1960s
VARIOUS ARTISTS Beat Generation Jazz: The Music That Inspired A Revolution Chrome Dreams CD
The sound that inspired the beat revolution was itself a revolutionary offshoot of the jazz mainstream, namely bebop, as
pioneered by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Appropriately then, this double disc collection documenting the unique cross-fertilisation between bop and the beats opens with Jack Kerouac waxing lyrical in praise of his musical hero, Charlie Parker, and 45 tracks later winds down with Kerouac in the company of Al Cohn and Zoot Sims. In between times the tracklisting reads
like a checklist of historic recordings from a roll call of jazz giants including Bird, Diz, Thelonious Monk, Lionel Hampton, Miles Davis, George Shearing, Slim Gaillard, Dexter Gordon, Bud Powell, Lee Konitz, Chet Baker and Charles Mingus with the cool hipster talk coming from among others Al ‘Jazzbo’ Collins, Ken Nordine, Del Close & John Brent, Langston Hughes and Lenny Bruce plus, of course, in pole position the king of the beats himself. Grahame Bent
VARIOUS ARTISTS The Eastern Block Funk Experience: Psych Funk, Satellite Soul And Cold War Disco Nascente CD You might think the former Soviet block nations of Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia aren’t the
most obvious destinations when it comes to tracking down retro psych soul and funk from the late ’60s and early ’70s, but sample this revelatory collection and think again.
While the first two thirds of the album are essentially made up of remarkably full-on and therefore highly subversive generic copies of Western ’70s funk, it’s on the lively closing handful of tracks from Czechsolovakia, Hungary and former Yugoslavia featuring Marta Kubisova, Sarolta Zalatnay, The Rebels, Pro Arte and Neotons that the fireworks really start to go off. In the case of Marta Kubisova we’re taking bold and supremely stylish psychedelic soul, Pro Arte meanwhile sound for all the world like untamed relatives of The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown while Neotons’ ‘Nehez Fiuk’ (‘Crazy Town’) could easily pass for Blue Cheer going head to head with Brian Auger. Grahame Bent
VARIOUS ARTISTS Fading Yellow: Timeless Pop-Sike And Other Delights Flower Machine LP I simply adore this. A limited (300 copies only) 16-track yellow marble vinyl compilation of new UK and Euro Fading Yellow tracks. Los Iberos’ single ‘Nightime’, penned by John Pantry and recorded during their sojourn to London in 1968, is
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dreamy toy town psych and does my head in. How good? Pol and Paul’s ‘How Is Life, Mrs Ann?’ is uber-Bee Gees-influenced tragicomedy psych, full of the woes of “the struggle of life and death”, whilst unreleased demo by Robbie Curtis and Tom Payne, ‘The Things I Do For Pamela’, is spine-tingling – you come home from work, watch a bit of television, go to bed, and then get up and do it all over again. And yet the love you have for a lady doesn’t show… tut!
A stunning comp with a splendidly authentic EMI-inspired sleeve, copies won’t hang around for long – I suggest you grab yours NOW! Louis Comfort-Wiggett
VARIOUS ARTISTS Fender: The Golden Age 1950-1970 Ace CD
A celebration of Leo Fender’s
contribution to the golden age of rock ‘n’ roll. Themed
compilations are
not strictly “my bag”, and the tracks within veer towards the mainstream. However, Ace have done good with this compilation. Whether it’s James Burton’s awesome Telecaster picking on Dale Hawkins’ ‘Susie- Q’ that floats your boat, or Jerry Jemmott’s mind-blowing ‘fat’ Jazz bass on King Curtis’ ‘Memphis Soul Stew’, this collection is crucial. Never has the Jaguar/ Stratocaster/ Precision backbone sounded as sublime as it does on The Beach Boys’ ‘Fun, Fun, Fun’ (perhaps it’s the technical angle that lifts it, or because it’s comped alongside Ronnie Hawkins’ take on ‘Who Do You Love’?). Peppered with radio ads of the era and an inspired 20-page booklet containing a potted history of this seminal guitar maker with stacks of Fender ephemera. And all this time I never realised Jeff Beck plays a Strat on Donovan’s ‘Barabajagal’! Louis Comfort-Wiggett
VARIOUS ARTISTS I Buried Paul: The Paul McCartney Death Rumour Singles Otherside CD Just when you thought every possible Beatles angle had been covered along comes one that hasn’t. Paul
McCartney, so the story goes, died in a car crash in 1966 and was replaced by a double called William Campbell. This
imposter remained in place until he was uncovered in ’69 by the media. The resulting flurry of cash-in singles is gathered together on this disc. It’s a great compilation of psych- orientated, Beatlesque pop oddities. Terry Knight’s ‘Saint Paul’ is probably the highlight, being stuffed full of lush orchestration and dreamily lysergic Anglophile melodies. Zacherias & The Tree People come across like the cast of Hair with their ‘We’re All Paul Bearers Pts 1 & 2’ whereas The Mystery Tour’s ‘Ballad Of Paul’ is a funereal dirge worthy of Vanilla Fudge, which relates the tale of Paul’s gruesome demise. All in all, a most unusual and enjoyable compilation. I wonder what the fake Sir Paul thinks of it? Richard Allen
VARIOUS ARTISTS Memphis Boys: The Story Of American Studios Ace CD Sub-titled the soundtrack to Roben Jones’s Memphis Boys book (reviewed elsewhere this issue), the unique story of a ramshackle studio run by producer Chips Moman and his loyal band of musicians. The party-hearty ‘Memphis Soul
Stew’ showed off their all-out funky style but the painfully reflective ‘I’ve Been Down This Road Before’ by BJ Thomas was more representative of their emotion-packed oeuvre. The team’s secret was to subtly embellish songs without overcooking them, making them even more powerful and sincere. They made melancholy uplifting with understated guitars, churchy keyboards and sympathetic string arrangements. Bobby Womack was an integral part of the early set up and his brilliant ‘I’m In Love’ covered here by Wilson Pickett was typical of his early must-have solo albums recorded at American.
Despite crossing the boundaries of R&B and pop, the music always remained soulful, transcending colour, be it The Box Tops or Aretha Franklin. A Memphis soul stew indeed. Paul Ritchie
VARIOUS ARTISTS Rainy City Blues: Rare And Unreleased Tracks From Manchester Beat Groups Jungfrau LP Manchester can be forgiven Freddie & The Dreamers and Herman’s Hermits because it produced a much wider pool of talent, from The
Hollies to John Mayall. Not all of it though, was commercially successful. Here we have 14 ’60s Mancunian obscurities. Around half of them date from 1964
and have a distinctly driving R&B style, especially The Stylos’ ‘Head Over Heels’. One at least, a 16 year-old South Coast girl singer called Little Frankie, is included by association. She was backed by Manchester guitarist Peter Cowap’s band Country Gentlemen. Slightly later tracks
such by Harbour Lights and The Factotums (an unissued ’69 track) touch on pop-sike territory. This sits well, conceptually, if not in terms of the physical format, alongside the Viper label’s series Unearthed Merseybeat. There’s an insert’s worth of in depth liners of personnel and release information as well. It’s all good stuff and a worthy civic document. Paul Martin
VARIOUS ARTISTS The Red Bird Girls: Very First Time In True Stereo 1964-1966 Real Gone CD The legendary songwriting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller established Red Bird in 1964, towards the close of
the girl group era, in an attempt to capitalise on the distaff phenomenon that Phil Spector had pioneered with The Crystals and Ronettes. Red Bird’s early success with Shadow Morton’s theatrically produced Shangri-Las (their melancholy ‘Remember Walkin’ In The Sand’ reached #5, while follow-up ‘Leader Of The Pack’ topped the charts) spawned a bevy of further contenders including the eight groups represented here, along with terrific solo sides by Bessie Banks (with The Sweet Inspirations), songwriter Ellie Greenwich (her operatic ‘You Don’t Know’ is a classic), Evie Sands (blue-eyed soul at its best), Chi-Chi McCauley and Roddie Joy.
Gems among the group sides begin
with The Ad-Libs’ minor hit ‘The Boy From New York City’, Louisiana’s Dixie Cups with a tortured ‘No True Love’ and a previously unreleased version of ‘I Wanna Love Him So Bad’ by The Jelly Beans. Gary von Tersch
VARIOUS ARTISTS Sixties Transition Floating World CD Taken from the archives of the late Jim Dickinson, famed LA record producer and an early champion of what has become
known as folk-rock, this 20-track set neatly compiles the cream of his handy work, throwing into the mix a handful of rarities and unreleased gems that will surely grab the consumer’s interest. Usual suspects The Byrds are of course present with a handful of early cuts, including a rare take of ‘The Times They Are A Changin’’ with Hamilton Camp on vocals. David Crosby’s solo single pops up, as does Dino Valenti’s original version of perennial hippie anthem ‘Get Together’. Leon Russell turns in a beautiful instrumental take on ‘Jamaica Farewell’ and a stunning, harpsichord-laden, bluegrass styled beauty entitled ‘Stewball’. Unreleased Dillards tracks are more than welcome, as is moody flute-heavy jazz piece by Bud Shank.
A nice slice of LA – the way it used to Eric Colin Reidelberger
be.
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