A much stronger debut than the norm for the era. Ten of the 12 cuts are Ron Elliott originals, including the hits "Laugh Laugh," "Still in Love with You Baby," and "Just a Little." The hard-rocking numbers are the weakest, but "Stick Like Glue" and "I Would Be Happy" are fine Beatlesque numbers, and "They'll Make You Cry" is a first-rate moody folk-rocker. The CD reissue adds two bonus tracks, a demo of "Just a Little" and the single "Good Time Music."
by Richie Unterberger
Tracks
1. Laugh Laugh - 2:54
2. Still In Love With You Baby - 2:32
3. Just A Little (Durand, Elliott) - 2:23
4. Just Wait & See - 2:22
5. Oh Lonesome Me (D. Gibson) - 2:22
6. Ain't That Loving Baby (D. Malone) - 2:22
7. Stick Like Glue - 1:58
8. They'll Make You Cry - 3:05
9. That's, If You Want Me To - 2:35
10.I Want More Loving - 2:23
11.I Would Be Happy - 2:40
12.Not Too Long Ago - 3:06
13.Just A Little (Unissued Demo Version) (Durand, Elliott) - 2:23
14.Good Time Music (Autumn Single) (J. Sebastian) - 3:04
All songs by Ron Elliott except where noted
For a band that issued only one single, and that only pressed in a quantity of a few hundred, the Stalk-Forrest Group have a very confusing history, and are very well-known by collectors. Much of this notoriety stems from the fact that the group evolved into Blue Öyster Cult shortly after the one Stalk-Forrest Group 45 was issued by Elektra. The Stalk-Forrest Group did manage to record an entire unreleased album for Elektra in 1970, in a much lighter and more psychedelic style than that for which Blue Öyster Cult became known. In the late '60s, the nucleus of the Long Island band that would become Blue Öyster Cult was playing under the name of Soft White Underbelly.
With Les Braunstein as lead singer, they were signed by Elektra; Buck Dharma has recalled that Elektra exec Jac Holzman may have been looking for an East Coast Doors. An album was attempted, but eventually abandoned, in early 1969, and Braunstein was replaced by the band's equipment manager and soundman, Eric Bloom. Soft White Underbelly had been signed in large part because of Braunstein, and it took them a while to convince Elektra that they would be viable with the higher-voiced Bloom as lead singer.
In early 1970, however, the band, now renamed the Stalk-Forrest Group, was able to record an album for Elektra in Los Angeles. Co-produced by Sandy Pearlman and Jay Lee, the group was under the impression that it would get released, but it never was. Material from the album circulated among collectors for a long time, and shows a band considerably different than Blue Öyster Cult. The songs were psychedelic and tuneful, somewhat in the manner of two other Elektra acts, Love and the Doors, although poppier than either of those two groups.
The arrangements were full of high harmonies and fluid, accomplished, psychedelic guitar interplay, and the songs were dominated by rather fanciful and oblique trippy imagery, as was evident from titles like "Ragamuffin's Dumplin," "Bonomo's Turkish Tuffy," "Arthur Comics," and "A Fact About Sneakers." Though perhaps in need of fine tuning or embellishment, it was certainly up to release quality.
Elektra tried to get Don Gallucci (from the band Don & the Goodtimes) in to produce them, but after an exploratory meeting he left for California without informing the group. Around the time Joe Bouchard replaced Andy Winters on bass, they were dropped from Elektra, although the label did press about 200 copies of a single with two of the songs from the unreleased album sessions, "What Is Quicksand?"/"Arthur Comics." After running through some more band names, the musicians finally got their recording career off the ground as Blue Öyster Cult in the early '70s, playing in a harder rock style than they had as the Stalk-Forrest Group. An extremely limited-edition LP of ten songs from the unreleased Stalk-Forrest Group album sessions came out in Germany in 1998.
by Richie Unterberger
Tracks
1. What Is Quicksand? (Allen Lanier, Richard Meltzer) - 3:20
2. I'm On The Lamb (E. Bloom, A. Bouchard, S. Pearlman) - 3:00
3. Gil Blanco County (Lanier, Pearlman) - 3:36
4. Donovan's Monkey (Bouchard, Meltzer) - 3:44
5. Ragamuffin Dumplin' (Bouchard, Meltzer) - 5:12
6. Curse Of The Hidden Mirrors (Bouchard, Meltzer) - 3:17
7. Arthur Comics (Bouchard, Meltzer) - 3:10
8. A Fact About Sneakers (Bouchard, Meltzer) - 7:53
9. St. Cecila (Bouchard, Pearlman, Andrew Winters) - 6:44
10.Ragamuffin Dumplin' (Alternate Mix) (Bouchard, Meltzer) - 5:19
11.I'm On The Lamb (Alternate Version) (E. Bloom, A. Bouchard, S. Pearlman) - 2:52
12.Curse Of The Hidden Mirrors (Alternate Mix) (Bouchard, Meltzer) - 3:16
13.Bonomo's Turkish Taffy (Bouchard, Meltzer) - 2:13
14.Gil Blanco County (Alternate Mix) (Lanier, Pearlman) - 6:47
15.St. Cecilia (Alternate Mix) (Bouchard, Pearlman, Andrew Winters) - 6:45
16.A Fact About Sneakers (Alternate Version) (Bouchard, Meltzer) - 3:07
17.What Is Quicksand? (Mono Single Version) (A. Lanier, R. Meltzer) - 3:19
18.Arthur Comics (Mono Single Version) (Bouchard, Meltzer) - 3:10
Tracks 1-9 from the unreleased and untitled Elektra album EKS-74046
Tracks 10-16 previously unreleased
Tracks 17 and 18 are from the Elektra single EKM-45693
Stalk-Forrest Group
*Eric Bloom Aka "Jesse Python" - Lead Vocals, Guitars
*Donald Roeser Aka "Buck Dharma" - Lead Guitar, Vocals
*Andrew Winters - Bass, Acoustic Guitar On His Composition "St. Cecilia"
*Allen Lanier Aka "La Verne" - Keyboards, Guitar
*Albert Bouchard Aka "Prince Omega" - Drums, Vocals
Recorded live at Pacific High Recorders in December 1971 for radio broadcast on KSAN in San Francisco, this is a fine-sounding document of the Youngbloods playing live shortly before their breakup. It does catch them a little past their prime -- most of the songs are from their later career, not their better, first half -- and the energy's a little lower than it was during their best folk-rocking days in the late '60s. There's also a greater tilt toward rootsy country and blues sounds than there is toward the folk-rock-pop that distinguished some of their finest earliest work.
Still, the band does play well here, and Jesse Colin Young's distinctive tenor voice and Banana Levinger's equally distinctive jazzy electric piano are both in fine shape. There's also the bonus of a few songs that didn't make it onto the Youngbloods' albums, including a cover of Dave Dudley's country trucking classic "Six Days on the Road," the folk song "Old Dan Tucker," and the Young original "Country Home," which he'd record on an early solo album. The highlights are still the original pieces in which they combine folk-rock and laid-back jazzy psychedelia, including the hit "Get Together," a version of which closes the set.
by Richie Unterberger
By the time the Youngbloods, always crowd faves at the west coast ballrooms, performed live for San Francisco’s free-form radio pioneer KSAN in 1971, they’d honed their set to a fine gloss. Featuring the smooth as apple-butter voice of Jesse Colin Young and the guitar/keyboard wizardry of Banana, backed by the rock-solid bass-and-drum tandem of Michael Kane and Joe Bauer, the Youngbloods positively sparkle here. We’re elated to present a lengthy, previously unissued 13-song set that’s equal parts rocking R&B, dreamy jazzers and honky tonk flag-wavers, with just a little bit of psychedelic weirdness—topped off, of course, by a knockout version of their generational anthem, “Get Together.” The Youngbloods: at the top of their game, making it all look so easy—and so damn beautiful. - See more at:
Tracks
1. Six Days on the Road (Earl Green, Carl Montgomery) - 3:45
2. Country Home (Jesse Colin Young) - 3:56
3. On Sir Francis Drake (Lowell Levinger) - 2:46
4. Dreamboat (Jesse Colin Young) - 3:24
5. Drifting and Drifting (Jesse Colin Young) - 6:23
6. Interlude (Lowell Levinger) - 2:23
7. Old Dan Tucker (Traditional) - 1:59
8. You Can't Catch Me (Chuck Berry) - 4:15
9. On Beautiful Lake Spenard (Lowell Levinger) - 4:52
10.Josianne (Jesse Colin Young) - 7:13
11.Explosion (Lowell Levinger) - 0:29
12.Beautiful (Jesse Colin Young) - 5:52
13.Get Together song review (Chester Powers) - 4:07
The Youngbloods
*Joe Bauer - Drums
*Banana - Guitar, Keyboards
*Jesse Colin Young - Guitar, Vocals
*Michael Kane - Bass
The seismic changes in the musical landscape of the late 1960s influenced the sound of nearly every major pop and rock act, and Paul Revere and the Raiders were no exception. As bassist Keith Allison explains in his new liner notes, the title of Alias Pink Puzz refers to the fact that the Raiders submitted an advance pressing of a new song to a Los Angeles FM rock station under the pseudonym "Pink Puzz" in an effort to sidestep the band's Top 40 pop image.
The station's management liked the song, but was livid when they learned the truth. Such trickery wasn't necessary for the Raiders to score one of their most memorable hits with the insistent rocker "Let Me!" and one of their most-covered tunes with "Freeborn Man." Despite the psychedelic-sounding pseudonym, Alias Pink Puzz largely features a rootsy, laid-back sound boasting a variety of blues, country and swamp-rock influences, with such titles as "Frankfort Side Street" and "Down in Amsterdam" reflecting the band's overseas touring experiences. The Sundazed edition of Alias Pink Puzz features four alternate/demo versions as bonus tracks.
Tracks
1. Let Me! - 3:58
2. Thank You - 3:01
3. Frankfort Side Street - 3:00
4. Hey Babro - 2:30
5. Louisiana Redbone (Keith Allison, Mark Lindsay) - 2:06
6. Here Comes The Pain (Keith Allison, Mark Lindsay) - 3:10
7. The Original Handy Man - 2:28
8. I Need You (Keith Allison, Mark Lindsay) - 2:13
9. Down In Amsterdam (Keith Allison, Mark Lindsay) - 2:59
10.I Don't Know - 5:29
11.Freeborn Man (Keith Allison, Mark Lindsay) - 3:33
12.Let Me! (Single Version) - 2:30
13.Too Much Talk (Demo Version) - 2:25
14.Get Out Of My Mind (Demo Version) - 2:52
15.I Don't Know (Alternate Version) - 6:24
All songs by Mark Lindsay except where indicated.
Paul Revere And The Raiders
*Mark Lindsay - Vocals
*Freddy Weller - Lead Guitar
*Joe Correro, Jr. - Drums
*Keith Allison - Bass
*Paul Revere - Organ
British keyboard maestro Brian Auger achieved something virtually unheard of with this classic album upon its 1973 release. Closer To It, Brian's heady mix of jazz, soul, funk and rock entered the US Billboard Jazz, R 'n' B and Rock charts simultaneously! He had done such a great job blending and blurring musical boundaries.
Brian had been forging this very single minded path for nearly ten years previously in various groups The Steampacket and then The Trinity (with Julie Driscoll) his avowed aim to overlay funk, pop and soul rhythms with jazz harmony and solos. It was on Closer To It that Brian finally felt he had got as near as he could to the sound in his head and what a gloriously contemporary sound it still is. With Brian's vocals, his highly individual Hammond organ sound and funky electric piano stylings leading the way backed by a wonderfully smokey, deep dish rhythm section, this album joined the ranks of other undoubted jazz fusion 'must have' records.
Tracks like 'Whenever You're Ready', 'Voices of Other Times' and the oft sampled, Auger-fied version of Marvin Gaye's 'Inner City Blues' have since become club classics and broke new ground for the Rare Groove, Acid jazz and Neo Funk scenes that were to follow in Brian's experimental footsteps.
Almost certainly his finest recorded moment when first released this CD edition boasts 2 previously unreleased tracks including another take of 'Happiness Is Just Around The Bend' which was covered and made into a hit by The Main Ingredient the US soul outfit incidentally fronted by one Cuba Gooding Snr!
In 2005 it may be harder to appreciate just how ground-breaking this particular recording was but when you know that this release is a well-loved underground classic it is easier to understand why everybody, from Herbie Hancock to The Beastie Boys, puts Brian Auger's Oblivion Express' Closer to It somewhere near the very top of their all-time great recordings. The greatest musical entity to emerge from Shepherds Bush bar none!
by Greg Boraman, 2005
Tracks
1. Whenever You're Ready (Brian Auger, Barry Dean) - 6:22
2. Happiness Is Just Around the Bend (Brian Auger) - 6:34
3. Light On The Path (B. Auger, B. Dean, L. Laington, G. McLean, J. Mills) - 4:56
4. Compared To What (Gene McDaniels) - 7:55
5. Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) (Marvin Gaye) - 4:34
6. Voices Of Other Times (Brian Auger, Barry Dean) - 5:58
7. Happiness Is Just Around The Bend (Alternative take) (Brian Auger) - 7:26
8. Inner City Blues (7" Version) (Marvin Gaye) - 3:28
Even after his death, Paul Butterfield's music didn't receive the accolades that were so deserved. Outputting styles adopted from Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters among other blues greats, Butterfield became one of the first white singers to rekindle blues music through the course of the mid-'60s.
His debut album, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, saw him teaming up with guitarists Elvin Bishop and Mike Bloomfield, with Jerome Arnold on bass, Sam Lay on drums, and Mark Naftalin playing organ. The result was a wonderfully messy and boisterous display of American-styled blues, with intensity and pure passion derived from every bent note. In front of all these instruments is Butterfield's harmonica, beautifully dictating a mood and a genuine feel that is no longer existent, even in today's blues music.
Each song captures the essence of Chicago blues in a different way, from the back-alley feel of "Born in Chicago" to the melting ease of Willie Dixon's "Mellow Down Easy" to the authentic devotion that emanates from Bishop and Butterfield's "Our Love Is Drifting." "Shake Your Money Maker," "Blues With a Feeling," and "I Got My Mojo Working" (with Lay on vocals) are all equally moving pieces performed with a raw adoration for blues music.
Best of all, the music that pours from this album is unfiltered...blared, clamored, and let loose, like blues music is supposed to be released. A year later, 1966's East West carried on with the same type of brash blues sound partnered with a jazzier feel, giving greater to attention to Bishop's and Bloomfield's instrumental talents.
by Mike DeGagne
Tracks
1. Born in Chicago (Nick Gravenites) – 2:55
2. Shake Your Moneymaker (Elmore James) – 2:27
3. Blues With a Feeling (Walter Jacobs) – 4:20
4. Thank You Mr. Poobah (Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, Mark Naftalin) – 4:05
5. I Got My Mojo Working (Muddy Waters) – 3:30
6. Mellow Down Easy (Willie Dixon) – 2:48
7. Screamin' (Bloomfield) – 4:30
8. Our Love Is Drifting (Bloomfield, Elvin Bishop) – 3:25
9. Mystery Train (Junior Parker, Sam Phillips) – 2:45
10.Last Night (Jacobs) – 4:15
11.Look Over Yonders Wall (James Clark) – 2:23
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
*Paul Butterfield – Harmonica, Vocals
*Mike Bloomfield – Guitar
*Elvin Bishop – Guitar
*Mark Naftalin – Organ
*Jerome Arnold – Bass
*Sam Lay – Drums, Lead Vocal on "I Got My Mojo Working"
In the fall of 1965, the blues guitar prodigy Michael Bloomfield dropped acid. He had a vision, a musical vision, that he said unlocked the secrets of Indian music.
After the all-night psychedelic experience, he began work on “the raga,” an improbable instrumental mash-up of Eastern drones and scales, and Western free jazz, rock and Chicago blues harmonica.
Bloomfield presented the improvisational concept to his fellow players in the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Until that point, this was a fairly straightforward group out of Chicago — except for its white leader and its interracial mix of musicians.
“East-West” seemed to come out of nowhere, a full-blown shock of the new, but clues to its genesis could be found in the key players’ musical DNA:
Butterfield, a local harmonica player, had been schooled on blues by Muddy Waters (who called him “my son”). Butterfield’s harp playing was fluid and thoughtful. New to the group was Billy Davenport, a jazz drummer whose heroes included Charlie Parker, Gene Krupa and Max Roach. To pay the bills, he played the blues. A second white guitarist, Elvin Bishop, specialized in the often eerie sounds of seminal bluesman Robert Johnson. Keyboardist Mark Naftalin studied music theory and composition.
From this cauldron emerged one of the boldest experiments in the history of blues and rock. The group’s second album, “East-West,” hit the street a year later, its title song running 13-plus minutes. This, however, was not the full-blown “East-West,” which in performance could top an hour’s length.
“This song was based, like Indian music, on a drone,” Naftalin has said. “In Western musical terms it ’stayed on the one.’”
Bloomfield, Butterfield and Bishop take solo turns and come together just the song’s unforgettable climax. The stucture is that of a suite, with different modes (scales) ruling different sections. Bishop takes the first solo spot, with Bloomfield doing the heavy lifting throughout, running through his acid-flash collection of exotic modes while his partner drones along.
Davenport works furiously in the background, applying the (oxymoronic) disciplines of free jazz. He sometimes imitates the tabla and mridanga drummers of Indian sitar ensembles. At other times he plays what sounds like bossa nova/samba.
Butterfield provides ballast and encouragement throughout, before propelling “East-West” in its final minutes, his blues harp channeling Coltrane as the guitars go spinning-dervish around him. At one point, Butterfield responds to the creative chaos with dissonant honks, a brilliant and somehow logical move.
“East/West” influenced many of the California psychedelic bands, lighting the way to free-form improvisation, instrumental textures for their own sakes, dissonance and non-traditional scales. Few of these hippie acts had the musical chops to even approximate the Butterfield band’s achievement, but some did — such as Quicksilver Messenger Service, Santana and to some extent the Grateful Dead.
Bloomfield left the band after the “East-West” album, and formed Electric Flac before join forces with Al Kooper in some great collaborations, "Super Sessions", and later with Nick Gravenites, he found dead in his car on February 15, 1981 (he was 37). Butterfield, also died early, but not before the spirit of “East-West” infused a series of excellent albums by his growing band, notably 1968’s “In My Own Dream.” Bishop went on to a career in Southern rock and enjoyed some success.
Indian and Arabic sounds never left rock. The Beatles’ George Harrison, of course, became the highest-profile student of Eastern sounds, studying with the sitar master Ravi Shankar. In 1966, the brought the instruments to the Beatles recordings with “Norwegian Wood.” The Beatles continued with the instrument for several years.
Tracks
1. Walkin' Blues (Robert Johnson) - 3:15
2. Get Out Of My Life, Woman (Allen Toussaint) - 3:13
3. I Got A Mind To Give Up Living (Traditional) - 4:57
4. All These Blues (Traditional) - 2:18
5. Work Song (Nat Adderley, Oscar Brown) - 7:53
6. Mary, Mary (Michael Nesmith) - 2:48
7. Two Trains Running (Muddy Waters) - 3:50
8. Never Say No (Traditional) - 2:57
9. East-West (Mike Bloomfield, Nick Gravenites) - 13:10
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
*Paul Butterfield - Harmonica, Vocals
*Mike Bloomfield – Guitar
*Elvin Bishop – Guitar, Vocals
*Mark Naftalin – Keyboards
*Jerome Arnold – Bass
*Billy Davenport - Drums
The 1968 edition of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band featured a larger ensemble with a horn section, allowing for a jazzier feeling while retaining its Chicago blues core. They also adopted the psychedelic flower power stance of the era, as evidenced by a few selections, the rather oblique title, and the stunning pastiche art work on the cover.
Butterfield himself was really coming into his own playing harmonica and singing, while his band of keyboardist Mark Naftalin, guitarist Elvin Bishop, drummer Phil Wilson, electric bassist Bugsy Maugh, and the horns featuring young alto saxophonist David Sanborn was as cohesive a unit as you'd find in this time period. Butterfield's most well known song "One More Heartache" kicks off the album, a definitive blues-rock radio favorite with great harmonica and an infectious beat urged on by the top-notch horns.
The band covers "Born Under a Bad Sign" at a time when Cream also did it -- which one was better? "Driftin' & Driftin'" is another well known tune, and over nine minutes is stretched out with the horns cryin' and sighin', including a definitive solo from Sanborn over the choruses. There's the Otis Rush tune "Double Trouble," and "Drivin' Wheel" penned by Roosevelt Sykes; Butterfield wrote two tunes, including "Run Out of Time" and the somewhat psychedelic "Tollin' Bells" where Bishop's guitar and Naftalin's slow ringing, resonant keyboard evokes a haunting sound.
Likely this is the single best Butterfield album of this time period, and though compilations or "best-of" discs are available (Golden Butter being the best), you'd be well served to pick this one first and go from there.
by Michael G. Nastos
Tracks
1. One More Heartache (Smokey Robinson, The Miracles) – 3:20
2. Driftin' And Driftin' (Charles Brown, Johnny Moore, Eddie Williams) – 9:09
3. I Pity The Fool (Deadric Malone) – 6:00
4. Born Under A Bad Sign (William Bell, Booker T. Jones) – 4:10
5. Run Out Of Time (Paul Butterfield, Brother Gene Dinwiddie, Peterson) – 2:59
6. Double Trouble (Otis Rush) – 5:38
7. Drivin' Wheel (Roosevelt Sykes) – 5:34
8. Droppin' Out (Paul Butterfield, Tucker Zimmerman) – 2:16
9. Tollin' Bells (Traditional, Arr. Butterfield Blues Band) – 5:23
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
*Paul Butterfield - Harmonica, Vocals
*Elvin Bishop - Guitar, Vocals
*David Sanborn - Alto Saxophone
*Brother Gene Dinwiddie - Tenor Saxophone
*Bugsy Maugh - Bass, Vocals
*Mark Naftalin - Keyboards
*Phillip Wilson - Drums
*Keith Johnson - Trumpet
Anyone who has ever seen Tom Pacheco perform knows that they have been in the presence of greatness, watching a singer/songwriter who is a master of his craft and who, if there were any justice in the world (even though we know such a commodity is in desperately short supply in the 21st Century), would be as well-known as Woody Guthrie or Bob Dylan.
Tom has lived the life of a troubadour since the mid-1960s, and has now made around 20 original albums which have been released on a variety of labels in the USA (his earliest recordings and several more recently) and Europe (mainly in the last 20 ears). Yet Tom is not - yet - a household name, and one cannot avoid thinking that there are parallels between this often brilliant and always engaging artist and another artist in a different field, the celebrated painter Vincent Van Gogh.
The latter is now recognised s a genius, yet in his lifetime, he famously failed to sell a single painting. Tom's fate has not been quite so desperate. He has managed to sell small quantities of is amazing albums over the past 35 years, but never as many as his artistry deserved.
Tom was born on 4th November 1946, in New Bedford, Massachusetts. His father, Tony Pacheco, was a jazz guitarist who played with Django Reinhardt as well as solo in clubs in Europe before returning to the US to raise a family and open a music store, where he also taught guitar.
Tom began playing guitar at the age of 10, studying both Flamenco and classical styles, and in 1965, as a 9 year old, released his first solo album, “Turn Away rom The Storm”, a collection of original folk songs he had written two or three years before. It was made for a small local label known as Witchgreen Records, and Tom thinks they probably only pressed 500 copies. He also notes that he now owns that album and could be leased to license it if anyone's interested. The Van Gogh comparisons continue: that solo album could soon be reissued, and now the Euphoria album.
Tom left Massachusetts to study at Hofstra niversity in New York City, where he formed a band called The Ragamuffins, which supported Jimi Hendrix in a number of occasions and also released two singles on Seville and London Records. These singles are extremely obscure; no doubt, if Tom had become a superstar, they would have been reissued on many occasions, but as it is, hunting through oldies shops probably provides the only solution if anyone feels that owning them is important.
In 1969 Tom joined forces with The Beckets which actually were Roger and Wendy Penney, they started their entertainment careers as actors, working with Boston's Theatre Company. Using the stage name Roger and Wendy Beckett, by the mid-'60s the pair had turned their attentions to music, becoming fixtures on New York's Greenwich Village folk club scene. By the time they released their 1967 debut collection, they'd followed the crowd into a more electrified folk-rock sound with Roger jammin' on electric autoharp, while Wendy had picked up electric bass. After splitting Euphoria the couple toured and released records as Roger and Wendy and later -in mid seventies- as The Bermuda Triangle.
Back to Euphoria, Tom recalls: 'Thirty years later, I listened to Eurphoria album and realized it was not as bad as I thought it was, considering the times. If it weren't for that album at that point in my life I might have quit playing music professionally and become an English teacher, something I had gone to University to study".
Which explains why Tom's lyrics are so impressive. He could have been a great teacher... The sleeve picture of Euphoria is curious, to say the least. A very tall female standing with a male dwarf. Tom explained: "That was a picture of a relative of mine, who was dreadfully poor, but very attractive, and she married a rich dwarf who lived on an island in The Azores, and lived happily ever after with him. The female head has half of Sharon's face and half of Wendy Becket's and the dwarf has half Roger's face and half mine".
Tom now has a band in Norway with whom he recorded 'The Long Walk', released by Playground Music Scandinavia, which is an album full of his songs, while Jim Welder produced and performed instrumental tracks on
Tom's newest album, 'Year Of The Big Wind (Bare Bones III)', recorded at Moonhaw Studios in Woodstock and released by Frog's Claw Recordings.
by John Tobler, Washington, 2004
Tracks
1. There Is Now (Tom Pacheco) - 4:17
2. What a Day (Tom Pacheco) - 2:09
3. Seldom Seen Slim (Tom Pacheco) - 4:27
4. Sun and Shadow (Tom Pacheco) - 2:19
5. Sitting In a Rocking Chair (Rowland Barter) - 3:35
6. Ride the Magic Carpet (Barkan, Dams) - 2:51
7. You Must Forget (Tom Pacheco) - 3:36
8. Tucson (Tom Pacheco) - 3:02
9. Calm Down (Tom Pacheco) - 2:23
10.Sleep (Tom Pacheco) - 2:25
11.Walkin' Through the City (Tom Pacheco) - 1:59
Sometimes, one has to wonder whether the youth of the 1960s were really as open to new ideas and new sounds as their press would make you believe. Take the album at hand, In My Own Dream by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band -- their fourth official release (though two others have since gone into their discography at earlier points), it marked the point where the band really began to lose its audience, and all for reasons having nothing to do with the quality of their music.
They'd gotten past the loss of Michael Bloomfield in early 1967, over which they'd surrendered some of their audience of guitar idolaters, with the engagingly titled (and guitar-focused) Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw. In My Own Dream had its great guitar moments, especially on "Just to Be With You," but throughout the album, Elvin Bishop's electric guitar shared the spotlight with the horn section of Gene Dinwiddle, David Sanborn, and Keith Johnson, who had signed on with the prior album and who were more out in front than ever.
More to the point, this album represented a new version of the band being born, with shared lead vocals, with the leader himself only taking three of the seven songs, and bassist Bugsy Maugh singing lead on two songs, Bishop on one, and drummer Phillip Wilson taking one song. What's more, there was a widely shared spotlight for the players, and more of a jazz influence on this record than had ever been heard before from the group. This was a band that could jam quietly for five minutes on "Drunk Again," building ever-so-slowly to a bluesy crescendo where Bishop's guitar and Mark Naftalin's organ surged; and follow it with the title track, a totally surprising acoustic guitar-driven piece featuring Sanborn, Dinwiddle, and Johnson. The playing was impressive, especially for a record aimed at a collegiate audience, but the record had the bad fortune to appear at a point when jazz was culturally suspect among the young, an elitist and not easily accessible brand of music that seemed almost as remote as classical music (i.e. "old people's" music).
"Get Yourself Together" was almost too good a piece of Chicago-style blues, a faux Chess Records-style track that might even have been too "black" for the remnants of Butterfield's old audience. It also anticipated the group's final change of direction, its blossoming into a multi-genre blues/jazz/R&B/soul outfit, equally devoted to all four genres and myriad permutations of each. It might not be essential listening for dedicated fans of the original band, but for those who hung on to its glorious end -- the double-live LP (a double-live CD and twice as long, as of late 2004) -- this is the missing link, how they got there.
by Bruce Eder
Tracks
1. Last Hope's Gone (David Sanborn, Paul Butterfield, Jim Hayne) - 4:52
2. Mine To Love (Bugsy Maugh) - 4:21
3. Get Yourself Together (Bugsy Maugh) - 4:10
4. Just To Be With You (Bernie Roth) - 6:12
5. Morning Blues (Bugsy Maugh) - 4:58
6. Drunk Again (Elvin Bishop) - 6:08
7. In My Own Dream (Paul Butterfield) - 5:48
The title alone is portentous, at the very least semi-evil sounding. Fear not, there are no devils, demons, or witches lurking in these woods. Instead we have a heretofore almost completely unknown and rarely spoken of album of nine original tracks, self-released on the legendary RPC Records label by a group of self-motivated teens from Pennsylvania. Luckily for lovers of musical mayhem, the Case got access to their school music room and a four-track recorder over a Christmas break in 1971.
A rock-solid, hard-driving rhythm section lays down the necessary underpinning for moody organ and beautifully-toned guitar. There is sheer joy at play here, a kind of rock ‘n’ roll exuberance—with ample raw talent and wicked riffing—which shines through on every cut. Terrific raw, primitive thrashy rock album, simultaneously loose and intense, like the Velvet Underground at their best.
Light-In The Attic
Tracks
1. Someday - 5:10
2. On My Way - 3:41
3. Ali On The Run - 4:06
4. Crystal Ball - 7:56
5. Coming Home - 2:55
6. Loneliness - 3:14
7. Blackwood - 7:15
8. Lover - 4:32
9. Out Of It - 3:06
The Allman Brothers Band's first Number One album, 1973's Brothers and Sisters, was a miracle of recovery and reinvention amid grim, enforced change: the deaths, in 1971 and 1972, respectively, of guitarist Duane Allman and bassist Berry Oakley. Guitarist Dickey Betts took a greater leading and writing role, increasing the country light and buoyancy in the Allmans' electric-blues stampede ("Ramblin' Man," "Southbound," "Jessica") as new pianist Chuck Leavell added more barrelhouse and fusion dynamics.
The road to that symmetry is caught in this four-CD set by a disc of rehearsals and outtakes that sounds like the work of a more brawny, Southern Grateful Dead, at once winding ("A Minor Jam"), earthy and hurting (Gregg Allman's howling in Ray Charles' "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town"). A complete 1973 concert from San Francisco's Winterland shows the new lineup's confidence and style of ascension (the stately, climbing pathos in the middle of "Whipping Post") at bright, striving length – before the family really fell apart.
by David Fricke
To say the Allman Brothers Band were up against a wall in the fall of 1972 would be something of an understatement. Just a year before, they had lost guitarist and co-founder Duane Allman in a motorcycle accident. In November 1972, during the recording of their fifth album, ‘Brothers and Sisters,’ their bass player, Berry Oakley, met a similar fate on his bike just three blocks from where Allman was tragically struck and killed.
You’d think all of this would make Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts and the rest of the band throw their hands up and give in, or at least deliver an album full of dire tunes. But that wasn’t the case when ‘Brothers and Sisters’ finally arrived in stores in August 1973.
Not only did the record continue on in the tradition of their previous LPs, the record’s gatefold sleeve features photos of drummer Butch Trucks’ young son and the grinning Brittany Oakley, the late bassist’s daughter. The picture captures a slight moment of innocence and hope, plopped right onto the cover as if to declare, “Everything is going to be all right.”
‘Brothers and Sisters” opening track, ‘Wasted Words,’ is classic Gregg Allman, boasting an urgency boosted by by Betts’ excellent slide work. ‘Ramblin’ Man’ reached No. 2 on the singles chart, becoming the band’s only Top 10 hit. It’s no surprise that it was so successful: The song is the audio equivalent of a cloudless sky. Tie these in with the driving ‘Southbound,’ the entrancing instrumental ‘Jessica’ and the stomp of ‘Pony Boy,’ and you have one of the group’s most enduring albums.
‘Brothers and Sisters’ chills the longnecks and lets the smoke rise on its own. And it’s the perfect portrait of the band before they stumbled into the rest of the ’70s, which were filled with halfhearted records like ‘Win, Lose or Draw’ and ‘Enlightened Rogues,’ various addictions and Cher.
by Tony Rettman
Tracks
Disc 1 "Brothers And Sisters" (Remastered)
1. Wasted Words (Gregg Allman) - 4:20
2. Ramblin' Man (Richard Betts) - 4:48
3. Come And Go Blues (Gregg Allman) - 4:55
4. Jelly Jelly (Trade Martin) - 5:46
5. Southbound (Richard Betts) - 5:10
6. Jessica (Richard Betts) - 7:31
7. Pony Boy (Richard Betts) - 5:51
Disc 2 "Rehearsals, Jams And Outtakes" (Previously Unreleased)
1. Wasted Words - 5:06
2. Trouble No More - 3:58
3. Southbound - 5:56
4. One Way Out - 5:38
5. I'm Gonna Move To The Outskirts Of Town - 11:14
6. Done Somebody Wrong - 3:50
7. Double Cross - 4:35
8. Early Morning Blues - 9:27
9. A Minor Jam - 16:29
Disc 3 "Live At Winterland", September 26, 1973
1. Introduction By Bill Graham - 1:23
2. Wasted Words - 5:17
3. Done Somebody Wrong - 4:01
4. One Way Out - 8:44
5. Stormy Monday - 8:12
6. Midnight Rider - 3:34
7. Ramblin' Man - 7:33
8. In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed - 17:20
9. Statesboro Blues - 4:27
10.Come And Go Blues - 5:12
Disc 4 "Live At Winterland", September 26, 1973
1. Southbound - 6:01
2. Jessica - 9:46
3. You Don't Love Me (Includes Amazing Grace) - 10:49
4. Les Brers In A Minor (With Drum Solo) - 25:49
5. Blue Sky - 4:49
6. Trouble No More - 4:47
7. Whipping Post - 15:04
The Allman Brothers Band
*Gregg Allman – Lead, Background Vocals, Organ, Rhythm Guitar
*Richard Betts – Lead Vocals, Lead, Slide Guitar, Dobro
*Berry Oakley – Bass
*Lamar Williams – Bass
*Chuck Leavell - Piano, Electric Piano, Background Vocals
*Jaimoe – Drums, Congas
*Butch Trucks – Drums, Percussion, Tympani, Congas With
*Les Dudek – Lead Guitar On "Ramblin' Man", Acoustic Guitar On "Jessica"
*Tommy Talton - Acoustic Guitar On "Pony Boy"
When Ed Sullivan welcomed Blood, Sweat and Tears to his show a while back he asked them where they got the unusual name from. From Churchill, they replied. Well, since the Kinks did Arthur, everybody knows Churchill isn't worth very much anymore, so as a result the name has been immeasurably weakened. So maybe they ought to shorten it (names of groups are too long nowadays) to just Tears. After all it's the Tears that have always been their most vital component. There really hasn't been that much in the way of sweat except maybe from the spotlights getting too hot. And the only blood has been from the deep scratches Janis inflicted on David ClaytonThomas' back when that pair hooked up once upon a time. So it's Tears and it fits. After all they've always been best at sad ballads and this album is no exception.
And Steve Katz has a lot to do with it, having written two real pretty little things, called "Valentine's Day" and "For My Lady." The first of them is sort of vaguely reminiscent of something with a similar title that Tim Buckley did around four years ago. Which isn't peculiar, since Steve did that Buckley thing "Morning Glory" on the first BS&T album three years ago. Well, his Valentine item is just as pretty as anything by Tim and "For My Lady" is prettier still. It's as pretty as a peach, it's even what some people might call shit-pretty. That's how pretty it is. Lovely in fact. And Fred Lipsius does this even lovelier instrumental thing on both sides called "A Look to My Heart" which sounds like Monk's "Ruby My Dear" and sounds even more like Coltrane's "Naima." Or anything by Bill Evans. You know: concrete timeless breathless prettiness as an excuse for beauty.
Which certainly is a good formula. Like if jazz titans can indulge in it, why not jazz non-titans like BS&T? It's no disgrace to balladize exclusively, maybe they ought to give it a try. It's what they do best, isn't it? When they try to rock with David wailing and flailing it comes off like Paul McCartney doing same. Conviction is abandoned in the attempt to get down, get with it, teach your dog to swim. And conviction is something that actually seems to be on the agenda when they're doing the soft stuff and ever since Elvis did "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You," it's been a well-known fact that ballads need not be worthless. And need not be non-rock either so there's no threat to their masculinity or anything like that.
Anyway, ballads may even be vehicles for the conveyance of meaning. Like on that Indian song by David called "Cowboys and Indians." It's an Indian song rather than cowboys, and it's poignant and yet there's no blood like in Soldier Blue or Little Big Man so it avoids heavy polarities in making its point. Kids'll be quoting it in English classes and maybe even social studies. Richie Havens could even have a decent size hit with it and then it would take on really relevant racial significance.
So you can play the soft touching stuff and then for a change slip the needle over to "Lisa, Listen to Me." It's like a breath of fresh Airplane, circa "We Can Be Together." Steve really pulls off a mind-boggier of a riff on his ax and the vocal that follows doesn't even ruin it. Put the ballads and it together and you've got yourself the best – B-(e)-S-(&)-T – Blood, Sweat & Tears album since the first.
And come to think of it, David's guitar playing on "Go Down Gamblin'" is better than Jagger's guitar playing on Sticky Fingers. And "For My Lady" is a lot like George Harrison's "Something," so I wonder what Joe Cocker would have to say about it.
by Richard Meltzer, Rolling Stone, Aug 5, 1971
Tracks
1. Go Down Gamblin' (David Clayton-Thomas) – 4:14
2. Cowboys and Indians (Dick Halligan, Terry Kirkman) – 3:07
3. John The Baptist (Holy John) (Al Kooper, Phyllis Major) – 3:35
4. Redemption (Halligan, Clayton-Thomas) – 5:11
5. Lisa, Listen To Me (Halligan, Clayton-Thomas) – 2:58
6. A Look To My Heart (Fred Lipsius) – 0:52
7. High On A Mountain (Steve Katz) – 3:13
8. Valentine's Day (Katz) – 3:56
9. Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While) (Holland, Dozier, Holland) – 3:27
10.For My Lady (Katz) – 3:23
11.Mama Gets High (Dave Bargeron, Katz) – 4:09
12.A Look To My Heart (Lipsius) – 2:07
Blood Sweat and Tears
*Dave Bargeron - Trombone, Tuba, Bass Trombone, Baritone Horn, Acoustic Bass
*David Clayton-Thomas - Lead Vocals, Guitar on "Go Down Gamblin'"
*Bobby Colomby - Drums, Percussion
*Jim Fielder - Bass, Guitar on "Redemption"
*Dick Halligan - Organ, Trombone, Piano, Flute
*Steve Katz - Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Harmonica, Mandolin, Lead Vocals on "Valentine's Day"
*Fred Lipsius - Alto Saxophone, Piano, Organ, Clarinet
*Lew Soloff - Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Piccolo Trumpet
*Chuck Winfield - Trumpet, Flugelhorn Additional Musicians
*Don Heckman - Clarinet, Bass Clarinet ("Valentine's Day" and "For My Lady")
*Michael Smith - Congas ("Redemption")
A decent if somewhat candy-coated effort in the pop-psychedelic vein, combining cheerful sunshine pop sensibilities with some hard-edged psychedelic playing. It all falls somewhere between the Beatles' Revolver album and the Zombies' Odessey & Oracle (the latter especially on "Man Do You" and "Raven"), with some Sgt. Pepper-type layered choruses and overdubbed strings and other instruments.
The question is how well it represents the sound of the Paper Garden -- and that begs the larger question behind the purpose of recording an LP; The Paper Garden dates from a period when the answer to that question was starting to change. According to the account of singer/guitarist Joe Arduino, the New York City-based quintet had a solid stage repertory established from performances at colleges in the Northeastern United States in 1967 and 1968, when they got the chance to cut this album under the auspices of British producer Geoff Turner, who was working at Musicor in New York at the time -- presented with that opportunity, the members ended up writing a whole new body of songs for the occasion; thus, the album become a new, self-contained artistic statement rather than a representation of the music by which they'd first attracted attention and defined themselves.
The songs are filled with catchy tunes played on a mix of virtuoso electric lead and acoustic guitars -- with the occasional sitar, courtesy of rhythm guitarist Sandy Napoli -- and violin, string orchestra, trumpet, and trombone embellishment, and the lead singing coming down somewhere between Paul McCartney and Colin Blunstone with the backing usually very Lennon-esque. The group had three talented songwriters in their ranks whose work was worth hearing and the 27-minute running time isn't even a problem -- the content is substantial enough to make this a nicely full sonic meal and one of the most enjoyable albums of the psychedelic era.
by Bruce Eder
Tracks
1. Gypsy Wine - 3:14
2. Sunshine People - 2:46
3. Way Up High - 2:31
4. Lady's Man - 1:54
5. Mr. Mortimer - 3:51
6. Man Do You - 3:39
7. Raining - 2:07
8. I Hide - 2:23
9. Raven - 2:15
10.A Day - 2:28
All songs by Sandy Napoli, Joe Arduino
