Some OTHER Essential ‘60’s Music
Tired of your Hendrix, Who and Beatles tapes?
Here are some Psych-era LP Masterpieces
THAT still sound like aces:
Love
Forever Changes
(1967 Elektra LP/ Elektra-Asylum CD)
This seminal, multi-ethnic Los Angeles band’s third and best LP is a time capsule of its era that manages to somehow transcend it.
Sliced in two on the Love Story 2-CD set, Forever Changes is the one beautiful hippie daydream that still bewilders and hypnotizes like yesterday; with a vibe so strong that even unsuspecting "straights" have experienced flashbacks zoning out to tracks like "Between Clark & Hilldale" and "The Good Humor Man He Sees Everything Like This."
As snaky electric guitar blasts, lush acoustic guitars and eerie and beautiful string arrangements creep up behind and around him, leader Arthur Lee’s paranoid psychedelic soul-preacher ("Bummer In The Summer," "Live and Let Live") and baked crooner ("Andmoreagain," "You Set the Scene") preaches the hippie dream as an anti-Utopia that never was, even at the time. Arthur holds a vase of dead flowers on the LP’s original back cover in case you missed the point. Essential! (D.H.)
Also recommended: Love (1966), Da Capo (1967), Out Here (1972)
The Seeds
Merlin’s Music Box / Live & Raw
(GNP / Drop Out CD)
Back in the sixties, being tone-deaf and inept and unimaginative and fullabeans did not necessarily preclude Great Artistic Achievement and the adulation of the masses, provided you had youth and gall and great hair in your favor. (Kids, you can still attain the adulation of the masses with this handy formula; but as of this writing, the last Great Artistic Achievement to result from it was probably the fifth Black Sabbath album.)
And it seems only right and natural that the ultimate testament to The Seeds’ Great Artistic Achievement is also a testament to the adulation of the masses: their "live" album, Merlin’s Music Box. Many music historians have suggested that the crowd noise was overdubbed onto studio tracks, but I won’t join their ranks— I’m convinced it’s the real deal. Perhaps their minds just couldn’t get around the concept of a few thousand adolescent girls screaming in ecstatic appreciation for music that sounds like White Light/White Heat, The Flowers Of Romance and The Best Of Sir Douglas Quintet being played simultaneously on three hand-rotated turntables; but I say that’s just part of what made the Sixties so fine. (C.O.)
Also Recommended: The Seeds-- Flower Punk (Demon U.K. box set)
Zombies
Odessey and Oracle
(1967 CBS LP / Rhino CD)
Legend has it that the Zombies were to start recording this, their second and final LP, just as Abbey Road Studios engineers were unplugging the complex multi-track wiring required to create the Beatles’ just-completed Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. What the songwriting team of Chris White and Rod Argent made, quite fast and on the cheap, from the Beatles’ technical (and creative) innovations was an album every bit as charged with the time, and as melodically inventive, as the big-budgeted Pepper’s or the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds; a psych-pop classic that successfully wed the group’s patented minor-chord melancholy to stunning arrangements and strong harmony singing. Not psychedelic really, the songs make art out of lost love and wasted motion— "Time of The Season" became the group’s biggest hit (after they’d already disbanded) and "Hung Up On a Dream" is either an optimistic anthem for the youth movement or a bittersweet goodbye to it (whichever you choose).
These are a few of my favorite things: Girls in jail, pastoral strolls. . .and Beechwood Park. (D.H.)
Also Recommended: The Zombies-- Zombie Heaven (Big Beat U.K. box set that includes Odessey & Oracle in its entirety)
The Monks-- Black Monk Time
(1966 Polydor-Germany LP / 1996 Infinite Zero-American CD, with bonus tracks 43112)
The tale is straight outta Hollywood: a group of rowdy ex-U.S. servicemen stranded in West Germany form a band called the Monks to make some extra dough, invent a whacked-out stage show complete with prerequisite Medieval schtick, win loyal fans in the same kind of ramshackle Berlin haunts that the Beatles played, and leave to the ages a classic LP that has transcended its humble roots to become one of rock ‘n’ roll’s great lost treasures-- a seminal punk rock artifact, with undenaible stompers like "I Hate You," "Shut Up" and the infectious "Boys are Boys and Girls are Choice."
Howard Tate
Howard Tate
(1967 Verve LP / available on Polydor CD as The Legendary Sessions)
Soul ruled in the ‘60’s. . . and the soul music from that era stands as the least dated and most wearingly vital genre of its later days.
Howard Tate’s debut LP is a crown jewel if you’re sick of hearing the same Four Tops and Aretha songs all day long on oldies radio— an obscure Memphis belter, Tate made a handful of singles on Verve and Atlantic, and two fascinating full-length albums of emotional, falsetto-based R&B soul-sermonizing. The first one, from ‘67, is as good as ‘60’s soul music ever got.
Not many R&B artists in the sixties were able to put together consistent albums— singles ruled the market and this is a compilation of 45’s and b-sides; a slam-bang package of hits-that-shoulda-been. "Stop," "Ain’t Nobody Home," "Look At Granny Run Run" and the incredibly evocative "Get It While You Can" are standouts among standouts, and it’s easy to hear why the mysterious Tate, who hasn’t been heard from in years, was the ‘60’s soul singer that the other ‘60’s soul singers listened to. (D.H.)
Also Recommended: A1972 self-titled effort on Atlantic, currently out of print has some great cuts, including the almost-hit "She’s A Burglar." Has anyone out there even HEARD his second LP, a rare little slab credited to Howard Tate’s Revolution released in 1970 on a small indie label called Turnstile?
Paul Revere & the Raiders
Revolution!
(1967 Columbia LP / Sundazed CD)
This is quite possibly the great lost classic album of 1967, which is ironic considering how well it sold at the time. But then it’s also ironic that at a time when even the Rolling Stones were trying to do a Sergeant Pepper, these teenybop faves were laying down some sleazy Exile-style gutbucket, replete with teenage session guy Ry Cooder’s loose-goosey slide work, actual-Raider Joe Correro’s awesome drumming (worth the price of admission), Mark Lindsay’s testosterone-damaged soul testifying, Terry Melcher’s ingenious production work and choirboy harmonies (unnerving in this context), and somebody-or-other’s exquisite bass guitar lines.
Even the novelty number, "Ain’t Nobody Who Can Do It Like Leslie Can" (a tribute to Melcher’s housekeeper) has a rhythmic undertow that’s hard to resist. The new stereo remix of "Him or Me" on the Sundazed reissue is a godawful mess, but the previously unreleased "Try Some of Mine" (which could and should have been on the original LP) is exactly what bonus tracks were invented for. (C.O.)
Also Recommended: Paul Revere & the Raiders Greatest Hits (1966), Spirit of ‘67 (1967).
Shocking Blue
At Home
(1969 / 1994 Repertoire CD)
It’s one of the great injustices of rock history that Shocking Blue should be thought of (by the few who even recognize their name) as a novel, "one-hit wonder."
"Venus" was only one of several classic tracks on the Blues’s first album, At Home, a collection that should be near the top of critics’ All-Time-Best polls, instead of remaining in the basement of super-obscurity where it currently exists. "California Here I Come" and the already-mentioned "Long and Lonesome Road" are just as catchy, just as cool, just as memorable as "Venus," as was a song called "Love Buzz," which Nirvana eventually covered (not too well, but they get points for having the cool to pay the tribute) on Bleach . There was also a raga-rock instrumental, a couple more upbeat tunes just barely lagging behind "Venus" and the others, like "Boll Weevil," the R&B-fueled album opener, which sounded like the Dead with more real spirit.
Beach Boys-- Today (1965 Capitol LP / Capitol CD)
Beach Boys-- Smiley Smile (1967 Capitol LP / Capitol CD)
Beach Boys-- Friends (1968 Capitol LP / Capitol CD)
It didn’t end with Pet Sounds (or begin with Pet Sounds either). Beach Boys neophytes should seek out some of the other noteworthy, often excellent, full-length ‘60’s albums from Brian and Co. that bookend the deservedly lauded Sounds in the BB discography.
Today is a flowering of lush and melodic tones to come, with downbeat tracks like "Kiss Me Baby," the moving "Please Let Me Wonder" and a gorgeous cover of "I’m So Young" prefiguring the later romanticism of "Don’t Talk" and "Caroline No." Side one is the last spurts of the "old" Beach Boys, with "Do You Wanna Dance" settling in before Wilson’s side two musings. Today is an under appreciated chapter in the BB saga.
. . .and even if most of the intended Smile album ended up in the can, Smiley Smile is as exciting as psychedelic acapella and orchestrated doo-wop gets. It’s also a genuinely fucked-up set of songs that gives the impression of a big stoner mix-down session. I’m amazed by how avant-garde and offputting this record sounds today, even as mixmasters and pop-damaged DJs deconstruct their cuts-- Smiley blunts expectations at every turn; Hooks get subverted; catchy "rock" verses run headlong into angular, muttered, near-deranged choruses; strange woodblock percussion; Whistles and ambient sound!
"A bunt instead of a grand slam," the late Carl Wilson once said of Pet Sounds’ followup, but Smiley scores anyway. I doubt a major artist could get away with doing something as homespun and scatterbrained, even with an ace-in-the-hole like "Good Vibrations," and it’s clear in retrospect that much of it is Brian basically giving in the group and the record company to put a record out quickly. Most of these hurried, off-the-cuff home studio tracks were recorded by the Wrecking Crew session players, and many of these cuts can be found on bootleg on in selected pieces on the Beach Boys box set. Smiley Smile’s lessons are winningly recounted, nonetheless: Don’t take the seasons for granted, eat lots of vegetables and use a theremin only to connect the bridge and the chorus.
Meanwhile, Friends has long been Brian Wilson’s own favorite Beach Boys LP: a relaxed, sometimes goofy, sometimes quietly profound release pulled together from informal sessions amidst the haze of Brian’s bad long weekend. It failed on the charts at the height of Hendrix / Cream hysteria, and sounds as stubbornly against the grain, and behind (ahead of?) its time as John Wesley Harding or Radio City. Unambitious, uncomplicated, soothing: Friends is a lazy summertime LP for those days when surfing is simply not an option and the golden hammock beckons. (D.H. / D.H.)
Also Recommended: Summer Days & Summer Nights (1965), Party (1966), 20 / 20 (1969), Sunflower (1970), Surf’s Up (1971), Beach Boys Love You (1976) and Brian Wilson (1988). Ah hell, you might as well get The Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations andPet Sounds Sessions box sets too while you are at it.
13th Floor Elevators
The Psychedelic Sounds of...
(1966 International Artists LP / Collectables CD)
13th Floor Elevators
Easter Everywhere
(1967 IA / Collectables CD)
One glance at the titles will tell you that this stuff has dated badly in some respects, but these Texan acid casualties were as much ahead (or outside) of their time as they were of it. Listening to the often-more-felt-than-heard rhythm section, Stacy Sutherland’s imprecise yet searing leads, resident philosopher Tommy Hall’s utterly ridiculous (no insult intended) amplified jug, and Roky Erickson’s freak-of-nature shriek merge and emerge from the murky mix is not unlike watching mirages evaporate from the road ahead (but more fun).
Hard to choose between the two— Sounds is more focused and rockin’, but the relatively reflective Easter does feature the timeless drop of "Slip Inside This House" and a suitably throbbing paean to lovemaking entitled "Earthquake" which (sonically speaking) manages to live up to its odd premise without being too hokey about it. Essential stuff. (Be sure to read the liner notes.)
(C.O.)
Pretty Things--Pretty Things
(1965 Fontana LP / 1998 Snapper CD w/ bonus tracks)
Pretty Things-- Get The Picture (1965 / 1998 Snapper CD w/ bon. tracks)
Pretty Things-- emotions (1967 / 1998 Snapper CD w/ bonus tracks)
The Pretty Things were, along with the Rolling Stones, the premier U.K. blues-garage band (Pretty Thing Dick Taylor was, briefly, a member of the Stones) and did a fair amount of sonic trailblazing of their own during the heady ‘60’s.
The first three Pretty Things LPs are out now in the states, with enhanced CDs, notable bonus tracks and informative (bluntly honest, at times) historical essays on the recordings. The first two LPs are the classic Pretty Things blues-rock albums and a sloppy, churning, wonderful maelstrom it is-- superlative covers of Bo Diddley’s "Roadrunner" and (the song that gave them their name) "Pretty Thing" are on the first CD, the controversial "LSD" and the proto-folk "London Town" are on Get The Picture. Needless to say, if you are fan of tough ‘60’s garage rock, you probably already own ‘em, but the rare bonus b-sides, CD-ROM period videos and unreleased bonus tracks make these Snapper reissues irresistable.
The band seems to disown emotions, their third album, which has also been reissued, but I really can’t figure out why. True, the tacked-on horn and string arrangements are a bit disconcerting if you are used to the Things’ more raw recordings, but these touches are actually quite inventive, and augment the melodic songs as much as they detract from them.
As Sgt. Pepper-like rock statements go, emotions is low-key, consistent and packed with its own flavorful exotica ("Photographer," "My Time" and the lovely "House of Ten" are standouts), and the CD reissue compiles as bonus cuts many of the best tracks WITHOUT the overdubs that so offended the band, as well as one fantastic unreleased cover (the Kinks’ "House In The Country") and two versions of the superlative non-LP single, "Progress." New-styled wussy poppers would kill to make a record as solid and nuanced as this. The guys should listen again to their own work. (D.H.)
Bee Gees
Horizontal
(1968 Atco LP / 1996 Polydor CD)
The Bee Gees can’t help it. They’re slaves to the zeitgeist-- they always have been. When the zeitgeist coughed up Disco in the mid-seventies, it seemed nothing short of inevitable that the Bee Gees should give us Main Course and Saturday Night Fever. When pop music hit an unprecedently bland stretch earlier in the decade, no one could have expected the Bee Gees to make anything more or less than unprecedently bland pop, and that’s just what they did. (Referring to a 1972 entry in their Tales of the Brothers Gibb box set, Barry noted: "It may seem strange to some that there are quite a few songs we don’t remember writing. This one of them." Strange? I don’t remember hearing it, and that was only a couple of weeks ago!)
And a few years earlier when the Gibbs arrived in London from Australia, when the Beatles were preparing to sic "Strawberry Fields Forever" / "Penny Lane" on their constituency and British musicians as flaky as the Incredible String Band were starting to sell records in vast quantities-- then, too, did the zeitgeist whisper in the Brothers’ tender ears, encouraging them to develop their inherent dementia no less than their inherent melodic sense. "Don’t worry-- just do what I say," it whispered. "Write lyrics that no one, no matter how stoned they get, will comprehend. Don’t croon, bleat-- in harmony, if you can manage it. Hey, I’ve got a great idea for your first single: write a song called ‘New York Mining Disaster 1941.’ The kids’ll eat it up."
Let it be said: whatever their later crimes against humanity, and whatever debts they might have owned initially to the Beatles and (yes) Otis Redding, during that most creative and adventurous of pop music eras the Bee Gees produced music so utterly over the top that even when it didn’t work (about half the time) you had to admire it. And when it did work-- Robin’s discombobulated lyrics, the often equally skewed melodies and chord structures, the distinctive clunk of Colin Peterson’s inventive drumming, the uncanny ineptitude of Vince Melouny’s occasional guitar leads (I defy any student of rock history to show me a similarly successful pop group with an equally awful lead guitarist) and Bill Shepherd’s impossibly lush orchestrations-- and those voices-- the results were nothing short of majestic.
And influential, whether anybody today will admit as much or not. One need only lend an ear to Horizontal, their second album from early 1968, to hear the spell the savage young Bee Gees cast upon three or four generations of pop formalists and weirdos, from such well-regarded contemporaries as The Move, The Moody Blues, Scott Walker, and Love, through Big Star and Queen in the early seventies, on to Robyn Hitchcock, Julian Cope and the Three O’Clock (who did a masterful cover of the Gibbs’ "In My Own Time") in the post-punk era, and in the ‘90’s The Cure, Fine Young Cannibals, Jellyfish and Material Issue.
Touted by the Brothers as an "anti-psychedelic album,"Horizontal is filled with stunning, scratch-your-head classics: the Who tribute (parody?) "Harry Braff," the hypnotic title cut, the dramatic "And The Rain Will Fall," even the yodeling blues vamp, "The Change Is Made." Standout: The phase-shifting "Lemons Never Forget." Indescribable, basically: imagine John Lennon’s "I Want You," two years early, replaced by a lyric about warring fruit.
Plus: despite the rhetoric, the thing is Psychedelic as Hell, with Shepherd’s evocative string arrangements snaking under and around those eerie harmonies and minor chord changes like smoke through the cracks in the door. Hepsters may not wanna hear, but the birth of Goth and gloom rock as we know it starts with Horizontal. (C.O.-- w/ help from D.H.)
Also recommended: Bee Gees First (1967), Idea (1968), Odessa (1970), Cucumber Castle (1971) and (this is Don speaking for himself) Main Course (1975). Bonus Points: From the Bee Gees Archives ‘66-’72 (1996 BGR bootleg compilation)
The Buckinghams
Portraits
(1968 Columbia LP / unavailable on CD)
A controversial choice perhaps, this late ‘60’s Buckinghams bid for serious artistic acceptance is hampered by the forced inclusion of "Susan," the group’s most noxious radio hit. To be sure, the hit (side two, side one) stands out on this otherwise trippy and quite memorable album like a broken toe. With ambitious string arrangements, dissonant Moog-and-electric-guitar interludes, and outstanding tracks like "The Mail" and "Just Because I’ve Fallen Down," Portraits is a now-forgotten artifact from the days when every group in the bins— even commercialized singles groups— had to make a haughty Sgt. Peppers-like statement.
The Buckinghams’ sprawling, tuneful effort was a whole lot better than most (can I pick on Satantic Majestics Request a bit more and say that this lightweight package creams the Stones muddy psych? OK, I just did. . . ) and it certainly deserves to be back in print on a compact disc for standing up to today’s less-political ears as well as it does. . . (D.H.)
The Monkees
Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones Ltd.
(1967 Colgems LP / 1994 Rhino CD w/ bonus cuts and alt. mixes)
All I can say is: If you have ears, you can’t deny the considerable songwriting prowess of Mike Nesmith. The guy was simply amazing" "Sweet Young Thing," "Daily Nightly," "Sunny Girlfriend," "Listen To The Band," "You Told Me"-- the guy was a great, distinctive songwriter and truly one of the original architects of country rock.
And you’ve also got to admire the pipes of Micky Dolenz, one of the best pop vocalists of his day: "I’m A Believer," "Stepping Stone," "Pleasant Valley Sunday," "The Porpoise Song" and his own crazed "Randy Scouse Git."
(Yeah, yeah, I know, Davy. What can I say? And Peter, yeah I know. Listen, They weren’t perfect. However, Peter did write "For Pete’s Sake" and provided the highpoints of the Head soundtrack. OK?)
All in all,Pisces, Capricorn, Aquarius and Jones Ltd., the band’s fourth record, is one of the best pop records of its day, and one that Monkees fans can hold up with pride: It’s got the great hit, "Pleasant Valley Sunday" (and, yes, the Monkees are indeed playing on this track, albeit with session bassist and drummer. That’s Nesmith picking the signature guitar lick), plus the timeless and eerie "Words," Mike’s excellent country-rock "Salesman" and "What Am I Doing Hanging Around," one pretty awesome psychedelic experiment ("Daily Nightly"), one fairly hilarious Rock Lifestyle parody (the Moog-y cover of Nilsson’s "Star Collector") and a beautiful, where-did-that-come-from torch song ("Don’t Call On Me," perhaps Nesmith’s best vocal turn). Simply fantastic-- maybe the best album the Byrds never made.
The Monkees are still the victims of a lot of negative hype, a natural backlash against their "artificial" formation. But great bands have been "put together" before, and manufactured for commercial reasons-- at the very same time the Monkees were being vilified for their reliance on session musicians, Berry Gordy was perfecting the Motown factory assembly line, where artists shared the same session backing players, and winning applause for his innovations.
The facts: The Monkees did play on a lot of their material, especially Headquarters and Pisces, Aquarius. . . , both of which are ramshackle and folky-pop and melodic and quite cool and (importantly) their finest work. . . and when you consider that the Beach Boys, The Byrds and Paul Revere & the Raiders were drawing from the same pool of session cats that you’ll find augmenting the Monkees on their recordings, it just becomes silly to use the old "pre-fab" argument on the songs they left behind. If the hits don’t convince you, go here to really find out why. . . (D.H.)
Also Recommended: The Monkees, Headquarters, Head, Monkees Present, Missing Links Vol. 1, Missing Links Vol. 2 . Entire Monkees catalog, audio and video, is now available thru Rhino.
--- Charles Olver, Don Harrison, Dave Harrison, Brian Greene
(Look for additional reviews on this file in future updates. . . .)