SEEDS - RAW & ALIVE IN CONCERT (GNP CRESCENDO 1967) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

The Seeds were an exceptional band that never achieved the success that they inspired. This album has a truly psychedelic cover with too-dark-for-pastel colors, swirling letters over eerie faces, and dynamic black and white photos on the back. If you want to see the image of Iggy Pop clothed, just look at Sky Saxon in the bottom right photo on the back cover with the screaming girl holding a flower grabbing at him. He had the image down, as well as the music. "900 Million People Daily All Making Love" sounds so much like the Doors and Jim Morrison's "When the Music's Over," one has to wonder which came first, or did they copy each other? "Mumble and Bumble" is a trippy "Alabama Song," but where Morrison is looking for the next whiskey bar, Saxon is off looking for flowers and magic mushrooms. The band has great energy which is pierced by annoying canned applause a la the Rolling Stones' Got Live If You Want It. This is a record album, not a situation comedy TV show, after all; what's the point of overdubbing an audience onto what is really good music? Sure, "No Escape" is a prelude to the closer and hit "Pushin' Too Hard" with a tip of the hat to Martha & the Vandellas, while "Can't Seem to Make You Mine" is placed nicely in mid-set, a song after the truncated "Up in Her Room." The revelation that is this "concert" album is what a great band the Seeds really were, and how Sky Saxon's vocals have a gritty edge that he held back on us in many of the studio recordings. "Gypsy Plays His Drums" has a great chug-chug guitar, nice off-key backing vocals, and a driving pulse which is present throughout the performance. If you can ignore the extraneous additions, a song like "Forest Outside Your Door" shows really how creative and influential this pioneering band was, while "Satisfy You" is Saxon's direct sexual rock to Mick Jagger's "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction." Sky claims he can get satisfaction, and can satisfy you at the same time. He then veers off into more familiar psychedelic territory with "Night Time Girl" which combines the sex and the psychedelia. If they taught rock & roll in school, "Raw & Alive" would have to be the textbook for image, design, and content.[allmusic]
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SKY SAXON BLUES BAND - A FULL SPOON OF SEEDY BLUES (GNP CRESCENDO 1968) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

With liner notes by Muddy Waters, a cover of Water's tune "Plain Spoken," and two titles written by Luther "Guitar Jr." Johnson, the trend-conscious Sky Saxon takes his Seeds into a world far removed from punk and garage rock. This may be the only album that doesn't contain a variation of the "Pushin' Too Hard" riff, and that might not be a good thing. Six minutes and four seconds of Sky Saxon's "Cry Wolf" is too long for blues this lightweight. Saxon plays a cool harp, but his Sam the Sham-style vocals are not going to cause Buddy Guy any sleepless nights, nor would George Guy find them amusing. This is one of the great garage rock bands of all time fooling around, and that GNP Crescendo gave them so much latitude is absolutely amazing. Muddy Waters' "Plain Spoken" gets a reverent treatment, and perhaps that's all one could ask. There was a search on for Howard Tate and when he was rediscovered the reviews for his latter-day work were outstanding. This album won't have DJs and blues enthusiasts seeking out the Seeds to do a national House of Blues tour, but the funny thing is, decades after this was recorded, they might actually have earned the right to attempt working in such sacred territory. "The Gardener," at four minutes and 57 seconds, sounds as long as "Cry Wolf." Saxon gives us some cool keyboards and wailing mouth harp, but his vocals really are more suited to a Seeds/Standells/Strawberry Alarm Clock class reunion, and halfway through the track you'll have had enough. Having the intuition to cover two Luther Johnson songs, "Pretty Girl" and the up-tempo "One More Time Blues," is commendable. Luther "Guitar Jr." Johnson performed with Muddy Waters and Otis Spann, and the inclusion of his material adds a legitimacy. "Creepin' About" is amusing, but would have been more so had Sky Saxon actually got Luther Johnson or Muddy Waters or Etta James to guest star on his material. They look like the Seeds on the cover, and it is just too bad they didn't borrow a few ideas from Big Brother & the Holding Company and put some psychedelia into the grooves. Marcus Tybalt totally missed the mark in producing this, but it does have some merit for reasons already mentioned.[allmusic]
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GLASS PRISM - POE THROUGH THE GLASS PRISM (RCA VICTOR 1969) Kor mastering cardboard sleeve

Glass Prism was a psychedelic group out of Pennsylvania.They released two albums on RCA, 1969's "Poe Through The Glass Prism" and 1970's "On Joy and Sorrow". Their second album has a dark and heavy vibe, really great guitar work sometimes with fuzzy sounds, more on the sorrow side of life than on the joy side. " Your joy is your sorrow unmasked". They were one of the originators of progressive concept-based rock, and have many loyal fans to this day.
This debut release sets the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe to grandiose psychedelic arrangements -- the concept's more than a bit suspect, of course, but there's no denying the album's ambition or its execution. Both Tom Varano and Augie Christiano are imaginative composers skilled at folding classical and jazz precepts into the hard rock idiom, and their nuanced arrangements (dominated by chiaroscuro shades of funereal organ) artfully convey the melancholy and macabre at the heart of Poe's verse. Equally impressive are Glass Prism's four-part harmonies, employed most effectively on songs like "El Dorado."
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GLASS PRISM - ON JOY AND SORROW (RCA VICTOR 1970) Kor mastering cardboard sleeve

For Glass Prism's second album, 1970's On Joy and Sorrow, the band abandoned the Edgar Allan Poe adaptations of their 1969 debut Poe Through the Glass Prism for straightforward songs blending psychedelic hard rock and soul. This gave the Scranton, Pennsylvania band the chance to showcase bassist Augie Christiano's husky soul-rock singing, balanced by songs on which drummer Rick Richards took lead vocals; B3 rock organ in the spirit of bands like the Spencer Davis Group, Procol Harum, and Vanilla Fudge; and Tom Varano's versatile lead guitar, which was equally accomplished at fuzzy hard rock riffs and deft jazz-influenced picking...
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JANIS IAN - JANIS IAN (VERVE FORECAST 1967) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

This is the eponymous debut long-player from Janis Ian, who had already written and recorded this disc of completely original material at the tender age of 15.
In early 1967 this album was released, revealing the depth of Ian's craft. While her roots are decidedly folky, her material traverses through a number of genres. One of the more prominent motifs is the dark Baroque flavor accompanying tracks such as "Society's Child," "Janey's Blues," and the stunningly poignant "Hair of Spun Gold" -- a deliciously noir tale that had been published in 1963 by the acclaimed and revered folk music journal Broadside when Ian was a mere 12 years old. There are also a couple of trippy blues-rockers, such as the precocious "Too Old to Go 'Way Little Girl" and the punky protest-filled "Younger Generation Blues." However, the vast majority of Janis Ian is steeped in the acoustic-based folk music that she had immersed herself in during her concurrent sets in and around Greenwich Village at venerable venues such as the Gaslight Cafe and Kettle of Fish. "Then Tangles of My Mind" and the Dylan-esque "I'll Give You a Stone if You'll Throw It" are both intimate examinations. Also noteworthy are the teen prostitution "Pro-Girl" and "New Christ Cardiac Hero," a biting satire of the ambiguous social role that was being acted out by most organized religions of the time in an attempt to remain relevant to an increasingly disenfranchised youthful audience. The confrontational nature of much of the material on this disc would carry over into her three remaining efforts on Verve/Forecast, as well as become a touchstone for Ian's future works.[allmusic]
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JANIS IAN - FOR ALL THE SEASONS OF YOUR MIND (VERVE FORECAST 1968) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

Janis Ian followed up her self-titled debut with the appropriately trippy For All The Seasons Of Your Mind (1968). Her no-nonsensical approach and bellicose lyrical style was poignantly defined by the widely banned single "Society's Child", which dealt with interracial relationships. This refreshing candour was also featured on a number of other edgy sides from her previous disc such as the teenage hooker blues that Ian titled "Pro-Girl" or the socially and sexually combative "Too Old To Go ‘Way Little Girl". On this disc, the singer/songwriter allows for a bit of psychedelic poetry to colour her commentaries. Again, she is accompanied by studio musicians whom Ian gives full and respective credit for their contributions -- a rarity for many solo artists in the late ‘60s. The band provide Ian with a variety of sonic pallets ranging from the sitar twang of the opening title track to the baroque orchestration that graces the instrumental introduction of "Insanity Comes Quietly To The Structured Mind". There are several introspective and more traditional folk tunes including the stark "There Are Times", which foreshadows Laura Nyro's "New York Tendaberry" and the scathing observational statement on the status of the aged on "Shady Acres". The quiet and personal "Evening Star" hearkens toward Ian's future jazz-inspired works. She maintains a delicate command of the stirring and moody piano inflections that trickle all around her vocals in a sort of improvisational dance. The track also has the maturity of a pop music standard from the likes of Gershwin or Cahn. Ian slightly bends the piano voicings to replicate her own soulful intonations. One of the hidden gems on the LP is the more contemporary minor chord masterpiece "Bahimsa". The performance evokes a distinct European flavour that might suggest the Incredible String Band or Pentangle. These more sombre and developed compositions make for somewhat schizophrenic bedfellows beside the funky electric soul of the derisive "Honey D'ya Think" or the awkward coming of age brass band waltz "And I Did Ma".[allmusic]
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MARMALADE - SONGS (DECCA 1971) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 10 bonus

Before this album guitarist and songwriting partner of the singer Dean Ford, Junior Campbell left the band and the Marmalade replaced him with Hugh Nicholson for this album. Without his writing partner Dean Ford only contributed three songs to this album. The gentle folk rock numbers "Mama", "Lovely Nights" and "Just One Woman" which are all highlights and stand out as strong compositions which proved that he himself was a great songwriter and didn't have to rely only on Campbell. Nicholson wrote the rest of the material, except the great soul rocker "Empty Bottles" which was written by the bass player Graham Knight and was recorded shortly before Junior Campbell's departure. The opening hard rock number "Bad Weather" starts the album on a perfect note. The other hard rocker "I've Been Around Too Long" as well as the soft country influenced "Sarah" and the beautiful album closer "Ride Boy Ride" make this album one of the best ones I've ever heard...[rateyourmusic]
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COLIN BLUNSTONE - ONE YEAR (EPIC 1971) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 2 bonus

As the lead singer of the Zombies, Blunstone was one of the greatest '60s rock vocalists, pacing the group's minor-key masterpieces with his inimitable choked and breathy vocals. After retiring from the business briefly in the late '60s (to work in the insurance industry, of all things), he went solo in the early '70s with a string of interesting pop/rock albums that were more of an extension of the late Zombies sound than the more well-known work of Argent, the other Zombies spin-off act. The Zombies connection is hardly incidental; chief Zombie songwriters Rod Argent and Chris White gave Blunstone some songs, as did Argent member Russ Ballard, though Blunstone penned much of his material himself. With their moody melodies and Baroque touches of muted keyboards, classical guitars, and inventive string arrangements, his early-'70s albums sometimes sounded like a mellower take on the direction the Zombies pursued with their pop-psychedelic masterwork Odessey and Oracle. Blunstone managed some small British hits with "How Could We Dare Be Wrong," "I Don't Believe in Miracles," and the Top 20 single "Say You Don't Mind," a cover of a tune written and recorded by Denny Laine after he left the Moody Blues and before he joined Wings. Blunstone's first album, One Year (1971), was his best, though the follow-ups Ennismore and Journey also had their moments.[allmusic]
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MAMA CASS - DREAM A LITTLE DREAM (ABC-DUNHILL 1968) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 2 bonus

At the time the Mamas & the Papas broke up in 1968, it was painfully obvious that Dunhill Records was placing all their bets on Elliot as far as a successful solo recording career. They certainly had good reason. While Elliot wasn't always the lead voice on the hits (Denny Doherty usually was), she provided the sound that brought the vocal majesty together, as well as an image. The "final" Mamas single, "Dream a Little Dream," was now billed as a "Mama Cass" single, and Dunhill quickly brought her into the studio for an album. The result is one of her finest, and an important sociological record, too. It can easily be described as the sound of Laurel Canyon in 1968, with songs by Graham Nash (whom Elliot was in the process of introducing to Stills and Crosby), John Sebastian, and Robbie Robertson. John Simon exquisitely produced this album, employing his "nuts and bolts" technique that was so effective on his work with the Band. It was a great start for her solo career. Unfortunately after this, Elliot fell into the record industry machinery, and quickly began turning out bubblegum hits that weren't really where she was at. This sounds like a place closer to her heart, and to listeners' hearts as well.[allmusic]
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ALVIN LEE & MYLON LEFEVRE - ON THE ROAD TO FREEDOM (CHRYSALIS 1973) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 1 bonus

Alvin Lee known for his lightning fast licks on guitar, soulful bluesy tunes and amazing live performances throws us a curve ball with his first solo album. Much more mellow and melodic than his work with Ten Years After, but with great feeling and depth. He shares the vocalist duties with American gospel singer Mylon LeFevre and Mylon also belts out some very nice songs of his own.
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Each song utilizes the various noteworthy musicians (including the entire Traffic cast), with Alvin Lee playing guitar on almost all of the tunes. It has a variety of music styles as well, with a very country tune “Funny”, to an almost gospel like tune “Lay me Back” to a very nice traditional rock and roll jam “Rockin’ Til The Sun Goes Down”. The title track is a deceptively simple prime cut with its searing guitar, solid drumming, tasteful piano, a rousing melody.
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The combination of Alvin Lee’s fabulous talent and that unmistakable voice of Mylon LeFevre make an interesting album.
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SEEDS - FUTURE (GNP-CRESCENDO 1967) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 2 bonus

The "A Thousand Shadows" 45 rpm from this album, Future, came in a pink sleeve decorated by gray four-leaf clovers and a negative picture of the Seeds next to a sign that says "Wishing Well - Help Us Grow." "A Thousand Shadows" is the melody as well as the feel of their Top 40 1967 hit "Pushin' Too Hard." Breaking no new ground, the band insisted on revisiting its formula, reinventing new versions of "Pushin' Too Hard" like "Flower Lady & Her Assistant." This is a sophisticated package with a gatefold which includes lyrics over pastel sunflowers as if the band was Joni Mitchell. Three colorful pages come inside the album, including two beautiful photos of the group along with single flowers representing the songs on the disc with instructions: "Cut out paste on whatever" for grade schoolers or those so strung out on LSD they have regressed to that point. "Six Dreams" is Black Sabbath's Ozzie meeting George Harrison in some biker film soundtrack with weird sound effects and a sitar. The harp on "Fallin'" underscores Saxon's passionate garage vocal. Imagine, if you will, Brian Jones during the recording of Satanic Majesties deciding to bare all the excesses of rock stardom. This album is a trip, not because it reflects the ideas captured in the Peter Fonda film of the same name, but because a band had the audacity to experiment with record company money and make something so noncommercial and playful. Droning organ sounds penetrate "Fallin'," the seven minute, 40 second final track. Saxon writes in the inner-sleeve essay "Originations of the Flower Generation" "...The farmer lives by the elements alone, the sun, the rain, and the earth, but the earth needs its seeds to sow the flower generation of the leaf...." It's heady stuff, and the melody and sound of "Pushin' Too Hard" permeates incessantly. Hardly a Future, as the title proclaims, this is actually the Sgt. Pepper of the flower-power set, a reinvention of past efforts, but no "Strawberry Fields" or "Day in the Life" to bring it out of its cult niche. Very listenable, highly entertaining, and totally not for the mass audience.[allmusic]
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EARLY BRITISH ROCK & ROLL (EMI Recordings 1956 - 1961) 2CD [64 songs]

This double-CD set lives up to its title, at least as a representative compilation of the period it covers -- no vinyl compilation ever aspired to offer anything like the 64 tracks presented here, all dug out of the EMI vaults. Conceptually this is a killer collection, representing early dawning years of British rock, when acts like Vince Taylor & the Playboys, jazz trombonistDon Lang, and be-bop drummer Tony Crombie and his group the Rockets all competed for the public's attention, and the book was still being written on how to make (or succeed in) rock & roll. It all predates the Beatles as a recording act, though a handful of names came through the transition wrought by the Liverpool quartet and are recognizable today (albeit not always for rock & roll, as in the case of Jim Dale) -- the Shadows, Johnny Kidd & the Pirates, and Adam Faith (who does a killer rendition of "High School Confidential" years before he became a success with a smoother brand of rock & roll) are among those who survived to rock another day. But as obscure as Janice Peters (who sounded like a British version of Jo Ann Campbell) or the Five Chesternuts may be today, the music here is all eminently enjoyable, and on a lot more than a historical basis -- these acts could rock out, and if they weren't as original or creative as the Americans whose sounds they emulated, they did put on a great show.



Two acts here, Dickie Pride and Bobby Angelo and the Tuxedos, are a genuine surprise, delivering as good a rock & roll sound as anyone ever heard on this side of the Atlantic. The influences that abound are fascinating, the near-ubiquitous sound of Elvis Presley (and, to a lesser degree, Jerry Lee Lewis) vocally, on the part of most featured singers, vying for prominence with the boogie-woogie-inspired jazz origins of Bill Haley, with some influence also felt from Jerry Lee Lewis' band. Nobody, at least at EMI's various labels, apparently ever considered trying to re-create Chuck Berry's or Bo Diddley's sounds. Speaking of sound, it ranges from the very good to the startlingly excellent, nice and loud with a lot of presence and sharper than the records ever were. There are a few gaps, like the absence of Janice Peters' "A Girl Likes," and it seems a little unnecessary to have included Johnny Kidd & the Pirates' "Shakin' All Over," except to give purchasers at least one familiar hit. But considering that the contents are limited to the EMI vaults, the quality and consistency of the contents across two hours of listening is astonishing. And the notes by Dave Travis are practically worth the purchase price by themselves. ~ Bruce Eder

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

PEARLS BEFORE SWINE - THE USE OF ASHES (REPRISE 1970) remastered

For their second Reprise Records outing, Pearls Before Swine worked primarily with Nashville-based musicians, including a small orchestra who provide a stately feel to the highly intimate nature of the material. According to Tom Rapp's comments in the liner booklet accompanying the Jewels Were the Stars (2003) box , the songs were written while he and his wife were living in the Netherlands, which Rapp said contributed significantly to the air of romanticism throughout. "Jeweller" opens the album with an exquisite tale that exemplifies Rapp's remarkable abilities to draw upon disparate metaphors such as shining coins and worshiping God, both involving the Use of Ashes -- hence the title. The rural mood created by the notable Music City USA stalwarts effortlessly fuses with David Briggs' baroque-flavored harpsichord on the delicate "From the Movie of the Same Name," featuring Rapp and spouse Elisabeth on non-verbal vocalizations as they "da-da-da" the melody. Although "Rocket Man" predates the Elton John cut by a couple of years, Bernie Taupin cites it as his inspiration for the lyrics behind John's 1972 Top Ten hit. The words are credited as having been influenced by a Ray Bradbury novella that dealt with the universal emotion of loss. Again, Briggs' keyboard runs relate the story with subdued refinement. By contrast, "God Save the Child" is one of the more amplified inclusions, making good use of session heavies Kenneth A. Buttrey (drums) and Charlie McCoy (guitar), especially when placed against the restrained string section. Another sonic texture in the tapestry is the jazzy "Tell Me Why," shimmering with an uncredited vibraphone lead gliding beneath Rapp's whimsical lines. These tracks are offset by the noir "When the War Began," the ethereal love song "Margery," and the mid-tempo retelling of the "Riegal," a ship whose 4,000 inhabitants perished during World War II. Rapp's juxtaposition of stark imagery reveals that while Pearls Before Swine might not have continued the bombastic direction set about on their earlier protest works "Uncle John" or "Drop Out," they maintained social and political relevance.
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PEARLS BEFORE SWINE - THESE THINGS TOO (REPRISE 1969) remastered

By early 1969, the original line-up of Pearls Before Swine - which had only ever performed in the studio, never live - was disintegrating around its leader and mainstay, singer and songwriter Tom Rapp. Original members Lane Lederer and Roger Crissinger had left, and Rapp had married Dutch traveller Elisabeth (surname unrecorded), whom he had met in New York when recording the album Balaklava. Original member Wayne Harley remained in the group, but left shortly after These Things Too was recorded.
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The group had now left ESP-Disk and joined Reprise, a major label, and Rapp and producer Richard Alderson recruited studio musicians to play on the album. Chief among these was Jim Fairs, formerly of garage band The Cryan’ Shames, who acted as co-producer and arranger as well as musician. Other musicians included violinist Richard Greene, later of Seatrain, and jazz drummer Grady Tate.
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These Things Too has been described as Rapp’s ”dreamy” album, and it is generally less well regarded by critics than the albums which immediately preceded and followed it, Balaklava (1968) and The Use of Ashes (1970). Rapp stated that it was the first Pearls Before Swine album which reflected drug use in the writing of the songs.
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The album sleeve showed a 15th century painting of Christ by Giovanni Bellini. The picture was removed from the version of the album issued in Germany because it showed Christ’s nipple exposed
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PEARLS BEFORE SWINE - BALAKLAVA (ESP 1968) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

For this second album, original group members Tom Rapp, Wayne Harley and Lane Lederer were joined by Jim Bohannon, who replaced Roger Crissinger. Like the group’s previous LP on ESP-Disk, "One Nation Underground", it was recorded at Impact Sound in New York City. Recordings probably took place in early 1968 – although some CD reissues state that it was recorded in 1965, this appears to be an error. Lederer left the group during, or shortly after, the recordings, and the basic group was augmented by studio musicians.
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Rapp has stated that he wanted to produce a themed anti-war album, and chose the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava in 1854 as an example of the futility of war. The album was dedicated to Private Edward Slovik, the only US soldier executed for desertion in the Second World War. The front cover, a detail of "The Triumph of Death" by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, showed a grotesque allegorical depiction of the horrors of war, while the back cover showed a photograph of a young girl at an anti-war protest. The cover also included the quote ”Only the dead have seen the end of war” by George Santayana, together with surreal and horrific drawings by Jean Cocteau. Incidentally, the cover contributed to the mystique surrounding the group - there were few if any photographs of its members published, and Pearls Before Swine did not perform in concert before 1971.
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The album itself starts with a recording of “Trumpeter Landfrey” (his name was in fact Martin Lanfried), one of the original buglers from the 1854 battle. Together with the recording of Florence Nightingale later on the album, this was taken from an archive 1890 cylinder recording, which had been reissued on 78rpm records in the 1930s.
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"Images of April", in contrast, is an evocation of nature, featuring dubbed bird song. After "There Was A Man", a simpler story-based folk song, another highlight is "I Saw The World". Its innocent but heartfelt lyric (Rapp was just 21 at the time) - "I saw the world spinning like a toy / Hate seems so small compared to it all, so why don’t you do joy ?" - is supplemented by overdubs of natural sounds including waves, as well as wind chimes and a lush string arrangement. "Guardian Angels" is a ballad recorded deliberately to sound as it if it were on a scratchy 1920s 78rpm record, and was presented as such ("recorded in Guadelope, Mexico, in 1929…" ) on the sleeve.
The generally less artistically successful second side of the original LP starts with a version of Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" , followed by Rapp’s original "Lepers and Roses", a complex ballad full of allegorical classical references. After the archive recording of Florence Nightingale, the final track, "Ring Thing", is a dramatic evocation of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings with crashing gongs and bagpipe drones. At the end, the sound of a tape spooling backwards through the album takes the listener back to "Trumpeter Landfrey" – the message seeming to be that the cycle of war and confusion is destined to continue.
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The album repeated its predecessor’s critical success on the underground college scene of the late 1960s, and has subsequently been regularly rated most highly of all Rapp’s albums. Following the album's release, Rapp extricated himself from his ESP contract and signed with Reprise Records...
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