This gritty quartet came from Scotland, and taped their sole album of acid-fried blues-rock in February 1969. Featuring a raw, crude production, fine psychedelic guitar leads and hoarse vocals, it is now regarded as a lost hard rock classic, but sank without trace on release that summer, and they split soon afterwards.
Tracks
1. Turn on, Or Turn Me Down - 4:00
2. His Town - 3:59
3. You Can't Take It from My Heart - 2:48
4. Love Talk - 5:00
5. All Aboard - 4:05
6. The Game - 3:09
7. Stoned - 4:49
8. Pettsie's Blues - 3:46
9. On the Road - 8:12
N.S.U.
*William Hugh Alexander Brown - Drums
*Ernest Rea - Guitar
*John Graham Pettigrew - Vocals
*Peter Grant Nagle - Bass, Harp
Valhalla a symphonic rock band who recorded one record for United Artists. The album's cover is a sinking burning Viking ship. The drawing is pretty good. The name Valhalla is the 'paradise' of all the Vikings who died fighting honorably.
American "acid" hard rock - the concept is not typical, but it provides the most complete picture of music VALHALLA, team late 60s. Their only album, which appeared in the 1969, was crowded with "violent" organ and soulful melodies. The last general should be attributed to the apparent advantages of the group as well as things like the Ladies in waiting or Conceit could easily be a hit, they get the proper promotion. Best of what was needed - a memorable tune and expressive performance - was over. After all, if childish innocence in ballads and "militants" to give a very special charm, here the picture spoiled thorough. In any case, their album - a good example of the late 60s, which failed to fully realize their potential, but deserves a better fate than the total obliteration.
"Hard Times", the opener, is a fusion of strong guitar riffs and keyboards. If you dont like this song you wont like the album, because the followers are pretty much all in the same style. the guitar and keys are the basis of the sound. "Conceit", again this song is full of guitar solos while Hulling is singing, but when its only the guitar playing the solo turns into a monochordic dead sound, the chorus is quite good though.
The strenght of the previous songs disappear in "Ladies In Waiting", im not saying its bad, it is actually one of the best songs in the album, a Keyboard/Drums only song. "I'm Not Askin" has alot of Blues influences. It also features a 4-minute guitar solo and Hulling's yelling vocals. "Heads Are Free" is almost Doors-like, the vocals, the keyboard, the rhythm, its almost like hearing them. "UBT" is even calmer than "Ladies in Waiting" using the same instruments. It's to long in my opinion, 5 minutes are too long for a song like this. The first time we can listen to the Bass clearly is on this song. The screams ar the end of "Overseas Symphony" are really delicious, to song could have some of its minutes cut-off. Enjoy it!
by Adamus67
Tracks
1. Hard Times - 4:24
2. Conceit (Don Krantz, Mark Mangold) - 4:38
3. Ladies In Waiting - 3:57
4. I'm Not Askin' (Rick Ambrose, Don Krantz, Mark Mangold) - 6:10
5. Deacon - 4:16
6. Heads Are Free (Rick Ambrose) - 3:45
7. Rooftop Man - 4:04
8. JBT (Rick Ambrose, Mark Mangold) - 5:33
9. Conversation - 3:21
10. Overseas Symphony - 6:14
All tracks by Mark Mangold except where indicated.
Arcadium was another list of obscure British psychedelic bands. They had their start playing at such clubs as The Middle Earth (where every act you can imagine from well known, like Pink Floyd, to little known acts like Writing on the Wall, Wooden O, and Tam White were seen performing there). A small label called Middle Earth, who released only five albums, (one being a compilation called Earthed, another by Writing on the Wall called The Power of the Picts which I have reviewed here) released Breathe Awhile their one and only LP.
The band consisted of (presumably) brothers Allan Ellwood (organ, vocals) and Robert Ellwood (lead guitar, vocals), as well as John Albert Parker (drums), Graham Best (bass, vocals), and Miguel Sergides (12-string guitar, vocals). The music is late '60s British psychedelia with some early prog leanings, where guitar and Hammond organ dominates.
The vocals are a bit sloppy, but nothing that I find particularly bothersome. The album opens up with the 11:50 minute "I'm On My Way". Starts off slowly, with some psychedelic vocals, eventually the band starts jamming and it gets more intense as it goes on.
"Poor Lady" is a short piece, but it's such a cool piece, very catchy piece as well. The 7:34 "Walk on the Bad Side" starts off more in the psychedelic pop side, but don't let that deceive you, as the music keeps getting better and better and more intense, and the pop style was pretty much thrown out the window after a couple minutes!
"Woman of a Thousand Years", not to be confused with the Fleetwood Mac song found off their album Future Games (1971), it's a totally different song. This piece bears passing resemblance to Van der Graaf Generator (although the only album VdGG had released at the time was The Aerosol Grey Machine), especially in the organ and almost Peter Hammill-like vocals. But of course, the music is nowhere as complex as VdGG is known for.
The next two cuts, "Change Me" and "It Takes a Woman" might not be as catchy as say, "Poor Lady", but they're still excellent cuts. The album closes with the 10:17 epic, "Birth, Life and Death" where the bands gets in to more killer jams, with some more great psychedelic vocal passages.
While the original LP is very hard to come by, Repertoire Records in Germany had reissed this on CD with two bonus cuts, "Sing My Song" and "Riding Alone", both originally appearing on a single the band put out the same time as Breathe Awhile, which compliments the album very nicely (as the music pretty much in the same vein). Another totally obscure gem worth looking in to!
by Ben Miler
Tracks
1. I'm On My Way - 11:51
2. Poor Lady - 3:59
3. Walk On The Bad Side - 7:35
4. Woman Of A Thousand Years - 3:39
5. Change Me - 4:47
6. It Takes A Woman - 3:53
7. Birth, Life And Death - 10:19
8. Sing My Song - 4:18
9. Riding Alone - 2:48
All compositions by Miguel Sergides
Arcadium
*Graham Best - Bass, Vocals
*Allan Ellwood - Organ, Vocals
*John Albert Parker - Drums
*Robert Ellwood - Lead Guitar, Vocals
*Miguel Sergides - 12-String Guitar, Vocals
New York-by-way-of-Boston group the Apple Pie Motherhood Band were among the earlier psychedelic/heavy rock acts signed by Atlantic Records. Their self-titled late-'60s debut LP (also reissued on CD by Collectors' Choice Music) mixed hard rock jamming and shorter, more pop-folk-rock-influenced songs to, as keyboardist Jef Labes puts it, produce a sound "like the energy of an East Coast version of what was up in San Francisco at that time." Those qualities were also found in their second and final album, Apple Pie, though with a pronounced tilt toward a heavier hard rock/R&B direction. In part that was due to a changeover in personnel that saw one member of the lineup from the first LP leave, and three new musicians join the group.
The Apple Pie Motherhood Band had already gone through a couple of personnel changes by the time their first album was finished. Original lead singer Anne Tanzey, who sang lead on their first 45, departed before the LP, and replacement Marilyn Lundquist only lasted a little while, the guys in the band ultimately handling the album's lead vocals themselves. Before Apple Pie, rhythm guitarist Joe Castagno left, as he "basically wasn't very well suited to the road," lead guitarist Ted Demos explains. "He didn't like it a bit. He just decided that he wasn't cut out for that kind of lifestyle at all." Fortifying the lineup would be new singer Bruce Paine, along with guitarist Michael Sorafine and harmonica player Adam Myers. Producing was Tom Dowd, engineer on countless Atlantic Records sessions dating back to its origins as an R&B/blues label, and recently starting to assume more duties in the production chair.
"I came in when they had heard about me playing in the basket houses in Greenwich Village, and they were looking for a singer," says Paine today. "They came down to the Cafe Wha? one night and saw me, and we met later. They basically said, 'Hey, you want to sing rock and roll?' I had been playing folk music up to that point, and it sounded like a good idea to me. I had just finished going round and round with RCA Records. Initially I had signed with RCA for a solo album, and the producer I was working with went independent. They wouldn't let me use him as an independent; they were giving me some old guy that was orchestrating stuff. So I was like, 'Okay, I want out of here.' They came at the right time with the right offer, and it was an instant love affair. Michael was pretty much doing the same thing I was doing, playing music around the Village. We had a whole crew of people that just hung out, and the band was kind of like, 'Come on along, why don't you join the band for a while? We're going on tour.' Michael had some really strong songs he had been writing, and they just said, 'Hey look, c'mon in. Let's make it two lead singers up front, and we like your material.'"
Adds Bruce, "Now Adam was a trip. We met Adam in Chicago when we were playing a place called Rush. Ted grabbed me one night after the show and says, 'Hey man, you gotta come meet this guy. There's this harp player I met the other night in a dryer.' I said, 'What do you mean, in a dryer?' He said, 'Yeah, he was tumble-drying himself and playing the harp.' And I said, 'Okay, I gotta check this out.' So there's some old railroad tracks back up behind Rush Street [where] we went looking for him. For some reason, Ted knew where to find him. And I heard this wailing harp coming down the tracks, just couldn't believe how good it was. So there's Adam. Adam I think took too much acid. He was out there from day one, from the moment I met him. We'd slap him on the back, 'play Adam,' slap him on the back, 'stop Adam,' and that was his participation. He did one tour with us and hung out in Vermont while we put together the second album, and of course he's all over it."
Though Jef Labes had written more of the band's original material than anyone else on the first album, he penned just one track on Apple Pie, "Super Music Man." Sorafine wrote two songs, "Orangutang" and "Grandmother Hooker," and co-wrote another, "He Turned You On," with a friend from outside the band, Don Henny. Other than Demos's "Gypsy," the rest of the record was devoted to R&B covers, including Willie Dixon's classic "I Just Want to Make Love to You" (originally popularized by Muddy Waters), Chuck Berry's "Brown Eyed Handsome Man," and the Temptations' "Get Ready." As Labes observes, "By the time we added vocal power with our new personnel, they brought with them lots of tunes, especially Michael, who years later and at the time, was a well-liked collaborator of mine. Consequently my contribution was much less on the second album, which was a strange series of sessions, and undoubtedly a misuse of the talents of Tom Dowd, the legend."
"He was tearing his hair out," says Paine about Dowd. "We were a bunch of acid freaks loaded to the gills trying to lay down tracks, and Tom was in the booth trying to make sense of it. I think at the same time, he was producing Aretha [Franklin] and Cream, and of course Cream was their own bundle of fun and games too. So by the time he got to us at nighttime, he was pretty stressed. It was amazing that the album got done. We were even more amazed that it got released. And when they released it, I think Tom left the mixing to one of his assistants, 'cause the mix wasn't anything close to what we had hoped or thought it would be."
"I wasn't really happy with the mix," concurs Demos. "But there were some things on it that reflected what I wanted to do at the time. I liked 'Gypsy' a lot, even though it never came together the way I wanted it to, for one reason or another. I brought in the violin player, who I'd been introduced to by this crazy friend of mine, who was a player from the New York Philharmonic. That was my sort of rude awakening that classical musicians don't necessarily improvise all that well. The results were kind of sketchy, but I liked that tune a lot; I was pretty happy with that."
Remarks Paine, "I liked 'Get Ready' a lot. The one thing I'm totally displeased about is we recorded 'Hello Stranger,' the old Barbara Lewis number [a #3 hit in 1963]. I heard it once on the radio. Never got a copy of it, never heard it since. They've lost it in the archives, and it was probably one of the best vocals I did in those days. I never got to hear the damn thing past one short clip on the radio."
The Apple Pie Motherhood Band, however, would not be together for long after Apple Pie came out, in part because of problems surrounding its release. "By the time this album was ready for release, [manager Marvin] Lagunoff had gone to war with us for moving to Vermont, settling on a farm, and booking our own dates at local colleges," says Labes. "Therefore, under his direction, the company held back shipment of the second Apple Pie album." In addition, Jef reveals, "Meanwhile, Ahmed Ertegun at Atlantic had the idea to do an album with a trio of amazing rock guitarists. He chose for this project Eric Clapton, Mike Bloomfield, and Ted Demos. Unfortunately for Ted, this idea got lost along the way."
Paine thinks the band must have broken up by the summer of 1969, considering his memory of the following incident: "I was walking down Bleecker Street [in Greenwich Village], and I saw a Volkswagen van with California plates on it. I walked up to the guy and asked him when he was heading to California. He said, 'Well, I'm going to San Francisco in an hour.' And I said, 'Wait a minute, I gotta go back to my hotel. Can I ride with you?' I think by June, I was in the San Francisco production of Hair."
Demos and Paine are still playing music together today, and even living in the same neighborhood, Paine working on a book titled Rock'n'roll Chronicles, aka Almost Conscious. Drummer Jack Bruno has toured and recorded extensively with Tina Turner and Joe Cocker, and Labes went on to play on several albums by Van Morrison in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as some of Bonnie Raitt's 1970s LPs. As for the Apple Pie Motherhood Band's legacy, Labes summarizes it this way: "We did in many ways embody the spirit and feeling of the movement for change of that period of drug enhancement, sexual freedom, and the politics of peace."
by Richie Unterberger
Tracks
1. Orangutang (Michael Sorafine) - 7:30
2. I Just Want To Make Love To You (Willie Dixon) - 4:05
3. Brown Eyed Handsome Man (Chuck Berry) - 3:14
4. Grandmother Hooker (Michael Sorafine) - 3:02
5. Get Ready (William Robinson) - 4:24
6. Super Music Man (Jeff Labes) - 4:15
7. Gypsy (Ted Demos) - 3:22
8. He Turned You On (Michael Sorafine, Don Henny) - 4:16
The Apple Pie Motherhood Band
*Dick Barnaby - Bass
*Jack Bruno - Drums
*Ted Demos - Lead Guitar, Vocals
*Jeff Labes - Keyboards
*Adam Myers - Harmonica, Backing Vocals
*Bruce Paine - Vocals
*Michael Sorafine - Rhythm Guitar, Backing Vocals
Old Hat,album(Signpost Records – SG 4253) by Uncle Dog was released again Dec 18, 2005 on the Air Mail Music label. Prior to its reissue on CD by an imprint of the estimable U.K. progressive rock label Voiceprint, Uncle Dog's 1972 album, Old Hat, commanded a fair amount among collectors of '70s rock, due to the presence of Free's lead guitarist, Paul Kossoff, alongside Malcolm Duncan and Roger Ball, who would shortly become the Average White Band's horn section.
Old Hat music CDs The problem is that although lead singer Carol Grimes has a fine bluesy voice -- she actually sounds a lot like a British version of the Joy of Cooking's Terry Garthwaite, no bad thing -- keyboardist Dave Skinner isn't much of a songwriter, and all of the tunes are basically amiable jams on tired old blues progressions. Old Hat songs One song is even called "Boogie With Me," for goodness sakes! (To be fair, Skinner does lay into some good organ lines on that song, its saving grace. Old Hat album ) This album isn't actually bad, but the album title is distressingly accurate. For die-hard fans of the boogie only, and maybe Smiths completists who want to know what producer John Porter (rhythm guitar and bass) was doing a decade or so before "Hand in Glove."
The times, I'll Be Your Baby Tonight and "Mystery Train" (Junior Parker and Dylan) are crisp and invigorating. The first is characterized by a combination of country / New Orleans - slide guitar, honky-tonk piano, pampilleux shares of saxophone, trumpet, trombone, and the second by his exuberance, vitality, cohesion, prancing and playing feisty musicians his pace to cut stroke charleston, piano hutin boultinant and finally the vehement lined Carol victorious bestial confusing!
The compositions are excellent, especially "River Road", beginning this duo album, a boogie woogie CCR, with beautiful of acoustic guitar, sax most smoking, and always this brazen piano, growling titillating Carol, hitting drummer stubborn and concise; "Old hat" also driven by the piano, towed by David, seconded by Carol with passion, one of those ballads that heckle you and invade the heart of a fierce and itching desire for space and freedom, and finally "We got time," which presents the full range of the genre with an organ and an emphatic sax, a guitar solo barbaric and twisted lyrics celebrating love - this wondrous love, limestone and myrophore! There, Carol does not sing, she opens roared, bubbling, expels his words with a force portentueuse grabs you and you empeint to sacred pleasures.
It is the flagship of the cake, the other titles are warm in comparison, note all the same "Movie Time" gambillant, smelling the 30s, and "Boogie with me," a lonely spruce lament that nor gin, nor TV, nor his "collect" the console discs: two songs accompanies John "Rabbit" Bundrick on piano - yes! yes! the same one who became famous this year with Free and later know fame with The Who.
by Adamus67
Tracks
1. River Road - 3:06
2. Movie Time - 2:36
3. Old Hat - 3:44
4. Boogie With Me - 2:51
5. We've Got Time - 5:35
6. Smoke (David Skinner, John Porter, John Pearson, Phillip Crooks, Carol Grimes) - 4:46
7. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight - 3:44
8. Mystery Train (Little Junior Parker, Sam Phillips) - 4:32
9. Lose Me - 4:59
All tracks written by David Skinner unless as else stated
They hung with the Byrds, roomed with the Airplane and were as contemporary in sound and style as either of those groups when they got together in 1965, but the boy-girl folk-rock team of Blackburn & Snow has never had the kudos nor exposure they have so richly warranted until now. This, the second Nugget From The Golden State to be drawn from the legendary mid-1960s vaults of Frank Werber's Trident Productions puts the spotlight on the couple's marvelous unreleased recordings for the company.
Sherry Snow later went on to become one of Dan Hicks' Hot Licks, whilst Jeff Blackburn performed with Neil Young in the Ducks in the late 1970s, but in 1965 they were on the cutting edge of the San Francisco scene and remarkably innovative in both songwriting and harmony, concocting a poignant brew of country, folk-rock and esoteric pop. Something Good For Your Head was to be the title of their Trident album, and, had the record come out as planned in 1967, it would have surely made its mark.<
With Blackburn's strong material and Snow's clear, powerful voice, this release has the heady air of music history in the making. Songs like Yes Today, Takin' It Easy and Sure Or Sorry are surely amongst some of the most sensitive - and stunning - performances to come out of the entire West Coast mid-1960s milieu, but you are hearing them here for the first time. Politics and personality clashes meant the record was shelved, and Jeff and Sherry had parted, both professionally and romantically by the end of 1967.
The 20 tracks of Something Good For Your Head include both sides of the rare Verve singles Time and Stranger In A Strange Land, the latter inspired by Robert Heinlein's classic sci-fi novel and penned according to legend by Snow's one-time paramour David Crosby. Also included is their unissued sessions for Trident-.-everything from stark yet compelling demos like Some Days I Feel Your Lovin' to the rocking It's So Hard and a great uptempo version of Ray Charles' Unchain Your Heart.
Accompanying the duo on most selections are crack studio outfit the Candy Store Prophets, featuring Jerry McGee on guitar, later of the Ventures and one of the most respected country-style studio pickers of the era (lead guitar on the Monkees' Last Train To Clarksville for instance). The Prophets' performances alone lift the material into another dimension. Members of Country Joe & The Fish and the Grass Roots formed part of Blackburn & Snow's road band and they were also involved in the sessions.
Blackburn & Snow's Trident recordings have been legend amongst West Coast 1960s aficionados for many years, and this release, packed as usual with photos, memorabilia and an in-depth sleeve note makes a case for Something Good For Your Head as the great lost San Francisco 1960s rock album. You won't be disappointed.
by Alec Palao
Tracks
1. Stranger in a Strange Land (Samuel F. Omar) - 2:27
2. Yes Today - 3:24
3. Takin' It Easy - 3:23
4. Time - 2:56
5. It's So Hard (Jeff Blackburn, Randy Sterling) - 3:07
6. Do You Realize - 3:35
7. Sure or Sorry - 2:27
8. Unchain My Heart (Freddy James, Agnes Jones, Teddy Powell, Bobby Sharp) - 1:48
9. Uptown Downtown - 2:12
10.Some Days I Feel Your Lovin' - 3:09
11.Post-War Baby - 1:49
12.Think - 2:17
13.No Kidding - 1:57
14.I Recall the Day - 2:50
15.Everybody Brings Better Things - 3:18
16.Stand Here - 2:40
17.I Don't Want You Back Babe - 1:31
18.Stop Leanin' on Me - 2:15
19.Post-War Baby - 1:45
20.Pass This Way - 3:12
All songs by Jeff Blackburn except where noted.
The United Empire Loyalists were a Vancouver B.C. band that originally consisted of Rick Enns (lead vocals, bass), Anton "Tom" Kolstee (lead guitar), Jeff Ridley (rhythm guitar), and Richard Cruickshank, later replaced by Glen Hendrickson (drums). In 1968 the band recorded the lone single "No, No, No," which was pressed in only 200 copies but sold well enough to attract a fan base and the attention of a local concert promoter who booked the band to open for the Grateful Dead.
In 1968, since the UEL's were part of the Vancouver underground music scene, the release of a single was perceived as a commercial ploy by the band. Thus, they abandoned their commercialization and focused on songs consisting of long jams and experimental sounds. With a limited fan base of only a few hundred of Vancouver teens, the band started to make waves around the West Coast music scene.
With some music pointers gleaned from their experience with the Dead, they managed to attract interest from Canada's National Television station the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). In 1968, as part of the Enterprise television series, the CBC filmed an hour-long studio performance of the band. This brought even more of a cult mystique to UEL and in1990, the band was reformed to again perform for the CBC in a documentary about the Vancouver '60s music scene.
During the late '60s and early '70s the band went on tour throughout British Columbia, opening for such acts as Cream, the Yardbirds, Steve Miller Band, Country Joe & the Fish, Canned Heat, and many more bands both local and international. They became one of B.C.'s hottest groups, yet they never released another single or received radio air play. Notes From the Underground is the first compilation entirely devoted to the music of the United Empire Loyalists.
The CD contains 13 songs taken from a variety of sources including some "live" club recordings from 1968, unreleased studio recordings from 1970, and songs that were originally featured on both CBC Television programs from 1968 and 1990. While the sound quality on some tracks, especially those recorded privately in 1968, is not great, these are some of the only recordings that still exist of this band. Noticeably missing from this set -- without explanation -- is the band's "commercial" single "No, No, No." Nonetheless, all but two on this set are originals written by the band members.
With liner notes by Anton Kolstee that detail the history of the band, this CD is a fitting tribute to one of Vancouver's best kept secrets that is, for the first time, finally available for all to hear.
by Keith Pettipas
Tracks
1. Otis (Enns, Kolstee, Cruickshank, Ridley) - 3:35
2. Hangin' Around (Enns) - 3:14
3. I Know You Rider (1990 live) (Traditional) - 4:36
4. Lookin' And Searchin' (Enns) - 4:49
5. Lookin' And Searchin' (Enns, Kolstee, Cruickshank, Ridley) - 3:33
6. Wait A Minute Jim (Enns) - 5:13
7. It's Alright (Enns) - 3:01
8. Tired Eyes (1990 live) (Enns, Kolstee) - 4:06
9. Buffalo Wiliie (Enns, Kolstee, Cruickshank, Ridley) - 5:52
10.My Chances For Living (Enns) - 2:30
11.Columbus (Enns, Kolstee, Cruickshank, Ridley) - 8:44
12.You Don't Love Me (1990 live) (W. Cobb)- 4:06
13.Otis Redding Jam (1990 live) (Enns, Kolstee, Hendrickson, Ridley) - 2:54
The Apple Pie Motherhood Band were a Boston-based aggregate combining a formative heavy blues base with equally earthy elements of psychedelia. With Atlantic Records staff producer Felix Pappalardi behind the console, the results were a reflection of the ever-changing pop/rock soundscape.
Although the band' s lineup would remain in a constant state of flux, the ensemble credited here includes Dick Barnaby (bass), Jack Bruno (drums), Joe Castagno (guitar), Ted Demos (guitar), and Jeff Labes (organ/piano). Although Anne Tanzey, their original "chick" (a la Janis Joplin) singer had already split by the time they were recording this -- their self-titled debut album -- Marilyn Lundquist (vocal) was temporarily filling the vocalist's void.
Her dulcet tones grace several songs -- particularly notable is the Baroque-flavored update of David Blue's "I'd Like to Know" and the trippy "Ice," which Lundquist co-wrote alongside Demos. The thoroughly explored reading of Albert King's "Born Under a Bad Sign" is an obvious homage to British supergroup trio Cream who had previously reworked it into a blues-fused jam. Listeners can even catch Barnaby's note-for-note recitation of Jack Bruce's foreboding bassline during the waning moments of the fade. Labes' "Yesterday's New Song" is a minor-chord masterwork.
The gentle and understated melody perfectly supports some of the Apple Pie Motherhood Band's best vocal harmonies -- recalling the Association or Spanky & Our Gang at their affective best. Barnaby contributes the catchy and concise "Barnaby's Madness," and while the psych-meets-punk vibe is an earmark of the unit's Bosstown Sound roots, to a certain degree, the best of the band can be heard on the seven-plus minute slice of psych medley that links the group-penned instrumental "The Ultimate" to a blue-eyed soulful interpretation of Garry Bonner and Alan Gordon's "Contact."
The number was a return to the Apple Pie Motherhood Band's prototype C.C. & the Chasers -- whose single "Put the Clock Back on the Wall" b/w "Two & Twenty" were both from the Bonner/Gordon songbook. Labes' quirky "The Way It Feels" may well have been inspired by Sopwith Camel's vintage sounding "Hello, Hello," while his upbeat "Apple Pie" is layered in sweet, harmony-laden sunshine pop.
Labes likewise penned the closer "Variations on a Fingernail" that propels forward with tricky rhythmic syncopation reminiscent of early Mothers of Invention melodies such as "Mother People" and "Oh No." The Apple Pie Motherhood Band would continue with a revolving door personnel for another year and release their swan song Apple Pie (1970) shortly before breaking up at the dawn of the following decade.
by Lindsay Planer
Tracks
1. Born Under A Bad Sign (B. T. Jones, W. Bell) - 7:05
2. I'd Like To Know (D. Blue, A. Ranga) - 2:15
3. Ice (T. Demos, M. Lundquist) - 2:31
4. Yesterday's New Song (J. Labes) - 3:14
5. Barnaby's Madness (R. Barnaby) - 2:45
6. The Ultimate / Contact (D. Barnaby, J. Bruno, J. Castagno, Al Gordon, G. Bonner) - 7:10
7. The Way It Feels (J. Labes) - 2:27
8. Bread And Jam (D. Barnaby, J. Bruno, J. Castagno, T. Demos, J. Labes) - 3:14
9. Apple Pie (J. Labes) - 2:55
10.Variations On A Fingernail (J. Labes) - 3:15
The Apple Pie Motherhood Band
*Jeff Labes - Organ, Piano
*Ted Demos - Lead guitar
*Joe Castagno - Rhythm guitar
*Jackie Bruno - Drums
*Richard Barnaby - Bass
The Fish's second album is quite similar to their first in its organ-heavy psychedelia with Eastern-influenced melodic lines, but markedly inferior to the debut, and much more of a period piece. There's more spaciness and less comic energy here, and while the bandmembers were undoubtedly serious in their explorations, some of these songs are simply silly in their cosmic naivete.
To be crueler, there is no other album that exemplifies so strongly the kind of San Francisco psychedelia that Frank Zappa skewered on his classic We're Only in It for the Money. The weeping, minor-key melodies, liquid guitar lines, and earnestly self-absorbed quests to explore the inner psyche -- it's almost as if they put themselves up as a dartboard for the Mothers to savage.
For all that, the best songs are good; "Who Am I" and "Thursday" are touching psychedelic ballads. But more notably, the title cut -- whose brash energy is atypical of the album -- was a classic antiwar satire that became one of the decade's most famous protest songs, and the group's most famous track.
by Richie Unterberger
Tracks
1. The Fish Cheer / I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag (McDonald) - 3:44
2. Who Am I (McDonald) - 4:05
3. Pat's Song (McDonald) - 5:26
4. Rock Coast Blues (McDonald) - 3:57
5. Magoo (McDonald) - 4:44
6. Janis (McDonald) - 2:36
7. Thought Dream (McDonald) - 6:39
8. Thursday (Cohen, Hirsh) - 3:20
9. Eastern Jam (Bartol, Cohen, Hirsh, Melton) - 4:27
10.Colors For Susan (McDonald) - 5:58
Country Joe And The Fish
*Country Joe McDonald - Vocals, Guitar, Bells, Tambourine
*Barry Melton - Vocals, Guitar
*David Cohen - Guitar, Organ
*Bruce Barthol - Bass, Harmonica
*Gary "Chicken" Hirsh - Drums
Recorded amidst growing personnel conflicts, 1968's "Together" came off as the band's first major misstep. Artistically disappointing, the big difference seemed to reflect the fact McDonald's creative presence was largely absent. Given he'd served as chief songwriter on the first two LPs, the impact was nothing less than profound. While competent songwriters, neither Melton nor Hirsch were capable of making up the creative shortfall. Sure, there were a couple of memorable numbers; the hysterical group-penned "Rock and Soul Music", the psych-influenced "Susan" and the blazing "The Streets of Your Town" (one of the toughest rockin' numbers they ever recorded), were all worth hearing.
This album doesn't have the stony vibes you can hear at the end of the first two. Well, really it's that it doesn't have the dizzying musical adjustments of "Colors For Susan" or "Section 43," there are pieces that are kind of like that, though they aren't as good. On Together, the band composes the pieces all together instead of having Country Joe do most of the work, so the vibe is uneven, punctuated by brainy moments here and there. "Rock And Soul Music" begins the album, it's the Fish take on James Brown, with lots of great guitar and a silly background with screaming girls. "Susan" is a delicate tune with meandering guitar, it loses something over the tunes of similar tempo in the first two albums because it's not as musically weird. "Mojo Navigator" is David Cohen's or Barry Melton's voice (I think) over mediocre rock, maybe it's their take on Jim Morrison or something.
"Bright Suburban Mr. & Mrs. Clean Machine" is the Fish jab at straight America. The "Good Guys/ Bad Guys Cheer" is hilarious, "The Streets Of Your Town" is Barry Melton's song against New York City, America's most over-rated hangout. I can totally relate, having had a similar experience in September of 1984. Hmmm. Nostalgia for bad experiences in the '80s, that's got to say something. "The Fish Moan" is unimportant, "The Harlem Song" is a parody of good old-fashioned White racism," Waltzing In The Moonlight" is some boring hippie nonsense done to the cha-cha-cha, "Away Bounce My Bubbles" is almost like Gregorian chanting but is considerably less interesting, "Cetacean" is Bruce Barthol's attempt to compose a tune as stony as the ones on first two albums, he almost pulls it off but it gets mixed in with imitation Hollies or bubblegum-rock or something along those lines. We finish up with a good hypnotic Vietnam protest, "An Untitled Protest," a tune reminiscent of Phil Ochs' "White Boots Marching In A Yellow Land" (off the Tape From California album) though Ochs' lyrics are of course better.
Country Joe and the Fish were an (initially) agit-prop band with a good sense of humor, an elevated consciousness, and a solid subcultural background. For those reasons, I really want to sing with them on every track. On albums such as Together, however, their mediocrity really shines through as their most prominent feature on about half of the tracks. Everything on the album is innocuous, but there's nothing big here, though this album is good and I'll keep it. If there's anything of any force to recommend this album, it's that it was made during the 1960s, a period of musical history that put the others to shame with its creative spunk, while the political world of that time brought down the curtains upon a then-raging Keynesian idealism while the Soviet world brought down creative Marxism with tanks in Prague.
If you want to hear better political music, listen to Phil Ochs; if you want hippie music, find some Jefferson Airplane or Hendrix or early Joni Mitchell, or maybe some late '60s Miles Davis, if you're not the type to search for Greatful Dead bootlegs. If you want to hear something really creative, listen to late-period John Coltrane or late-period Eric Dolphy. If you're finished with all of that, and you're still looking for something new, you may wish to explore albums such as Together.
by Adamus67
Tracks
1. Rock And Soul Music (McDonald, Melton, Cohen, Barthol, Hirsh) – 6:51
2. Susan (Hirsh) - 3:28
3. Mojo Navigator (Denson, Melton, McDonald) - 2:23
4. Bright Suburban Mr. And Mrs. Clean Machine (Hirsh, Melton) - 2:19
5. Good Guys / Bad Guys Cheer / The Streets Of Your Town (Melton) - 3:43
6. The Fish Moan - 0:27
7. The Harlem Song (McDonald) - 4:19
8. Waltzing In The Moonlight (Hirsh, Melton) - 2:13
9. Away Bounce My Bubbles (Hirsh) - 2:25
10.Cetacean (Barthol) - 3:38
11.An Untitled Protest (McDonald) - 2:45
Country Joe And The Fish
*Country Joe McDonald - Vocals, Rap, Lead Guitar
*Barry Melton - Vocals, Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar
*David Cohen - Rhythm Guitar, Organ, Lead Guitar, Organ, Piano
*Bruce Barthol - Bass, Vocals, Backing Vocals
*Gary "Chicken" Hirsh - Drums, Vocals, Bells
