Plain and Fancy

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

Sweet Pain - Sweet Pain (1970 us, fine classic rock, 2008 reissue)

West Coast based rock band Sweet Pain, with clear sound, nice vocals, great guitar parts especially on the two long tracks "Joy" and "Start Off With You". Think a cross between Steppenwolf, C.C.R. and C.S.N.& Y, mostly for the vocal harmonies.

Tracks

1. Upside Down, Inside Out Woman (Bob Spalding, Carl Johnson, David Riordan, Frank Demme, J.C. Phillips, Marty Foltz) - 3:39

2. Chain Up The Devil (David Riordan, J.C. Phillips) - 3:29

3. Pine Canyon Stream (Carl Johnson, David Riordan) - 2:15

4. Be Myself (David Riordan, J.C. Phillips) - 3:42

5. Joy (David Riordan, J.C. Phillips) - 8:48

6. Berkeley Lady (David Riordan) - 3:29

7. Start Off With You (David Riordan, J.C. Phillips) - 7:38

8. Richard And Me (Eugene Pistilli, Tommy West) - 4:18

9. Got To Get Your Hands On It (J.C. Phillips, Ray Payne) - 4:05

10.The Lover (Frank Demme) - 3:26

Sweet Pain

*Carl Johnson - Guitar

*Dave Riordan - Rhythm Guitar, Vocals

*Bob Spalding - Guitar

*Frank Demme - Bass, Vocals

*Marty Foltz - Drums, Percussion

*J.C. Phillips - Marimba, Vocals

Monday, March 10, 2025

rep> Crazy Mabel - Crazy Mabel (1971 uk, stunning blues rock with progressive mood)

British sextet released in 1971 their sole album (a live recording) only in Germany and Netherlands. A heavy psych blues rock with jazz and progressive touch, from excellent musicians like Mike Connell on guitar, Allan Spriggs on vocals and Geoff Leigh (form Henry Cow fame) on saxes and flute. A kaleidoscope of emotive vocals and masterful instrumentals, their music paints a vivid tapestry of a bygone era, where innovation meets the raw essence of rock rebellion.

Tracks

1. Intro Talking - Crazy Mabel - 3:20

2. Keep On Rolling - 3:40

3. Driving Song (Ian Anderson) - 3:58

4. Beat Goes On (Sonny Bono) - 6:40

5. Rag And Bone Man - 4:55

6. It´s Alright Ma, It's Only Witchcraft (Tyger Hutchings, Richard Thompson) - 4:51

7. You´ve Never Had It - 4:39

8. Sleepy Feeling - 4:27

9. Tea Time - 3:57

10.Splitting - 4:48

All compositions by Mick Connell except where noted.

Crazy Mabel
*Mick Connell - Lead Guitar
*Jim Sullivan - Bass
*Les Cirkle - Drums
*Alan Spriggs - Vocals
*Geoff Leigh - Saxophone, Flute
*Bryn Collinson - Tenor Saxophone
with
*Tom Parker - Piano

rep> Purple Image - Purple Image (1970 us, strong blend of soul funk and psych rock, 2004 edition)

Though African-American and raised in the predominantly Black 105th Superior area of Cleveland, Purple Image played rock -- psychedelic, mind-bending, pass-the-bong, strobe-light, posters-on-the-wall head music.

This obscure album recorded on Map Records has risen to the status of cult because of its scarcity and the musical orientation of Warren Adams (vocals, piano, organ), Kenneth Roberts (vocals, rhythm), William Adams (vocals, conga), Frank Smith (lead guitar), Del Moran (bass), Richard Payne (drums), and lone female Diane Dunlap (vocals); Edward Snodgrass, a non-member, augmented P.I. on sax.

Purple Image wrote everything except the LP's masterpiece, the 15-minute, 24-second rendition of Bob Craig's "Marching to a Different Drummer." As with all six selections, Purple Image sounds better when the volume is cranked. "Drummer" is an energetic, powerful blend of acid rock and fusion; Snodgrass blows a frantic Coltrane-ish sax, and Dunlap wails like she slammed her hand in a door.

"We Got to Pull Together" is an airy, charming, socially significant ballad that urges us to become color-blind, forget the past, and get along. Snodgrass plays a tender horn while a male does a convincing lead wallpapered by some arresting, swooping harmonies. On "Living In the Ghetto," they sing about the woes of poverty; if you like heavy metal, this and "Why" will tickle your fancy. "Lady" features Dunlap and a male on an upbeat rock-blues number.

The back cover pictures P.I. posing under the now-defunct Liberty Theater marquee in mod-type clothing. The front cover features a slim, pretty, Afro-wearing Black woman with three arms holding three globes surrounded by clouds.

by Andrew Hamilton

Tracks
1. Living In The Ghetto - 6:32
2. Why - 4:37
3. Lady - 3:37
4. We Got To Pull Together (Frank Smith) - 3:35
5. Whey You Do To Me - 3:32
6. Marching To A Different Drummer - 15:24
All songs by Purple Image unless as else written.

Purple Image
*Del Moran - Bass
*Diane Dunlap - Vocals
*Frank Smith - Guitar
*Kenneth Roberts - Vocals
*Richard Payne - Drums
*Warren Adams - Organ, Piano, Vocals
*William Adams - Conga, Vocals

1974 Lynyrd Skynyrd - Second Helping (24karat Gold CD and japan expanded edition)

Saturday, March 8, 2025

Alias - Contraband (1979 us, great southern classic rock with members from Lynyrd Skynyrd fame, 2011 remaster)

Alias was the first project with Lynyrd Skynyrd members (Leon Wilkeson on bass, Billy Powell on keyboards and Artimus Pyle on drums) after the plane crash in 1977. The band was short lived and they only released one album, Contraband, in 1979. The album was done to supposedly get the band members back into playing music. The three members were joined by Billy’s brother Ricky Powell, Barry Harwood, Jimmy Dougherty, Dorman Cogburn and Jo Jo Billingsley. The lead off track Streetfighter is an album standout with its infectious grooves, however the whole album is fairly consistent with high quality Southern tinged rock tunes. Southern rock mixed with melodic AOR. Think a mix of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Johnny Van Zant Band and 38 Special. The band features both a male and female lead vocals A year after this release the Rossington Collins Band was formed.

Tracks

1. Streetfighter - 3:13

2. Dagger In The Night - 3:14

3. Holiday - 2:41

4. True Love - 5:28

5. Devil´s Bride (Dorman Cogburn, Jimmy Dougherty) - 3:20

6. Can´t Dry Up (Dorman Cogburn, Jimmy Dougherty) - 4:01

7. Cafe Deluxe - 3:38

8. Dead Giveaway - 3:18

9. Child Of Fortune - 7:03

All songs by Jimmy Dougherty, Jo Jo Billingsley, Dorman Cogburn except where stated

Alias

*Artimus Pyle - Drums

*Barry Lee Harwood - Guitar

*Billy Powell - Keyboards

*Dorman Cogburn - Guitar

*Jimmy Daugherty - Vocals

*Jo Jo Billingsley - Vocals

*Leon Wilkeson - Bass

*Richard Powell - Bass

1975 Lynyrd Skynyrd - Nuthin' Fancy (japan expanded reissue)

1973 Elliott Murphy - Aquashow

Wednesday, March 5, 2025

Elliott Murphy - Lost Generation (1975 us, street poet's rock 'n' roll fantasy, 2014 bonus track reissue)

Lost Generation, Elliott Murphy’s 1975 album, opens with some culturally heavy lyrics, sung in a provocative and jaded tone: “I remember when you were on the farm / dreaming about Andy Warhol / getting felt up in the barn / wondering if that’s moral.”

The song (“Hollywood”) goes on to reference Greta Garbo and James Dean in a savage attack on the illusion and artifice provided by cinema. And where was this particular album recorded? Los Angeles of course.

Two years earlier, Murphy’s debut, Aquashow, was released to what in today’s terms would be called a media frenzy of attention. Some call the album a lost classic, although it’s recently been re-released on iTunes. Murphy’s first attempt at Aquashow was scrapped after an aborted session in L.A., but he went bounding back to LaLa land for Lost Generation, which due to previous form must have been a bold move in itself.

Lost Generation is as a result musically informed by the West Coast sunshine. It’s mostly upbeat, and has a more country influence than its predecessor. However Murphy’s appetite for New York cynicism is undiminished, as he searches for answers as to why he’s feeling so let down.

Springsteen and Murphy have been much compared, and with good reason. Both were dubbed “New Dylans” in the ’70s, they were peers and friends, and they undoubtedly synthesize their heroes. But Springsteen does it mostly through the music itself whereas Murphy addresses what inspires him (or what is the source of his disillusionment) directly in his lyrics. In “Touch of Mercy”, Murphy sings about “thinking about Brian Jones and the final getaway”. and deliberates between being a Hemingway man of action or a more reflective Fitzgerald. The only answer Murphy can come up with is “mercy and a little touch of God”, but a Hammond organ swells in the background as if to say, the only solution is the music itself.

You could say it’s an unacceptable position to point at the comedown, the disparity between real life and the world created by the entertainment industry, while still glamorizing the very people in that world by mythologizing them in a rock song. Is Murphy just a name-dropper? He seems to have considered this himself. Perhaps unexpectedly, the literary Lost Generation itself is not referenced at all in the title track. Instead Murphy’s focuses on every day survival, doctors, police sergeants, Vietnam vets. The girl on the street realizes that “what she’s been seeing in the movies just ain’t the same.” The generation isn’t so much lost as can’t find its place, and God is dead with no divine being to divide the oceans.

The music just about keeps pace with the quality of the lyrics, but it has been said elsewhere that the session players don’t add a huge amount of character. It’s perhaps noticeable only because the ideas are extravagantly rich, from a commentary on how a nation became so enraptured with the cult of personality that it fell into the thrall of Hitler’s fascism (“Eva Braun”) to the corporate cash-cow of the music industry (“Manhattan Rock”). Murphy triumphs more easily in the personal, when describing a doomed romance in “History”. Similarly, “When You Ride” uses Western imagery and a sweeping melody with success to describe a declining relationship.

by Charles Pitter, 13 May 2014

Tracks

1. Hollywood - 3:53

2. A Touch Of Mercy - 3:29

3. History - 3:03

4. When You Ride - 2:55

5. Bittersweet - 4:03

6. Lost Generation - 4:36

7. Eva Braun - 4:03

8. Manhattan Rock - 4:01

9. Visions Of The Night - 3:43

10.Lookin' Back - 3:38

11.Visions Of The Night (Instrumental) - 3:13

All songs by Elliott Murphy

Bonus Track 11

Musicians

*Elliott Murphy - Guitar, Harmonica, Keyboards, Piano, Vocals

*Bobby Kimball - Harmony Vocals

*Gordon Edwards - Bass

*Jackie Clark - Guitar

*Jim Gordon - Drums, Percussion

*Jon Smith - Saxophone

*Ned Doheny - Guitar

*Richard Tee - Keyboards

*Sonny Landreth - Guitar

*Wayne DeVillier - Keyboards

1973-75 The Butts Band - The Complete Recordings

Tuesday, March 4, 2025

The Doors - Other Voices • Full Circle (1971-72 us, fine classic rock, 2015 double disc remaster)

This European import CD contains both Doors' LPs Other Voices (1971) and Full Circle (1972). John Densmore (drums/vocals), Ray Manzarek (keyboards/bass pedals/vocals) and Robbie Krieger (guitar/vocals) anticipated having new material readied once Jim Morrison returned from his sabbatical in Paris, France. As his vocals would not be forthcoming, the remaining three-piece lineup forged ahead to complete the tracks. With stylistic continuity bleeding over from L.A. Woman, Other Voices is considered the most cohesive of the pair with primary entries including the blues-fueled opener "In the Eye of the Sun" and the esoteric love song "Ships w/ Sails." Listen for guest musicians Ray Neapolitan (electric bass), Willie Ruff (standup acoustic bass), and Francisco Aguabella's unmistakable conga and percussion. The Doors prove their capabilities as a no-nonsense rock & roll trio on the raucous "Tightrope Ride." Manzarek does a tremendous job on Krieger's humbling "Wandering Musician," exemplifying a versatility that was often overshadowed in the Doors' earlier configuration.

Like the aforementioned "Tightrope Ride," the concluding cut "Hang on to Your Life" bears philosophical queries that could be rooted in Morrison's conspicuous absence. Other Voices made it into the Top 40 pop album charts, although Full Circle (1972) -- the last full-length effort from Densmore, Krieger and Manzarek -- did not. One reason commonly cited when contrasting the two post-Morrison platters is Full Circle' s comparatively shorter and less productive maturation process. There are a couple of excellent cuts, such as "Verdilac." It is one of two selections with guest Charles Lloyd (flute/tenor sax) who also contributes to "The Piano Bird." The latter was written by Manzarek and bassist Jack Conrad. One incidental side note, still unissued in the digital domain is the Full Circle era B-side title "Tree Trunk" -- which could only be found on U.K. editions of the "Get Up and Dance" 45 rpm.

by Lindsay Planer

Tracks

Disc 1 Other Voices 1971

1. In The Eye Of The Sun (Ray Manzarek) - 4:48

2. Variety Is The Spice Of Life - 2:50

3. Ships W/ Sails (Robby Krieger, John Densmore) - 7:38

4. Tightrope Ride (Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger) - 4:15

5. Down On The Farm - 4:15

6. I'm Horny, I'm Stoned - 3:55

7. Wandering Musician - 6:25

8. Hang On To Your Life (Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger) - 5:36

Songs 2,5,6,7 written by Robby Krieger

Disc 2 Full Circle 1972

1. Get Up And Dance (Robby Krieger, Ray Manzarek) - 2:25

2. 4 Billion Souls - 3:18

3. Verdilac (Robby Krieger, Ray Manzarek) - 5:40

4. Hardwood Floor - 3:38

5. Good Rockin' (Roy Brown) - 4:22

6. The Mosquito (John Densmore, Robby Krieger, Ray Manzarek) - 5:16

7. The Piano Bird (Jack Conrad, John Densmore) - 5:50

8. It Slipped My Mind - 3:11

9. The Peking King And The New York Queen (Ray Manzarek) - 6:25

10.Treetrunk - 2:52

Songs 2,4,9,10 written by Robby Krieger

Bonus Track 10

The Doors

*Ray Manzarek - Vocals, Keyboards

*Robby Krieger - Vocals, Guitar

*John Densmore - Drums

With

Disc 1 Other Voices 1971

*Jack Conrad - Bass Guitar (Tracks 1,2,4)

*Jerry Scheff - Bass (Tracks 5,6,7)

*Wolfgang Melz - Bass (Track 8)

*Ray Neapolitan - Bass (Track 3)

*Willie Ruff - Acoustic Bass (Track 3)

*Francisco Aguabella – Percussion (Tracks 3,8)

*Emil Richards - Marimba (Track 5)

Disc 2 Full Circle 1972

*Chico Batera – Percussion (Tracks 7,9)

*Leland Sklar - Bass (Tracks 4,6,8)

*Jack Conrad - Bass (Tracks 2,5,7,9), Rhythm Guitar (Track 7)

*Charles Larkey - Bass (Tracks 3,7)

*Chris Ethridge - Bass (Track 1)

*Venetta Fields - Vocals

*Clydie King - Vocals

*Melissa Mackay - Vocals

*Bobbye Hall – Percussion (Tracks 3,7,9)

*Charles Lloyd - Tenor Saxophone (Track 3), Flute (Track 7)

Monday, March 3, 2025

Merry Airbrakes - Merry Airbrakes (1973 us, awesome protest folk psych blues rock, 2019 remaster)

"Its 1973... in three years it will be 1976. This album of music, conceived and recorded during the months between the 1972 Presidential election and the full-flowering of the Watergate disclosures, is an anti-capitalistic, anti-imperialistic album, and is the distillation of the best four years of my life, in the Vietnam War, and as one of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War." - Bill Homans (Merry Airbrakes)

"Well-known bluesman and one-time Oklahoman Bill Homans, known in the blues world as "Watermelon Slim" and known by 70's rare psychedelic vinyl collectors as "Merry Airbrakes" found work as forklift driver, funeral officiator, small-time criminal, newspaper reporter, saw miller, and truck driver for industrial waste among others. In 1979, Slim and a friend came to Oklahoma and wound up in Pushmataha County, where he bought a piece of land and took up watermelon farming. That vocation didn't last, but the nickname he got doing it did.

It was in Vietnam, while laid up by an extended illness at a Cam Ranh Bay hospital, that Homans negotiated in French the five dollar purchase of his first guitar from a “papasan” in a tiny commissary on the hospital grounds. “It was the nastiest old guitar you ever saw, but it did have all six strings on it,” he said. There, with a Zippo lighter and a broken shard of a coffee can top, he began to teach himself to play his unique, backwards style of bottleneck slide.

After returning stateside he would join the ranks of Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), and in 1973 recorded with his brother and friends an LP titled “Merry Airbrakes,” a protest album he categorized as “psychedelic folk.” A cut from that record eventually appeared on a Country Joe McDonald compilation of music by Vietnam veterans. However, his music career would soon tank. A brief career in petty crime ensued, which he would forsake by 1978."

What is an underground album? Some people would say that it is one which has been produced outside, or in spite, of the music industry, whether or not it has prospered. This album, Merry Airbrakes, has incontrovertible underground credentials.

Six years have given me ample perspective on my first recordings, here presented to you. This may be one of the only albums you'll hear by a Vietnam veteran, and aside from certain American bluesmen, John, Prine, and a literal handful of others, American music has never addressed the Vietnam War and its effects. Certainly it is the only place you will ever hear a song from the Vietnamese point of view.

This change, on the surface. This is, afterall, the post-industrial-peak technocracy, in which it is acknowledged at the highest levels that full employment will never again be achieved, and that people therefore must be mindlessly entertained so as to maintain stability. The ship sinks slowly and in one piece, according to the "conservatives" economic scenarios.

But that spirit which made Merry Airbrakes possible does not change. it is this very spirits of our Mother the Earth which has kept me on the path I have walked since joining the VVAW. That path has led me to Seabrook, New Hampshire, to New Mexico, New York, South Dakota, Minnesota, and many places in between. Our cries of "Bring our brothers home, now!" have become "Save the earth!" and "No nukes!" I'm still walking (and, though it's getting expensive, driving) that path of planetary service.

The songs herein are especially dedicated to my brothers who made it back to the world, and to those who didn't...

To the Gainesville Eight, who realize better than most, that revolution is a continuous and dynamic process if it exists at all. I also wish to express my love and gratitude to Gandalf, Ethel, Danny, Barbara, Don, Mike, cousin Pete, my parents and all the people who have been my friends and lovers. Finally, to all political prisoners, from Saigon to Concord to Bogue Chitto to Valparaiso.

Love in struggle,

by Bill Homans

Tracks

1. Vigilante Man (Woody Guthrie) - 3:42

2. Frog Song (Peter Homans) - 3:25

3. The Bearded Man - 4:02

4. Quang Tricity - 2:29

5. Even Those Among Us - 4:46

6. Draft Board Blues - 5:39

7. Three Hearts - 4:03

8. A Happy Song For Hanoi - 1:38

9. Preacher Song (Peter Homans, Bill Homans) - 4:29

10.Tribure To Frankie (Peter Homans) - 0:22

All songs by Bill Homans except where stated

Merry Airbrakes

*Bill Homans - Slide Guitar, Vocals, Harp, Maracas

*Peter Homans - Guitar (Tracks 2,10)

*Bert Carey - Bass (Tracks 1,3,5,6,9)

*Ray Essler - Drums (Tracks 1,3,4,5,6,9)

*Bob O'Connell - Guitar (Tracks 1,3,5,9)

*Bill Heilingmann - Percussion (Track 2)

*Ted Labombard - Lead Guitar, Organ (Track 3)

*Ken Warner - Piano (Track 9)

*Lindley Goolrich - Vocals (Track 10)

*Unknown - Pedal Steel Guitar (Track 9)

1967 Tim Hardin - Tim Hardin 2 (2006 reissue)

Saturday, March 1, 2025

Tim Hardin - Nine (1973 us, elegant folk bluesy classic rock, with Peter Frampton)

In the days before music evolved into a mass ritual designed for immense concert halls and football stadiums, it was a more personal experience lived out in clubs. Whether it was the Lovin' Spoonful at the Night Owl in New York, Tom Rush at the Club 47 in Cambridge or the Byrds at Ciro's in LA, one factor remained constant: the audience always had a clear shot at the artist, and whoever presumed to take that stage had better be able to communicate ...

One of the best communicators to come out of that era was Tim Hardin. His quarter was the mid-60's Village in New York, a fondly mythologized place in time that produced the likes of Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Eric Andersen, David Blue and Richie Havens. One oft-repeated slice of the mythology placed Tim as the only acknowledged threat to Dylan's supremacy in that viciously competitive inner circle, but the difference between the two was really so vast as to render any comparison worthless. Dylan was a great idea man for a generation that was willing to use its imagination. Bob Dylan spoke to the mind of that generation; Tim Hardin spoke to its heart.

The warm recognition that accompanies any encounter with several of the songs he's written-"Reason To Believe", "Misty Roses", "If I Were A Carpenter" and "Don't Make Promises"- is really only an introduction to an extensively absorbing artistry. His songs made common experiences as fresh as the feelings that inspired them, which explains why his material has been covered by performers as diverse as Johnny Cash and Rod Stewart.

Tim Hardin, however is more than just a songwriter He is also a singer, and a singer's singer at that. He has a marvelous voice that suggests sandpaper and honey, and he sings with an emotional conviction that holds together his musical skirmishes with blues, jazz and gospel. He's generally credited as the first to have promoted a serious marriage of electricity and folk music, but calling Tim a folksinger is like calling Paul McCartney a bass player. What he does is such a personalized hybrid of music that the only adequate description is the man's name.

Nine is the first album Hardin recorded after he voluntarily exiled himself to Britain in 1973, and its cast of supporting characters includes such familiar names as Peter Frampton and Andy Bown. More than anything, this is an album by Tim Hardin, singer. Oh sure, the majority of his singing is still devoted to his own songs. Six of the ten here are from his pen; two, "Never Too Far" and "While You're On Your Way," will be familiar to longtime Hardin devotees, and the newer "Look Our Love Over" is stamped with the same magic that caused hungry translators to flock to so many of his earlier works. The four songs that are not his, and the continually shifting musical perspective that distinguishes the album as a whole, serve to display the full range of his voice as an interpretive instrument. Each individual cut makes different demands of that instrument and, as you'll discover when you play the album, he comes through with more vitality than most of the singers who surfaced yesterday. Tim Hardin is still one of the best communicators we've got.

by Ben Edmonds, January 1976

Tracks

1. Shiloh Town (Tim Hardin) - 3:00

2. Never Too Far (Tim Hardin) - 3:05

3. Rags And Old Iron (Norman Curtis, Oscar Brown Jnr.) - 4:53

4. Look Our Love Over (Tim Hardin) - 5:01

5. Person To Person (Tim Hardin, Andy Bown) - 3:48

6. Darling Girl (Michael d'Albuquerque) - 4:25

7. Blues On My Ceiling (Tim Hardin) - 3:05

8. Is There No Rest For The Weary (Dominic Troiano) - 3:18

9. Fire And Rain (James Taylor) - 3:39

10.While You're On Your Way (Tim Hardin) - 3:22

Musicians

*Tim Hardin - Vocals, Guitar

*John Mealing - Electric Piano, Piano

*Bob Cohen - Guitars

*Andy Bown - Bass

*Mike Driscoll - Drums

*Jimmy Horowitz - Piano (Track 5), Organ

*Peter Frampton - Guitar (Tracks 2,3)

*David Katz - Strings Section

*Lesley Duncan, Liza Strike, Madelaine Bell, Susan Glover - Backing Vocals

1966-68 Tim Hardin - The Millennium Collection (2002 issue)

1968 Tim Hardin - 3 Live In Concert

1969-70 Tim Hardin - Suite For Susan Moore / Bird On The Wire
1972 Tim Hardin - Painted Head (2007 japan remaster)