Marc Mundy - Marc Mundy (1971 cyprus, stark acid psych folk with mediterranean aura)

Anthony Hassini, Marc Mundy's brother and this album's producer, offers the  facts plainly, "We were naive...we knew nothing about the music business."  The two did all they could to push this collection of tragic love songs onto the  airwaves and pop charts, sending copies to label heads and radio jocks but  their hard work garnered no response whatsoever. What they might not have realized at the time was that Mundy's music was quite literally too "foreign"  for U.S. pop audiences. 

This was a major blow to Marc, then twenty years of age. He never recorded again and, while granting us permission for this reissue, declined any active involvement. Everything we know about Marc comes second-hand through his brother. 

In talking with Anthony, it became clear that Marc had a complete emotional investment in this album. He believed in what he was doing and felt he had something to offer. He wanted recognition and he wanted to be heard. It didn't turn out this way. 

Marc Mundy was born into an eclectic show business family in Cyprus, an  island at the eastern edge of the Mediterranean. His birth name is Emin but,  in standing with a family tradition, he and his brother took stage names. Marc adopted his Mundy surname from a clarinetist uncle while Anthony, a budding  magician, took Hassini, a play on the name Houdini. 

Marc's early musical  influences were derived almost exclusively from Mediterranean radio: Cairo,  Istanbul, Tel Aviv, Athens, and local Cyprian stations broadcasted a rich blend  of Near and Middle Eastern traditional music providing the soundtrack to  Mundy's childhood. 

In 1965, seventeen-year-old Marc Mundy joined Anthony in New York City in  search of better opportunities and a new life. He left Cyprus on the heels of  an ill-fated love affair, an event that  fueled the songwriting on this album.  In New York he was exposed to  Western music for the first time and  former idols like Turkish vocalists  Zeki Muren and Boris Manco were  joined by new ones including Elvis  Presley, Roy Orbison, the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix. Marc enrolled in a  philosophy program at NYU and  immersed himself in the Greenwich  Village coffeehouse music scene. 

At age nineteen he fell in love again and  married Hulya Aziz, a young Turkish  emigree. During this period he  gathered a loose-knit group of  musicians who provided the backing  on this album, which they recorded in late 1970. With Marc on vocals and  lead guitar, Hulya on backing vocals, and a now anonymous band of friends  behind him, the group locked into a unique East/West groove that stands out  from the myriad of psychedelic-era rock and pop LPs. 500 copies were  pressed and the album promptly vanished into obscurity. 

Marc Mundy stayed in New York until the end of the 70s, finishing school,  working with his brother, and traveling abroad. Eventually he returned to his  hometown Nicosia in Cyprus as a teacher in math and music to high school kids. 

Tracks
1. The Hidden Meaning Of Your Love - 3:06
2. Our Love Can Never Be - 3:22
3. How Can I Marry This Language - 2:57
4. Love Me All The Time - 2:24
5. The Nights We Spend Together - 3:09
6. Don't Love Me Anymore - 3:15
7. The Tragic House - 3:11
8. I Know Not Where - 2:38
9. Give Up Your Pride - 3:04
10.I'm Crying Your Name - 2:11

*Marc Mundy - Guitars, Vocals

Free Text

Just Paste

Earth Opera - The Great American Eagle Tragedy (1969 uk, wonderful melt of country folk and jazzy psycedelia)

If Earth Opera's self-titled debut album reflected the eclectic, ambitious pop styles of the Flower Power, Sgt. Pepper era of 1967, the group's follow-up, The Great American Eagle Tragedy, took into consideration the changed musical climate of 1968, when arrangements became more stripped down and hard rocking, with country-rock beginning to make inroads. 

The departure of bandmember Bill Stevenson, along with his harpsichord and vibraphone, may have hastened the group's transition to a simpler sound, too. But from the first note, the second album was very different from the first. Earth Opera sounded like it had been made by a studio band that had never played out, but the country-rock opener of The Great American Eagle Tragedy, "Home to You," paced by the pedal steel guitar of guest Bill Keith, was a road song in subject matter and feel, played by a band that sounded like it had spent some time before paying customers. 

"Mad Lydia's Waltz," the second track, sounded more like the group that had made Earth Opera, but the sound was still more rooted in stringed instruments and steady beats than it had been before, and following the throwaway written by the drummer came a real rocker, "Sanctuary From the Law." But the album's big number, the ten-and-a-half-minute title song, brought the earlier and later parts of Earth Opera together, combining a driving rock chorus, complete with screaming electric guitar solo, with slow, contemplative verse sections in which singer/songwriter Peter Rowan wove a transparent allegory about a royal court in crisis that was really about the state of the U.S. in the late '60s, particularly the quagmire of the Vietnam War. The track attracted the attention of free-form FM radio, and the album made the charts for several weeks. But Earth Opera folded soon after.

by William Ruhlmann

Tracks
1. Home To You -4:27
2. Mad Lydia's Waltz -3:47
3. Alfie Finney (Dillon) -2:35
4. Sanctuary From The Law - 2:54
5. All Winter Long - 5:56
6. The American Eagle Tragedy - 10:36
7. Roast Beef Love - 3:16
8. It's Love - 4:05
All compositions by Peter Rowan, unless as else noted

Earth Opera 
*Peter Rowan - Vocals, Guitar, Saxophone
*David Grisman - Mandolin, Mandocello, Keyboards, Saxophone, Vocals
*Paul Dillon - Guitar, Drums, Vocals
*Billy Mundi - Percussion, Drums
*John Nagy - Bass, Violoncello, Mandocello
With
*Jack Bonus - Flute, Sax, Wind
*Herb Bushler - Bass
*John Cale - Guitar, Viola, Vocals
*Richard Grando - Saxophone
*David Horowitz - Organ, Piano, Keyboards
*Bill Keith - Pedal Steel, Steel Guitar
*Bob Zachary - Percussion, Triangle

1968  Earth Opera
Related Act
1968  Rhinoceros - Rhinoceros
1969-70  Rhinoceros - Satin Chickens / Better Times Are Coming

Free Text
Text Host

Earth Opera - Earth Opera (1968 us, delicate baroque folk psych)

For a time in the mid- to late '60s, it seemed as though Boston might become the East Coast's answer to San Francisco -- it never happened, but if it had, Earth Opera had as good a shot as any of being the East Coast answer to the Grateful Dead. Spawned out of the early- to mid-'60s folk boom, Earth Opera's core was comprised of Peter Rowan, a former bluegrass player (and Bill Monroe alumnus) whose proficiency on guitar and mandolin was soon matched by his songwriting; and David Grisman, a mandolin virtuoso of no small talent who had played with a various younger ensembles, including Siegel, Grisman, Rose & Lewinger. 

By the mid-'60s, even the most serious and dedicated of urban folk players, attuned and attached to younger collegiate audiences, were getting caught up in the changes being wrought in music from across the Atlantic and the West Coast, which had yielded such efforts as the ineptly named bluegrass Beatles effort Beatle Country by the Charles River Valley Boys, and Wheatstraw Suite by the Dillards. In late 1967, Rowan and Grisman made the jump across the psychedelic chasm opened by the Beatles et. al from their folk perch, in the guise of Earth Opera. They were joined by John Nagy on bass, Paul Dillon, and Bill Stevenson on keyboards and vibraphone, and began generating music that was closer in spirit to the spacier parts of Anthem of the Sun than to Bill Monroe, though they didn't leave bluegrass behind entirely. 

The group was signed to Elektra Records which, at the time, was enjoying success with its first two rock signings, the Doors and Love and rapidly expanding into the more advanced forms of rock music. Their self-titled debut album, produced by Grisman's ex-bandmate Peter Siegel, and including veteran drummer (and Mothers of Invention alumnus) Billy Mundi on drums, was as spaced-out a record as Elektra had issued up to that time and, in its mix of folk and psychedelic influences, was reminiscent of the music emanating from San Francisco in the same era. 

by Bruce Eder

Tracks
1. The Red Sox Are Winning - 3:34
2. As It Is Before - 7:25
3. Dreamless - 2:52
4. To Care At All - 3:35
5. Home Of The Brave - 4:51
6. The Child Bride - 4:43
7. Close Your Eyes And Shut The Door - 2:46
8. Time And Again (Grisman, Rowan) - 5:47
9. When You Were Full Of Wonder - 4:00
10.Death By Fire - 6:08
All compositions by Peter Rowan except where stated

Earth Opera
*Peter Rowan - Vocals, Guitar, Saxophone
*David Grisman - Mandolin, Mandocello, Keyboards, Saxophone, Vocals
*Bill Stevenson - Piano, Harpsichord, Organ, Vibraphone
*Paul Dillon - Guitar, Drums, Vocals
*Billy Mundi - Percussion, Drums
*John Nagy - Bass

Related Act
1968  Rhinoceros - Rhinoceros
1969-70  Rhinoceros - Satin Chickens / Better Times Are Coming 

Free Text
Text Host

Fludd - Fludd (1971 canada, wonderful blend of smart folk, classic rock and glam tinges, 2010 edition)

After toiling away in various local bands in the Toronto area, brothers Brian and Ed Pilling packed their bags and headed to England where they formed Wages Of Sin in 1969. Less than a year later they'd caught the eye of Cat Stevens who took them under his paw, renaming them Zeus and using them as his back-up band. But at odds with Stevens over music direction, the 2 brothers quit and returned to Canada before the end of the year. They recruited bassist Greg Godovitz, who they played with a few years earlier in a band called The Pretty Ones. Add drummer Jorn Andersen and guitarist Mick Walsh, and the first incarnation of Fludd was born.

They became mainstays of the Toronto club scene and soon landed a contract with Warner Bros. Adam Mitchell, most noteable for his stint with The Paupers was brought in to the recording studios in California to help produce the band's debut. Released in '71, the self-titled album featured the Canadian top 20 hit "Turned 21". Work on the second record began the next spring in Toronto, with Mitchell returning as producer. By this time however, Walsh had left and was replaced by fellow Wages Of Sin alumni Mick Hopkins.

While still working on the final touches of the album, they released the single "Get Up, Get Out, Move On" that April. However dissension with their label led Hopkins to return to England, where he formed the group Quartz. After being dropped by Warner Brothers, and sensing a change was in need, Fludd continued on their next project but with a different direction in mind. This led to the hiring of keyboardist Peter Csanky.

Fludd was perhaps better known for the list of musicians who played with the band at one time or another, rather than for the music itself. But it definitely has to be noted that the Pilling brothers, and whoever else was in the band at the time, never bowed to pressure from the executives. Always pushing the envelope, they always did things their way, while recording some of Canada's most under-rated and ground-breaking rock in the process. 

by Frank Davies and Greg Godovitz

Tracks
1. Turned 21 - 2:26
2. Sailing On - 1:42
3. David Copperfield - 3:10
4. The Egg - 3:02
5. Come Back Home - 2:07
6. A Man Like You - 2:33
7. Birmingham - 2:37
8. Mama's Boy (Greg Godovitz) - 2:59
9. Easy Being No One - 2:03
10.Make It Better - 2:51
11.You See Me - 2:17
12.Tuesday Blue - 3:21
All songs by Brian Pilling and Ed Pilling except where noted.

Fludd
*Mick Walsh - Guitar
*Edmund "Ed" Pilling - Vocals
*Brian Pilling - Guitar
*Greg Godovitz - Bass
*Jorn JJ Andersen (John Andersen) - Drums

Free Text
the Free Text

Dave Mason - It's Like You Never Left (1973 uk, great classic rock)

Dave Mason may have been done too soon in the sense that Mason hadn't come up with an album's worth of good new material. In fact, he had only six new songs, filling up the collection with covers of Sam Cooke's "Bring It On Home to Me" and Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" (in an arrangement that recalled the Jimi Hendrix version on which Mason had appeared), as well as a remake of "Every Woman" from the previous album in a longer, more elaborate arrangement with strings. (The version on It's Like You Never Left, despite the presence of Nash, was a near-demo running only one-minute-and-40-seconds.) 

The new songs were good ones, however, particularly "Show Me Some Affection." And while there were no hotshot guest stars this time, the musicians were Mason's road band, including second guitarist Jim Krueger, who would be Mason's partner for many years to come, and keyboardist Mike Finnigan, plus the rhythm section of bassist Bob Glaub and drummer Rick Jagger. The result was a more cohesive band sound in the playing that actually made Dave Mason a stronger musical effort than its predecessor. It also sold better, reaching number 25 during a 25-week chart run and going gold within two years. Even though a hit single would elude Mason until he came up with "We Just Disagree" in 1977, many of the songs on It's Like You Never Left and Dave Mason joined perennials such as "Feelin' Alright?" and "Only You Know and I Know" in his concert repertoire, and these albums helped re-establish him with fans. 

Over the years, several different record companies licensed It's Like You Never Left and Dave Mason from Columbia Records for reissue together on a single CD. In 2007, the British Acadia label accidentally pressed its version with the tracks from Dave Mason sequenced ahead of those from It's Like You Never Left, even though the CD booklet indicated that the opposite was the case; thus, on this disc, the tracks shown as one-ten were really ten-nineteen, and those shown as eleven-nineteen were really one-nine.

by William Ruhlmann

Tracks
1. Baby... Please - 3:15
2. Every Woman - 1:40
3. If You've Got Love - 3:24
4. Maybe - 4:03
5. Head Keeper - 3:36
6. Misty Morning Stranger - 4:32
7. Silent Partner - 3:03
8. Side Tracked (Mason, Jordan, Jaeger, Turner) - 3:34
9. The Lonely One - 4:43
10. It's Like You Never Left - 3:03
All songs by Dave Mason except where stated

Personnel
*Dave Mason - Guitar, Vocals
*Graham Nash - Guitar, Vocals, Synthesizer
*Chuck Rainey - Bass
*Rick Jaeger - Drums
*Rocky - Congas
*Jim Keltner - Drums
*Clydie King, Julis Tillman - Vocals
*Kathleen Saroyan, Maxine Willard - Vocals
*Carl Radle - Bass
*Mark Jordan - Piano
*Greg Reeves - Bass
*Nastyee - Congas
*Stevie Wonder - Harmonica
*Malcolm Cecil - Moog
*Lonnie Turner - Bass
*Dennis Morouse, Norma Bell, Steve Madaio - Horns

1970  Dave Mason - Alone Together (Japan remaster)
1972  Dave Mason - Headkeeper (Japan SHM remaster)
1976-77  Certified Live / Let It Flow  (2011 remaster)

Free Text
the Free Text

David McWilliams - The Days Of David McWilliams (1967-69 ireland, outstanding protest folk rock ballads)

In October 1967, the Irish singer-songwriter David McWilliams was launched in mainland Britain by his eager manager Phil Solomon, with a barrage of publicity for the dreamy track "The Days of Pearly Spencer".

"The single that will blow your mind, the album that will change the course of music" trumpeted full-page adverts in the New Musical Express alongside enthusiastic quotes from journalists and other pop impresarios comparing the 22-year-old McWilliams to Donovan and Bob Dylan.

Unfortunately, back in 1967, Radio 1, the BBC's new pop network, didn't add "The Days of Pearly Spencer" to its playlist, maybe because Solomon was also a director of Radio Caroline, the pirate station just outlawed by the Marine Broadcasting Offences Acts passed by Harold Wilson's government.

Nevertheless, the single was played incessantly and defiantly on Caroline while stations in continental Europe picked up on its strange "phoned-in" chorus and pastoral arrangement. The following year, the track charted all over Europe and impinged itself on the continental consciousness as the soundtrack to Swinging London alongside the likes of "Nights in White Satin" by the Moody Blues and Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade Of Pale".

A reluctant stage performer, McWilliams recorded more than 10 solo albums and eventually saw the torch singer Marc Almond, formerly of Soft Cell, score the biggest hit of his solo career with a carbon-copy version of "The Days of Pearly Spencer" which reached No 4 in the British charts in 1992.

Born in the Cregagh area of Belfast in 1945, David McWilliams moved to Ballymena when he was three. He grew up with seven brothers and sisters and as a teenager developed an early interest in the rock'n'roll music of Buddy Holly and learned to play the guitar. He also developed a rebellious streak and in 1960 was expelled from Ballymena Technical School for drinking between lessons. Even when he returned, McWilliams played truant constantly, spending days thinking up songs.

In 1963, he followed his father and became an apprentice fitter in a torpedo factory in Co Antrim. However, he was always looking for a way out. Six foot tall with blue eyes and unruly black hair, he cut a distinctive figure on the football pitch; he excelled as a goalkeeper but an ankle injury kept him out of the local Linfield football team.

He preferred music anyway and joined the Coral Showband. Not content with performing covers, he began writing his own compositions such as "Redundancy Blues" and "Time of Trouble", inspired by his surroundings. "I listen with my eyes and I sing what I see," he later told journalists.

In 1966, he signed to CBS and released his début single, "God and My Country", but Dylan and Donovan seemed to have the protest singer and troubadour market sewn up and the track sank without trace. Undaunted, McWilliams went into a Belfast studio to record some demos. The impresario Mervyn Solomon overheard McWilliams's tapes and contacted his brother Phil, who was equally impressed by the material.

The formidable Irish entrepreneur Phil Solomon had made his name with Them and the Bachelors. He had also joined Ronan O'Rahilly's Radio Caroline operation and was keen to establish a record company connected to the pirate station. Having launched the Major Minor label at the tail end of 1966, Solomon wanted to add McWilliams to his roster. Even better, since CBS already manufactured Major Minor's releases, he could appear to do them a favour by offering to take the singer off their hands. The scam worked and Solomon brought his new signing over to London. He teamed up McWilliams with the arranger Mike Leander.

McWilliams had found the perfect producer for his delicate and heartfelt songwriting as well as his six- and 12-string acoustic guitars and the partnership blossomed. In June 1967, his début album, David McWilliams Sings Songs from David McWilliams, made the Top Forty. The second one, simply called David McWilliams, fared even better, probably because it featured "The Days of Pearly Spencer".

Thanks to Leander's orchestral arrangement, the track had evolved from a poignant ballad about a homeless man whom McWilliams had met in Ballymena into a haunting radio record and a considerable turntable hit. Though it never charted in Britain, the single was re- released on three separate occasions and remains a favourite on oldies stations around Europe. The follow-up single, "Three O'Clock Flamingo Street", proved equally evocative of the down-and-out milieu the songwriter had observed as a teenager. And, despite the lack of hit singles, his third album, David McWilliams Volume III, also charted in March 1968.

This 22-track compilation is largely drawn from the three albums McWilliams released on Major Minor in 1967-68, tagging on a B-side apiece from 1968 and 1969. 

David McWilliams, born Belfast 4 July 1945; twice married (one son, seven daughters); died Ballycastle, Co Antrim 9 January 2002.

by Pierre Perrone

Tracks
1. The Days Of Pearly Spencer - 2:33
2. For Josephine - 3:03
3. Brown Eyed Girl - 2:25
4. Marlena - 2:29
5. For A Little Girl - 2:36
6. Lady Helen Of The Laughing Eyes - 3:11
7. What's The Matter With You - 3:29
8. There's No Lock Upon My Door - 2:53
9. Tomorrows Like Today - 1:54
10.Mister Satisfied - 2:30
11.I Love Susie In The Summer - 3:17
12.Harlem Lady - 3:05
13.Letter To My Love - 2:30
14.City Blues - 1:56
15.Three O'Clock Framingo Street - 2:53
16.Redundancy Blues - 4:02
17.Huroshima - 2:41
18.Question Of Indentity - 2:37
19.Time Of Trouble - 1:49
20.And I'm Free - 2:44
21.In The Early Hours Of The Morning - 2:00
22.Born To Ramble - 3:20
Words and Music by David McWilliams

*David McWilliams - Vocals, Guitar

1967-69  The Days Of Pearly Spencer

Free Text

Just Paste

Socrates Drank The Conium - On The Wings (1973 greece, amazing hard rock)

On The Wings is one of those records where you just have to shake your head in disbelief every time you listen to it, absolutely face-melting guitar work. 

Hard to believe this came out in 1973 (though I wasn't even born yet, so what do I know). Bands like Wishbone Ash were already doing full-on, well-composed intricate rock arrangements with two guitars and bass all playing something different (and both ably backed with excellent drummers), but this album predates and almost predicts the classical melodies later employed by bands such as Iron Maiden, though some of the tempos and changes are more manic than Maiden or any other NWOBHM band or any metal band up until Venom (though for a comparison of competency, Slayer would be a more apt reference point).

The vocals sound almost strained at times, but it adds to the desperate power of these songs. The album's really not very long, but they pack SO MUCH into the scant 30 minutes, you can't help but be glued to the speakers/headphones/etc.

Maybe the recording could be better, but I don't know what technology was available in Greece in the early '70s or if a band like this had the capital (though apparently they were on Polydor) to travel to record.

Regardless, this is a brilliant record that will appeal to fans of metal, 70s rock, and great music. The only drawback is, it's really hard to find. If you do see it, snap it up, you won't regret it! 

by G.Johnson

Tracks
1. Who Is To Blame - 3:47
2. Distruction - 4:32
3. Naked Trees - 5:00
4. Death Is Gonna Die - 3:33
5. This Is The Rats - 2:49
6. Lovesick Kid's Blues - 2:50
7. On The Wings Of Death - 3:25
8. Breakdown - 3:04
9. Triping In A Crystal Forest (Gus Doukakis) - 1:49
10.Regulations (If I Were A President) - 2:40
All compositions by  Gus Doukakis and Antonis Tourkogiorgis except where indicated.

Socrates
*John Spathas - Lead Guitar
*Antonis Tourkoyorgis - Bass, Vocals
*Gus Doukakis - Gguitar
*George Trantalides - Drums

1972  Socrates Drank The Conium
1972  Taste Of Conium 

Free Text
Text Host

Socrates Drank The Conium - Socrates Drank The Conium (1972 greece, great acid rural rock)

Originally released in 1972, their debut isn't quite as ripping as the totally off-the-hook On The Wings, but it's got plenty of wailing kick ass guitar work nonetheless. Unlike On The Wings there's only one guitar in the mix, but when he gets cooking with the bands' driving rhythm section backing him up he really takes off. There's also some more laid-back, rural psych moments on here, but mostly hard boogie-blues-acid-rock numbers harking back to Cream and Hendrix, assuredly big heroes of Socrates Drank The Conium. They've got something to say through their music as well, as titles like "It's A Disgusting World" and "Underground" indicate, although the band's lasting message might not really be one of radical politics but something more basic: rock on! 

Aqua

Tracks
1. Live In The Country - 3:43
2. Something In The Air (D. Wood) - 3:21
3. Bad Conditions - 3:59
4. It's A Disgusting World (Elias Boukouvalas) - 6:52
5. Close The Door And Lay Down - 3:12
6. Blind Illusion - 3:33
7. Hoo Yeah! - 3:36
8. Underground (D. Wood) - 4:40
9. Starvation - 3:45
All songs by Yannis Spathas and Antonis Tourkogiorgis except where noted

Socrates Drank The Conium
*Antonis Tourkogiorgis – Bass, vocals
*Yannis Spathas – Lead Guitar
*Elias Boukouvalas – Drums

1972  Taste Of Conium 

Free Text
Text Host

Blue Cheer - Blue Cheer (1969 us, fantastic hard blues rock, 2007 Japan and 2017 SHM-CD remaster and expanded)

After working with two monstrously loud guitar heroes, Leigh Stephens and Randy Holden, Blue Cheer wanted to pursue a more subtle musical direction, and on their fourth album, simply titled Blue Cheer, they followed the path of the first half of 1969's New! Improved! Blue Cheer, featuring guitarist Bruce Stephens and keyboard man Ralph Burns Kellogg, instead of the power trio format they pioneered on their first two albums and the second half of New! Improved! with Holden. Drummer Paul Whaley had also dropped out of the band by album number four, with Norman Mayell taking over the traps and leaving bassist and singer Dickie Peterson as the only original member of Blue Cheer, all within two years of the release of Vincebus Eruptum. 

Given all these changes, it's no wonder Blue Cheer sounds so much different than they did on the band's first two LP's, but so long as you're not expecting the monolithic power of their earliest stuff, it's a fun album that generates an impressive groove. Blue Cheer's music was always rooted in the blues, but here the approach is less mutated and more organic, with a touch of boogie in the rhythms and enough swagger to keep this from sounding like country-rock, even if the tone is more rootsy and significantly less punishing. 

The raspy twang of Peterson's vocals shows a lighter, more graceful touch here, though he still sounds good and gritty, and the interplay between Kellogg's piano and organ and Stephens' guitar work suggests some improbable but effective cross between the Band and Steppenwolf. And while Peterson didn't contribute much to the songwriting on Blue Cheer, Stephens and Kellogg step up with some good tunes (as does Gary Yoder, who guests on two tunes and would join the group for album number five), and the cover of Delaney Bramlett's "Hello L.A., Bye Bye Birmingham" is inspired. If Vincebus Eruptum and Outsideinside sounded like music for an acid-and-amphetamine-crazed Saturday night biker party, Blue Cheer is the stuff the same bikers would put on for a Sunday beer-and-weed cookout; it's a more laid-back and relaxed effort, but it still rocks with a strong and steady roll. 

by Mark Deming

Tracks
1. Fool (G. R. Grelecki, G. L. Yoder) - 3:32
2. You're Gonna Need Someone (N. Mayell, B. Stephens) - 3:35
3. Hello La, Bye Bye Birmingham (D. Bramlett, M. Davis) - 3:24
4. Saturday Freedom (B. Stephens) - 5:56
5. Ain't That The Way (Love's Supposed To Be) (R. Kellogg, D. Peterson) - 3:12
6. Rock And Roll Queens (R. Kellogg, D. Peterson) - 2:43
7. Better When We Try (R. Kellogg) - 2:48
8. Natural Man (R. Kellogg, D. Peterson) - 3:36
9. Lovin' You's Easy (B. Stephens) - 3:58
10.The Same Old Story (G. R. Grelecki, G. L. Yoder) - 4:17
11.All Night Long (R. Kellogg) - 2:05
12.Fortunes (D. Peterson) - 2:23
13.Fool (Alter Version) (G. R. Grelecki, G. L. Yoder) - 2:53
14.Ain't That The Way (Remix) (Love's Supposed To Be) (R. Kellogg, D. Peterson) - 2:37

Blue Cheer
*Bruce Stephens - Guitar, Vocals
*Dickie Peterson - Bass, Vocals
*Ralph Burns Kellogg - Keyboards
*Norman Mayell - Drums
with
*Eric Albronda – vocals

1968  Blue Cheer - OutsideInside (2012 edition)

Free Text

Just Paste

Day Of Phoenix - Wide Open N-Way (1970 denmark, fine psych prog rock, Esoteric remaster)

Day Of Phoenix  formed in 1968, and, on this album at least, consisted of Ole Prehn on guitars, Erik Stedt on piano and bass, Henrik Friis on drums, Karsten Lyng on lead guitar and Hans Lauridsen on vocals. Interestingly enough, the band had the good fortune to open for the mighty Colosseum at a gig in Aarhus, Denmark, leading them to the attention of bassist Tony Reeves (Colosseum and later to feature in Greenslade). Reeves became impressed with the band and agreed to produce their albums. After Wide Open N-way, the band would record a follow up, The Neighbour's Son, in 1972 before calling it a day.

Guitarist Prehn reveals in the notes that the band's influences were Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, Love, Clear Light and The Doors. All this should give you an idea about just how psychedelic the music is. Three of the album's five tracks are well over ten minutes in length, leaving plenty of space for noodling and improvisation, the kind you might hear at a live gig. However, the tracks do appear to have some kind of structure, even if wibbling on a guitar frenetically for a minute is an integral part of it. Somehow, even when the band are rocking out at their hardest, everything seems hushed and subdued, and the mood is melancholic on the whole. During the extended instrumental sections Stedt's bass occasionally whips up the music into a frenzy, creating a whirlwind of explosive psychedelic rock. Sadly, the same bassist would die from a drug overdose a year after this album was released. The provocative lyrics are sung in English; according to Prehn, 'somehow it's difficult to be as flamboyant in Danish.'

The album is presented very adequately, with informative liner notes containing excerpts of an interview with Ole Prehn. Also interviewed is Danish multi-instrumentalist Robin Taylor, who confesses his adoration for Day Of Phoenix readily, saying other Danish groups of the time were 'amateurish' in comparison. Appended to the disc is the band's 1969 single, whose artwork is shown in the booklet. I find it heartwarming that Esoteric chose to include this, as it stops precious tracks like these being lost in the oblivion.

 On the single, the band choose to cover two tracks, the first being Tell Me What You See In Me by the Strawbs from their debut album released the same year, although Day Of Phoenix abbreviate this to Tell Me. With drums included, this version is rockier, yet significantly shorter than the original. Surprisingly enough however, I prefer the B-side; beginning with some thick bass notes, the cover of Randy Newman's I Think It's Gonna Rain Today turns out to be the happiest song on the collection. Lauridsen's gravelly voice pours wonderfully over the delightful chord progression, in a version that I find superior to the original. 

While they were never going to become the next Beatles, Day Of Phoenix definitely had more than met the eye and this delightful reissue allows the listener to reassess this obscure Danish band. Oh, and please don't ask me what an N-way is! 

by Basil Francis

Tracks
1. Wide Open N-Way - 11:29
2. Cellophane #1, Cellophane #2 (Ole Prehn) - 13:10
3. If You Ask Me - 04:52
4. Mind Funeral - 12:18
5. Tick-Tack (Ole Prehn) - 01:15
6. Tell Me - 03:01
7. I Think It's Gonna Rain Today - 02:28
All compositions by Ole Prehn and Karsten Lyng except where stated

Day Of Phoenix
*Ole Prehn - Guitars, Vocals
*Karsten Lyng - Lead Guitars
*Hans Lauridsen - Lead Vocals
*Erik Stedt - Bass, Piano, Saw
*Hendrik Friis - Drums, Percussion
With
*Peter Friis - Double Bass
*Ulrik Jensen - Oboe
*Kenneth Knudsen - Piano

Free Text

Just Paste