Dec 8, 2008

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT (COLUMBIA 1968) Japan cardboard sleeve remastered




This soundtrack to a bizarre film from 1968 is an underground classic. The project was spearheaded by John Simon and Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul & Mary). Notables making appearances include Tiny Tim (backed by members of The Band, who are uncredited), Hamsa El Din, Paul Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield and The Electric Flag.
You Are What You Eat is one of the few late '60s artifacts which has remained underground in the wake of numerous exploitive revisitations by the pop media usually dispensed in the form of nostalgia. The 1968 cinematic release is a pseudo-documentary dealing with the identity crisis facing the concurrent youth movement as seen through the eyes of its participants. Musically, these include Tiny Tim, Barry McGuire, Peter Yarrow, Hamza el Din, and producer John Simon. The soundtrack, like the film itself, is presented as an unrelenting montage of images. They both feature an editing style reminiscent of the musique concrete compositions found on Frank Zappa's Lumpy Gravy. The music and dialogue on the album likewise hang together much in the same pastiche that the Monkees designed for the soundtrack to their film Head. In other words, an aural onslaught presented à la "theatre of the mind." The disc kicks off with the inimitable pipes of the late great William Roscoe Mercer, better known to New York City radio listeners simply as ROSKO
The distinguished contribution of the Electric Flag's "Freakout" should likewise not be missed. It is a fast hurdy-gurdy blues jam featuring sizzling lead guitar riffs from Michael Bloomfield.
Here

1 comment:

the saucer people said...

"You Are What You Eat" has been on my "must watch" list for so long that I had forgot it was even on there in the first place..the couple of clips I have seen are just wonderful and now I am one step closer with the soundtrack!

Many thanks for this one! If anyone knows where I could watch it or download that would be so splendid.