THE ALAN BOWN! Outward Bown Grapefruit CD
chorus. The Rascals’ ‘Love Is A Beautiful Thing’ and Dylan’s ‘All Along The Watchtower’ (the version that inspired Hendrix’s arrangement) are given the heavy, complex treatment worthy of any free thinking underground band. Bolstered by both stereo/ mono mixes and B-sides, I’d call this essential Eric Colin Reidelberger
JOHNNIE ALLAN Promised Land Ace CD
Shindig! readers should be familiar with the underrated genius of The Alan Bown!, a band that consistently set the bar high but reaped few rewards or accolades during their existence.
Shedding their mod/soul/brass roots
they opted to dive head first into the splendiferous ocean of pop-sike and underground sounds. Lead-off singles ‘We Can Help You’ and ‘Toyland’ are clear signposts that the Kaftan had replaced the suit, the band settling comfortably into their new gear. Especially alarming is how well B-side ‘Magic Handkerchief’ holds up, jumping out of the speakers with a superb arrangement and suitable meat on the bone. ‘Mutiny’ is a saucy sea shanty and a nice companion piece to July’s ‘Jolly Mary’ with its jaunty tempo and infectious
Known locally as South Louisiana rock ’n’ roll, swamp- pop proved an infectious mix of New Orleans R&B, Cajun and hillbilly
music and nobody has been better at it over the years than the still-active Johnnie Allan. His imploringly intrepid vocals, supported by soulfully rocking, ululating saxophones and Smiley Lewis-styled piano resulted in widespread regional success in the late ’50s and when the UK’s Charlie Gillett began spinning this deck’s title tune in the early ’70s, Allan’s fame spread internationally.
This 28 track project (technically, a reissue with updated booklet) cherry-picks material from both singles and albums on three local labels and, in addition to the Chuck Berry cover, also features Allan’s three biggest sectional smashes–an
DeafOfHippie
BLUE CHEER Vincebus Eruptum Outsideinside Both Sundazed CDs
microphones are hanging onto their diaphragms for dear life. The drums sound like metal trash bins. The bass sounds like a plane crash. And the guitar sounds like nothing you’ve heard before or since. It’s so tempting to dismiss it as sheer musical thuggery, as so many listeners did and still do – but that oddly inventive introduction keeps tugging at your sleeve, demanding that you investigate further. The other songs range from the
Nowadays Blue Cheer is thought of by many connoisseurs of ’60s music as a bit of a footnote. In other words, they’ve been promoted – for during the ‘70s and ‘80s they were considered a joke. And that was a terrible injustice. Originally a six-man blues
band, they quickly pared down to a trio consisting of Leigh Stephens, Dickie Peterson, and Paul Whaley. And what a mammoth racket did they make. The opening bars of ‘Summertime Blues’ are thunderous, oddly misplaced and, well, just downright evil. The “production values” are literally nonexistent. The
succinct, riff-heavy ‘Out Of Focus’ to the straight blues (turned up to 15) of ‘Rock Me Baby’ to the sheer brutality of ‘Doctor Please’. Many a listener has bailed before the end of the album; as a listening experience, it’s exhausting. Which is why
it’s so welcome to have the second LP, Outsideinside, up next. Still louder than God, and
now almost as versatile. Still plenty of barely-containable ramalam – ‘Just A Little Bit’ and ‘Come And Get It’ are as ferocious as anything on the first LP – but several other songs are pure 1968 psych of a
heavy sort and, in fact, ‘Gypsy Ball’ manages to sound (incredibly) like something Hendrix would have written over a year later. Leigh Stephens would leave the band soon, and their sound would
change radically. But these two LPs, nicely remastered, are all you really need. A large chunk of your late ’60s education is missing if you don’t have them. Mike Fornatale
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inspired take-off on Johnny Horton’s ‘North To Alaska’ titled ‘South To Louisiana’, the bleak ‘Somewhere On Skid Row’ and Allan’s own ballad ‘I’m Missing You’. Notables among the rest include a couple of further original slow-dance numbers (‘She’s Gone’ and ‘Cry Foolish Heart’) and earnest reprises of various swamp pop classics like TK Hulin’s ‘Graduation Night’ and Jivin’ Gene’s ‘I Cried’. Gary von Tersch
THE BYRDS Preflyte Floating World 2-CD
Byrdsmaniax beware! If you already own Sundazed’s The Preflyte Sessions you’ve got all but eight of the 48
tracks contained in this set. Among the remaining octet there’s a five-song audition tape the band made when attempting to woo Columbia Records. More pleasingly, there are skeletal versions of ‘Everybody’s Been Burned’, which is one of the best songs David Crosby ever wrote, and the Gene Clark-penned beauty ‘She’s The Kind Of Girl’, a later cutting of which appeared on his 1973 solo album Roadmaster. Preflyte is, of course, a spotty but sometimes brilliant document that captures one of the finest and most durable American bands of all time, in
their teeth-cutting days. As for these expanded releases of those recordings, well, there are highlights here and there but I’d say even the most avid Byrds completist would yawn at the prospect of multiple versions of some of these songs. Brian Greene
JIMMY CAMPBELL Troubador Viper download
Rest assured, this is a fans-only artefact – it would be a mistake for anyone who’s heard of Jimmy Campbell and wants to see
what all the fuss is about, to start here. If, however, such a person DID start here, this sprawling 28-track collection of odds, ends, alternate takes, demos and live recordings would certainly impress. Spanning his entire career, from mid-60s Liverpool combos The Kirkbys and The 23rd Turnoff to the solo years and beyond, the sound quality is a bit spotty, of course, but at the end (whether you’re familiar with the material or not) you’ll most assuredly wonder why Jimmy Campbell never hit the big time like some of his fellow Northerners.
I don’t want to damn this scoop of curios with faint praise. It’s quite good. It’s just not the right place to start. Mike Fornatale
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