Alan Munson - First Light (1979 us, soft folk rock, 2nd solo album, 2008 guerssen records - FLAC)

A few years after Alan's debut I think he still delivered a strong context-bound next chapter to the two previous albums. There is a little less attention to deeper arrangements, but the songs still sound fine, even when several of them are a bit more influenced by country-rock.

The overall feeling is light and reveals some contentment and a certain positivism expressed by sunny flavours and a happy and a light feeling which may be somewhat typical for citizens from sunny California. The song "Good morning world", standing for a hopeful new beginning, is taken also to this second solo album, with a radio friendly happy version.

And also that old love isn't forgotten, which can be noticed in almost every song, but despite my remarks on the previous album, the positiveness and energy of it, is still able to live on and feed his actions further.

I also like very much the 12-string driven songs. The bonus track, referring to the funny feeling that at 30 years old he still is playing rock'n roll is a bit lighter in style, but as a song still fits well as an addition to this chapter or period.
by Gerald Van Waes

Tracks
1. Sail Away Forever - 3:19
2. Down The Road - 2:08
3. Good Morning World - 2:19
4. It's Cold Outside - 4:20
5. Back On My Own Again - 3:39
6. It's Just A Highway - 2:02
7. Lost The Reason To Fight - 4:00
8. November - 3:02
9. A Visit From A Friend - 4:20
10.Late Night Morning Coffee - 3:51
11.For A Long Time - 3:02
12.Thirty (bonus) - 3:23
All songs by Alan Munson.

Alan Munson - Guitar, Vocals, Percussions

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Dr Strangely Strange - Alternative Medicine (1997 uk, progressive folk rock, the difficult 3rd album with Gary Moore - FLAC)

Goulding tied the knot in '71 and headed west to do a spot of painting. Booth, Pawle and Hoppy the drummer teamed up with Gaye and Terry Woods, who had left Steeleye Span after their first album.

In Waterloo, May '72, the band decided to cut their losses and knock it on the head. However, later the same year, Booth and Pawle descended on Tim Goulding in his halcyon retreat with a wealth of new material, plus Steve Bulloch on sax/bass and Don Knox on fiddle. With Derek Boston on drums and Pete Downey's light show, the band undertook a short but enjoyable Irish tour. The Horsebox Tour, with Dark Mavis and Bill Foley.

On completion, we each set off once more to "do our own thing", as in raising children, learning to integrate into society etc...whatever you're having yourself. About 1980, we decided to give another stab at the big time, suitably enhanced by Joe Thomas on fiddle, TJM Tutty on bass and the 2 Ronnies on drums. (A succession of drummers over the years: Tom Coady, Tel Tetrault, Fran Breen, Robbie Brennan, Earl Gill jr., Punka Khosa inter allia.) The inaugural gig at the Project Arts Centre was an unmitigated disaster. One still wakes occasionally about 3 a,m. in a cold sweat.

The main problem lay in Ivan's inability to keep the bazouki in tune, plus a liberal use of smoke bombs...the less said the better. From then on the only way was up...Stragglers' Bail at Kenmare's Cibeal. Providing soundtrack for Tim Booth's film 'The Prisoner" involved studio time, and a chance to lay down some demos produced by Jerome Rimsome, (Erstwhile Motown House bassist.) The Soundtrack was further spiced up with the addition of Gary Moore on acoustic and electric guitars.

At this juncture, we had a real doctor playing saxophone, namely Kevin Strong, who went on to save lives while we manfully strove to blow minds. Starting out as a quasi acoustic outfit, we had mutated - through a series of hybrid crossovers and implants - into a fun party band people could dance to. (in the old fashioned pre E way.)

The current line up has remained constant over the last fifteen years or so, only the name of the drummer having been changed for tax purposes... Having played together steadily but irregularity over the past while, it was deemed time to tackle that "Difficult Third Album" before another century was on us.
by Ivan Pawle 1997

Tracks
1. Lilty's - 2:29
2. Darksome Burn - 4:38
3. The Heat Came Down - 4:26
4. The James Gang - 2:00
5. Hale Bopp/Jig for Jack - 3:27
6. Hames and Traces - 3:37
7. Wishing - 2:53
8. Whatever Happened to the Blues - 3:57
9. Too Much of a Good Thing - 4:08
10.Hard as Nails - 3:50
11.Planxty Roland - 2:49
12.Epilog - 2:50
13.Strange World (Booth, Gaulding, Goulding, Khosa, Pawle, Scully , Tutty) - 5:45
14.Pulp Kayak - 0:46
All songs composed by Booth, Gaulding, Goulding, Pawler, Scully , Tutty, except otherwise.

Musicians
*Tim Booth - Acoustic Guitar, Vocals
*Ivan Pawle - Guitars, Vocals, Hammond
*Tim Goulding - Harmonium, Keyboards, Hammond, Piano, Vocals, Whistle
*Mary Greene - Vocals
*Aíne Whelan - Vocals
*Gary Moore - Electric Guitar
*Seán Ó Loinsigh - Bouzouki
*Len McCarthy - Baritone Sax
*Andy O'Sullivan - Harmonica
*Joe Thoma - Fiddle, Viola
*TJM Tutty - Bass, Acoustic Guitar
*Bruno Stahelin - Drums

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Alan Munson – Good Morning World (1975 us, folk rock, 2008 guerssen release - FLAC)

Alan Munson, the songwriter of Cooley- Munson duo, continued the folk- rock way. It took him some time, but in 1975 he was ready for what is (for him, and for me too), his best 70’s work.

The beautiful vocal harmonies on this solo album are still there, as if he never quit as a duo, just like the impression on the back cover, where you can see him taking a pose before a landscape (right),.. with himself (left). The liner note introduction mention an important pre-dating experience which changed his life as a musician, which started with a feeling of disappointment after having visited a producer in LA, who said he had to work on more self-experienced songs before coming back. And that’s what he did, literally and drastically, leaving us with a witnessing album of such an experience.

In what we know about Buddhism and other researches for enlightenment or spiritual relief, we often hear about the idea that we should quit our daily lives to be able to meditate on our direct way of experiences. If we should do that literally any time it could also mean a fleeing of any responsibilities and commitment, while we could also have practiced this by making only a conscious distance with our personality alone, while taking only a distance from daily life in mind, while still consciously participating with attention to all the confronting deepest inner needs which we could gradually fulfil in this context as well.

Just at the emotional highlight with a relationship and meeting point, being afraid that one day this might change to something bad, that’s where the songwriter left, trying to keep to good feeling and memory, that should be able to kept high also without this. (I must say I have experienced a likewise situation, but now I know that such decision also destroyed that special connection, and that it wasn’t able to live on without it. (Later I realised that eventually, in a commitment, you are destined to go to a next level, where we can experience who we as individuals and as caretakers for others really are, so that for those who really care about the other this feeling can not become worse, while only illusions and situation-depending experiences can be destroyed by time and change).

Alan Munson went for keeper of the energy of the experience itself, which, captured in a moment on an album, of course was able to bring something of that special moment of this, into words and music.
by Gerald Van Waes

Tracks
1. Good Morning World - 2:19
2. The Turtle (Moving on) - 4:28
3. Before It Starts to Rain - 3:18
4. Fences - 3:55
5. There's a New Day - 3:33
6. The Sun Is Rising in Your Eyes - 4:23
7. Freedom - 2:58
8. The First Morning - 4:29
9. Back to the Canyon - 3:19
All songs by Alan Munson.

Alan Munson - Guitar, Vocals, Percussions

[ Rip and Scans by MIGUEL ANGEL ]
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Joni Mitchell - Shadows And Light (1980 us, jazz folk, double disc HDCD remaster issue - FLAC)

The extraordinary power of SHADOWS AND LIGHT, one of a handful of great live rock albums, took me by surprise, since Joni Mitchell is primarily a studio artist, not a concert performer. her earlier live set, MILES OF AISLES (1974), caught her at an insecure moment when she'd barely begun to explore jazz with hornman Tom Scott. Since 1974, however, Mitchell has grown into a breathtakingly polished pop-jazz singer.

Perhaps more important, she's created a brooding instrumental sound that's unique in popular music: a perfect sonic counterpart to her flowing, painterly imagery. This sound-stark, electric folk-jazz that's centered on the protoerotic interplay between her own agitated rhythm guitar and Jaco Pastorius' sweetly responsive bass-dominates SHADOWS AND LIGHT, and it's infinitely more flexible and emotionally varied than the glib noodlings of Scott 's L.A. Express.

I had no idea that such a sound could be reproduced so effectively onstage, because the atmosphere of HEJIRA and DON JUAN'S RECKLESS DAUGHTER, the records on which Mitchell refined it, is so insular. But stripped of the echoed choral frills she often uses as a running commentary, this style encourages the singer to be more casually effusive and joyous than she's ever been in the studio.

The difference between Mitchell's studio and concert voices is the difference between interior monologue and spoken conversation. While the transition from studio and stage entails some loss of poetic intensity, what's missing is amply made up for in accessibility and humor.

A dream band backs Mitchell on SHADOWS AND LIGHT : Pastorius, lead guitarist Pat Metheny, drummer Don Alias, keyboardist Lyle Mays and saxophonist Michael Brecker. In two cuts, she's joined by the Persuasions. This is the finest ensemble that Mitchell has worked with, and her exhilarating vocals reflect her complete confidence in these musicians. It hardly matters that her pitch isn't always perfect (though it's remarkably sure on difficult, chromatic tunes like "The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines") or that her voice has lost much of its sweetness, because Joni Mitchell has become an entrancing conversational singer.

In the studio treatment of "Furry Sings the Blues," an account of her visit with New Orleans jazzman Furry Lewis, she milked pathos from the comparison between Lewis' decrepitude and the tearing down of Beale Street. Related in an offhand, down-to-earth tone on the new LP (with Mitchell freely imitating Lewis), the song has metamorphosed into a vivid, funny tale whose pathos is implicit. While I admire Mitchell the reflective commentator, I LIKE Mitchell the Chaucerian storyteller.

Most of SHADOWS AND LIGHT focuses on material from HEJIRA, MINGUS and THE HISSING OF SUMMER LAWNS, but "Woodstock," the album's only clinker (so impossibly smug), at least lends itself melodically to the artist's present sound. Generally speaking, the current versions are better than the originals.

The rougher, live "Black Crow" captures the composition's crazy self-obsession much more frighteningly than the sleeker studio rendition. At the end of "Amelia," Pat Metheny sneaks in and takes over, lifting the tune to it's vanishing point in an airy, extended lyrical coda. Freed from its big-band horn arrangement, "The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines" sails forward with a manic lightness.

But the record's biggest stunners are two resurrections from THE HISSING OF SUMMER LAWNS. In both "Edith and the Kingpin" and "Shadows and Light," Mitchell stepped out of the confessional mode into a semiabstract, archetypal poetic style. While the original treatment of "Edith and the Kingpin" suggested a vague and murky urban tableau, its spare live setting uncovers a mythic yarn of seduction and corruption.

"Shadows and Light" appears twice: in the opening cut, "Introduction," where it frames an aural collage that splices dialogue from Rebel without a Cause with a snippet of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers' "I'm Not a Juvenile Delinquent," and in a full gospel version with the Persuasions near the close of the LP.

The long rendition follows a stunning doo-wop re-creation of "Why Do Fools Fall in Love," in which Mitchell becomes Lymon. Indeed, what rock & roll standard could summarize more wittily Joni Mitchell's lifelong obsession with romance than "Why Do Fools Fall in Love"? It's been several years and many foolish loves since Mitchell, like millions of us, lost her heart to rock and ran away from home with it. "Shadows and Light" is merely a more sober and intellectual expression of the same drive for personal freedom that Frankie Lymon shouted in 1956. And, as Lymon insisted, fools falling in love has everything to do with rock & roll.

Perhaps more directly than anyone except Mick Jagger, Joni Mitchell has always acknowledged the inseparability of sexual curiosity and rock music. Having satisfied her curiosity Mitchell probably knows better than most of us the high price to be paid for such knowledge. So it makes sense that her answer to "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" should be evasive.

Constructing seemingly conflicting images of darkness and light, benefactors and parasites, law abiders and lawbreakers, the singer states her belief in the absolute relativity of moral standards and the ultimate indivisibility of good and evil. "Shadows and Light," like much of the album named after it, is a translucent masterpiece that embodies both the personal freedom and artistic majesty rock & roll continually strives for but rarely attains.
by Stephen Holden "Rolling Stone" November 13, 1980

Tracks
Disc 1
1. Introduction - 1:51
2. In France They Kiss on Main Street - 4:14
3. Edith and the Kingpin - 4:10
4. Coyote - 4:58
5. Goodbye Pork Pie Hat (Charles Mingus) - 6:02
6. The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines (Mitchell, Charles Mingus) - 4:37
7. Amelia - 6:40
8. Pat's Solo (Pat Metheny) - 3:09
9. Hejira - 7:42
Disc 2
1. Black Crow - 3:52
2. Don's Solo (Don Alias) - 4:04
3. Dreamland - 4:40
4. Free Man in Paris - 3:23
5. Band Introduction - 0:52
6. Furry Sings the Blues - 5:14
7. Why Do Fools Fall in Love (Frankie Lymon, Morris Levy) - 2:53
8. Shadows and Light - 5:23
9. God Must be a Boogie Man - 5:02
10.Woodstock - 5:08
All songs by Joni Mitchell except where noted.

Musicians
*Joni Mitchell - Electric Guitar, Vocals
*Pat Metheny - Lead Guitar
*Jaco Pastorius - Bass
*Don Alias - Drums
*Lyle Mays - Keyboards
*Michael Brecker - Saxophone
*The Persuasions - Backing vocals

[Rip and Scans by MIF]
Code: 60415

Tír Na NÓg - Strong In The Sun (1973 ireland, colorful folk rock - FLAC)

Tír Na NÓg was a mellow hippy folk duo formed in Dublin by Sonny Condell and Leo O'Kelly in late 1969 or early 1970. They took their name from an island in pre-christian Irish mythology where people remained forever young. "Tír na nÓg" literally translates as "Land of the Young".



They met in the highly active folk club scene in Dublin in 1969. Sonny Condell, from Wicklow, had previously been in folky duo Tramcarr 88 who scored a minor Irish hit in 1968. In 1964, at the age of 14, Leo O'Kelly from Carlow began playing in a local showband called The Tropical Showband, before graduating in 1967 to psychedelic band The Word. In 1969 he began playing the folk clubs in Dublin and replaced Donal Lunny in the Emmet Spiceland with whom he toured in Britain, Europe and North America.



Although influenced by traditional music, the duo played modern acoustic folk music, becoming more rock-oriented over time. Both Condell and O'Kelly were strong songwriters and their songs (written separately) complemented each other well. While not obviously as touched by otherness as more adventurous Dublin contemporaries Dr. Strangely Strange, the songs are offbeat and unusual, always melodic but with playful deviations and an element of whimsy. They developed a unique, immediately recognisible approach in their early days, with judicious use of exotic instruments supplementing the basic two acoustic guitar format.



They travelled to London to try to secure a record deal and succeeded within 2 weeks, signing with Chrysalis Records, even though they'd already been turned down by parent label Island!

On their third album Strong in the Sun (1973), the band took even bigger steps towards the mainstream. Matthew Fisher of Procol Harum produced, giving the duo a fuller, cleaner sound.



It opens with a cover of Nick Drake's "Free Ride", surely one of the earliest Nick Drake covers and a bold step for 1973. Even so this is the most conventional of their three albums and apart from some beautiful songs it is sometimes their most mundane. In any event it did not bring the hoped for commerical breakthrough and Chrysalis lost interest in the band.

by Irish Rock

Tracks

1. Free Ride (Nick Drake) - 3:08

2. Whitestone Bridge (Condell) - 4:14

3. Teesside (Condell) - 3:55

4. Cinema (O'Kelly) - 4:41

5. Strong In The Sun (O'Kelly) - 3:40

6. The Wind Was High (O'Kelly) - 3:22

7. In The Morning (Condell) - 3:23

8. Love Lost (O'Kelly) - 3:19

9. Most magical (Condell) - 3:47

10.Fall Of Day (Condell) - 2:36



Musicians

*Brian Odgers - Bass

*Dave Markee - Bass

*Jim Ryan - Bass

*Larry Steele - Bass

*Ace Follington - Drums

*Barry De Souza - Drums

*Jeff Jones - Drums

*Matthew Fisher - Keyboards

*Leo O'Kelly - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar [Lead], Dulcimer, Violin

*Sonny Condell - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Drums [Pottery], Jew's Harp, Clavinet, Percussion



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Tractor - Original Masters (1969-80 uk, acid rock with folk drops, including from The Way We Live material - MP3 320k and FLAC)

Tractor were formed in Rochdale in 1971 from the remains of three-piece band The Way We Live (originally formed in 1966 at Balderstone School, Rochdale). The band comprised Jim Milne (guitarist, vocalist and songwriter) and Steve Clayton (drummer, percussionist and songwriter) who had teamed up in 1971 with their manager and sound engineer John Brierley, who built his first studios (Dandelion Studios Rochdale) in his bedroom and attic. John later recorded Factory and many other bands at his Cargo Studios in Rochdale.

As The Way We Live, Tractor made a 1971 album for Dandelion Records boss, the late John Peel. After the release of this album, "A Candle For Judith", Peel described guitarist Jim Milne as "...the man responsible for some of the most urgent flowing and logical guitar playing I've ever heard".

Their second album, "Tractor” (as Tractor) got to number 18 in the Radio Luxembourg album charts and was frequently played on the BBC by DJs like Peel, Bob Harris and Anne Nightingale. It was also in the Virgin Top 30 selling album charts in 1972.

Later that year, former Rochdale College Social Secretary Chris Hewitt became their tour manager and sound engineer and the band opened recording studios in Dawson Street in Heywood. They performed on the college and university circuit from winter 1972 onwards (one night appearing on the same bill as future AC/DC vocalist Bon Scott) and also worked on their third album which would later become the CD release, "Worst Enemies".

In 1976, Tractor helped launch the Deeply Vale Festivals and were the main Festival attraction in 1976 and 1977. As it grew in reputation, other Manchester-based and nationally known artists appeared at the Festival alongside Tractor, including Durutti Column, The Fall, The Out, The Drones, Nik Turner (of Hawkwind), Here And Now, The Ruts, Fast Cars and Steve Hillage.

During their career, Tractor have issued LPs and CDs on Dandelion Records, UK Records, Cargo Records (Indie Rochdale label), Roach Records and they now control their entire back catalogue through their own Ozit-Morpheus Records. In 1998, they released a new CD of archive material, Tractor "Before, During and After the Dandelion Years".

They played at Glastonbury Festival in 2002 and the Canterbury Festival in 2003. There is a DVD available through Ozit-Morpheus Records entitled, ‘Beyond Deeply Vale’, and like all Tractor material, it received stunning reviews.

In 2004, ITV made a documentary about Deeply Vale and Tractor, "Truly Madly Deeply Vale", which is to be released on DVD with extra bonus footage. Further recognition came in December 2004 when Tractor played at a John Peel tribute concert along with Doves and Badly Drawn Boy, Marc Riley and Andy Rourke from the Smiths. In October 2006, Tractor released a new CD, “John Peel Bought Us Studio Gear And a P.A.”
from Web Archive

Tracks
1. King Dick II - 3:12
2. Squares - 5:02
3. Siderial - 5:27
4. Angle - 1:26
5. Storm - 4:52
6. Willow - 5:48
7. Madrigal - 2:08
8. The Way Ahead - 9:03
9. Lost On The Ocean (Live) - 5:59
10.Suicidal (Live) - 8:18
11.Vicious Circle - 2:28
12.Hollands Pie R - 2:50
13.As You Say - 4:16
14.Electric Witch (Live) - 7:45
-All titles written by Jim Milne
-Tracks 1 to 8 and 13 Recorded as The Way We Live in the late 60's/early 70's at John Brierley's home studio.
-Tracks 9 and 10 Recorded as The Tractor in 1977 at Cargo Studios Mobile.
-Tracks 11 and 12 Recorded as The Tractor in 1974/75 at Tractor Sound Studios, Heywood.
-Track 14 Recorded as The Tractor 1980 at Cargo Studios Mobile

Musicians
*Jim Milne - Guitar, Bass Guitar, Vocals
*Dave Addison - Bass Guitar
*Dave Goldberg - Keyboards
*Steve Clayton - Percussions

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The Lovin' Spoonful - Do You Believe In Magic (1965 us psychedelic with folk and blues drops, 2008 digipack plus bonus tracks - MP3 320k and FLAC)

The Lovin' Spoonful. Once dubbed America's answer to the Beatles... "I think that was a fair comment," says bassist Steve Boone. "The Beatles started out as a skiffle band, whereas we were initially a jug band. The styles were very similar. From there, the Beatles became very diverse, as indeed did we. I can see why people put us in the same category as them, and it's ahuge honour."

The New Yorkers very nearly became The Monkees as well... "The producers of the TV show wanted us as their first choice for the role. We even had a presentation made to us about what they were planning. But by this time, the Spoonful had already a hit of our own, and if we'd gone along with the idea, it would have meant a name change to The Monkees.

We weren't prepared to do it, and so the offer was turned down. But I wonder if that was a mistake!" The Lovin' Spoonful, the band whom many now regard as being among the most influential musicians of their time, a band whose first seven singles all hit the Top Ten in the US - remarkable indeed. As is Boone's own story, of how serendipity turned him from his expected career path and into a rock star.

"In 1964 I played in my brother Skip's band out in Long Island; it was nothing grand - merely some fun. I was expecting to go to college to study engineering. I took time out, though, in September of that year to go travel with a friend around Europe, the idea being to get into studying in January 1965.

So, we came to England, got a couple of bikes and hit the road. In the strange way that life happens, we met a couple of Canadian girls just outside of Barcelona, and spent two weeks or so with them. I mention this, because in January 2008, The Lovin' Spoonful toured Canada - and they came along to one of the shows!

It was the first time I'd seen them in 43 years!" By December 1964, Boone was back home - and found I that his brother was now living in Greenwich Village, a thriving musical and creative 'colony' within New York, and it was Skip Boone who encouraged Steve to meet two young men with whom he would change the musical landscape.

"He told me that I should meet these guys John Sebastian and Zal Yanovsky, reckoning they were really cool. So, I went along, took my bass, and we jammed for ages on songs the three of us knew by the likes of Chuck Berry. Now, John and Zal were in the process of starting a band.

They already had a producer (Erik Jacobsen) and management, but were looking for a bassist. They offered me the job. Although I was ready to go back and study, I decided to take a one semester break, and give this a go. I told them, 'OK, I'll give it six months. If we haven't had any success by then, I'm giving it up'."

Boone also brought with him drummer Jan Kotner, an old friend. Now called The Lovin' Spoonful (a name inspired by a line in the song 'Coffee Blues' by Mississippi John Hurt; the idea was suggested to the four by jug band master Fritz Richmond), the band made their live debut in January 1965 at the famed Night Owl Cafe in the village. It was a...disaster!

"I have to admit we were terrible. Joe Merra, the owner, suggested we should go away and rehearse a lot more, and we took that opportunity to make one line-up change. To be honest, Jan never quite fitted what we were doing. He was three or four years older than the rest of us, and I don't think his attitude suited either. My brother recommended this guy with whom he'd been working, which is how Joe Butler joined us in February 1965."

At this juncture, the Spoonful were rehearsing at the Hotel Albert in Greenwich Village, an exotically named establishment that was no more than a skid row flophouse (to use the vernacular). Bands rehearsed and lived there; The Lovin' Spoonful shared space with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and one or two talents who ended up in the Mamas & The Papas (Yanovsky had previously been in a band called The Mugwumps with Cass Elliot).

"The hotel was just eight blocks from the Night Owl. But we were so poor that, when we played there for the first time with the new line-up, we couldn't afford the cab fare. So we borrowed a barrow and wheeled our equipment down the road." The second debut at the venue was a much bigger success. The band were on their way, and now began to gain a loyal and regular following.

"There were also a lot of music business types who'd come along to check us out, including Phil Spector. Now, we were all big fans of the man, and he was definitely interested in working with us, which was very exciting. But in the end we decided against taking up his offer. The reason? Our management wondered whether Spector's approach would suit us. We loved his famous "Wall Of Sound" production, but we didn't need anything so elaborate. A shoestring of sound suited us better!"

Erik Jacobsen, who had previously been the banjo player in the oddly-named band The Knob Licker Upper 10,000 (they released two albums), was now making a name for himself as a hot producer on the Greenwich Village scene. He already knew Yanovsky from Mugwumps days, and now put the Spoonful into the studio to do a demo, the aim being to get record deal sorted out. But the process was far from painless.

"We cut four songs with Erik, but every label turned us down! The trouble was that at the time radio stations in America were only interested in playing British bands. If you didn't have that sort of accent, then you weren't expected to sell records. So, like the Beatles in their early days, we couldn't get anyone to pick us up."

Eventually, it was one song, 'Do You Believe In Magic' (written by Sebastian), that tipped the balance. Kama Sutra Records, which had only just been launched, took the plunge and signed the band - one of the first artists on their roster.

Inevitably, Jacobsen produced the debut album, 'Do You Believe In Magic', which was to prove something of a watershed release. Not only did it propel the band to significant status commercially - reaching Number 32 in the States, as well as delivering the band's first hit singles - but also gave momentum to a process which altered the very nature of the way everyone perceived albums.."Until then, everyone saw albums no more than two or three singles, plus a lot of covers thrown together," says Boone.

"Not much thought ever went into them, because labels were too busy promoting singles. But then the Beatles put out 'Rubber Soul' and people's attitudes began to shift. Now, everyone saw that album could have a life and credibility of their own. I suppose it was the 'Sgt. Pepper..,' album in 1967 that most see as the real turning point in this respect.

But I'd mark out 'Rubber Soul' two years earlier as the beginnings of the process." The'.. .Magic' record you have here also played its part, because the four refused to be formulaic. The key lies in the diversity of the songs and music. While one can certainly hear the Spoonful's jug band origins, there's an excellent sense of pacing, and the roots of the folk rock stylings they helped to pioneer are definitely in evidence.

"What makes us stand out for me are two important things: firstly there's John's mouth harp playing, which gave the music an extra dimension, and Zal had a really odd, expressive manner on guitar. It was so unusual that, at times, he made it sound like a piano. Put these two together, and it's no wonder we stood apart from so many others."

The Lovin' Spoonful also refused to go along with the usual practices of the day. A lot of artists back then didn't play on their own records, with producers and labels preferring to use the more practised approach of top class session stars, in order to make the records as slick and professional as possible. But that was never going to be the case here.

"It was a very different world back in the '60s," agrees Boone. "Producers were kings, and the record companies were the kingmakers. So a lot of what was recorded then would be about the producer, and the artists were almost irrelevant. We insisted not only on playing on our albums, but also in arranging the songs and having a hands-on input. That did make us stand apart, but also ensured what you heard was what we really sounded like.

"The other thing that made us different was that we never fitted our songs into a pattern. When you had a big hit single, the labels wanted you to repeat, repeat, repeat. It's still the same today, but we refused to do that. So The Lovin' Spoonful were a band who grew all the time."

From a distance of more than four decades, how does Boone think 'Do You Believe In Magic' has weathered? "I still listen to what we did, and marvel at the music. Not in an arrogant fashion, but it brings home the point that we were four musicians who came from such diverse backgrounds in terms of influence, yet we gelled. Each one of us brought our own musical passions into the mix, but we had respect for one another and what we could achieve together.

"I think the album had a big effect on music. Nowadays when we tour (the band split in 1968; their induction into the Rock 'N' Roll Hall Of Fame in 2000 led to a re-union, albeit without Sebastian and Yanovsky - the tatter died in 2002), we come across loads of musicians who say that they were inspired by us in the '60s. Unfortunately, what we've never gotten was critical approval. This band were, and are, not media darlings."

For those who've heard 'Do You Believe In Magic' before, this is a chance to re-visit an old friend, and perhaps discover depths and breadths which have never been obvious before. To those who haven't heard the album yet, you're about to embark on one of the truty great musical journeys of the 1960s - in fact, of all time
by Malcolm Dome

Tracks
1. Do You Believe In Magic (John Sebastian) - 2:07
2. Blues in the Bottle (Traditional) - 2:12
3. Sportin' Life (Traditional) - 4:04
4. My Gal (Traditional) - 2:38
5. You Baby (Barry Mann/Phil Spector/Cynthia Weil) - 2:56
6. Fishin' Blues (Traditional) - 2:02
7. Did You Ever Have to Make up Your Mind? (Sebastian) - 1:59
8. Wild About My Lovin' (Traditional) - 2:36
9. Other Side of This Life (Fred Neil) - 2:30
10.Younger Girl (Sebastian) - 2:20
11.On the Road Again (Sebastian) - 1:51
12.Night Owl Blues (Steve Boone/Joe Butler/Sebastian/Zal Yanovsky) - 3:05
13.Alley Oop (Dallas Frazier) - 2:17
14.Younger Girl (Sebastian) - 2:39
15.Blues in the Bottle (Traditional) - 3:02
16.Wild About My Lovin' (Traditional) - 2:36
17.Other Side of This Life (Neil) - 2:31

The Lovin' Spoonful
*John Sebastian - Vocals, Guitar, Autoharp
*Steve Boone - Bass, Vocals
*Joe Butler - Drums, Percussion, Vocals
*Zal Yanovsky - Electric and Acoustic Guitar, Vocals

[ Rip and Scans by MARIOS ]
Previous posted at PHROCK on Wednesday, December 09, 2009
CODE: 56716 or click here (password is code_number+phrockblog)

Roger Bunn - Piece Of Mind (1969 uk, exotic, psychedelic, free jazz rock, progressive with smoky moments, paper sleeve edition - MP3 320k and FLAC)

July 2005, what pundits and journalists have termed "the most important rediscovered 60s classic", the album with Roger Bunn singing his own and a number of poet John Mackie lyrics, Piece of Mind was brought back into "the arts" and onto the market.

Vocalist, composer, master guitarist, double and electric bass player, and long standing human rights activist Roger Bunn, worked with dance orchestras, blues bands and jazz groups, including the original Blue Notes from South Africa and the Spontaneous Music Ensemble.

In 1968 David Bowie recorded Roger's classic "Life is a Circus" and through being careless with his copyright, allowed this early 60s song to fall into the hands of pirates. Nowadays we're all fans. Or at least we're told we should be. We need to be entertained and demand new familiar or not-so-familiar sounds to satisfy our consumer instinct. For many, music is more about selling and buying than creating.

Looking back at "psych" music we can check any number of musical commodities and ask ourselves, "Was it pop with ornamentation or something heavier and far-out?" In our disposable age it's hard to see the effect that an album could have artistically, especially in retrospect. Bands now are happy to ape each other with ironic glee or frustration for a time when pop music seemed very important.

The frustration also seems to be with the overwhelming entertainment directive that guides so many of our lives. But in 1969 Roger Bunn put together "stream-of-consciousness" words with jazz rhythms and acid-psych, punctuated by the occasional James Brown horns, to make a unique album. How many albums, even in the sixties, captured the real sense of unknown territory evident in Ken Kesey's "Merry Pranksters" bus rides? All through "Piece of Mind" we hear songs that have the same mythic sense of exploration that was about more than fashion and drug use. The need to entertain is certainly not just a new phenomenon.

Even the Beatles "Magical Mystery Tour" seems pulled between the demands of well-crafted radio-friendly pop expectations and the sense of abandon and new territory suggested by psychedelia. They pull it off pretty well of course (as they tended to do), but one could argue that this split between commercial expectation and artistic development is really what broke up the Beatles in the end. "Magical Mystery Tour" (the film anyway) certainly didn't go down very well at the time, and it seemed to be a possible sign of self-indulgence.

But maybe in retrospect we can see that it was just a sign of the complexity of the times and the difficult balance that's needed to recreate an experience that is truly internal and "psychedelic" in a way that can be enjoyed by all. With "Piece of Mind," we have a real testament to one person's take on many of the influences of the time, and the journey is definitely as inward as it is outward.

Looking back, there will be those who prefer more pop with psychedelic tinges in their music, as well as more accommodations for listeners who want their music a certain way. But this is an album that sets its own standard. While the Doors plastered some jazz chord changes onto "Light My Fire," they also couldn't escape the blues background that placed them firmly in a traditional setting. "Piece of Mind" is part jazz as well, but the sound changes from song to song, and it points towards the experimentation of bands like Can, Agitation Free, and the German rock of the 1970's. Listeners may hear cues from folk, jazz and psychedelia, but it's really an album "sui generis" that stands out as an anomaly.

People may love it or hate it, but that could well have something to do with where this album points towards, and the listener's attitude about the developments in music and marketing that occurred throughout the seventies. Regardless, this James Brown meets Arthur Brown meets Pete Brown sort of eclectic style is definitely ahead of its time. Although there is some folk and plenty of acoustic guitar to be heard, this is not a traditional album.

The reference guide "Tapestry of Delights" calls Roger Bunn's "Piece of Mind" 'weird but serious pop-sike.' You can hear that in the album along with a whole lot of other sounds. Meeting Roger one afternoon and listening to him weave a conversation from history and religion through politics and music, (the whole time accompanied by gentle improvisation on his electric guitar), I could tell that this was a person who puts a lot of himself into what he does.

"Piece of Mind" is definitely of a time, but as a message from Roger himself, it also makes you see the artificial limits of our rush for "new" sounds and things. There is new and old, and then there is truly adventurous music. "Piece of Mind" has some of the sound of a particular time in musical history, but it also has the enduring sound of someone trying something different. And it's that second part that goes a long way towards explaining the difference between commodity-based entertainment and art.
by Joe McFarland

Pete Drummond - BBC 1970 said: "It is a wonderful album. It's far too musical and intelligent to succeed."

Tracks
1. Road to the Sun (Bunn) - 5:37
2. Jac Mool (Bunn, Mackie) - 0:44
3. Fantasy in Fiction (Bunn) - 1:35
4. Jac Mool (Bunn, Mackie) - 0:16
5. Crystal Tunnel (Bunn, Mackie) - 2:57
6. Three White Horses (Bunn) - 2:43
7. Catatonia (Bunn, Mackie) - 1:33
8. Suffering Wheel (Bunn, Mackie) - 1:40
9. Guido the Magician (Bunn, Mackie) - 2:45
10.Powis Square Child (Bunn, Mackie) - 2:30
11.Old Maid Prudence (Bunn, Mackie) - 5:21
12.Humble Chortle (Bunn, Mackie) - 1:52
13.Jason's Ennui (Bunn, Mackie) - 3:52
14.110° East + 107° North (Bunn) - 3:21
15.A Weekend in Mandraxia (Bunn) - 6:08
16.Life Is a Circus (Bunn) - 6:14
17.Falling Ships (Bunn) - 3:20
18.In the Future (Bunn) - 3:29
19.Lin-da's Jukebox (Bunn) - 5:58
20.You and I (Bunn) - 3:43
21.In Love with You Babe (Bunn) - 4:24
22.Up for Grabs (Bunn, Pete Brown) - 5:47

*Roger Bunn - Guitars, Vocals, Bass
*Ruud Bos - Conductor (1-14)

[ Rip and Scans by MARIOS ]
CODE: 51960

Blood Sweat and Tears - New Blood (1972 us, jazz rock with folk blend, 2009 edition - MP3 320k and FLAC)

New Blood is the well chosen title for this entry in that the package highlights some change in the personnel with lead singer Jerry Fisher, new to the group, showing first-rate quality throughout. The BS&T style is strong on "I Can't Move No Mountains," and "Snow Queen," while "Down In The Flood," "Alone," and "Touch Me," showcase the sound of the new blood. New hit "So Long Dixie" included.
Billboard Oct. 21, 1972

New Blood was BS&T's last top 40 album. While the band was first regrouping, following the departure of David Clayton-Thomas, Columbia released BS&T's Greatest Hits. The new BS&T led by blind singer Bobby Doyle and featuring legendary Sax-man Joe Henderson, was not getting along very well. Doyle was dropped in favor of Jerry Fisher, delaying the album even further. Finally, Columbia released the single, "So Long Dixie/"Alone" which peaked at #44 on the singles chart.

Two months later, in October, the album was released (Columbia CK-31780), eventually hitting #32 before dropping off of the charts. A second single, "I Can't Move No Mountains"/"Velvet" was also released but failed to chart. New Blood isn't in print in the U.S., but there's a Japanese Import CD in print. Numerous importers carry it. Scant few of the tracks appear on the What Goes Up! compilation and on the European compilations.


Tracks
1. Down in the Flood (Bob Dylan) - 4:21
2. Touch Me (Victoria Pike, Teddy Randazzo) - 3:33
3. Alone (Lou Marini) - 5:29
4. Velvet (Jeff Kent) - 3:31
5. I Can't Move No Mountains (Michael Gately, Robert John) - 2:58
6. Over the Hill (Dave Bargeron) - 4:20
7. So Long Dixie (Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil) - 4:28
8. Snow Queen (Gerry Goffin, Carole King) - 5:24
9. Maiden Voyage (Herbie Hancock) - 6:14

Blood Sweat and Tears
*Jerry Fisher - Lead Vocals (Except "Velvet")
*Lew Soloff - Trumpet, Fleugelhorn, Piccolo Trumpet, Vocals
*Chuck Winfield - Trumpet, Flueugelhorn, French Horn, Baritone Horn.
*Lou Marini Jr.- Soprano, Tenor, and Alto sax. Alto and Soprano Flute, Piccolo and Vocals
*Dave Bargeron - Tenor Trombone, Bass Trombone, Baritone Horn, Tuba, Percussion and Vocals.
*George Wadenius - Electric and Spanish guitar and vocals.
*Steve Katz - Electric guitar, Acoustic Guitar, 6-String, Harmonica, Electric 12- String, and vocals. (lead on "Velvet")
*Larry Willis - Electric Piano, Hammond organ, and Vocals.
*Jim Fielder - Fender Bass and vocals.
*Bobby Colomby - Drums, Percussion, and Vocals.
*Bobby Doyle - Background vocals on "Touch Me" and "Velvet."

[ Rip and Scans by MARIOS ]
originally published in PHROCK blog at Monday, August 17, 2009
CODE: 50745