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LearsFool View Drop Down
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Points: 8644 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 03 2015 at 15:18

Now this is a strange one.

Past one of the grooviest openers ever with the title track, we have a first side that mixes some out there heavy rock, psychified knees-up, and a soul influenced track... and then a second side that dives into a surreal fairy tale told in gobbledygook that features slang of the time.

In some parts, it feels like the only tougher listens are Zappa and Beefheart records.

This is also very much fantastic, and there's nothing else like it. It comes highly recommended, especially for the title track and that second side.
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Points: 20617 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 03 2015 at 14:52
Forever Changes
Love: Forever Changes from 1967.
 
An incredible album of lightly orchestrated symphonic folk rock that was rudely overlooked during the summer of love. Strangely, the album Forever Changes was composed and performed by a racially integrated California band named Love.
 
There were many heady and high profile bands during the Summer Of Love that may have simply overshadowed this release. Sgt. Pepper's, the first and second Door's albums and freakin' Jimi Hendrix man!
 
Where did Love fit into this heady mix? I think that their love trip was a bit too mellow and baroque for the public at large. After producing two electric guitar based proto punkish albums, this collection of infectious songs were written by band leader Arthur Lee, a black American, and white band mate Bryan Mclean.
 
Layered with acoustic guitars, and sweetened with celeste on several tracks, all the songs received tasteful accompanying orchestrations that filled holes in songs purposefully left their by their creators. I know because I've heard some of the finest musicians and singers in the world try to reproduce these songs sans orchestrations and they simply do not work.
 
The production was handled Electra Records and Door's producer Paul Rothschild, along with his trusty engineering sidekick, Bruce Botnick. As a result, this album shares the same anemic bass sound and flatness that dominated the Door's debut album.
 
But it does let the music breath and all  the subtle and lush orchestrations on this album really shine and are quite stunning and dreamy at times. Something that killed the heavy handed orchestrations and bizarre counter melodies that ruined Phil Ochs' debut album for the A&M label titled Pleasures of the Harbor, released around the same time.
 
Standout tracks on Forever Changes include the deftly cleaver opener Alone Again Or (a slice of pure psych pop heaven) and the grittier ode to junkies tune Bummer in the Summer.
 
Forever Changes is musically endearing because the quality of the music never changes. A hidden gem during the Summer of Love but essential music listening for all rock lovers of all times.
 
This post is for Greg for leaving the last slice of pizza.


Edited by SteveG - March 03 2015 at 16:17
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Points: 20617 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 02 2015 at 09:14
Originally posted by presdoug presdoug wrote:

This solo album by former The Other Half and Blue Cheer guitarist Randy Holden is a brilliant, overlooked piece of heavy psych that I just heard for the first time last night. Unbelievable!
Pop 2 from 1969 is a blast and would have even given Hendrix a run for his money! Thanks for sharing that Doug!
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SteveG View Drop Down
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Points: 20617 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 02 2015 at 08:40
Originally posted by Tom Ozric Tom Ozric wrote:

How about the Small Faces' Ogden's Nut Gone Flake ??
And Soft Machine's debut ? Perhaps even Kevin Ayers' Joy Of A Toy. They all reek of Psych, to my understanding.
I've had to cut short my British Psych Rock posts Tom in order to take care of some family concerns. I would have loved to have expounded on the fantastic Ogden's Nut and Soft Machine's wonderful debut album. Perhaps if you have the time, you or Kevin, can post these two albums for PA members that are unfamiliar with them. I'm sure Prog lovers would appreciate these two albums. Especially the 1st from SM. Cheers mate. Thumbs Up
Oh, and I corrected my post on the end of psych to include JA's After Bathing at Baxter's which completely slipped my mind. Embarrassed However, I'm not sure Satanic Majesties' would remain in anyone's consciousness as it was very similar to the public's rush to purchase JT's A Passion Play when that album was first released, as it was as quickly ignored after just like APP was. I personally think that the album is great!

Edited by SteveG - March 02 2015 at 09:31
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Points: 8644 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 01 2015 at 14:47
Originally posted by Tom Ozric Tom Ozric wrote:

After Bathing At Baxter's is more Psych than Surrealistic Pillow IMHO.
The Stones' Satanic Majesties out-psychs Sgt. Pepper's.

So true, so true.

Also, yes, we really should talk about Ogden's Nut Gone Flake. That opening cut is killer, man.
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Points: 8718 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 01 2015 at 14:42
This solo album by former The Other Half and Blue Cheer guitarist Randy Holden is a brilliant, overlooked piece of heavy psych that I just heard for the first time last night. Unbelievable!
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Points: 15926 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 01 2015 at 14:32
How about the Small Faces' Ogden's Nut Gone Flake ??
And Soft Machine's debut ? Perhaps even Kevin Ayers' Joy Of A Toy. They all reek of Psych, to my understanding.
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Points: 20660 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 01 2015 at 14:23
Originally posted by SteveG SteveG wrote:

^No Steve Miller posts yet except in passing. I was expecting Svetonio to jump on that as early SM is one of his favs, but no input yet. But Steve Miller is definitely coming to the Psych lounge soon, as he fits in with Brit Psych posts as I'm pretty sure that both his first two albums were recorded in the U.K. And that mellotron!
 
Hmm....again it's interesting how people see these early albums. I never thought of Steve Miller as psych.....there are some psych elements on his first 2 albums but they aren't psych albums per se.
To me he has always been a pop rock guy with some psych and blues thrown in for good measure.
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Points: 15926 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 01 2015 at 14:19
After Bathing At Baxter's is more Psych than Surrealistic Pillow IMHO.
The Stones' Satanic Majesties out-psychs Sgt. Pepper's.
Of course, all 4 above mentioned albums are a great experience !!
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Points: 20617 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 01 2015 at 12:56
The Demise of Psychedelic Rock and it's lasting impression on post sixties consciousness:
 
With the eventual abandonment of both LSD and  the mind altered music making that produced Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's, Magical Mystery Tour and the single Strawberry Fields Forever by The Beatles; that was soon replaced with their anti Psych Rock of the White Album and Abbey Road, the British psychedelic rock machine came to a quick halt. Only The Moody Blues would continue to carry Psych Rock into the seventies while contemporary British acts got heavier or turned to full blown Prog Rock. The last nail in the British psychedelic coffin was the release of The Beatles so-so release Let it Be in 1970.
Let It Be
 The last nail in the Psych Rock coffin. Let it Be 1970.
 
 A Question Of Balance
The keepers of the British Psych Rock flame. Moody Blues: A Question of Balance from 1970.
 
 
For America, the Psych scene was over almost as quick as it started. The Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape would do two sucessful acid tinged rock album a piece like JA's Surrealistic Pillow and After Bathing At Baxter's, (both from1967) before going into straight hard rock while The Doors would retreat into Blues Rock that culminated with their great final album L. A. Woman.
 
The last holdout in the American Psych Rock stakes were the posthumous albums released from Jimi Hendrix titled Cry Of Love and Rainbow Bridge which forever cemented in human consciousness that Hendrix was the inventor and eternal caretaker of Acid Rock.
La Woman
So long Psych! The Doors rock out! L.A. Woman from 1971.
 
 The Cry Of Love
The late great Jimi Hendrix. The spiritual keeper of American Acid Rock.  The posthumous Cry of Love album from 1971.
 
 
The rest, as they say, is history remembered.


Edited by SteveG - March 02 2015 at 09:41
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Points: 13227 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 01 2015 at 12:48
Originally posted by SteveG SteveG wrote:

^I didn't write the rules regarding Psych Rock Tom, I only report them.
 
I'll state again that the drugs came before the music so some not so obvious albums were initially pulled into the drug listening experience. DOFP being one, The Doors' album debut being another. Neither album contains the stereotypical music motifs and studio recording tricks that we associate with later sixties Psych Rock.
I understand what you're referring to regarding DoFP, Steve. It was rather like us in the early/mid-70s using Traffic's Low Spark of High Heeled Boys or even Cat Stevens' Tea for the Tillerman. Mellow out rather than crash. Wink
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Points: 20617 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 01 2015 at 12:35
^I didn't write the rules regarding Psych Rock Tom, I only report them.
 
I'll state again that the drugs came before the music so some not so obvious albums were initially pulled into the drug listening experience. DOFP being one, The Doors' album debut being another. Neither album contains the stereotypical music motifs and studio recording tricks that we associate with later sixties Psych Rock.
 
Neither does the first Psychedelic Rock album produced in 1966 by The 13th Floor Elevators titled The Psychedelic Sounds of The Thirteen Floor Elevators, which most people would view as garage rock.
 
Understandably, like many people, your head tells you that this music can only be categorized like so many other genres in that is has to have easily identifiable or musical motifs like those found in other genres like meta,l and specifically metal subgenres like Thrash which is instantly identifiable by it's short manic riffs.
 
I knew going in that Psych Rock and it's origins are largely unknown and misunderstood, so there's no salt that I was not prepared for. And I like a the challenge of dispelling age old musical myths. And it has a challenge, whew!
 
For a greater clarification, I present my final sixties rock post below:


Edited by SteveG - March 02 2015 at 16:07
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Points: 15926 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 28 2015 at 18:40
To maybe salt the wound, I don't think Moodies DOFP album is Psych. It's much too clean and straight-laced. Sure, it's a creative slab of Pop-meets-Orchestra, but it's not psych to me.
Lost Chord - now that's more like it.......and DOFP is notoriously dated sounding to my ears.......

Edited by Tom Ozric - February 28 2015 at 18:48
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Points: 20617 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 27 2015 at 10:00
The Moody's Get On The Bandwagon:
In Search of the Lost Chord  1968.
 
 
Boyed by the success and acceptance of their previous album Days Of Future Passed by the American counter culture, the Moody Blues follow up album the excellent In Search Of the Lost Chord dispensed with orchestrations, embraced American counter culture icon Timothy Leary in song (Legend of a Mind) and helped to define the main characteristics and musical, as well as sonic, motifs of Psychedelic Rock from 1968 to the present. Layered over what is essentially, for the most part Folk Rock, The Moody's surrounded gorgeous songs like Voices In The Sky with Indian instrumentation such as sitar and tablas while starting to ingrain the Indian spiritual philosophies of keyboard player and mellotron pioneer Mike Pinder.
 
In Search of the Lost Chord is an album that actually sounds more dated to me than Days of Future Past from 1967, but it is a beautiful almost pastoral work of definitive late sixties Psychedelic Rock. And the album cover is among the best of it's era.


Edited by SteveG - March 02 2015 at 16:03
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Points: 23104 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 26 2015 at 09:37
The debut was recorded in London. Not sure about Sailor.
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Points: 20617 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 26 2015 at 09:15
^No Steve Miller posts yet except in passing. I was expecting Svetonio to jump on that as early SM is one of his favs, but no input yet. But Steve Miller is definitely coming to the Psych lounge soon, as he fits in with Brit Psych posts as I'm pretty sure that both his first two albums were recorded in the U.K. And that mellotron!

Edited by SteveG - February 26 2015 at 09:21
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Points: 23104 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 26 2015 at 09:04
I updated my post with a link to the album SteveSmile

I've been busy in real life, so I have probably missed a good chunk of the discussion, but has there been any mentions of the early Steve Miller Band albums? Children of the Future and Sailor are classics in my book - Brave New World and the subsequent ones aren't half bad either. Hell BNW contains one of my fave Steve Miller tunes ever in Kow KowHeart
Another thing worth mentioning about the early incarnation of this band is that it inadvertently came up with the following decades signature Mellotron sound on their very first album. Jim Peterman's work with the instrument on 'In My First Mind' is astonishingly good and about as innovative as you could get anno 1968. He never gets any mentions though, which I find a little sad tbh. He deserves more credit.




Edited by Guldbamsen - February 26 2015 at 09:06
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Points: 20617 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 26 2015 at 08:49
^Thanks. I will definitely check it out as it sounds like it's right up my alley!
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Points: 23104 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 26 2015 at 08:46
Oh boy - don't get me started on long overdue reissuesLOL Clivage's Mixtus Orbis is one of those - an album I personally believe to be one of PAs best kept secrets. I guess it has a fair bit of psych in there as well, so the folks from this thread should definitely take notes. Psych-fusion-blaxpoitation-Indian-funk-zeuhl-prog albumTongue



Edited by Guldbamsen - February 26 2015 at 08:52
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Points: 20617 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 26 2015 at 08:39
^I agree. Reissues are pretty much de rigueur right now as a way for record companies to still make some money, along with their seizing on the current vinyl craze. Joyride is a wonderful album that deserves the full makeover treatment.

Edited by SteveG - March 02 2015 at 16:04
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