the best psych al*** ever
Posted by: Guido Fawkes on 03 December 2008
I think it is this gem of unsurpassed mastery, but there be other contenders.
The swirling organ riffs and multilayered guitar-and-feedback washes are characteristic of psychedelic music and songs that are surreal in their lyrical content - songs are always more entrancing when the lyrics do not come from real world experience, but from the limitless sphere of the imagination beyond the dull scape of every day life.
S.F. Sorrow opens with his birth in a small nameless town to ordinary parents in a house called "Number Three." The town is supported by the Misery Factory ("S.F. Sorrow is Born") Sorrow, an imaginative boy, has a relatively normal childhood until it ends abruptly when he needs to get a job. He goes to work with his father at Misery Factory, from which many have been laid off("Bracelets of Fingers")
Sorrow's finds Joy: a pretty girl across the street. "She says good morning" to him every day, and he thinks about her constantly. This keeps him going. They fall in love, but their marriage plans are cut short when Sorrow is drafted. ("She Says Good Morning")
Sorrow joins a light infantry and goes off to fight in World War I. Soon the sounds of gunfire and artillery become the rhythm to his life in a daydream ("Private Sorrow"). He survives the war and settles down in a land called Amerik. Sorrow's fiancee travels by a balloon, The "Windenberg" to join him, but it bursts into flame at arrival ("Balloon Burning"), killing all aboard. Sorrow is left alone, his beloved fiancee dead ("Death").
Sorrow gets depressed. When wandering the streets, he encounters the mysterious Baron Saturday. The black cloaked–Saturday invites Sorrow to take a journey, and then, without waiting for a response, "borrows his eyes" and initiates a trip through the Underworld. ("Baron Saturday")
They take flight, where Sorrow is driven by a whip-cracking Baron Saturday. Sorrow thinks he is flying toward the moon, which would have been lovely as he always had a fascination with it, but instead he sees that it is instead his own face. The Baron pushes him through the mouth of the face and then down the throat where they find a set of oak doors. Saturday throws them open and prompts S.F. Sorrow inside where he finds a room full of mirrors. ("The Journey")
Each one of them shows a memory from his childhood, which Baron Saturday suggests he studies well. After the hall of mirrors comes a long winding staircase which brings him to two opaque mirrors that show him the horrible truths and revelations from his life. ("I See You")
Sorrow is destroyed by his journey; it leads him to understand that no one can be trusted any longer, and that society will only do away with you when you become old and serve it no longer. ("Trust")
He is driven into a dark mental seclusion where he suffers from eternal loneliness. ("Old Man Going").
It ends with him finding himself as "the loneliest person in the world." ("Loneliest Person")
ATB Rotf
quote:Originally posted by BigH47:
Psych?? Oh label time again it's Rock.. not dance, classical, country or post Cambrian explosion folk music etc etc. Why is this hang up over labels other than the most general ones?
Harrrummph
quote:Originally posted by BigH47:
Psych?? Oh label time again it's Rock.. not dance, classical, country or post Cambrian explosion folk music etc etc. Why is this hang up over labels other than the most general ones?
My favourite post Cambrian explosion folk music elpee has to be
The Incredible String Band recorded The 5000 Spirits or The Layers Of The Onion in London in early 1967. It displayed their abilities as multi-instrumentalists and singer-songwriters and was named by Paul McCartney as one of his favourite records.
In 2002, Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, chose The Hedgehog's Song for his appearance on the BBC Desert Island Discs.
He described the chorus - Oh, you know all the words, and you sung all the notes / But you never quite learned the song she sang / I can tell by the sadness in your eyes / That you never quite learned the song as a powerful summing-up of life and relationships.[1] Well done Archie, say I.
It is a truly remarkable record and Howard if you're in to post Cambrian explosion folk music then you must give it a long listen.
Chinese White (Heron)
No Sleep Blues (Williamson)
Painting Box (Heron)
The Mad Hatter's Song (Williamson)
Little Cloud (Heron)
The Eyes of Fate (Williamson)
Blues for the Muse (Williamson)
The Hedgehog's Song (Heron)
First Girl I Loved (Williamson)
You Know What You Could Be (Heron)
My Name Is Death (Williamson)
Gently Tender (Heron)
Way Back in the 1960s (Williamson)
Robin Williamson - Vocals, guitar, mandolin, oud, gimbri, flute, bass guitar, percussion
Mike Heron - Vocals, guitar, harmonica
Licorice McKechnie - Vocals, percussion
Danny Thompson - Double bass
John Hopkins - Piano
Soma (Nazir Jairazbhoy) - Sitar, tamboura
if you like this example of Cambrian explosion folk music then the Hangman's Beautiful Daughter is almost as good. Some say even better, but I don't think we should go in to too long a debate about the merits of the these two fine Cambrian explosion folk music albums - lets just agree to say they are both wonderful.
ATB Rotf
BTW perhaps we need a German sub-culture Space Rock best album thread.
quote:Originally posted by BigH47:quote:It is a truly remarkable record and Howard if you're in to post Cambrian explosion folk music then you must give it a long listen.
I've got it and think it's rubbish.
....
I am upset now as I think this is one of the best albums ever made. When it first came out it was available in Chelmsford library and I borrowed it and heard it and thought it was just about as perfect as music could get - I still think so in many ways. But you say it is rubbish (I'd never say that of a recording artist) .... how can you and you claim to be a fan of post Cambrian explosion folk music - next you'll having a go at Chas n Dave (quasi-proto music hall rock n roll, I guess is the most readily applicable categorisation) - oh well (as Peter Green once said)
Meanwhile I'm recommending another psych gem
Please click here for a wonderful track from this superb album.
Kaleidoscope later went prog-ish (pseudo-prog-rock if you like) and renamed themselves Fairfield Parlour and released an album called From Home To Home, which in it's original is worth a fortune. My favourite Fairfield Parlour track is, of course, the fantastic Bordeaux Rose, of which there are several versions.
ATB Rotf
Best UNKNOWN psych heroes goes to PLASTIC PEOPLE OF THE UNIVERSE/Muz bez usi 69-72
quote:Originally posted by BigH47:
Possibly a smilie or two missing from my previous post.
I was only joking - I wasn't very upset really. Everybody likes what that like (and hates PC) - that's my motto
ATB Rotf
ROTF I do recall you being a folk lover. Me too. LOVE pentangle and fairport especially when a drum kit is involved (being a drummer.) The first pentangle sounds great on my system. I have just come back from a long exploration into Ian Matthews (aka McDonald) one time Fairport denizen, and that has been enjoyable. I commit to giving ISB a closer listen, I LOVE triangle solos . Kind of like Christopher Walken and cowbells (dont make me explain...) But I agree, it does have alot to do with context. Obviously having grown up on the West Coast of the US you can see my tendencies. I have not delved so deeply into SAC but all the others are perennials on my turntable. I have gone deeply into west coast (mostly) 60's psych/pop (Association, Millennium, Saggitarius,Curt Boettcher, Euphoria) and lately and also where psych meets country/folk as Wolf2 describes. Hearts and Flowers, Yester and Henske, Zevon. Something about psychedelic cowboys - always wanted to be one growing up...grateful dead seemed to have that pretty well nailed, although I would not call myself a "deadhead" But again I think my vote for best psych album goes to the original soundtrack band for the acid tests - grateful dead's anthem of the sun and aoxomoxoa with its early use of 16 track recording!
. Kind of like Christopher Walken and cowbells (dont make me explain...) But I agree, it does have alot to do with context. Obviously having grown up on the West Coast of the US you can see my tendencies. I have not delved so deeply into SAC but all the others are perennials on my turntable. I have gone deeply into west coast (mostly) 60's psych/pop (Association, Millennium, Saggitarius,Curt Boettcher, Euphoria) and lately and also where psych meets country/folk as Wolf2 describes. Hearts and Flowers, Yester and Henske, Zevon. Something about psychedelic cowboys - always wanted to be one growing up...grateful dead seemed to have that pretty well nailed, although I would not call myself a "deadhead" But again I think my vote for best psych album goes to the original soundtrack band for the acid tests - grateful dead's anthem of the sun and aoxomoxoa with its early use of 16 track recording! ROTF,
Again some absolute classic tracks but this is where the confusion begins with me - certainly Wimple Winch, Fire, The Open Mind and all those other superb 'one' single (or so) wonders committed some absolute classics to vinyl which still sound newer, harder and fresher than a lot of the derivative rubbish pushed on us as rock or garage-rock nowdays, but are they Psych as such? - the term 'Freakbeat' is often used to describe these type of tunes and I feel they certainly have more in common with the amphetamine crazed excesses of some of the harder Mod and op-art bands of the time than the blissed out noodlings of the Dead-Heads. The term 'Psychedelic' covers such a broad span of musical types - even streaching into soul,Jazz and beyond that it's difficult sometimes to differentiate between Psych and just a good ol' fashioned wig-out! Not that I actually care about defining these genres - it's all just classic music to me
A great written introduction to Psych and Acid-rock is the 'Fuzz, Acid & Flowers' Tome, now sadly out of print but well worth tracking down for a pretty comprehensive guide to the Alternative 60's. It's not always right with recommendations (a little over-enthusiastic at times) but it's certainly a good reference point.
Some other albums you may find interesting:
Evolution - The Human Beinz
The 49th parallel-s/t (Punchy Canadian pysch/soul/rock)
H.M.S Bounty- s/t
HP Lovecraft - 1 & ii
A gift from Euphoria - Euphoria (bonkers schizo Lp that veers from bluegrass straight into searing acid-rock and then some)
The 'Nuggets'and 'Pebbles' compilations are a good source for some fine US garage rock/pysch stompers and the 'Rubbles' comps document all the very best of the Brit Scene. In fact there is so much out there that after 25 years or so of collecting, I still don't seem to have even scratched the surface...and thats fine by me !
Again some absolute classic tracks but this is where the confusion begins with me - certainly Wimple Winch, Fire, The Open Mind and all those other superb 'one' single (or so) wonders committed some absolute classics to vinyl which still sound newer, harder and fresher than a lot of the derivative rubbish pushed on us as rock or garage-rock nowdays, but are they Psych as such? - the term 'Freakbeat' is often used to describe these type of tunes and I feel they certainly have more in common with the amphetamine crazed excesses of some of the harder Mod and op-art bands of the time than the blissed out noodlings of the Dead-Heads. The term 'Psychedelic' covers such a broad span of musical types - even streaching into soul,Jazz and beyond that it's difficult sometimes to differentiate between Psych and just a good ol' fashioned wig-out! Not that I actually care about defining these genres - it's all just classic music to me
A great written introduction to Psych and Acid-rock is the 'Fuzz, Acid & Flowers' Tome, now sadly out of print but well worth tracking down for a pretty comprehensive guide to the Alternative 60's. It's not always right with recommendations (a little over-enthusiastic at times) but it's certainly a good reference point.
Some other albums you may find interesting:
Evolution - The Human Beinz
The 49th parallel-s/t (Punchy Canadian pysch/soul/rock)
H.M.S Bounty- s/t
HP Lovecraft - 1 & ii
A gift from Euphoria - Euphoria (bonkers schizo Lp that veers from bluegrass straight into searing acid-rock and then some)
The 'Nuggets'and 'Pebbles' compilations are a good source for some fine US garage rock/pysch stompers and the 'Rubbles' comps document all the very best of the Brit Scene. In fact there is so much out there that after 25 years or so of collecting, I still don't seem to have even scratched the surface...and thats fine by me !
That fuzz acid and flowers book was amazing although I never owned it. There was a companion website that I can not find any more.
FWIW, I got the new(ish) nuggets recently - Children of Nuggets which is really great listen (that is when I am not blissed out, noodling elsewhere
)
FWIW, I got the new(ish) nuggets recently - Children of Nuggets which is really great listen (that is when I am not blissed out, noodling elsewhere
)I like all the tracks on Acid Drops Spacedust and Flying Saucers: Psychedelic Confectionary from the UK Underground 1965-1969 - the packaging is not great, but the transfers to CD are really nice, better than Nuggets II on many of the shared tracks. I think it is an excellent set.
Tintern Abbey's Vacuum Cleaner was originally the b-side of their single called Beeside and appears on lots of psych compilations.
This is a good compilation
Tapestry of Delights did used to be on line when that fantastic on-line shop was going - The Freak Emporium, but they couldn't make a living out of being the best shop on the net (IMHO). Whilst I like the book - Vernon Joynson often gives misleadings write-ups which are merely opinion and I'm dubious as to whether he has heard all the songs he comments upon. The best series I've read is the the ABC of British Psych, which appeared over a number of weeks in Record Collector magazine - my opinion, of course. The Top 100 List is here.
ATB Rotf
Tintern Abbey's Vacuum Cleaner was originally the b-side of their single called Beeside and appears on lots of psych compilations.
This is a good compilation
Tapestry of Delights did used to be on line when that fantastic on-line shop was going - The Freak Emporium, but they couldn't make a living out of being the best shop on the net (IMHO). Whilst I like the book - Vernon Joynson often gives misleadings write-ups which are merely opinion and I'm dubious as to whether he has heard all the songs he comments upon. The best series I've read is the the ABC of British Psych, which appeared over a number of weeks in Record Collector magazine - my opinion, of course. The Top 100 List is here.
ATB Rotf