1960s INeedYourLove-In
THE CHOCOLATE WATCH BAND No Way Out The Inner Mystique Both Sundazed CDs
Watchband’s first incarnation, which split. The name was then taken up by guitarist Mark Loomis and bassist Bill Flores for the group which, also numbering charismatic front man Dave Aguilar, rhythm guitarist Sean Tolby and drummer Gary Andrijasevich, became both the hottest band in LA and captivated audiences at Bill Graham’s Fillmore in San Francisco. Oddly, this period dominates the second album’s notes, so it’s strange reading about the most incendiary garage band on the planet while the title track emits its meditative flute-topped tones.
Only a year separates the first two albums by San Jose’s finest, but they often sound like two different bands, even beyond natural progression. In some ways, that’s perfectly true. No Way Out remains one of the classic debuts of 1967, its multi- faceted delights a perfect representation of that magical period when garage-punk snottiness morphed into full- blown psych, before the acid kicked in fully. Then came ’68’s The Inner
Mystique, taking an unexpected departure into hallucinogenic mood music with titles like ‘Voyage Of The Trieste’, featuring haunting sax and sitar; sounding like an entirely different band because these excursions were played by session musicians brought in by producer Ed Cobb. All the same, these are
glorious albums and worthy reissues, if a bit confused by Jud Cost’s liner notes, which make no mention of either, No Way Out’s annotation focusing on the
JERRY COLE Psychedelic Guitars Ace CD Ever been in a second-hand record shop and picked up one of those Custom Records albums by The Projection Company,
The Generation or Gap T Swift & The Electric Bag? They tend to feature girls, guitars and trippy oil slides on the cover and be named after hits of the day, like ‘Up, Up And Away’ and ‘Gimme Some Lovin’’. Turns out they’re the work of ace guitarist Jerry Cole – former member of The Champs turned Hullabaloo bandleader and Wrecking Crew lynchpin. When he wasn’t busy playing on Pet Sounds and ‘These Boots Are Made For Walkin’’, he was cutting no-budget exploito-pop albums by the boot load.
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Never mind, the first set boasts timeless nuggets including ‘Let’s Talk About Girls’,
‘Are You Gonna Be There (At The Love-In)’, ‘Dark Side Of The Mushroom’ and Aguilar’s brilliant sitar/Bo Diddley knees-up ‘Gone And Passes By’, plus feisty Wilson Pickett and Chuck Berry covers. Lysergic closing floater ‘Gossamer Wings’ points at The Inner Mystique’s pastoral session man outings, but also includes their definitive version of Ray Davies’ ‘I’m Not like Everybody Else’, druggy ‘Medication’ and sneering romp through Dylan’s ‘It’s All Over Now Baby Blue’, plus other schizoid rockers, making for a proper mixed-bag period curio. If only Loomis hadn’t then broken up the band because he wanted to get into folk-rock – if left to their own devices, The Chocolate Watch Band could have taken on the world. Kris Needs
Psychedelic Guitars is a 24-track romp through his 1967 legacy.
Often knocking out finished long-
players in a day, Cole was able to turn his hand to chiming folk-rock, searing acid- rock and mangled surfabilly with convincing results. And with originals like ‘Our Man Hendrix’, ‘Expo In Sound’ and ‘Free Form In 6’ sharing groove space with raw covers of ‘Are You Experienced?’ and ‘MacArthur Park’, you’re never far away from an imagined chase sequence or club scene. Groovy. Andy Morten
DOUGLAS DILLARD The Banjo Album Retroworld CD Douglas Dillard has been picking a mean banjo for well over half a century. As a member of The Dillards he went electric way before Dylan, helped pioneer country-rock and influenced everyone from The
playing harmonica.
Album is an out and out bluegrass extravaganza. A master
Byrds to Fairport Convention. Shindiggers will no doubt be familiar with his work with Gene Clark, who features on this album
,
pyrotechnics, it proves that Dillard is every bit the equal of Earl Scruggs. Reissued with five bonus tracks, it’s a great introduction to both bluegrass banjo and Dillard’s remarkable talent. If you’re a fan of The Foggy Mountain Boys and The Dillards
Originally issued in 1969, The Banjo class in banjo
to discover bluegrass, you could do a lot worse than to start here. Apart from the aforementioned Scruggs, there’re few who could equal Dillard’s impressive playing. John Blaney
Too Late’ and ‘She Needs Love’) aren’t remotely as good as big hit ‘Game Of Love’, but there are some interesting bonus tracks, including a passable ‘Duke Of Earl’ and Curtis Mayfield’s mighty ‘Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um’.
A nice collector’s package which reproduces all the old EP sleeves but why no songwriter credits? Adrian Whittaker
MCGOUGH & MCGEAR McGough & McGear Real Gone CD
, this album is for you. If you’ve yet
BOB DYLAN Carnegie Chapter Hall 1961 BDA From The Vaults CD
This really is the sound of history in the making.
Recorded in a sixth floor rehearsal space seating 100 people above the
hallowed Carnegie Hall a matter of days after signing with Columbia, the self-styled hottest new face in folk music apparently performed 22 songs at this, his first proper New York concert. This archive recording contains the backbone of this historic show by sequencing together the 14 tracks previously available from a variety of sources. The missing eight tracks have yet to surface but even without these and allowing for the lo-fi nature of the recording and the occasional drop out in the audio, the album as it stands gives a potent impression of Dylan’s persona and performance style during the earliest days of his career as he mixes and matches his interpretations of Leadbelly, Bukka White and Woody Guthrie with his own compositions. Grahame Bent
WAYNE FONTANA & THE MINDBENDERS Eric Rick Wayne Bob Plus Bear Family CD
This second album reflects the growing musical tension between Wayne’s crooner tendencies and The
Mindbenders’ desire
to rock out – witness Eric Stewart’s guitar- heavy take on ‘Hoochie Coochie Man’. ‘Too Much Monkey Business’ illustrates this perfectly, with a couple of impressive lead guitar breaks but a thoroughly unconvincing lead vocal. By the time of this LP’s release (January 1966) Wayne had flounced off in the middle of a gig, leaving Eric as lead vocalist for The Mindbenders’ hit ‘A Groovy Kind Of Love’. The ’65 A-sides here (‘It’s Just A Little Bit
Sought after mainly because of its Beatles connections (Mike McGear is Paul McCartney’s brother) this obscure album is also a touchstone of British modern poetry, riding on the back of the 1967 Mersey Sound paperback which featured the work of Adrian Henri, Roger McGough and Brian Patten. McGough and McGear, both Scaffold members, are joined by a host of Swinging London acquaintances including Andy Roberts, Jimi Hendrix, Graham Nash, Dave Mason, Gary Leeds and Viv Prince. A birthday gift of studio time from McCartney to McGear resulted in an odd album of art school psychedelia and beat poetry. Songs are few but ‘So Much In Love’ and ‘Ex-Art Student’ are prime ’60s pop-psych. Sadly, like the ’80s reissue, the original mix of the album has not been used. A bit of research would also have revealed that guitarist Andy Roberts is sitting on a load of out-takes. The words Missed and Opportunity spring to mind. Richard Allen
HARPERS BIZARRE Anything Goes Now Sounds CD
After the modest US success of Harpers Bizarre’s 1967 debut – which contained the hits ‘59th Street Bridge Song
(Feelin’ Groovy)’ and ‘Come To The Sunshine’ (written by Paul Simon and Van Dyke Parks respectively) – Warner Brothers whisked the Santa Cruz sunshine boys back into the studio. Significantly more time and money was invested in attaining cheesy-listening perfection on this follow-up – now available as a deluxe expanded mono edition with bonus tracks. Anything Goes contains two Harpers
Bizarre originals, including the pleasant Bacharach-flavoured ‘Hey, You In The Crowd’, but it’s the song-writing talents of their previous collaborators Van Dyke Parks and Randy Newman which make
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