The Psych Rock Lounge

With much of the psych scene having negative consequences such as the deaths of Jimi, Morrison and Janis along with the acid casualties like Syd, Roky, and Brian Wilson, it's nice to have this non threatening and truly a "family fun" movie like 1968's The Beatles: Yellow Submarine.

 

A movie that's close to being an animated classic, that you can actually enjoy watching with your grand kids without being stoned out of your mind. Groovy.

 

The sixties album that's seen as merely a bizarre psychedelic music "cult' oddity as opposed to releases by other nascent psych albums like the first two albums released by both the 13th Floor Elevators  and The Red Crayola. The Beat Goes On convoluted history is better told in this album review from Allmusic that also references Vanilla Fudge's quickly recorded follow up album Renaissance, which featured original compositions by the group for the first time as has been hailed as a Proto Prog favorite.
I feel that The Beat Goes On has a Zappaesque undercurrent to it that music media album reviews never touch upon. Perhaps that they were not to familiar with Zappa's output at that time.

 

 

"The expanded CD release of this second Vanilla Fudge album is much more accessible than the original vinyl version because of the inclusion of a number of cover tunes, most notably Beatles songs. The revealing liner notes that Sundazed project manager Tim Livingston adds to the reissues of these Atco albums helps put this influential band in a better light. The Beat Goes On is a difficult record, especially after the explosion that was their debut. The single from their previous album, Vanilla Fudge, originally charted in the Top 100 in the U.S. in 1967. (Britain was more hip to the group.) They finally hit in America in the summer of 1968, but had already begun to influence Deep Purple and the Rotary Connection, among others. The problem with this project is that they failed to influence themselves. Bassist Tim Bogert notes that "The Beat Goes On was the album that killed the band," while guitarist Vinny Martell adds "we had already started our second album when Shadow (Morton) had this other concept idea for The Beat Goes On." Morton had produced the Shangri Las, not the Beatles, and this creative effort was by a group with only two hit singles arriving on the scene around the time of Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. Morton set before the boys a daunting task which needed much, much better execution. Renaissance, which they were recording simultaneous with this, at least included a Donovan tune, "Season of the Witch." The exotic wandering would have been better served by a reworking of "Strawberry Fields Forever" across a side of the disc instead of the keyboard notes which reference the tune. Even a killer guitar version of "The Beat Goes On" would have been more exciting than "18th Century Variations on a Theme by Mozart" or noodlings that can't decide if they are "Chatanooga Choo Choo" or "Theme to the Match Game." For a group of impressionable young kids out of high school, as referenced in the liners, this must've been extremely rough. The expanded CD has jam session versions of Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog" and the Beatles' "I Feel Fine," "She Loves You," "Day Tripper," "I Want to Hold Your Hand," and "You Can't Do That." Any of these extended à la "Eleanor Rigby" from their debut would be more desirable than the interview-type questions about sex; the Beatles' interest in "Indian meditation" (sitar enters here, and how would the VF know?); audio newsclips of John F. Kennedy, Hitler, and others, all a very strong argument against artistic control for some producers. Exploring the initial ideas that brought them fame was what was expected of Vanilla Fudge. What would you rather hear, readings from The Bible or the single from January 1968, "The Look of Love" b/w "Where Is My Mind"? Thankfully, Sundazed has included the Bacharach/David tune and two additional Mark Stein titles, "All in Your Mind" and the aforementioned B side, "Where Is My Mind," on the expanded Renaissance album, the real follow-up to the Vanilla Fudge debut. Historically important, listening to this archive piece is truly a labor of love, with the emphasis on labor."  (exerted from the Allmusic record guide website) 

 

 

Renaissance. 1968  Sundazed Rcords remastered edition.              

Another punk band gone all psychedelly for an album. Meat Puppets built off of the psych leanings of the track "Aurora Borealis" from their seminal second album to craft a whole album of Cowpunk Floyd.

 

 

Yes, now that you mention it, there is a resemblance -- except the vocals are better.

 

Not that it has to do anything with the conversation, but I am currently listening to Donovan's "Intergalactic Laxative", which I guess adds a new dimension to "space rock".

 

 

 

I think Donovan was virtually spent by the time this album came out (1973 I think). His earlier albums with influence by Bert Jansch were really nice.