American Blues - Is Here (1968 us, psych blues rock with pre ZZ Top members, Akarma edition)

American Blues is perhaps better known for its members than the music itself.... American Blues were a 1960s Texas-based garage band who played a psychedelic style of blues rock music influenced by the 13th Floor Elevators.

They are most famous for including two future members of the band ZZ Top in their ranks, ZZ Top and Frank Beard. From 1966 to 1968, they played the Dallas-Fort Worth-Houston circuit and headlined in three clubs all called "The Cellar", in Dallas at clubs such as "The Walrus" on Mockingbird Lane, and in Houston at "Love Street Light Circus Feel Good Machine" on Allen's Landing, as late as 1968. Around 1968 the band (the two Hill brothers and Beard) decided to leave the Dallas--Fort Worth area, relocating to Houston. At this time, however, guitarist Rocky Hill wanted to focus on "straight blues", while his brother Dusty wanted the band to rock more. Rocky left the band, and was soon replaced by Billy Gibbons, of Houston psychedelic-rockers Moving Sidewalks, becoming the band ZZ Top.

As teenagers living in Dallas, Texas, brothers Dusty (guitar) and Rocky (bass) Hill played in a series of local bands, including The Starliners and The Deadbeaters. Their efforts attracted little notice until they formed The Warlocks, who managed to release a pair of unsuccessful local singles. By 1968 the lineup had expanded to include former Cellar Dweller drummer Frank Beard and keyboard player Dough Davis. Simultaneously, the band decided The Warlocks had run their course. Opting for a new name (The American Blues) and a new sound, the group was signed by the local Karma label.

Recorded at Robin Hood Brian's Studio, the quartet's 1968 debut "The American Blues Is Here" teamed them with producer Scotty McKay. Rather raw and ill-focused, the album found the band fumbling around for a style. Taking stabs at a variety of genres, including blues (check-out the weird reworking of Tim Harden's "If I Were a Carpenter"), psych and hard rock, the results weren't particularly ground breaking. Needless to say, sales proved non-existent, though the album attracted the attention of major label MCA.

by Adamus67

Tracks
1. If I Were A Carpenter - 5:26
2. All I Saw Was You - 3:46
3. She'll Be Mine - 1:51
4. Fugue For Lady Cheriff- 2:14
5. It's Gone- 2:00
6. Keep My Heart In A Rage - 2:40
7. Mercury Blues - 4:15
8. Melted Like Snow - 3:15
9. Mellow - 2:08

The American Blues
*Dusty Hill - Bass
*Frank Beard - Drums
*Rocky Hill - Guitar, Vocals
*Doug Davis - Keyboards

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Eric Burdon And The Animals - Winds of Change (1967 uk, great psych rock, 2003 extra tracks issue and 2013 japan SHM double disc remaster)

Everything changes , nothings changed'....Eric Burdon former lead singer of 'The Animals '. A five piece r'n'b band from Newcastle . The group hit the big time with a cover of 'House of The Rising Sun', produced by Mickie Most. Other big hit's followed such as 'Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood' and my personal fave 'We Got to Get out of this Place'. The Animals toured the US in 1964 as part of the British R'nB/Pop invasion .

A year later the group had split in two , boozers on one side , facing opposite Burdon and guitarist Hilton Valentine , Valentine first dropped acid with Brian Jones in New York. Soon after he introduced Burdon to LSD. The tension's in the group led to a split .. 1966. Burdon relocates to California .Putting together the 'new' Animals......'Winds of Change is the debut album. The title track is anchored by a fluid bass line with a repetitive violin and sitar on top . The song pays homage to musical icons past and present Robert Johnson to Jimi Hendrix circa 1967 .

I'm guessing Hendrix had blown 'em away at Monterey by then. Track two 'Poem By The Sea', the album's pivotal track , Burdon recites poetry over music drenched in echo and reverb. Very trippy . 'Paint it Black' is a great cover Burdon's r'nb roots are all over this one. 'The Black Plague' epic poem based on the Black Death , the story revolves round castle dwellers too scared to venture outside the walls, end up starving to death. ...'Yes I'm Experienced' is an affirmative reply to Hendrix. 'San Franciscan Nights' and 'Good Times' are two slices of timeless sixties pop psych.. 'Winds of Change' is a pretty good album .....All songs written by Eric Burdon, Vic Briggs, John Weider, Barry Jenkins, and Danny McCulloch. Produced by: Tom Wilson.
Reached #42 in US charts (released in UK in Oct'67 - did not chart).

While the two MGM LP commercial releases in the USA (SE-4484 and E-4484) and MGM's Special Disk Jockey USA version (also carrying the catalogue number E-4484) featured gatefold covers with inner notes by Eric Burdon, Kojak's copy of this LP is numbered SE-4484 and has "manufactured and distributed in Australia under licenece" printed on the back of the album sleave.

The New Animals: The new world different from the old with new jewels to be consumed, new frontiers to be won, and much more love to be given. The recognition of pain and ecstasy to know that they are both there in the pit of my stomach, and can be turned on or off as easily as a stereo colour TV set. I love you all, and want you to gain something from these new sounds as I gain from listening to my saints in past years. If you feel alone and confused and unhappy discontented, just know that I (and there are many like me) love you, and maybe you will know why I am happy contented and unconfused. The games I play are mostly games of children (not all) happy games, games of love, games of mystery, games of wonder, please excuse my games of fear and jealousy, I'm only human after all and still a student of life. Maybe the next production will be all games of love, but by then I could be in another world ... (from the front cover of the album).
by Adamus67

Tracks
01. Winds of Change 3:59
02. Poem by the Sea 2:15
03. Paint It Black 5:56
04. The Black Plague 5:55
05. Yes I Am Experienced 3:36
06. San Franciscan Nights 3:16
07. Man-Woman 6:02
08. Hotel Hell 4:12
09. Good Times 2:57
10. Anything 3:19
11. It's All Meat 2:00
Bonus Tracks
12. Good Times (Mono Single Version) 2:57
13. Ain't That So (Single B-Side, UK) 3:24
14. San Francisco Nights (Mono Single Version) 3:16
15. Gratefully Dead (Single B-Side, UK) 3:59

Tha Animals
*Danny McCulloch - Bass
*Barry Jenkins - Drums
*Vic Briggs - Guitar, Piano, Vibes
*John Weider - Guitar, Violin
*Eric Burdon - Vocals

1964-67  The Animals - The Complete French EP
1967  Eric Is Here
1968  The Twain Shall Meet (2013 japan SHM double disc remaster)
1966-68  Roadrunners! Rare Live And Studio Recordings

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Eric Burdon And The Animals - Eric Is Here (1967 uk, classic psych blues rock)

This album made during the transition between the original Animals and the new line-up, the title of Eric Burdon & the Animals is sort of a misnomer. For the most part, the songs were Eric Burdon backed by the Horace Ott Orchestra, to add to the general confusion surrounding this material, some of it seems to have been recorded with the original Animals, or at sessions conducted while they were still together.

The reason Ott was on Eric is Here is that it was released during a gap between the time the original configuration of The Animals broke up and a new one could be put together, hence the stand-in band. It doesn't sound much like either version of the Animals and it is certainly not representative of their image. It does however demonstrate Burdon's vocal range and expression. The opening "In the Night" may be the best song but "Help Me Girl" was actually a top 40 hit in the U.S. In a way most of the songs remind me of several soundtracks from movies made in the sixties. Eric's voice singing orchestrated pop songs this isn't really that bad of an album in a novel sort of way,songs are jazzy, orchestrated pop that contains influence from the Beach Boys primarily Pet Sounds. It also has a soul/ Motown feel to it with a touch of Otis Redding and country Jerry Lee Lewis. Eric's vocals are very impassioned and he sings with conviction in interepting these songs like Billie Holiday (one of his idols) and Frank Sinatra.

Eric is Here (LP) USA 1967 - MGM Records Issued in stereo (SE-4433) and mono (E-4433) versions with minor variation to wording on LP covers. The recordings on this album are credited to Eric Burdon & The Animals. The Animals had however already disintegrated and the new line up (to be known as Eric Burdon & The Animals) had not yet been put together. The tracks were recorded by Eric Burdon with Barry Jenkins on drums and various studio musicians before Weider, Briggs and McCulloch were recruited.

Produced by Tom Wilson. Reached #121 on US charts. Re-relesed in CD format in USA (One Way Records OW31376). The album features the work of various very serious songwriting talent of the day, with Burdon on vocals backed up by the orchestra.

Tracks
1. In the Night (Tommy Boyce, Bobby Hart)
2. Mama Told Me Not To Come (Randy Newman)
3. I Think It's Gonna Rain Today (Randy Newman)
4. On This Side of Goodbye (Carole King, Gerry Goffin)
5. That Ain't Where It's At (Martin Siegel)
6. True Love (Comes Only Once In A Lifetime) (Bob Haley, Neval Nader)
7. Help Me Girl (Scott English, Lawrence Weiss)
8. Wait Till Next Year (Randy Newman)
9. Losin' Control (Carl D'Errico, Roger Atkins)
10.It's Not Easy (Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil)
11.The Biggest Bundle of Them All (Richie Cordell, Sal Trimachi)
12.It's Been A Long Time Comin' (Joe Brooks, Jimmy Radcliffe)

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The Kinks - Present Schoolboys In Disgrace (1976 uk, smart brit rock, 2004 SACD)

If one were to simplify the old guard of British rock & roll by drawing a straight line, left to right, between the angelic Beatles and the demonic Rolling Stones, one would probably place the Who slightly to the left of the Stones and the Kinks a couple of notches to the right of the Beatles but well to the left of Townshend and Company. Ray Davies may display a full share of Dionysian darkness and disorder at times, but his craziness is usually admirable and engaging, and the Kinks, if idiosyncratic, are essentially lovable.

Perhaps never more so than on Schoolboys in Disgrace, probably their best LP since Everybody's in Showbiz and a welcome relief from the ambitious but tired Preservation Act opus. Since Davies seems curiously committed to the concept album (the disappointing Soap Opera was the last), the least one can ask is that he pull it off without having to shore up his exposition by using aesthetically weak material. Schoolboys is a bit thin in spots — "Education" sounds like longwinded filler; "No More Looking Back" is no "Waterloo Sunset" — but it boasts at least one major song ("Headmaster") and several highly enjoyable minor ones, many of them composed and performed in delightful full-throttle, neo-Fifties and Sixties rock & roll styles. The story, according to a red-herring liner note, recounts the formative years of Mr. Flash of Preservation Act fame, ostensibly letting us in on why he became such "a hard and bitter character ... [who] in future ... would always get what he wanted." In actuality, most of the record is lovingly, even sentimentally, nostalgic ("Schooldays were the happiest days of your life/ ... And I'd go back if I could only find a way") and even the bad times don't seem to have left any permanent damage.

The bad times include a (possibly) blameless romantic misadventure with a ravishing Lolita ("It wasn't lust, it wasn't rape/It was just a mistake") and a traumatic caning by the cruel headmaster. "I'm in Disgrace" is a terrific rock & roll song about erotic confusion and shame, and the musically wonderful "Headmaster" rises to true desperation with its final sexual imagery of cane and bare ass: "Don't tell all my friends I bent over/ ... Don't make me take my trousers down." After the beating, however, Schoolboys reverts quickly to its basic comic structure, reestablishing the tone which has been set by such sunny parodies as "Jack the Idiot Dunce" and "The First Time We Fall in Love." Vocally, Davies sounds like he's putting on even the Band in parts of "Schooldays" and "The Last Assembly."

Because it does not really try very hard to hit a seriocomic home run, Schoolboys in Disgrace isn't one of the Kinks' great albums. But the fact that its limited intentions are often exceeded by the sheer talent of its creators happily proves that this band from Muswell Hill is still a vital force in contemporary rock & roll.

by Paul Nelson, March 11, 1976

Tracks

1. Schooldays - 3:31

2. Jack The Idiot Dunce - 3:19

3. Education - 7:07

4. The First Time We Fall In Love - 4:01

5. I'm In Disgrace - 3:21

6. Headmaster - 4:03

7. The Hard Way - 2:35

8. The Last Assembly - 2:45

9. No More Looking Back - 4:27

10.Finale - 1:02

All songs by Ray Davies

The Kinks

*Ray Davies - Vocals, Guitar, Piano

*Dave Davies - Lead Guitar, Vocals

*Mick Avory - Drums

*John Dalton - Bass Guitar

*John Gosling - Keyboards

With

*John Beecham - Trombone

*Alan Holmes - Saxophones

*Nick Newell - Tenor Saxophone

*Pamela Travis - Background Vocals

*Debbie Doss - Background Vocals

*Shirley Roden - Background Vocals

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The Kinks - Everybody's In Show-Biz (1972 uk, classic album, 2003 MFSL Ultradisc)

Ray Davies continues to wear his English citizenship like a badge. The Kinks have often used American musical idioms — especially variations on Richard Berry's "Louie Louie," as revived by the Kingsmen and by the Kinks themselves — but Ray has regularly used his considerable songwriting talents to anatomize situations of class and culture that are peculiarly English. Years of touring, boozing, and occasionally brawling onstage with his lead guitarist brother Dave haven't diminished it. His nostalgia for the afternoon of the Empire, and his interest in the music hall/vaudeville traditions of his youth, continue unabated. His early efforts at the stand-up crooner idiom were often exquisite, especially "Sunny Afternoon" and "End of the Season," and most recently he has shown ingenuity in adapting fashionable rock currents to his obsession. Muswell Hillbillies, for example, used the idea that the cockneys are England's answer to the American cracker to validate a series of country & western essays that managed to maintain an implacably British flavor.

Everybody's in Showbiz, a double album containing a studio and a live record, is Ray's first extended look at America. The new songs deal for the most part with touring, and with the difference between Hollywood stereotypes and American reality, the live record comprises hard rock and vaudeville material from recent Kinks albums performed with juiced gusto, high spirits, and occasional rank sloppiness. But the four sides hold together remarkably well, since most of the song situations deal with show business and its facade of tinsel and celluloid. While the Rolling Stones on their two-record set sing about a mythical American South to music that suggests a chemically augmented roadhouse band in some improbable Arkansas, the Kinks sing about an only partially mythical freeway to Hollywood. Their tunes roll and lurch along, with born arrangements that forcibly reminded an English friend of the BBC Northern Light Dance Orchestra, several Gilbert and Sullivan-style mock-oratorios, and a Buckingham Palaceful of vaudevillian quavers and music hall ivory tickling. Some listeners may find parts of the album revoltingly reminiscent of the kind of entertainment favored by their mums and dads, but Davies isn't just trying to become the new Val Doonican; in fact, he seems to be magnifying and exaggerating the excesses of show business in order to call attention to its essentially grotesque character.

The album is not the homogeneously delightful sort of LP the Kinks were once known for; it has its ups and downs, its lapses and its masterpieces. The opener, "Here Comes Yet Another Day," is a fashionably bored touring song ("tune up, start to play/just like any other day") that rocks along nicely but has a curiously (and perhaps intentionally) unfinished quality; several of the breaks sound like a rhythm track waiting for a solo, and the tinny Toussaint-style horns don't help much. "Maximum Consumption" describes the touring rocker as a "maximum consumption nonstop machine" and compares him to the inefficient, gas-gulping, often quickly discarded American automobile ("I'm so easy to drive/and I'm an excellent ride"). Beginning with images of abandoned and undifferentiated consumption and moving into more specifically unappealing comparisons, "Maximum Consumption" is the thematic meat of the album. Musically it's excellent, with a deliberately loping beat and an excellent mix of Dave's slide guitar and the trad jazz horns. "Unreal Reality" has more of the "Mike Cotton Sound," a garish and determinedly awful trumpet-clarinet-trombone trio that's trebly and piercing and just right for the effect Ray's tunes convey.

"Hot Potatoes" is a Davies domestic situation, cast this time in a mold that resembles a Little Eva record instrumentally and has excellent ensemble work by the band. "Sitting in My Hotel Room" is a bonafide Kinks Klassic, dreamily wistful with a beautiful melody and featuring "the exquisite Mr. John Gosling at the pianoforte." The Hollywood mystique and the reality of lonely hotel rooms and interminable turnpike driving collide head-on through much of side two. "Motorway" has the most memorably apt opening line of the album: "Motorway food is the worst in the world." It's a country rocker with nice finger-picking from Dave and a memorable organ riff from Gosling. "You Don't Know My Name" is another near-incomprehensible but strangely satisfying song from brother Dave. There's a "Going up the Country" flute break (seems both Stones and Kinks are picking up a few tricks from old Canned Heat records) and a schizophrenic structure that's unsettling at first but ultimately appealing.

"Supersonic Rocket Ship" is quintessential Ray Davies. It invites the listener to travel the spaceways in a sort of flying Victorian music box that tinkles away with all the flavor of a period tintype. The words are quite explicit, and the following tune, "Look a Little on the Sunny Side," is even more so. The rock business is show business; a rock group running through its hits, trying to please an essentially frivolous audience, isn't much different from a stand-up comic in Las Vegas or Rex Harrison doing Dr. Doolittle or The Ed Sullivan Show. Ray isn't likely to win a lot of new converts by emphasizing this truism, but he makes it perfectly clear that on his rocket ship "nobody has to be hip/nobody needs to be out of sight." This goes a long way toward explaining why the Kinks are so durable; no trippy giggles here, no heavy metal warlocks, just "a round, unvarnished tale" with plenty of belly laughs and solid rock & roll along the way.

"Celluloid Heroes" is the watershed of the album. It's a masterful, fully-realized six-minute cut with one of Ray's very best vocals and several of his finest, quirkiest, most original lines. Gosling, a relatively recent addition to the band, proves his worth with some tasteful, shimmering piano, and Dave, drummer Mick Avory, and bassist John Dalton contribute effective backup, with nothing out of place. The album could have ended here, but there are two more live sides. These sound at times like a juiced Jersey bar band with a semi-pro horn section chiming in. "Top of the Pops," from the Lola album, has contagious, raw power and an exciting feedback break from Dave. Ray clowns with Harry Belafonte's "Banana Boat Song," "Baby Face," and a mercifully brief "Mr. Wonderful." His performance of "Alcohol," one of the best tunes from Muswell Hillbillies, is almost scary. The Staten Island audience is obviously dominated by juicers and reds freaks, and they contribute shrieks and screams that are most apropos. Ray slurs his words and draws out the verses until it seems the whole band is about to fall headlong into the gutter. This is the definitive recording of the song, cutting the studio version by a mile. Ray's MC work throughout is like that of a popular British TV compere ... everybody's in show-biz.

Despite its faults and its unevenness, this is a delightfully varied, endlessly entertaining album; its best moments equal or surpass the best rock & roll of the last few years. And the indications are that Ray Davies is just beginning to loosen up.
by Bob Palmer

Tracks
1. Here Comes Another Day - 3:53
2. Maximum Consumption - 4:04
3. Unreal Reality - 3:32
4. Hot Potatoes - 3:25
5. Sitting In My Hotel - 3:20
6. Motorway - 3:28
7. You Don't Know My Name - 2:34
8. Supersonic Rocket Ship - 3:29
9. Look A Little On The Sunnyside - 2:47
10.Celluloid Heroes - 6:19
11.Top Of The Pops - 4:33
12.Brainwashed - 2:59
13.Mr. Wonderful (George David Weiss, Jerrold L. Bock, Lawrence Holofcener) - 0:42
14.Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues - 4:00
15.Holiday - 3:53
16.Muswell Hillbilly - 3:10
17.Alcohol - 5:19
18.Banana Boat Song (Irving Burgie, William A. Attaway) - 1:42
19.Skin And Bone - 3:54
20.Baby Face (Benny Davis, Harry Akst) - 1:54
21.Lola - 1:40
22.Till The End Of The Day - 2:00
23.She's Bought A Hat Like Princess Marina - 3:04
All songs by Raymond Douglas Davies except where stated

The Kinks and
*Ray Davies - Lead Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Resonator Guitar
*Dave Davies - Lead Guitar, Slide Guitar, Banjo, Backing Vocals, 12-String Acoustic Guitar, Vocals
*John Dalton - Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals
*John Gosling - Keyboards
*Mick Avory - Drums
*Mike Cotton - Trumpet
*John Beecham - Trombone, Tuba
*Alan Holmes - Saxophone, Clarinet
*Dave Rowberry - Organ

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Time - Before There Was (1968 us, progressive folk rock with baroque psych shades, Shadoks release)

This is possibly the best band of the psychedelic 60's you've never heard of. They did record, but never actually released an album. I happen to know about them because one of the founders was my brother, Lynn Newton.

I won't go into the story of the band that was once known as Time and later became Think Dog! (sic). Their history and music are thoroughly chronicled in a fascinating account by Lynn on his website. This is not a garage band. These guys were educated and serious composers and musicians.

Their music is remarkably akin to the West Coast band of similar vintage called the United States of America, with similar influences (Stockhausen, Zappa, Cage, early music, et al.), but evolved independently on the East Coast. You'll hear harpsichord, lute, recorder, with the usual rock and roll ensemble in a diverse mix of tunes by the various members. Obvious and not so obvious influences include Velvet Underground, Mothers, Thomas Morley, and e. e. cummings. Some of the tunes are down and dirty rock & roll while others are finely crafted pieces of delicacy and grace.

The problem I always saw in marketing their music was their very eclecticism. Everything they did was deeply artistic, deeply creative, and ultimately very different from nearly everything else they did, making it difficult to pigeonhole them in a genre or to get a firm handle on their "sound." This resistance to categorization is also what makes them so interesting.

Miraculously, the original studio tapes somehow survived poor storage conditions for over three decades and were transferred to CD. They were made available on limited edition audiophile vinyl by Shadoks, a German company that specializes in music of this era. The earlier recording, Before there was Time, is now on CD. The second recording, "Dog Days," by Think Dog!, will presumably be released sometime later.

by A. Newton.

Tracks

1. A Song for You (Lynn David Newton) - 5:37

2. Kemp's Jig (Traditional) - 0:44

3. Introductory Lines (Tom McFaul) - 3:26

4. Sad Benjamin (Lynn David Newton) - 4:29

5. Lily Has a Rose (Lynn David Newton) - 2:45

6. At Shadow's Eye (Tom McFaul) - 3:17

7. Green Fields (Lynn David Newton) - 1:51

8. Waking (Richard Stanley) - 2:50

9. Ma's Pan (Richard Stanley) - 1:42

10.Dover Beach (Tom McFaul) - 3:25

11.Elin Experience (Tom McFaul) - 4:24

Time

*Lynn David Newton - Bass, Vocals, Percussion, Trombone

*Tom McFaul - Lead Vocals, Keyboards, Harpsichord

*Richard Stanley - Guitar, Lute, Percussion, Dulcimer

*David Rosenboom - Drums, Percussion, Cymbal 

Related Act 

1969-70  Think Dog - Dog Days (2007 remaster)

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The Kinks - Lola VS The Powerman And The Money Go Round (1970 uk, classic brit rock, 2010 SHM remaster)

By the time Ray Davies wrote the songs that made up Lola Versus Powerman And The Moneygoround Part One, it was as if he couldn’t stop himself thinking in broader, conceptual terms. His muse seemed to take an idea and run so far with it that song after song poured forth on a particular theme – an expansion process paralleled by the way his band’s LP titles had grown into mission statements: The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, followed by Arthur (Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire).

Disgruntled by the comparatively poor sales of those albums, and by the way that the Arthur TV pop-opera project had been held up so long by business problems (before being cancelled) that The Who’s Tommy leapfrogged it to be hailed as the first “rock opera”, Davies’ new batch of material was driven by disaffection with the music business. While not exactly an opera, it loosely follows the callow newcomers of “The Contenders” as they contend with publishers, agents and the industry’s arcane accounting system, before ultimately taking solace, on “Got To Be Free”, in personal freedom and ethical purity, by opting to “stand up straight, let everybody see I ain’t nobody’s slave”.

It’s a journey mapped out across varied musical terrain, from the good-timey jugband feel of publishers’ domain “Denmark Street”, through the music-hall mock-jollity of “The Moneygoround” – still the most acidly accurate summation of showbiz financial finagling – to the chunky riffing of “Powerman”, the eventual realisation of the gulf separating artists from businessmen. While the album was being recorded, keyboardist John Gosling was added to the band lineup, and his piano and organ bring depth and texture to songs like “Get Back In Line”, a session-man’s plaint at the power wielded over his career by the Musician’s Union, and “Top Of The Pops”.

The latter, ostensibly a celebration of how “life is so easy when your record’s hot”, is cunningly undercut by a darker tone. The

very riff itself seems drenched in cynical disillusion, while the concluding churchy organ greeting the agent’s declaration, “Your record’s just got to number one – and you know what this means?/It means you can make some real money!”, sounds like a bitter revelation.

Short and sweet, “The Moneygoround” packs more useful information into two minutes than a course of seminars about how industry types carve their undeserved percentages from a writer’s income, seasoning reality with regret (“I thought they were my friends… I can’t believe I was so green”). The album’s two hit singles, though, were only tangentially connected to the album concept. One of the most accomplished examples of Davies’ witty wordplay, the gender-bender tale “Lola” was set to a tangy timbre of unison National steel and Martin acoustic guitars, fattened with piano, maracas and classic Kinks guitar/bass/drums chug. Ironically, in view of the lyric change required to get BBC airplay, one of the outtakes included here finds Davies singing not “C-O-L-A, cola”, but “I hate Coca-Cola” – though whether that would have circumvented the Beeb’s prohibition on advertising remains doubtful.

Adding tack piano to the National steel for another distinctive timbre, “Apeman” again showcases Davies’ neatly crafted lyricism, while its theme of hankering after a simpler, prelapsarian state is taken up in songs written for the following year’s film soundtrack Percy, paired here with Lola Versus Powerman…. “God’s Children” boasts a similar back-to-the-garden sentiment as “Apeman”, but not as amusingly, its blend of piano, strings and ringing guitar arpeggios irresistibly recalling The Byrds of “Turn Turn Turn”. But the standout track is the beautiful, melancholy ballad “The Way Love Used To Be”, which again finds the narrator wistfully hankering after lost innocence. Elsewhere, “Completely” is a slow blues boogie instrumental in Fleetwood Mac style, and “Dreams” an escapist fantasy, while “Just Friends” employs harpsichord and strings behind Davies’ caricature British croon.

Among the various alternative versions and remixes, the only actual Lola… outtakes are “Anytime”, a maudlin reassurance of support in plodding “Hey Jude” manner, and the swaggering, Bolan-esque boogie “The Good Life”, with promises of “wine, women and song, if you sign on the dotted line”. In this context, its concluding message that “if this is civilisation, I’d rather be uncivilised” offers another link cementing the anti-modernist spirit linking these two undervalued entries in the Kinks Kanon.

by Andy Gill

Tracks

1. The Contenders - 2:41

2. Strangers (Dave Davies) - 3:18

3. Denmark Street - 1:59

4. Get Back In Line - 3:04

5. Lola - 4:01

6. Top Of The Pops - 3:39

7. The Moneygoround - 1:43

8. This Time Tomorrow - 3:21

9. A Long Way From Home - 1:52

10.Rats (Dave Davies) - 2:38

11.Apeman - 3:51

12.Powerman - 4:16

13.Got To Be Free - 2:59

14.Lola - 4:04

15.Apeman - 3:40

16.Powerman - 4:23

All songs by Ray Davies except where indicated

The Kinks

*Ray Davies - Lead Vocals, Guitar, Harmonica, Keyboards, Resonator Guitar

*Dave Davies - Lead Guitar, Banjo.  Vocals

*Mick Avory - Drums, Percussion

*John Dalton - Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals

*John Gosling - Keyboards, Piano, Organ

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The Kinks - Percy (1971 uk, soundtrack from the same film)

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Steve Hackett - Please Don't Touch (1977 uk, prog rock, 2005 japan edition)

 "Please Don't Touch" - is the second solo album by English guitarist Steve Hackett, and his first after leaving Genesis in June 1977 (following the tour that would be documented on Seconds Out), and started his solo career

Unlike the debut album "Voyage of the Acolyte", which was a largely instrumental concept album steeped in the progressive rock idiom, this record is primarily a collection of songs featuring guest vocalists Richie Havens, Randy Crawford, and Kansas' Steve Walsh (their Phil Ehart also chips in here on drums). Although the sum effect is something of a patchwork, the individual pieces are often lovely.

Over his career, Hackett has shown a propensity for extremes, in this case letting the jazzy and sentimental "Hoping Love Will Last" segue into the musical maelstrom of "Land of a Thousand Autumns" and "Please Don't Touch" (which will delight fans of Hackett's first record, although the Caroline CD inexplicably pauses too long between the two). In a nod to King Crimson (specifically Lizard), the title track is quickly cut off with the quirky carousel sounds of "The Voice of Necam," which itself dissolves into a mix of airy voices and acoustic guitar.

The best tracks belong to Richie Havens: "How Can I?" ("Hackett"'s take on Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill") and the conclusive "Icarus Ascending." Hackett is no singer, so he wisely masks his voice in a "laughing gnome" effect on the delightful "Carry on Up the Vicarage" and hides behind Walsh's lead on "Narnia" and "Racing in A." Perhaps taking his cue from Gabriel (whose debut had appeared in 1977), Hackett seems eager to show his range as a songwriter. While he clearly has a closet full of good ideas and a genuine knack for interesting arrangements, Hackett is too much the eccentric Englishman to appeal to broad commercial tastes. Please Don't Touch remains a uniquely effective amalgam of progressive rock and pop; like his first album, he never made another one quite like it, perhaps because he again taps the concept's full potential here...

"Please Don't Touch" contains a myriad of musical styles that many were either rejected or never put in front of the "democratic process" which Genesis was known for, which also was amongst one of the reasons that Steve would leave the band. This album, of the many he had released, had finally shown the compositional side of Steve's talent and would prove how valuable his contributions to Genesis were. Rumour has it that the title track was rehearsed and but later rejected by Genesis, when drummer Phil Collins said that he "could not get into it".
 
The album featured a plethora of musical stars, including R&B singer Randy Crawford, American folk icon Richie Havens, the drummer and vocalist for the progressive rock band Kansas (Phil Ehart and Steve Walsh respectively) and Frank Zappa alumni Tom Fowler and Genesis concert drummer Chester Thompson.
In 2005, Please Don't Touch was remastered and re-released by Hackett's Camino Records label. The new edition features updated liner notes and three bonus tracks.
 
Another excellent Hackett masterpiece. The music on this CD is diverse and yet may be the most accessible of his early recordings. There are guest vocalists on many tracks, which is a plus. The songs are shorter than usual but pack everything from folk ballads to classical guitar."Narnia" features Kansas vocalist Steve Walsh, and is based on C.S. Lewis' books. This is a great tune, very upbeat, with an excellent performance by Walsh; it's catchy enough to have been a radio tune. "Carry On Up the Vicarage" opens with a toy piano and sound effects with Christmas songs being sung; the music is very eclectic, with the vocal having a childlike effect in one ear and a deep vocal in the other."Racing in A" again features Walsh with another excellent performance that is heavy rock with some nice mellotron work, again upbeat, a lot of stop and start at the end."Kim" is a classical guitar piece with flute."How Can I" features the unlikely pairing of Hackett and Ritchie Havens; it's an acoustic guitar piece with Havens on vocals. 

I really like Havens' singing here."Hoping Love Will Last" is a piano vocal piece, a ballad, and has kind of a R&B feel. Very different from anything he has done before or since for that matter, but a very pretty song, that ends up very well-orchestrated."Land of a Thousand Autumns" and "Please Don't Touch" share the same theme for the most part, the first being atmospheric, and the latter is an in your face instrumental with very powerful guitar, bass pedals, keyboards and sound effects."The Voice of Necam" again uses the theme of the prior, played on a creepy sounding organ again with sound effects, music expands with voice effects and acoustic guitar. "Icarus Ascending" features Havens on vocals, very dramatic and dark at times, lush instrumentally, end is very eclectic with short sections of reggae, jazz, and lots of guitar effects.
by Adamus 67

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Steve Hackett - Spectral Mornings (1979 uk, prog rock, 2005 japan issue)

Steve Hackett. For some fans, especially younger vintages, it's a bit strange sounding name, but for those who are in rock music, "sit" for decades, Hackett is a guitar player from Pantheon. Despite the passage of time it remains a very active member of the rock musicians, for some it is even unquestionable authority. Sailed on a broad rock water, "a beautiful sailing ship" GENESIS. For many years, his playing shaped the image of this excellent band.

The third solo album by guitarist ... "Spectral Mornings"...has positive energy and likes to share it. Yep!...This album is something. That something, which makes it difficult to determine what this music really draws us to himself. None of the songs not included here would consider brilliant, outstanding, or moving to the core. Nothing knocks as, for example, "Shadows of the Hierophant". Power spectral mornings lies in something else - just let go of this CD and are wonderful feelings. It seems that nothing in life is needed, that this is the essence of music that wants to listen.

No twenty minute epic tracks, which you will not understand without a thorough analysis of the text. No sounds grim visitors darkest corners of the soul. Nothing to prove that I'm the best. Just music that you listen to just for fun ...this album, but Steve shows his face here a lot (including those darker). Once a classic, typically once genesis, sometimes humorous, sometimes dark. But even the darkness as "Tigermouth" is somehow ethereal. It is said that through all these long years of drawing on progressive classics no one was able to record the album like "Selling England By The Pound" ... I know! Name Hackett This copyist Genesis sounds like attacking the country by their own forces.

However, it seems to me that in terms of space and electrics, Steve has managed to achieve a similar effect. Music like a gently floating in the wind. On one hand, so dense, so rich stylistically, sonically, with countless flavors, on the other hand, it seems that could be an explicit and vary it even indefinitely. And it is beautiful! It stimulates the imagination :)

Stand-out songs? I do not know ...? The "Spectral Mornings" I see neither weak nor very strong points. Each piece brings something here, and despite their differences all styling hold the water. As if I had something to stand on unless it padłoby beautiful "The Virgin And The Gypsy", the classic "Lost Time In Cordoba" ... and the title track - complete boredom, which I could listen to over and over and even more often...hehehe Perfect for every morning, not just spectacular. An absolute classic.
We do not judge, do not gadajmy, just listen!
by Adamus67

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