THIS WHEEL'S ON FIRE

Brian Auger was one of the key figures in the British mid/late 60's psychedelic rock era in combining jazz and r&b elements into rock. He's probably best remembeted as an organist, but before 1964 and the forming of his Trinity band he was actually a jazz pianist.

Julie Driscoll (to whom this hit single was equally credited to) had worked in her teens as a fan club secretary for Yardbirds, and her unique singing ability was discovered by manager Giorgio Gomelsky. Around 1967-68 she was one of the most photographed singers in Europe, a pop star with a certain unease for that role. She departed Trinity in 1969 and made a solo album featuring his to-be husband Keith Tippett, but the album titled 1969 was not released until 1971.

'This Wheel's on Fire' was a cover song, originally being a collaboration between Bob Dylan and The Band. Auger starts the song with a brief piano intro and later on weaves thick layers of organ and Mellotron. Julie's voice has a rawness comparable to Jefferson Airplane's Grace Slick or the female vocalists in prog bands such as Affinity, Babe Ruth and Earth & Fire. In this song the male-backed vocals are in my opinion too distorted in a psychedelic manner.

On the B side is 'A Kind of Love In', an uptempo psychedelic rock song, quite gritty and noisy. It's under three minutes, but it makes me annoyed and bored before it's finished. I'm not very fond of the A side song either -- although I can see why it was a big hit in 1968 - -, so excuse my low rating!