13.I'm A Man (9th April) - 3:55

14.Keith Relf-Interview - 0:25

15.Jeff's Boogie (9th June) - 2:31

16.Keith Relf-Interview - 0:46

17.Steeled Blues (1st June) - 2:36

18.Louise (4th June) - 2:56

19.Keith Relf-Interview - 0:21

20.I Wish You Would (6th Aug.) - 2:31

21.Love Me Like I Love You (9th Aug.) - 2:46

22.The Stumble (27th Sept.) - 1:53

23.Paul Samwell-Smith-Interview - 1:26

24.You're Better Man Than I - 2:23

25.The Train Kept A-Rollin' - 2:41

26.Chris Dreja-Interview - 0:41

27.I've Been Trying (9th June) - 3:02

28.Shapes Of Things-Interview - 5:02

29.Paul Samwell-Smith-Interview - 2:40

30.For Your Love (Long Version) - 2:07

31.My Girl Sloopy (Long Version) - 5:49

32.I'm A Man (Live) - 3:35

33.I Wish You Would (Live) - 1:02

34."McLeans" Advert - 0:30 

Tracks 1,3,5,7,8,9. Recorded at Maida Vale Studios London for the BBC during 1965. 

Tracks 11,13,15,17,18,20,21,22,27. Unreleased lost UK Radio sessions from 1965, 

Tracks 24, 25 Live England November 1965, Track 28. U.S Broadcast 10th January 1966. 

Tracks 30-32. 6th August 1965, Fifth National Jazz & Blues Festival, Richmond Athletic Association Grounds, Richmond. 

Track 33. 23rd September 1965, Dutch TV

Disc Three 65-66

1. Happenings Ten Years Time Ago (26th July '66, 20th Sept. '66 - 2nd Oct. '66) - 2:55

2. Keith Relf-Interview - 0:39

3. Psycho Daisies - 1:48

4. Stroll On (With Soundtrack Coda) - 3:31

5. Chris Dreja-Interview - 0:11

6. "Great Shakes" Advert - 1:02

7. I Wish You Would - 3:18

8. I'm A Man - 2:37

9. The Train Kept A-Rollin' (Live) - 2:21

10.Over Under Sideways Down (Live) - 2:13

11.Shapes Of Things (Live) - 2:21

12.He's Always There (Alternate Version) - 2:29

13.Turn Into Earth (Alternate Version) - 3:09

14.I Can't Make Your Way (Alternate Version) - 2:23

15.I'm A Man - 3:12

16.For Your Love - 2:12

17.Heart Full Of Soul 2:23

18.I Wish You Would (Live) - 2:27

19.Jim McCarty-Interview - 0:12

20.Questa Volta (Live) - 4:05

21.Pafff... Bum (Live) - 2:52

22.Chris Dreja-Interview - 0:19

23.The Train Kept A-Rollin' (Live) - 2:30

24.Shapes Of Things (Live) - 2:15

25.Jim McCarty-Interview - 0:15

26.Jimmy Page-Interview - 1:09

27.Jeff's Boogie (6th May '66) - 2:15

28.You're Better Man Than I (Live) - 3:07

29.Keith Relf & Jeff Beck Interview Ravi Shankar (8th June '66) - 0:56

30.Shapes Of Things (Live) - 2:18

31.Jim McCarty-Interview - 0:30

32.Jim McCarty-Interview - 0:27

33.Chris Dreja-Interview - 0:17

34.I'm Not Talking (4th June '65) - 2:26

35.Heart Full Of Soul (9th June '65) - 2:22

36.Spoonful (9th April '65) - 3:10

37.Bottle Up And Go (9th April '65) - 1:57

38.All The Pretty Little Horses (Hushabye) (9th April '65) - 1:56

39.Jeff Beck-Interview - 0:08

Tracks 1 & 3. Recorded at De Lane Lea Studios, London. Track 4. Recorded 3rd -5th October 1966, Sound Techniques Studios, Chelsea, London

Track 5. Radio Commercial (12th July 1966, Marquee Studios, London) 

Track 7 & 8. 10-11th August 1965, US Broadcast. Tracks 9-11. 27th June 1966, Music Hall De France. Tracks 12, 13. 31st May – 4th June 1966, Advision Sound Studios, London. 

Track 14. 14th June 1966, IBC Studios, London. 

Tracks 15 - 17. Recorded 10-11th August 1965, US Broadcast. 

Track 18. 20th June 1965, Palais Des Sports, Paris, France. Tracks 

20 & 21. Recorded 28th & 29th January 1966, "The 16th Festival of Italian Songs 

Tracks 23 & 24. 1st May 1966, "Poll Winners Concert," Empire Pool, Wembley. 

Tracks 27, 34-38. Unreleased UK Radio Broadcast. 

Track 28 Recorded Live May 1966, England. 

Track 30. 1st April 1966, La Locomotive Club, Paris, France

Disc Four 1967-68

1. Shapes Of Things - 2:55

2. Happenings Ten Years Time Ago - 4:25

3. Over Under Sideways Down - 2:14  

4. I'm A Man - 6:24 

5. Chris Dreja-Interview - 0:39 

6. Shapes Of Things - 2:31 

7. Heart Full Of Soul - 2:16 

8. You're Better Man Than I - 3:52 

9. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine) - 3:15  

10.Over Under Sideways Down - 2:32  

11.Little Games - 2:40 

12.My Baby - 2:43 

13.I'm A Man - 7:07  

14.Chris Dreja-Interview - 0:49 

15.The Train Kept A-Rollin' - 3:18 

16.Dazed And Confused - 5:46 

17.Goodnight Sweet Josephine - 2:33 

18.Glimpses (Sound Effects) - 1:22  

19."The In Sound" - 1:36  

20.Chris Dreja-Interview - 0:37  

21.Think About It (Work-In-Progress) - 5:33  

22.Jimmy Page-Interview - 0:22  

23.Dazed And Confused (Live) - 9:09

Track 4. Recorded on 15th March at the Stadthalle Offenbach. 

Tracks 6 - 13. Recorded 7th April 1967 Stockholm. 

Tracks 15-17. Recorded 9th March in France. 

Track 18. Recorded early 1967 in New York. 

Track 19. August 1967 US Army Radio Program. 

Track 21. Recorded January 1968 London. 

Track 23. Unknown Venue in England January 1968

Disc 5 BBC Radio One
1. I Ain't Got You (22nd March '65) - 2:00
2. For Your Love - Keith Relf-Interview (22nd March '65) - 3:17
3. I'm Not Talking (22nd March '65) - 1:46
4. I Wish You Would (1st June '65) - 2:36
5. Too Much Monkey Business (6th August '65) - 2:29
6. Love Me Like I Love You (6th August '65) - 2:50
7. I'm A Man (6th August '65) - 2:27
8. Still I'm Sad - Paul Samwell-Smith-Interview (27th Sept '65) - 3:44
9. My Girl Sloopy (Full Version) (27th Sept '65) - 3:40
10.Keith Relf Interview (28th Feb' 66) - 1:19
11.Shapes Of Things (28th Feb' 66) - 2:17
12.You're A Better Man Than I (28th Feb' 66) - 3:03
13.Dust My Broom (28th Feb' 66) - 2:30
14.Baby, Scratch My Back - Keith Relf-Interview (6th May '66) - 4:01
15.Over Under Sideways Down (6th May '66) - 2:11
16.The Sun Is Shining (Full Version) (6th May '66) - 3:32
17.Shapes Of Things (6th May '66) - 2:24
18.Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)(17th March '67) - 2:49
19.Little Games (17th March '67) - 2:21
20.Drinking Muddy Water (17th March '67) - 2:40
21.Think About It (16th March '68) - 3:09
22.Jimmy Page-Interview-Goodnight Sweet Josephine (16th March '68) - 4:19
23.My Baby (16th March '68) - 2:50
24.White Summer (6th March '68) - 4:24
25.Dazed And Confused (6th March '68) - 5:47
26.Think About It (6th March '68) - 3:15

The Yardbirds
*Keith Relf - Lead Vocals, Harmonica
*Eric Clapton - Lead Guitar
*Chris Dreja - Rhythm Guitar
*Paul Samwell-Smith - Bass, Backing Vocals
*Jim Mccarty - Drums, Backing Vocals
*Jeff Beck - Lead Guitar, Backing Vocals
*Jimmy Page - Bass, Guitar

1964  Five Live Yardbirds (Repertoire remaster and expanded)

Free Text
Text Host

Bob Lind - Since There Were Circles (1971 us, splendid passionate folk, 2006 bonus tracks issue)

Bob Lind has enjoyed a sizable cult following based on a rather small body of work; he released just four albums between 1966 and 1971 (one a collection of demos never intended for commercial release), and landed just one single in the Top 40, but he's acknowledged as one of the key artists in the '60s folk-rock boom, and over 200 different artists have recorded his songs. 

Robert Neale Lind was born in Baltimore, Maryland on November 25, 1944. His family moved a great deal when he was young, but as a teenager he settled in Denver, Colorado, and began singing rock & roll and rhythm & blues when he was in eighth grade. In high school, Lind formed a band called the Moonlighters, and while attending Western State University in Gunnison, Colorado, he led a rock group, Bob Lind & the Misfits, specializing in early rock covers. 

As a new breed of songwriters emerged on the folk music scene in the early '60s, Lind took up songwriting and started playing occasional shows at local coffee houses. He relocated to San Francisco, where he continued writing songs and playing small venues, and in 1965, he headed south to Los Angeles, where he scored an audition with World Pacific Records, a subsidiary of Liberty Records. World Pacific signed Lind to a record contract, and after he landed a publishing deal with Metric Music, he was introduced to producer and arranger Jack Nitzsche, who liked Lind's songs and agreed to work with him. 

With Nitzsche providing artful backdrops for Lind's emotionally literate songs, the two proved to be an inspired pairing in the studio, and World Pacific had high hopes for Lind's first single, "Cheryl's Goin' Home." However, several disc jockeys began playing the flipside, "Elusive Butterfly," and the song rose to number five on the Billboard Singles charts in 1966. 

by Mark Deming

The 1971 "Since There Were Circles"  is a really interesting release, and a perfect example of how important it is to support well-designed reissues, a fine record.

City Scenes makes a perfect album opener. Introducing the modest, effective orchestra of driving acoustic guitar, piano accents, electric slide guitar, and laid-back drum kit (not to mention players The Dillards, Bernie Leadon, and Gene Clark), Lind immediately wraps his nice voice around poetic storyteller verses. It closes with an unexpected little treasure of an outro, adding a sweet, smooth french horn line. Fine songcraft.

Listening to Loser, I can’t help but imagine Lind as a roots-rock David Bowie; either by inflection of the voice or it’s the lyricism, perhaps, they are kindred spirits. Bob keeps it pretty soulful and groovy on tracks like She Can Get Along, with its vocal workout ending, and the lazy Not That I Would Want Her Back, featuring more orchestral backing on the choruses. The softer numbers are melodic gems that will stay with you. Theme From The Music Box and the title track, Since There Were Circles, are melancholy and wonderful. Five bonus tracks supplied by Bob Lind himself stand apart from the flow of the album, but stand strongly on their own.

Get yourself this beautiful 2006 reissue from the fine UK label RPM Records and give it up to Bob Lind, who certainly had much more music left in him after his 1966 #5 folk hit, Elusive Butterfly. I keep coming back to this esoteric beauty.

by Brendan McGrath

Tracks
1. I Love To Sing/Sweet Harriet - 4:19
2. City Scenes - 3:30
3. Love Came Riding - 3:09
4. Loser - 3:28
5. Not That I Would Want Her Back - 2:49
6. Theme From The Music Box - 3:24
7. Anymore - 3:32
8. Spilling Over - 3:54
9. She Can Get Along - 2:54
10.Up In The Morning Me - 2:04
11.Since There Were Circles - 5:14
12.I Found You - 2:50
13.Marlene - 2:19
14.San Francisco Woman - 4:13
15.Colorado Line - 3:20
16.We Are Children Still - 3:02
All compositions by Bob Lind

Musicians
*Bob Lind - Guitar, Vocals
*Buck Wilkings - 12 String Guitar
*MIchael A Lang - Piano
*Raplh E Grierson - Piano
*Carol Kaye - Bass
*Paul N. Humphrey - Drums
*Doug Dillard - Banjo
*Gene Clarke - Harmonica
*Bernie Leadon - Lead Guitar
*David Jackson - Bass

Free Text
Text Host

Dantalian`s Chariot - Chariot Rising (1967 uk, impressive colorful psychedelia)

One of the most brilliant obscure psychedelic singles of the late '60s — indeed, one of the most brilliant obscure rock singles of any kind from the era — was Dantalian's Chariot's "Madman Running Through the Fields." This 1967 effort was British pop-psych at its zenith, strongly reminiscent of (and as good as) the classic early sides by Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd. What made it all the stranger was that it was the debut single by a group of veteran musicians who, just a few months earlier, had been playing jazz/R&B fusion as Zoot Money's Big Roll Band. Money, a journeyman keyboard player and singer, had made a few records without getting anything close to a hit; his band featured a young Andy Summers, over a decade before the guitarist would reach stardom with the Police.

Such was the impact of psychedelic music in 1967, however, that by the middle of the year, Money had decided to totally revamp his sound. R'n'B/jazz/soul had become passe; now it was important to write your own material, and reflect the mind-expanding experience. With Summers still in tow, Zoot Money's Big Roll Band became Dantalian's Chariot. The music, written primarily by Money and Summers, changed as radically as the name, with airy melodies, spacy lyrics, and guitar/organ-driven arrangements. The band hit the London underground circuit inhabited by such acts as Pink Floyd and Soft Machine, and made their debut recording as Dantalian's Chariot ("Madman") in the summer of 1967.

The single, innovative as it was, didn't make any commercial waves. Although they were a respected live act, their new direction wasn't supported by EMI, which dropped the band. A psychedelic-minded LP was worked on, but not released. Some of the material appeared on an early 1968 record, which the Direction label assembled from various tunes cut over the past year. The fact that the album was credited to Zoot Money and the Big Roll Band, rather than Dantalian's Chariot, was an indication that their psychedelic direction, again, would not find support on the industry level.

All of this was not as great a tragedy as it might appear. A collection of psychedelic-oriented Dantalian's Chariot tracks (several previously unreleased) did emerge in 1996, and while it shows them to be an interesting outfit, nothing comes close to the magnificence of "Madman Running Through the Fields."

Dantalian's Chariot came to an end in the spring of 1968, with Summers joining the Soft Machine (and subsequently Eric Burdon's Animals); Money would also join Eric Burdon's Animals around the same time. Drummer Colin Allen went on to chalk up stints in John Mayall's band. 

A close facsimile of what Dantalian's Chariot's unreleased album would have sounded like, taken from ten tracks recorded in 1967, several of which were previously unissued. "Madman Running Through the Fields" is essential listening for anyone who likes Pink Floyd, with its happy-go-mad lyrics, astral organ, Syd Barrett-esque guitar, and sudden quiet breaks into pastoral flute passages. Nothing else here is nearly as striking, but it's decent, somewhat prototypical early underground British psychedelia, though the songwriting can be kind of forced. The wistfully ebullient "Sun Came Bursting Through My Clouds" (the B-side of "Madman") is probably their best secondary effort; instrumentally oriented explorations like "Soma" and "This Island" get freakier. 

by Richie Unterberger

Tracks
1. Madman Running Through The Fields (Money, Somers) - 4:14
2. World War Three (Money, Somers) - 4:10
3. This Island (Money, Somers) - 3:57
4. Fourpenny Bus Ride (Money, Somers) - 3:44
5. Four Firemen (Money, Somers) - 3:31
6. Sun Came Bursting Through My Cloud (Colton, Smith) - 3:07
7. Recapture The Thrill (Colton, Smith) - 3:55
8. Soma (Colton, Somers) -  6:14
9. Coffee Song (Colton, Smith) - 2:50
10.High Flying Bird (Money, Somers) - 3:44

Dantalian`s Chariot
*Andy Summers - Guitar
*Pat Donaldson - Bass
*Colin Allen - Drums
*Zoot Money - Keyboards, Vocals

1968  Zoot Money - Transition

Free Text
the Free Text

Wimple Winch - Tales From The Sinking Ship (1964-68 uk, marvelous blend of mod freakbeat and psych, 2009 remaster)

Liverpool's Wimple Winch are best known to obsessive collectors of U.K. freakbeat for a handful of rare but potent singles, such as the malevolent "Save My Soul and "Rumble on Mersey Square South," a mini-rock opera that feels like a more compact contemporary to the Who's "A Quick One While He's Away."

But Tales from the Sinking Ship, which collects Wimple Winch's singles for Fontana along with recordings that came from earlier and later incarnations of the band serves best as an object lesson in how radically the British music scene would change between 1964 and 1968. The set opens with a dozen sides recorded when

Dee Christopholus (vocals and guitar), John Kelman (lead guitar), and Larry King (aka Lawrence Arendes, drums) were members of the beat combo the Four Just Men (who briefly became the Just Four Men), who start out playing pleasant but unremarkable instrumentals not unlike what the Shadows were doing and eventually moved on to pop vocal sides that make them sound like competent but unremarkable also-rans on the Merseybeat scene. 

They improved as they went along, and the last of the Four Just Men sides here are the best, the moody but dramatic "In the Shelter of Your Arms" and a solid cover of the Bacharach/David classic "Trains and Boats and Planes." However, when bassist Stuart Sirrett left at the end of 1965 and Barry Ashall took over in early 1966, something kicked in with this band, which adopted the new name Wimple Winch and embraced a far more aggressive and compelling sound, with a crispness that suggested the mod sound that was coming into vogue, along with shades of psychedelia creeping into "Atmospheres" and a dash of Ray Davies-style wit informing "Typical British Workmanship."

None of the Wimple Winch singles were hits, and this collection closes out with eight demos that confirm the group was continuing to evolve and innovate even after it was dropped by Fontana, with the psychedelic influences moving comfortably to the forefront and pop-minded pastoral accents coloring the melodies.

Phil Smee's richly detailed liner notes tell more about Wimple Winch's story than most fans will ever need to know, and a family tree makes it easy to follow the many personnel shifts in the group; this is fascinating stuff for those enamored of the point where beat music fell under the lysergic influence, and reveals just how weird a seemingly ordinary, clean-cut band could get during the first era of acid.

by Mark Deming 

Tracks
1. Ad-Ventures (Theme From Friday Night) (Unknown) - 1:00
2. Half Past Five  (Christopholus, Kelman) - 1:58
3. Aggravatin' (Unknown) - 2:43
4. Colours (Unknown) - 2:38
5. Four Just Men Theme (Aka Laura Norder) (Unknown) - 2:16
6. Sorry Girl (Unknown) - 2:23
7. Don't Come Any Closer (Demo Version)  (Christopholus) - 2:17
8. I Just Can't Make Up My Mind  (Christopholus, Kelman, King) - 1:45
9. Woman Needs A Man  (Christopholus, Kelman, King) - 2:04
10.I Still Care (Unknown) - 2:06
11.Thinking About Your Love  (Christopholus, Kelman, King) - 2:24
12.Tomorrow  (Christopholus, Kelman, King) - 2:45
13.In The Shelter Of You Arms  (Jerry Samuels) - 2:32
14.Trains And Boats And Planes  (Bacharach, David) - 2:25
15.What's Been Done  (Ashall, Christopholus) - 2:44
16.I Really Love You  (Arends, Christopholus) - 3:41
17.Save My Soul  (Christopholus) - 3:06
18.Everybody's Worried 'Bout Tomorrow  (Ashall, Christopher, Kelman) - 2:34
19.Rumble On Mersey Square South  (Christopholus) - 4:31
20.Atmospheres  (Christopholus) - 4:27
21.Typical British Workmanship  (Ashall, Christopholus) - 2:59
22.Bluebell Wood (Demo Version)  (Christopholus) - 3:32
23.Lollipop Minds  (Christopholus) - 3:10
24.Marmalade Hair  (Christopholus) - 3:00
25.Coloured Glass  (Ashall, Christopholus) - 2:17
26.Those Who Wait  (Ashall, Christopholus) - 2:29
27.Three Little Teddy Bears  (Ashall, Christopholus) - 2:45
28.Sagittarius  (Christopholus) - 2:47
29.The Last Hooray  (Ashall, Christopholus) - 3:18

Wimple Winch
*Dee Christopholous - Vocals, Guitar
*John Kelman -  Lead Guitar
*Barrie Ashall -  Bass Guitar
*Larry King (Arendes) -  Drums

Related Act
1970  Pacific Drift - Feelin' Free

Free Text
Text Host

Various Artists - The Dutch Woodstock (1970 us/uk/nl, psych blues folk prog rock, classic documentary, two CD plus DVD box set)

Woodstock and Altamont pretty much covered what can go right and what can go wrong at a large rock festival in America. Meanwhile, over in Europe, music festivals began cropping up left and right, with varying degrees of success. The Isle of Wight, Bath and Lincoln festivals in 1969 and 1970 brought together some of the biggest names of the day. And then there was the 1970 Kralingen Music Festival in Rotterdam. Amongst the range of popular British and American artists were some wildly eclectic acts, many shrouded in obscurity that belied their talents. The three-day festival, infused with marijuana and optional clothing, was alternately know as the Holland Pop Festival and Stamping Ground (!). Now with highlights captured on a double-CD, single DVD set, you might as well just call it The Dutch Woodstock.

From America, you had Jefferson Airplane, Canned Heat, Santana and Country Joe — all original Woodstock veterans — along with the Byrds, It's A Beautiful Day, Dr. John and the Flock. The British artists included Pink Floyd, T-Rex, Al Stewart, Soft Machine, East of Eden, Quintessence and Family. So, there was this mix of psychedelic blues and progressive rock for the 120,000 people to groove on. The two CDs feature what is apparently the best of what they could put together, seemingly from numerous sources and locations. Three rough and ready blues acts — Cuby & The Blizzards, Canned Heat and Livin' Blues — start it off before Al Stewart steps up and plucks out "Zero She Flies" before an audience of what sounds like three or four. Maybe six.

The whirlwind prog of Quintessence and East of Eden (or maybe it would be Family's Roger Chapman and his piercing vocals on "Drowned In Wine") could make your head spin in either ecstasy or muckiness, depending on how weird and out-there you want to get. One can only imagine the audience's reaction to Soft Machine's "Esther's Nose Job." Then again, when you have Pink Floyd headlining — and they were brewing up their own batch of quirkiness with "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" and "A Saucerful Of Secrets" — you have to pepper the bill with similar groups. Which, of course, does nothing to explain the addition of the San Francisco groups.

At this point in time, Santana was on fire, and their blast through "Gumbo" is most definitely on par with their "Soul Sacrifice" performance at Woodstock. It's A Beautiful Day, known mostly for their breezy hit, "White Bird," unleash a fiery psychedelic jam on "Wasted Union Blues" (singer Patti Santos was just as alluring as Grace Slick). Country Joe plays it safe on the acoustic "Freedom" (no "Fixin' To Die" for this crowd), while Jefferson Airplane soars on "White Rabbit" and "The Ballad Of You And Me And Pooneil." All in all, it's easy to see that each of these artists, since Woodstock, had become a little more weathered and professional.

The best part about this set is the DVD, a 97-minute film that vividly captures the event in all its psychedelic glory. The close-ups on Santana, Pink Floyd and Soft Machine, among others, are intense and as well edited as the Woodstock film. However, watching Al Stewart strumming away on "Zero She Flies" (yes, there are more than six people in the audience) or seeing It's A Beautiful Day jam out on "Wasted Union Blues" in the midst of a windy rain storm certainly gives one a better sense of the festival and its surroundings. Well that, and the numerous non-musical interludes that portray the concert as the idyllic, hedonistic utopia of the early 70s. Without seeing everything, you're almost led to believe The Dutch Woodstock is everything the original Woodstock set out to be and more. Oh, what heady days they were.

by Shawn Perry

Video DVD

1. Santana - Gumbo

2. Al Stewart - Zero She Flies

3. Canned Heat - Human Condition

4. The World's in Tango/So Sad

5. Quintessence - Giants

6. Jefferson Airplane - Won't You Try Saturday Afternoon

7. It's A Beautiful Day - Bulgaria

8. T.Rex - By The Light of the Magical Moon

9. The Byrds - Old Blue

10.The Flock - Big Bird

11.Soft Machine - Esther's Nose Job

12.Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit/The Ballad of You and Me and Pooniel

13.Santana - Savor/Jingo

14.Pink Floyd - A Saucerful of Secrets

Tracks 

Disc 1

1. Cuby And The Blizzards - Dust My Blues - 4:45

2. Canned Heat - Human Condition - 3:08

3. Canned Heat - So Sad - 5:31

4. Livin' Blues - Big Road Blues - 2:41

5. Al Stewart - Zero She Flies - 2:19

6. Quintessence - Giants - 2:38

7. East of Eden - The Sun of East - 15:49

8. East of Eden - Irish Theme - 3:19

9. Country Joe - Freedom - 3:54

10.Dr John - Mardis Gras Day - 4:31

11.Family - Drowned in Wine - 4:28

Disc 2
1. Santana - Gumbo - 3:57
2. Santana - Savor - 4:28
3. Santana - Jingo - 4:28
4. Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit - 2:18
5. Jefferson Airplance - The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil - 3:02
6. It's a Beautiful Day - Wasted Union Blues - 7:23
7. It's a Beautiful Day - Bulgaria - 4:01
8. T.Rex - By The Light of the Magical Moon - 3:18
9. The Byrds - Old Blue - 3:35
10. The Flock - Big Bird - 4:49
11. Soft Machine - Esther's Nose Job - 6:03
12. Pink Floyd - Set The Controls For The Heart of the Sun - 3:42
13. Pink Floyd - A Saucerful of Secrets - 6:21

Free Text
the Free Text

Fat Mattress - Fat Mattress (1969 uk, essential psych folk rock, 2009 remastered and expanded)

Fat Mattress were basically a Rock'n'Roll group from Folkestone in Kent. The nucleus of Fat Mattress came from three local bands based in South East England in the early sixties. Noel Redding was the guitar player for The Lonely Ones from Folkestone. Also in their line up was drummer Pete Kircher. The Lonely Ones were one of the most popular bands around the South, at that time. Neil Landon a vocalist from Ashford in Kent had his own group called the Cheetah's. In those days. Neil was known as Pat Barlow. I was playing bass guitar with an outfit from Dover. Kent called The Big Beats.

By the mid sixties these three groups disbanded to form one group namely Neil Landon and The Burnettes. The new band worked extensively in the UK and Europe, including the German night club scene, which was a breeding ground for up and coming groups such as The Beatles and others. In 1966 Neil Landon decided to pursue a solo career, so The Burnettes broke up. Noel, Pete and I stayed together and brought in Derek Knight a great singer, to replace Neil as front man and vocalist. We reemerged with a new name. The Lovin' Kind and signed a management deal with Gordon Mills, Gordon also handled Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck.

The Lovin' Kind made three singles for the Pye / Piccadilly label. None of these records made any impression on the Top Twenty charts. Noel, feeling nothing was happening with the group, went back to Folkestone. A few weeks later Noel answered an ad in one of the music papers advertising a job playing guitar with Eric Burdon's Animals. But when Noel arrived for the audition he was told that the job had already gone. However that day Noel met an American guitarist - Jimi Hendrix - and he asked Noel to play bass with a new group he was forming with Mitch Mitchell. The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Meanwhile Lovin’ Kind drummer Pete Kircher moved on to join the band Honeybus who made the hit song "I Can't Let Maggie Go". Singer Derek Knight also followed a solo career and made a couple of records before becoming disillusioned. He also went back home to Folkestone. As for me, I was doing freelance work as a bass player doing sessions and live performances with artists such as The Walker Brothers, Cat Stevens and even Engelbert Humperdinck. It was at this time I first met Eric Dillon who was playing the drums for Engelbert. Eric would eventually become the drummer with Fat Mattress. 

In 1968 Noel Redding reappeared in London. Noel had been spending most of his time in America with Jimi Hendrix and being in between tours Noel had decided to do some recording with his old mates from Folkestone. He and Neil Landon had been writing songs together, although there was not enough material for an album. Also Noel had to return to America for another tour with Jimi Hendrix, so Neil Landon and myself got together and came up with the other songs when Noel got back to London in late 1968, we were nearly ready to go into the studio and record our first album.

The only problem was that Pete Kircher was unavailable for the sessions as he was tied up with Honeybus. So the three of us asked Eric Dillon to step in for Pete on so that was it, we had a band, we had the songs and now we had a name and the rest was up to us. As I remember, the first song we did was "All Night Drinker" written by Neil and myself, the track featured Mitch Mitchell on percussion and Chris Wood from Traffic playing flute. "All Night Drinker" set the tone for the record and other songs quickly followed and after ten nights in the studio the album was finished. At this point Chas Chandler offered his services to the group becoming our manager and future record producer. Chas was very confident he could get the band a major record deal.

In the spring of 1969,The Jimi Hendrix Experience were to undertake a ten week tour of North America and Fat Mattress were invited to open the show on some of the dates, so waving Englebert goodbye we set off on our new adventure. It was amazing! To suddenly find yourself in the places we'd only ever seen in the movies. New York. San Francisco even Hawaii. When the group came home in June 1969, Chas Chandler true to his word had secured a major record deal with Polydor Records. We signed a deal that summer and Fat Mattress were paid one of the biggest advances ever given at the time. 

Later that summer we were booked to play The Isle of Wight Festival with Bob Dylan topping the bill. After a series of onenighters and a tour of Germany Fat Mattress went back to America in their own right as headliners. It was during that tour the group imploded on itself and Noel Redding left the group. We were contracted to do another record for Polydor and Chas Chandler insisted that he produce the album "Fat Mattress II". Chas also suggested a replacement for Noel, and thus Canadian guitarist Steve Hammond joined the group. We also recruited the keyboard playing prowess of Mick Weaver also known as Wynder K. Frog and entered the studio to work on our second album.

by Jim Leverton, Whitstable. 2009

Tracks
1. All Night Drinker (Neil Landon, Jim Leverton) - 3:18
2. I Don't Mind (Neil Landon, Noel Redding) - 3:51
3. Bright New Day (Neil Landon, Jim Leverton) - 3:48
4. Petrol Pump Assistant (Neil Landon, Noel Redding) - 3:01
5. Mr. Moonshine (Neil Landon, Noel Redding) - 4:04
6. Magic Forest (Neil Landon, Jim Leverton) - 3:05
7. She Came in the Morning (Neil Landon) - 3:47
8. Everything's Blue (Noel Redding) - 2:50
9. Walking Through a Garden (Noel Redding) - 4:20
10.How Can I Live (Neil Landon, Noel Redding) - 4:26
11.Naturally (Neil Landon, Jim Leverton) - 3:02
12.Iridescent Butterfly (Neil Landon) - 3:42
13.Magic Forest (mono single version) (Neil Landon, Jim Leverton) - 2:57
14.Little Girl in White (Noel Redding) - 4:08
15.Eric the Red (Neil Landon, Jim Leverton, Noel Redding) - 2:57
16.Black Sheep of the Family (Steve Hammond) - 4:29
17.Hall of Kings (Neil Landon) - 5:34
18.Jim Leverton - Which Way to Go (Jim Leverton) - 3:34

Fat Mattress
*Noel Redding - Electric,  Acoustic Guitars, Bass, Hammond Organ, Vocals
*Neil Landon - Vocals, Percussion
*Jim Leverton - Bass, Electric guitar, Hammond Organ, Harpsichord, Vocals
*Eric Dillon - Drums,Tuned Percussion
Additional Musicians
*Mitch Mitchell - Percussion
*Chris Wood - Flute
*Jimi Hendrix - Percussion

1970  Fat Mattress - Fat Mattress II
Related Act
1967  Flower Pot Men - Let's Go To San Francisco
1972  Road - Road

Free Text
Text Host

LOU REED (March 2, 1942 – October 27, 2013)

Lou Reed, Velvet Underground Leader 

and Rock Pioneer, Dead at 71

Lou Reed, a massively influential songwriter and guitarist who helped shape nearly fifty years of rock music, died today. The cause of his death has not yet been released, but Reed underwent a liver transplant in May.

With the Velvet Underground in the late Sixties, Reed fused street-level urgency with elements of European avant-garde music, marrying beauty and noise, while bringing a whole new lyrical honesty to rock & roll poetry. As a restlessly inventive solo artist, from the Seventies into the 2010s, he was chameleonic, thorny and unpredictable, challenging his fans at every turn. Glam, punk and alternative rock are all unthinkable without his revelatory example. "One chord is fine," he once said, alluding to his bare-bones guitar style. "Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz."

Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed was born in Brooklyn, in 1942. A fan of doo-wop and early rock & roll (he movingly inducted Dion into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989), Reed also took formative inspiration during his studies at Syracuse University with the poet Delmore Schwartz. After college, he worked as a staff songwriter for the novelty label Pickwick Records (where he had a minor hit in 1964 with a dance-song parody called "The Ostrich"). In the mid-Sixties, Reed befriended Welsh musician John Cale, a classically trained violist who had performed with groundbreaking minimalist composer La Monte Young. Reed and Cale formed a band called the Primitives, then changed their name to the Warlocks. After meeting guitarist Sterling Morrison and drummer Maureen Tucker, they became the Velvet Underground. With a stark sound and ominous look, the band caught the attention of Andy Warhol, who incorporated the Velvets into his Exploding Plastic Inevitable. "Andy would show his movies on us," Reed said. "We wore black so you could see the movie. But we were all wearing black anyway."

"Produced" by Warhol and met with total commercial indifference when it was released in early 1967, VU’s debut The Velvet Underground & Nico stands as a landmark on par with the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Bob Dylan's Blonde On Blonde. Reed's matter-of-fact descriptions of New York’s bohemian demimonde, rife with allusions to drugs and S&M, pushed beyond even the Rolling Stones’ darkest moments, while the heavy doses of distortion and noise for its own sake revolutionized rock guitar. The band’s three subsequent albums – 1968’s even more corrosive sounding White Light/White Heat, 1969’s fragile, folk-toned The Velvet Underground and 1970’s Loaded, which despite being recorded while he was leaving the group, contained two Reed standards, “Rock & Roll” and “Sweet Jane,” were similarly ignored. But they’d be embraced by future generations, cementing the Velvet Underground’s status as the most influential American rock band of all time.   

by Jon Dolan, October 27, 2013

Road - Road (1972 uk / us, stunning hard psych rock, with Noel Redding)

Formed in March 1972 by former Jimi Hendrix Experience bassist Noel Redding, in the aftermath of a debilitating fall at Frank Zappa’s home, this short-lived power trio also featured former Rare Earth guitarist Rod Richards and Redding’s Fat Mattress bandmate Leslie Sampson on drums. 

Their sole album is a crunching hard rock collection that was praised on release that July – but the band split soon afterwards, making it a lost piece of the jigsaw for Hendrix fans, and a must-hear for all lovers of proto-metal.

Tracks
1. I'm Trying (Rod Richards) - 6:33
2. I'm Going Down To The Country (Noel Redding) - 2:42
3. Mushroom Man (Rod Richards, Leslie Sampson) - 4:08
4. Man Dressed In Red (Noel Redding) - 7:00
5. Spaceship Earth (Rod Richards) - 3:28
6. My Friends (Noel Redding) - 6:17
7. Road (Rod Richards) - 9:29

Road
*Noel Redding - Bass, Vocals, Production
*Rod Richards - Guitar, Vocals
*Leslie Sampson - Drums, Vocals, Percussion

Related Act
1969-74  Rare Earth - Fill Your Head

Free Text
Text Host

Fleetwood Mac - Then Play On (1969 uk, blues rock masterpiece, deluxe expanded 2013 edition)

A peculiar news bulletin appeared in the July 12th, 1969, edition of Rolling Stone: Two members of the British blues band Fleetwood Mac were  going to "put Christ on wax," as the headline put it. Singer-guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer planned to write and produce an "orchestral-choral LP" about the life of Jesus. "The record will be in addition to an album by the full band and a solo LP by Spencer," the report said, then quoted Spencer: "We believe in God, and this is a serious venture."

The Jesus LP was never made. But those few lines in Rolling Stone caught, in eerie miniature, the searching energies and mounting crisis — musical, spiritual, psychological — that soon shattered the classic bluespower Fleetwood Mac that created this record and the vital singles included in this reissue: Green, Spencer, singer-guitarist Danny Kirwan, bassist John McVie, and drummer Mick Fleetwood.

Then Play On was Fleetwood Mac's third studio album — and the only LP made in that lineup's supernova lifetime. Recorded in the late spring and summer of 1969, Then Play On was released in Britain and America that fall. A few months later, in May 1970, Green — Fleetwood Mac's founder and leader — left the band, citing religious convictions. "I want to lead a freer and more selfless life along Christian principles," he told Rolling Stone at the time. 

The guitarist, who was born Jewish, had also suffered traumatic experiences with LSD and was showing ominous signs of an illness eventually diagnosed as schizophrenia. Spencer and Kirwan were soon gone as well, the former to a Christian commune in Los Angeles in February, 1971. Kirwan, who was only 18 when he joined Fleetwood Mac in mid-1968, was fired in August, 1972, when his drinking and manic behavior became too much to bear. 

Fleetwood and McVie survived the chaos and ensuing personnel changes, carrying the band that Green named after them to a spectacular, multi-platinum rebirth, still going today.  "But the outcome of this album is not what we dreamed of," Fleetwood says now concerning the devastation that followed Then Play On. "I had no idea at the time of the hidden textures, the indicators that Peter was reaching out in songs like 'Before The Beginning' — that he was questioning what and who he was."

Born Peter Greenbaum in East London in 1946, Green was only 20 when he became Eric Clapton's successor in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. He quickly earned acclaim for his dynamic, melodically incisive approach to Chicago blues guitar, showcased on Mayall's 1967 album, A Hard Road. Green started Fleetwood Mac that summer. McVie also came from the Bluesbreakers. Fleetwood had played in white R’n’B groups, such as The Cheynes and Shotgun Express. And Spencer was a hot, teenaged slide guitarist with a special passion for Mississippi bluesman Elmore James.

By late 1968, Fleetwood Mac had two British hit albums, Fleetwood Mac and Mr. Wonderful, made before Kirwan joined. An early '69 single, Green's dreamy instrumental, "Albatross," went to Number One there. "You're going, 'How on earth did this happen?'" Fleetwood marvels. "We were having hits playing Elmore James. People are drinking their tea in the suburbs of Manchester, watching us on these pop TV shows, and they didn't know we were just doing the same music we played in the pubs."

Still just 23, Green quit Fleetwood Mac in the wake of astonishing work — arguably his best on record, given the troubles looming around the bend. Then Play On, the '69 two-part hit single "Oh Well," and the thrilling, tormented 1970 45 "The Green Manalishi (With The Two Prong Crown)" all capture the first-era Fleetwood Mac at their exploratory peak: blessed with protean guitar talent and inventing a highly personal, matured psychedelia while still grounded in Chicago and Mississippi blues. 

The album is also marked by a striking, whispered majesty — part day-glo country, part anguished prayer — in Green and Kirwan's delicately triggered ballads. Then Play On, issued in different, confusing U.K. and U.S. track sequences. The cover and title of Then Play On now come with more pathos than Green and Fleetwood intended. They named the record after the opening line in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, a prescription for healing, joy, and amorous comfort: "If music be the food of love, play on." The image spread across the gatefold sleeve — a naked young man riding a white horse — was an Art Nouveau mural by the English painter Maxwell Armfield, originally commissioned for the dining room of a London mansion.

The sessions for Then Play On began that April in London. Fleetwood Mac — an early pillar of the British blues revival imprint Blue Horizon — had a new major-label deal with Warner Bros., and were producing themselves. The engineer was Martin Birch, who continued to work with the band through the early '70s. (Birch was also about to start a long studio relationship with Deep Purple.) But the evolution out of the purism on Fleetwood Mac and Mr. Wonderful had been going on — and moving fast — since the summer of 1968, when the four-piece Mac toured the U.S. for the first time, appearing in psychedelic dancehalls like San Francisco's Carousel Ballroom and mixing with fellow travellers, in blues and roots, such as the Grateful Dead, The Byrds, and Creedence Clearwater Revival. 

The Fleetwood Mac that made this album did not survive its creation. But the dreams, drive, and truths in these songs, in the guitars — they play on, as Green intended. "Truly, as a musician, he was ready to move on," Fleetwood says. "The sad part is he didn't feel he could take us. But even when he formed Fleetwood Mac, there was this incredible focus, like making sure it was not his name on there: 'No, I want this to be your band.' I'm not so sure that Peter didn't have a vision that one day, when he left, he didn't want this thing to collapse.

"This was a man," Fleetwood says of his old friend, "who saw things that we could not imagine." And this was his gift, before saying goodbye.

by David Fricke, R. S.  June, 2013

Tracks
1. Coming Your Way (Danny Kirwan) - 3:44
2. Closing My Eyes - 4:50
3. Fighting For Madge (Mick Fleetwood) - 2:42
4. When You Say (Danny Kirwan) - 4:31
5. Showbiz Blues - 3:50
6. Underway - 3:04
7. One Sunny Day (Danny Kirwan) - 3:13
8. Although The Sun Is Shining (Danny Kirwan) - 2:25
9. Rattlesnake Shake - 3:29
10.Without You (Danny Kirwan) - 4:35
11.Searching For Madge (John Mcvie) - 6:55
12.My Dream (Danny Kirwan) - 3:31
13.Like Crying (Danny Kirwan) - 2:25
14.Before The Beginning - 3:29
15.Oh Well, Part 1 (Mono Single) - 3:22
16.Oh Well, Part 2 (Mono Single) - 5:39
17.The Green Manalishi (With The Two Pronged Crown) (Single) - 4:36
18.World In Harmony (Single) (Danny Kirwan) - 3:26
All songs by Peter Green except where noted

Fleetwood Mac
*Peter Green - Vocals, Guitar, Harmonica, Six String Bass, Violoncello
*Danny Kirwan - Vocals, Guitar
*John Mcvie - Bass Guitar
*Mick Fleetwood - Drums, Percussion
*Jeremy Spencer - Piano
Additional Personnel
*Christine Perfect - Piano
*Big Walter Horton - Harmonica

1967-71  Live At The BBC
1968-70  Show Biz Blues
1968-71  The Best Of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac
1969  Shrine '69

1970  Kiln House

Free Text
Text Host

Plain Jane - Plain Jane (1969 us, fabulous country folk rock with sunny psych tinges, 2008 edition)

Recorded at Hollywood's I.D. Sound Studios with Les Brown Jr. handling the production duties, 1969's "Plain Jane" was nothing short of fabulous.  Featuring ten original tracks with all four members contributing material, the album showcased a mesmerizing blend of late-1960s country-rock, pop, and psych influences. Full of killer songs and breath-taking, slightly stoned vocals, this overlooked gem spent weeks on my CD carousel.  

Hard to pick standouts since all ten tracks were worth hearing, but the opener 'Who's Drivin' This Train' sounded like Arlo Gurthrie and the Grateful Dead having graduated from the John Philips top-40 songwriting academy, while 'Not the Sam' combined CSN&Y vocal harmonies with some ballistic drumming and a cool psych feel.   If I had any complaints, it was that these guys lacked a distinctive sound of their own, though in borrowing bits and pieces from other groups they came up with a wonderful aural stew. 

They also created one of those albums that was a blast to crank up and play spot-the-influences. Okay, I'll add that 'Num-Bird' was too country-flavored for my tastes.   'You Can't Make It Alone' was what post-Monkees Michael Nesmith always yearned to sound like.  'That's How Much' sported an odd mock-English feel - hum, kinda' what Davy Jones always wanted to sound like ...  'Short Fairy Tale' added some tasty jazzy guitar licks to the mix.  And that was just side one.    All hyperbole aside this is a classic lost album just waiting to be discovered !!!  

Bad-cat

Tracks
1. Who's Drivin' This Train? (Barry Ray) - 2:57
2. You Can't Make It Alone (Jerry Schoenfeld) - 4:10
3. That's How Much (Don Gleicher) - 2:10
4. Short Fairy Tale (Don Gleicher) - 2:12
5. Not The Same (Jerry Schoenfeld) - 4:21
6. Num-Bird (Barry Ray) - 2:58
7. What Can You Do? (Jerry Schoenfeld) - 2:35
8. Fire Hydrant (Barry Ray) - 3:26
9. Silence (Don Gleicher) - 2:37
10. Mrs. Que (Barry Ray) - 3:37

Plain Jane
*Barry Ray - Guitar, Vocals
*Don Gleicher - Guitar, Vocals
*David Schoenfeld - Drums
*Jerry Schoenfeld - Bass, Piano, Vocals

Text Host

Just Paste

Free Text

Matching Mole - Matching Mole (1972 uk, marvelous prog rock, canterbury scene, 2012 double disc and 2013 Blu Spec japan bonus tracks remasters)

Robert Wyatt left Soft Machine in 1971 because of creative differences (he didn't want the band to completely abandon vocals) and decided to make a solo album. Wyatt was contractually obligated to Soft Machine's label (CBS) as a solo artist, and it was at the behest of CBS that Matching Mole was formed: CBS insisted that a band be created to support the solo album with a tour. Wyatt ended up making the band a permanent entity and thus Matching Mole (a play on machine molle, the French translation for "soft machine") was birthed. Given the genesis of the project, it should be no surprise that most of the music is Wyatt-penned.

The album is minor practically by definition — it's a disjointed, uneven mixture of experimental jazz improvisation and graceful, Beatles-esque melodic passages — but I think it is nevertheless quite successful. Most of the songs flow together and the first three have a suite-like unity. "O Caroline" is a beautiful Mellotron and piano piece that has an almost-convincing sincerity, although lyrics like "If you call this sentimental crap you'll make me mad / because you know that I would not sing about / some passing fad" reveal an obvious self-awareness. 

"Caroline" then morphs into the trippy "Instant Pussy," in which Wyatt's wordless vocals echo and float above a gentle, catchy bass riff. Groovy. Structure returns with "Signed Curtain," another fragile vocal tune where Wyatt's lyrics irreverently do nothing more than designate what part of the song he's singing: "This is the first verse... this is the chorus / or perhaps it's a bridge," and so on. I find it charming in Wyatt's singularly weird sort of way, though I'm sure it sounded more daring at the time than it does now.

Then we're off to experimental jazz fusion territory, albeit with an occasionally psychedelic bent that I suppose harks back to Wyatt's U.F.O Club days in Soft Machine when they shared the bill with Pink Floyd. "Part of the Dance" is Phil Miller's, and it shows — the piece is very proto-Hatfield and the North. It's probably my favorite of the instrumental jams. "Instant Kitten" and "Dedicated to Hugh, But You Weren't Listening" (a pun on an early Soft Machine song) are Wyatt compositions with psychedelic auras: the drones that make up the opening segment of "Dedicated To Hugh" are more Pink Floyd than Soft Machine.

Up until this point, I'd say that the album flirts with excellence. The final two tracks drag it down a bit, though. "Beer as Braindeer" and "Immediate Curtain" are free-form explorations of sound textures. In some respects, they resemble the similarly-minded material on the Can album Tago Mago (except here the impact is sweetened by Mellotron). This stuff isn't bad, but sequenced this way the flow of the album is disrupted. Tailing off as it does, Matching Mole is like a trip that I'm not sure really goes anywhere, even if the ride is often interesting.

by Matt P. 

Tracks

Blu Spec 2013 edition
1. O Caroline (David Sinclair, Robert Wyatt)- 5:05

2. Instant Pussy - 2:59

3. Signed Curtain - 3:06

4. Part of the Dance (Phil Miller) - 9:16

5. Instant Kitten - 4:58

6. Dedicated to Hugh, But You Weren't Listening - 4:39

7. Beer as in Braindeer - 4:02

8. Immediate Curtain - 5:57

9. O Caroline (Single Version) (David Sinclair, Robert Wyatt) - 3:33

10.Signed Curtain (Single Edit) - 3:05

11.Signed Curtain (Take Two) - 5:32

12.Part Of The Dance (Take One) (Phil Miller) - 7:28

13.Memories Membrane (Bill MacCormick, Phil Miller, David Sinclair, Robert Wyatt) - 11:17

14.Horse (Bill MacCormick, Phil Miller, David Sinclair, Robert Wyatt) - 3:48

15.Sandwich (Bill MacCormick, Phil Miller, David Sinclair, Robert Wyatt) - 5:35

All compositions by Robert Wyatt except where noted

Disc 1 Esoteric 2012 The Original Album Remastered

1. O Caroline (David Sinclair, Robert Wyatt) - 5:06

2. Instant Pussy - 3:02

3. Signed Curtain - 3:03

4. Part Of The Dance (Phil Miller) - 9:14

5. Instant Kitten - 4:59

6. Dedicated To Hugh, But You Weren't Listening - 4:40

7. Beer As In Braindeer - 4:02

8. Immediate Curtain - 5:58

9. O Caroline (Single Version) (David Sinclair, Robert Wyatt) - 3:33

10.Signed Curtain (Single Edit) - 3:05

11.Part Of The Dance Jam (Phil Miller) - 20:57

All songs by Robert Wyatt except where stated

Bonus Tracks 9-11

Disc 2 Album Sessions Recordings December 1971 / January 1972

1. Signed Curtain (Take Two) - 5:32

2. Memories Membrane - 11:16

3. Part Of The Dance (Take One) (Phil Miller) - 7:27

4. Horse - 3:47

5. Immediate Kitten - 9:54

6. Marchides / Instant Pussy / Smoke Signal (Dave McRae, Robert Wyatt) - 19:36

All tracks by Robert Wyatt except where indicated

Tracks 5-6 BBC Radio One Sessions 

Matching Mole
*Phil Miller - Guitar
*David Sinclair - Piano, Organ
*Bill Maccormick - Bass
*Robert Wyatt - Drums, Voice, Mellotron, Piano
Additional Musician
*Dave MacRae - Electric Piano

Related Acts
1968  Caravan - Caravan (Japan SHM remaster)  
1970  Caravan - If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You (Japan SHM remaster)
1971  Caravan - In The Land Of Grey And Pink (Japan SHM remaster)
1973  Caravan - For Girls Who Grow Plump In The Night (Japan SHM remaster)
1974  Caravan - Caravan And The New Symphonia (Japan SHM remaster)
1975  Caravan - Cunning Stunts (Japan remaster)

Free Text

Just Paste

Terry Smith - Fall Out (1968 uk, superb jazz rock)

Terry Smith's rare late-'60s LP was an accomplished set that showcased his fluid, modern bop-influenced jazz guitar in both big band and small combo settings. Smith plays much in the style of American guitarists working in similar territory during the period, such as Wes Montgomery and Grant Green. The arrangements and playing by the backing musicians on this album, recorded in London, are a little stiffer than what you'll hear on most U.S. sessions, but they get the job done tastefully enough. 

The vibe gets a little more uninhibited on the two tracks featuring just Smith, organist Bob Stuckley, and drummer Chris Karen. As those two tracks ("Fall Out" and "Early Morning Groove") are the only two Smith originals, one suspects that this is the kind of material that was closest to his heart at the time. Otherwise most of the record is given to interpretations of standards, including "My Man's Gone Now," Cole Porter's "I Love You," and the Bacharach-David compositions "The Look of Love" and "Windows of the World." 

While pop star Scott Walker produced, there's no strong resemblance between this and the music Walker was recording at the time, though Walker did make suggestions regarding the material. 

by Richie Unterberger

Tracks
1. Morning Minor (Deuchar) - 6:00
2. The Look Of Love (Bacharach, David) - 4:48
3. Early Morning Groove (Smith) - 3:54
4. My Man's Gone Now (Gershwin, Hayward) - 4:54
5. I Love You (Porter) - 1:59
6. Windows Of The World (Bacharach, David) - 4:49
7. Fall Out (Smith) - 4:07
8. Harry's Theme (South) - 4:07

Musicians
*Terry Smith - Guitar
*Gordon Beck - Piano
*Greg Bowen - Trumpet
*Les Condon - Trumpet
*Tony Fisher - Trumpet
*Chris Karen - Drums
*Jim Lawless - Marimba, Soloist, Vibraphone
*Don Lusher - Trombone
*Ron Mathewson - Bass
*Ronnie Ross - Baritone Sax
*Ronny Stephenson - Drums
*Bob Stuckley - Organ
*Ray Warleigh - Flute, Alto Sax
*Derek Watkins - Trumpet
*Kenny Wheeler - Flugelhorn, Trumpet
*Roy Willox - Flute, Alto Sax
*Bob Effort - Tenor Sax
*Deniz Lopez - Percussion
*Peter Ahern - Percussion

Related Act
1974  Zzebra - Zzebra

Free Text
Text Host