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 von zipper:
Hi John,
I wasn't having a pop when I used the phrase Blissed out Dead Heads- I am a huge Dead Head myself and can frequently be found blissed out amongst the Golden Road Box (When not bouncing off the walls to Fuzz pedals from the Nuggets box)
The companion website to F,A & F was unfortunately closed when Borderline Press ceased trading - you used to also be able to access the sister book, Tapestry of Delights which covers the UK scene and was also excellent. There is a 3rd unrelated volume called 'The Knights of Fuzz' which documents the 80's and 90's garage and Paisley underground scene although it's a little patchy, it's hard to trust someones opinion on a band when he admits to actually having never heard them....!
Me too....I can not call myself a dead head though, because being from California, the requirements are much more stringent
Seriously I loved going to shows but I never joined the family if you know what I mean. My best show was Laguna Seca 88 with Los Lobos. What a shame that site is down. I saw a copy of those bordeline press books in my local record shop and now they are gone. Ahhh!
I am sure you have been to archive dot org for the incredible array of dead shows in lossless compression? dimeadozen dot org. Those are some of my favorite sites.
To ROTF.Plastic people are from Czech rep and are the best known act in the west for their bravery to fight communist society.
THIS IS MY LITTLE TRY FOR A REVIEW(sorry for my sometimes improper english):They started like everybody else,wanted to be famous rock star.Well that did not happened.Instead they were persecuted by the state.Even today they are not widely known in the public.I am glad because to me it is the only undergound band who never sold out.Their spirit remained free untill today still performing for small audiences and what is more important playing still psych,underground rock music!!How many bands can say that?Anyway by listening to this album while writting this add I have to admire them for playing stuff like this in those years (69-72) in Czechoslovakia.This raw and often harsh sound was unbeliavable to people in this country,to them it was crazy freaky hashis, lsd stuff which they did not understand.I know because I was there!!What's amazing that they found music of Mr.Zappa,VVU and Cpt.Beefheart and The Fugs in 60's when even in their country (USA)people hardly knew them.Anyway their music inspired them greatly.I can say that often PPU's music was more enthusiastic and expressive then those above mentioned(some can argue about their musicianship at that time but they made it up by their creativity and enthusiasm).Who could belive that?The band started to be hated by officials and soon their rights of playing were revoked.Well PPU were very stubborned and played anyway.Court hearings,persecutation,prison followed.That did not stopped them.That made them stronger and stronger.Haw many bands could measure up to this level of artistic courage in USA and UK?They were continuing playing illegaly in farm houses,on friends weddings,organising secret gigs in small villages.IMAGINE THIS PICTURE:groups of long haired strangelly dressed freaks in kind of zappish-beefheart fashion walking from train and bus stations through the woods just to see and experince illegal secret show in a country were idols were polka and Karel Gott(national singer) . Through the rest of the decade, the band found it increasingly difficult to perform their music without retribution. Whenever their friends had marriages, a wedding party provided an occasion to rent a hall and put on a private concert. Usually, however, putting together a concert was more akin to a cloak and dagger movie. A remote site in the woods near an isolated Bohemian village was picked, word of the location was then passed among friends, whispered from ear to ear. The exact location of the site was never revealed more than one day in advance and sometimes not revealed until that night. Fans would get off at the nearest rail station, then walk miles through the forest and across farms, sometimes for hours in rain or snow, searching for a remote farmhouse or barn. Their shows were very sporadic and many times police found out and stopped it,beated and arrested many of them including their fans who also deserve big time applause for their courage for wanting to be around those dangerous rebels to society where there was no tolerancy whatsoever..They were in total isolation,no money,no future.It made them stronger and stronger.They lived for their music and for their freedom.Actually they created their freedom,their little world no matter what.The Velvets influence extended to the PPU's live shows, in which they would employ psychedelic light shows, makeup, and outrageous costumes to create a multi-media happening not unlike the Velvets' early concerts as part of Andy Warhol's Plastic Inevitable. Like the Velvets, they also employed the unusual (for rock) feature of a viola player to give their music a shrill edge.Although the primitive technological conditions made them sound like a garage avant-rock band, the originality of their vision comes through in the creepy cheap electric piano, ominous violin scrapes, gravel-textured vocals, and dissonant melodies that owed as much to the recesses of the Bohemian forest as Western pop. In some ways, it was a fusion of the sensibilities of the Velvet Underground and Frank Zappa -- an ironic critical postulation, considering that the Velvets took mean-spirited swipes at Zappa on several occasions during interviews. Lyrics were supplied by Czech dissident poet Egon Bondy. PPU would record several more albums over the next dozen or so years, but Egon Bondy remains Hlavsa's personal favorite. .
Strange things were happening.The house where they were recording their music next day burned to the ground,that happened on more occasions.Probably just to warn people not to contribute in this fight.
On the end it sounds like a fairy tale of underground music and for PPU
laying in the national castle in front of president Vaclav Havel and other dissidents who became members of the goverment of Czech Rep,playing in Paris on Andy's Warhole exhibition,Zappa singing with them in Prague same as Lou Reed and finally even playing along Lou Reed in front of President Clinton in the White house at the dinner.Who could imagine that in 60's and 70'.
THIS IS MY LITTLE TRY FOR A REVIEW(sorry for my sometimes improper english):They started like everybody else,wanted to be famous rock star.Well that did not happened.Instead they were persecuted by the state.Even today they are not widely known in the public.I am glad because to me it is the only undergound band who never sold out.Their spirit remained free untill today still performing for small audiences and what is more important playing still psych,underground rock music!!How many bands can say that?Anyway by listening to this album while writting this add I have to admire them for playing stuff like this in those years (69-72) in Czechoslovakia.This raw and often harsh sound was unbeliavable to people in this country,to them it was crazy freaky hashis, lsd stuff which they did not understand.I know because I was there!!What's amazing that they found music of Mr.Zappa,VVU and Cpt.Beefheart and The Fugs in 60's when even in their country (USA)people hardly knew them.Anyway their music inspired them greatly.I can say that often PPU's music was more enthusiastic and expressive then those above mentioned(some can argue about their musicianship at that time but they made it up by their creativity and enthusiasm).Who could belive that?The band started to be hated by officials and soon their rights of playing were revoked.Well PPU were very stubborned and played anyway.Court hearings,persecutation,prison followed.That did not stopped them.That made them stronger and stronger.Haw many bands could measure up to this level of artistic courage in USA and UK?They were continuing playing illegaly in farm houses,on friends weddings,organising secret gigs in small villages.IMAGINE THIS PICTURE:groups of long haired strangelly dressed freaks in kind of zappish-beefheart fashion walking from train and bus stations through the woods just to see and experince illegal secret show in a country were idols were polka and Karel Gott(national singer) . Through the rest of the decade, the band found it increasingly difficult to perform their music without retribution. Whenever their friends had marriages, a wedding party provided an occasion to rent a hall and put on a private concert. Usually, however, putting together a concert was more akin to a cloak and dagger movie. A remote site in the woods near an isolated Bohemian village was picked, word of the location was then passed among friends, whispered from ear to ear. The exact location of the site was never revealed more than one day in advance and sometimes not revealed until that night. Fans would get off at the nearest rail station, then walk miles through the forest and across farms, sometimes for hours in rain or snow, searching for a remote farmhouse or barn. Their shows were very sporadic and many times police found out and stopped it,beated and arrested many of them including their fans who also deserve big time applause for their courage for wanting to be around those dangerous rebels to society where there was no tolerancy whatsoever..They were in total isolation,no money,no future.It made them stronger and stronger.They lived for their music and for their freedom.Actually they created their freedom,their little world no matter what.The Velvets influence extended to the PPU's live shows, in which they would employ psychedelic light shows, makeup, and outrageous costumes to create a multi-media happening not unlike the Velvets' early concerts as part of Andy Warhol's Plastic Inevitable. Like the Velvets, they also employed the unusual (for rock) feature of a viola player to give their music a shrill edge.Although the primitive technological conditions made them sound like a garage avant-rock band, the originality of their vision comes through in the creepy cheap electric piano, ominous violin scrapes, gravel-textured vocals, and dissonant melodies that owed as much to the recesses of the Bohemian forest as Western pop. In some ways, it was a fusion of the sensibilities of the Velvet Underground and Frank Zappa -- an ironic critical postulation, considering that the Velvets took mean-spirited swipes at Zappa on several occasions during interviews. Lyrics were supplied by Czech dissident poet Egon Bondy. PPU would record several more albums over the next dozen or so years, but Egon Bondy remains Hlavsa's personal favorite. .
Strange things were happening.The house where they were recording their music next day burned to the ground,that happened on more occasions.Probably just to warn people not to contribute in this fight.
On the end it sounds like a fairy tale of underground music and for PPU
laying in the national castle in front of president Vaclav Havel and other dissidents who became members of the goverment of Czech Rep,playing in Paris on Andy's Warhole exhibition,Zappa singing with them in Prague same as Lou Reed and finally even playing along Lou Reed in front of President Clinton in the White house at the dinner.Who could imagine that in 60's and 70'.Hi Zappadaddy
Thank you for the write-up; it must have been incredibly difficult for PPU.
I managed to listen some of PPU's 1997, which has lots of Zappa influences. I'm guessing the band took their name from a track on the Mothers of Invention's Absolutely Free album: Plastic People . It is very interesting music. I shall try to find Egon Bondy's Happy Hearts Club Banned, which is still in print.
.
Thanks again
ATB Rotf
PPU has a MySpace area and there are some tracks in the Prog Archives or just try Plastic People of the Universe in YouTube - well worth a listen.
Thank you for the write-up; it must have been incredibly difficult for PPU.
I managed to listen some of PPU's 1997, which has lots of Zappa influences. I'm guessing the band took their name from a track on the Mothers of Invention's Absolutely Free album: Plastic People . It is very interesting music. I shall try to find Egon Bondy's Happy Hearts Club Banned, which is still in print.
.Thanks again
ATB Rotf
PPU has a MySpace area and there are some tracks in the Prog Archives or just try Plastic People of the Universe in YouTube - well worth a listen.