Psychedelic Sixties

Side 2 of a cassette compilation, released on the Select label in Australia in 1988. Purchased in Perth, Western Australia for a few dollars circa 1990/91.

This is the blurb from the back cover of the cassette cover:

 

It all came together around 1967 - the Gathering of the Tribes and the realisation that rock music was actually rock culture. Musicians, the Young Gods of the Age of Aquarius, identified themselves with the romantic figures of the past - poets, painters, writers, philosophers and mystics. They (and we) truly believed the world could be changed for the better with noble ideologies and free-flowing music. And from this overwhelming optimism emerged a strain of rock unlike any heard before or since; songs employing a new range of terminologies - psychedelia, transcendental meditation, inner consciousness, mind expansion. It was a time that, most certainly, will never come again.

 

Admittedly, I wasn't around for the first era of psychedelic music but even in 1988 most of the above statements were a bit hokey. I can only assume the writer was living in isolation and the sounds of Spacemen 3 and Primal Scream, to give just two examples, had not reached their ears. I'm also guessing that there was a record label edict that the sleevenotes should in no way explicitly mention drugs.

 

As I wrote when I posted Side 1 in December 2021, the track listing had some (to me) odd choices and the connection to psychedelic music seems even more tenuous on this side. 

 

Yellow Balloon by Jan & Dean was the only single released from the album Save For A Rainy Day. Whilst credited to the duo, it was in fact solely Dean Torrence's creation as partner Jan Berry was recovering from severe head injuries incurred from a car crash in April 1966. Things didn't go well for Torrence: Columbia refused to release the album and he was forced to release it on his own label in the US. The single made little impact in the UK or US. Ironically, Yellow Balloon was a greater success in the US when co-writer Gary Zekley recorded new vocals over the original backing track and released it under the band name The Yellow Balloon, scoring a Top 30 hit. A shame as it's a good song. Sunshine pop? Yes. Psychedelic pop? I'm not so sure.

It's a fun compilation though and formed part of my soundtrack to my time travelling around Australia. Nice to rekindle those happy memories during such a dull, dark and wet month in England!

1) Barabajagal: Donovan ft. The Jeff Beck Group, Lesley & Madeleine (1969)

2) Run, Run, Run: The Third Rail (1967)

3) Changes: The Zombies (1968)

4) Yellow Balloon: Jan & Dean (1967)

5) Family Way: Chad Stuart & Jeremy Clyde

6) Kozmic Blues: Janis Joplin (1969)

7) Renaissance Fair: The Byrds (1967)

8) 1984: Spirit (1969)

Side Two (23:31) (Box) (Mega)

Side One here

#14 Dreams

The BBC began broadcasting one hundred years ago today, on 14th November 1922. The NME published the first ever UK singles chart on 14th November 1952. The first #1 was Here In My Heart by Al Martino (Jasper Cini to his folks).

 

So, the obvious thing to do here then is to celebrate...the #14 UK single on 14th November at various points over the last seven decades, right?

 

Starting off randomly with 1967, There Is A Mountain by Donovan was on it's third week in the chart, peaking the following week at #10 before starting a slow retreat over the next six weeks. I found a lovely clip of Donovan duetting with Bobbi Gentry on her TV show in 1968. The video and sound quality is ropey - the flute nearly drowned out by the audio hiss - but it's a joy to hear. There's another fun performance with Sergio Mendes from the same year which is worth a look and listen.

On to 1970, a few weeks before my birth and the fabulous sound of The Temptations with Ball Of Confusion (That's What The World Is Today). By 14th November, the song had spent two weeks at #7 and would spend the next two at #14 before dropping out of the Top 50 in January 1971. This is a performance on (I assume) US TV where the flared suits and psychedelic backgrounds try hard but fail to distract from the brilliance of the song.

 

Next up are The Pointer Sisters with I'm So Excited, still a staple of ad campaigns and gym playlists, nearly four decades on. And yes, unlike those chancers The Thompson Twins, The Pointer Sisters were actually sisters, although successive line-ups have included daughters and grand-daughters. I'm So Excited was originally a (non-UK) single in 1982 but it was the remixed and re-edited single release in 1984 that proved to be a smash, peaking at #11 in the UK. The video shows the sisters getting ready for a night out at what frankly looks like one of the shittest nightclubs ever, but it's worth watching just to wonder why June Pointer keeps her sunglasses on in the bath...!

Another remix and re-release, this time from 1991 and Seal's second stab at the charts with Killer. You can understand why: the original hit #1 the previous year but was credited only to Adamski. Getting William Orbit on board to add some bells and whistles to the music, the incredible voice is still the dominant force here. Seal didn't score a double #1 but a peak of #8 isn't bad, considering the previous version had charted relatively recently. Like The Pointer Sisters, Seal also seems dressed up for a night out in his video, although  he seems to have opted for LaserQuest rather than the local nightclub.

 

The Strokes' Last Nite from 2001 is brilliant and the video, directed by Roman Coppola, equally so. A pastiche/piss-take of music performances on US TV shows in the 1960s and 1970s, with Julian Casablanca throwing his mike stand off set like a spear and drummer Fabrizio Moretti's overhead mikes falling over after guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr. stumbles backwards into the podium. As was the trend at the time, Last Nite burst into the UK chart at #14 in it's first week, dropped to #22 the following week and was out of the Top 40 altogether by 8th December. Doesn't make the song any less brilliant, though.

 

I was intending to include one or two more songs but, having trawled every #14 on 14th November from 2010 to 2021, I can say without fear of contradiction that they were all complete and utter shite. So, rather than inflict Coldplay or Jonas Blue on you or that timeless classic from 2020, Mood by 24GLDN featuring Iann Dior, I'll leave it there. 

 

This #10 from 2020 is an absolute cracker, though.

Love Is The Grooviest Thing Up To Now In The World

Wow, I've been doing this for a year now. I honestly wasn't sure that I'd keep it going but here we are with post #239. Thanks for dropping by and for leaving comments over the past 12 months, it really means a lot.

What better way to celebrate than with side 1 of Psychedelic Sixties, an obscure Australian compilation from 1988 that I picked up on cassette during my year in the land of Oz in 1990/91. I wasn't familiar with most of the songs on the album, apart from maybe Scott Mckenzie and Donovan, though I'd heard of White Rabbit, through the cover by Act (featured here previously). I'd always thought that the song was originally by Jefferson Airplane and officially it is, as their recorded version first hit the charts in 1967. However, The Great Society's live version was performed the previous year, before Grace Slick left the band (and subsequently her husband and bandmate) to join Jefferson Airplane. This earlier live version most likely ended up here for licensing rather than aesthetic reasons, but I like it.

 

I became obsessed by The Peanut Butter Conspiracy song for a while and insisted on sticking it on loads of mixtapes when I got back to the UK. Eight Miles High is probably my favourite song by The Byrds and I love the raucous cover version by Hüsker Dü. Vyt & The World were an Australian band who released four singles before disbanding in 1968. I sourced a copy when researching this post and listened to it for the first time in over a decade.

 

I loved this compilation and played it many, many, many times over the years, until I upgraded from a Walkman to a portable CD player and eventually an iPod. Today's cover is an image of the CD edition from the net, with added 'psychedelic' backdrop. I'll still have the cassette somewhere in the attic, and I'll try to dig it out when I get around to posting side 2. Advance warning: the psychedelic link is even more tenuous on the flip side, as you get Jan & Dean and Chad & Jeremy, but it's still all good.

1) San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair): Scott Mckenzie (1967)

2) Eight Miles High: The Byrds (1966)

3) It's A Happening Thing: The Peanut Butter Conspiracy (1967)

4) Flower Children: Vyt & The World (1967)

5) Omaha: Moby Grape (1967)

6) Mellow Yellow: Donovan (1967)

7) Tighter: Paul Revere & The Raiders (1967)

8) White Rabbit (Live @ The Matrix, San Francisco): The Great Society with Grace Slick (1966)

Side One (26:06) (Box) (Mega)