Fly, Jefferson Airplane DVD -- and an appreciation of late-'60s acid rock. (1 Viewer)

[Zen Butler]

Jack, the Clear Light cd, believe it or not is available. Talk about a diverse group of gents. In retrospect, many of these bands appear to be one-hit wonders

Chocolate Watchband?

OOOOH, What about Arthur Brown's The Crazy World of Arthur Brown

Other mentions around this period.

Please correct me, if these bands were larger than they appear to have been.

How did the Strawberry Alarm Clock stack up against others of the era?

Jack, hold on, there is an Electric Prunes dvd out now.

 

[Rachael B]

I think what I miss most about that time period is feeling secure in my person and property. Now I don't feel like that. I'm horrified by the powers given to law enforcement. I well remember the times I was pulled over in my car during the 70's and the sense of satisfaction that the cop-er couldn't search my car for vegetables, despite the dirty look I was getting for looking hippieish.

I was just reading about the no-fly list and thinking that being a U.S. citizen and being put on that list is like conviction of a crime without trial.

I miss the innocence of that era. That came with costs like hate crimes that never were so much as investigated or prosecuted. I was once knocked unconcious at an antiwar rally by a redneck using a metal hardhat. He hit another in our group and he was subdued but we observed the police simply let him go. ....open season on hippies!

I got in an argument with the sheriff of my county one day when I overheard him say in a public place that all the hippies and fags should be lined up and shot. I couldn't help but hear his loud, boisterous voice from 6 feet away. I thought he was going to arrest or hit me. I called him a facist thug and suggested if he trimed his mustache some he'd be a close match for Adolf Hitler. I told him he was unfit for public office anywhere besides the U.S.S.R. His face was so red with anger. I'll never forget that look.

My neibhor was arrested for protesting the President Nixon appearance at Billy Grahmn's 1972 Neyland Stadium (U of T) "revival". I was there too yelling antiwar slogans and such. When they started taking pictures I put my hair down over my face like Cousin It (Addams Family). They identified folks via photos and arrested them a few days after. My ploy worked or I was lucky...?

I used to own a Nixon toliet seat with the slogan, "take a sh*t on Dick". In 1973, a year after installing it, my father noticed it and confiscated it from my bathroom. I wish I stille had it. It surely would be a collectors item now!

Despite all the social turmoil of that period I miss it....

Some of my favourite protest songs of the period besides Jefferson Flying-object's:

Marvin Gaye's Mercy Mercy Me ( the ecology)
John Mayall's Nature's Disappearing
Spirit Fresh Garbage & Nature's Way
Blodwyn Pig's Send Your Son To Die
Rare Earth's If I Die
Country Joe McDonald's Mr. Big Pig
Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi
Peter Tosh's Legalize It
Barefoot Jerry's Funny Looking Eyes
...about half the songs David Peel & The Lower East Side ever did!

P.S. Jack, I could always tell Zappa was good on guitar but it took me awhile to fully appreciate how good. He started out as an oddity for me and grew more with every album that came along. When I first started listening to him my definition of good was, as of yet, incomplete. Hot Rats made me believe him to be a musical genius.

 

[Zen Butler]

Rachael, great stuff on Dick. For fear of thread closure, I'll be very vague. "Operation Intercept", paraquat and legal poisoning of Americans. I want that seat too.

Since you mention David Peel. How about the very straight forward "I like Marijuana?" I love
"it's my life, I'll do what I want..." type songs.


I just love Steppenwolf's Don't Step On the Grass, Sam. Sorry critics, but I'm a sucker for a good 'ole Los Angeles band. I love John Kay's(sp?) masculine growl.

Rachael, have you listened to Monster Magnet? Great 90's band. Kind of reminds me a bit of Steppenwolf. Their latest LP, Monolithic Baby! is even some pretty catchy stuff for the vein. They fit well in here.

I've been playing guitar over 20 years. It also took me some time to get Zappa.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Zen, the Strawberry Alarm Clock ("Incense and Peppermints," anyone?) was sort of a novelty ban. Like the Prunes. And, really, Vanilla Fudge. They took advantage of the paisley flower power of the era and stole into the night once the 1967-68 pastel era passed. Not a serious presence in the sense of a Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Quicksilver, etc., etc.

But they're all fun to listen to.

What Ms. B. discusses is sort of how I look at the era (as a survivor). There was an innocence to the era born out of naive idealism, the feeling that revolutionary change could occur with a proper political awakening and enough mind-enhancing substances. Flowers over guns.

Then, of course, there was the harder-edged, more pragmatic political realism of the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley. The student activism was sincere (there was an unpopular war ripping America apart, with a real draft sending Middle Class kids as well as the poor off to Southeast Asia). Rock, being more of a movement at that time, reflected the seriousness of the era.

Unlike so much of today's antiwar movement, which includes among its ranks serial, freelance "protesters" who would show up for any sort of demonstration (WTO meetings, environmental congresses, G8 summits, Iraq prostests, etc.) to bang on drums and sit and chant in a circle (as if that would impress the power brokers).

There was an immediacy to the 1960s tinged with the reality that, yes, you too could end up in the rice paddies of Vietnam and end up as a Friday-evening statistic on Walter Cronkite's broadcast. It was palpable. I remember the fear.

All along, the music reflected the era and the angst. It was the soundtrack of the 1960s.

It's hard to recapture all that in a Clear Channel Communications world where everything -- everything, including the two follow-up "Woodstock" festivals -- seems to sport a corporate logo.

 

[LarryDavenport]

That was me. It's how I got turned onto about half the bands on that list.

I picked up the Jefferson Airplane DVD this weekend and I loved it, especially the performance on the rooftop. I wish they would have had some of their Woodstock performance but Warner probably wouldn't let them have it. I also wish that it would have been longer and included stuff about Woodstock, Altamont, and the post-Marty-era with Papa John Creach (Thirty Seconds Over Winterland is one of my favorite albums). Hopefully the Behind The Music episode for JA/JS will get released someday.

 

[Zen Butler]

That was you, Larry? Right on man. I'm listening right now.

As I've mentioned, these tunes are of my earliest memory. That and my father, who wasn't so lucky in the draft and how the conflict changed him and our whole family.

These tunes were pounding out of speakers while living very close to the war. Much of the time, on and (near) base. Innocence lost man. I was pretty in tune(generally speaking) with what was happening at that tender age. I(we) had to.

Jack and Rachael's posts, sure fill in some gaps. Some truly wonderful(deep) stuff.

 

[Rachael B]

Jack, the real tallent in Vanilla Fudge was Bogert and Appice for the drums and bass. Did you follow them to their other bands? They kept trading up. First they powered Cactus who were really good in those early days. Then they went with Jeff Beck, B,B & A. I forgot where they went after that...I once knew and may know again if I think on it...? Their other groups are so-ooo much better, IMO. I saw 'em in both those groups.

The 70's were trippy. When in school, I waited tables at the Hyatt Regency for a couple of years. I worked at the Knoxville Hyatt Regency when Alice Cooper had three of his snakes escape there. One was found dead, in the box springs of a bed about 2 months after, which kept everybody on edge waiting.

One drowned and was found in the plumbing fairly promptly. The other one I forget. I think they found it in a ceiling crawlspace...? 2 floors were closed for awhile.

The other funny moment at the Hyatt was when my neibhor, a John Birch Society member argued the merits of capitalism versus Commienism for well over a half hour in the lobby dining area with Robin Trower. Everybody thought it hilarious but it was particularly so for me. "...have you heard of flouride...in children's ice cream, Mandrake?" "Mandrake, do you know why I only drink only pure grain alcohol and rainwater?"
The John Birch Society believed flouride was a commie plot. The Birch society were on to many a dirty commie plot! They were the big conspiracy theorists of the right in those dayz. Flouride was mentioned in the Trower vs. Mr. X exchange. Yeah...!

Sorry, everytime I think of flouride, I think of "General Jack Ripper" (Sterling Hayden), his flouride and his precious bodily fluids. Hot dam! In the 60's & 70's I knew people who behaved akin to a bleeding movie character! Yeah...

P.S. - Zen, I have not heard zee Monster Magnet. Zhey zound sumding lieke characters from the Firesign Theatre? People actually sat around and got small and listened to vinyls of Firesign back then. EVERTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG was my fav. HOW TIME FLIES with guest Wolfman Jack was my next fav. I feel like I've been to Planet X and to the centre of the earth. Furthermore, "...there's a whole dead cat in every bar of Dead Cat Soap..."!

I did see Steppenwolf twice.

Everything You Know Is Wrong was a quad album. In my year of dabbling with Quad, I liked it more than any of the music albums. It'd be cool to see it on hi-rez audio, to me anyway...

 

[Zen Butler]

Rachael, among all the pretender retro psychedelic acts, Monster Magnet is in class all its' own. They're the real deal. Maybe, Queens of the Stone Age come close.

Wow, Robin Trower. I really dig Bridge of Sighs (1974). I mean I really love that record. The title track is one stoney tune. Back in the days when circum-aural was the only headphone. Spent the first 18 years of life sandwiched between those things.

To the topic:

Larry, the rooftop sequence was my favorite too. I'm glad you got to see the dvd. I think the "Martha" promotional video, shown on the Perry Como show was also sweet. Although, a "music video" in some weird traditional sense, it captures a lot of their personality.

On the way to work, I was blasting Volunteers. As Jack mentioned, "Hey Fredrick" is a great song. Hmmm, is it me or does "We Can be Together" sound more of a song for the reprise rather than in the lead-off spot? Such a great record. Maybe their best.

I like the fact that the use of reverb(overall) gradually declined with each record. Surrealistic Pillow was drenched in it. The re-master(Original Masters) included some mono tunes, which I feel were stronger versions. Maybe that reverb sounded better back then under the influence of various rays of sunshine.

I think it's important to mention just how diverse and eclectic the Jefferson Airplane were. Maybe, someone else could expand.

Rachael, these would have been cool back in the day. I now, have a few of these.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Agreed about Monster Magnet -- and you shoulda read my review of 1992' Tab 25 in the late, great Los Angeles Reader. That first track, about thirty minutes long, is as psychedelic as anything (more so) out of the '60s.

I also like the Melvins.

Rachael, you're correct to point out the musicianship to be found within Vanilla Fudge.

 

[Rachael B]

Jack, one of the better concerts I attended in the early 70's was a double bill with Cactus opening for Sugarloaf. Cactus was real nice. I never get tired of their cover of YOU CAN'T JUDGE A BOOK BY THE COVER. I got their 1st album soon thereafter.

Sugarloaf was so-oooo good. They had their dual guitarists by then and were doing stuff off their 2nd album, Spaceship Earth. They had such a different sound. It's a shame what happened with them and Clive Davis. 'Fer ya'll that's do not know, Davis wouldn't aggree to some contract demands they apparently made. They bolted to an indie label and made an album called, Don't Call Us We'll Call You. They put Clive's private telephone number on the cover. He black-balled them as best he could for a long, long time. Their albums went OOP. For many, many years the only thing from those two albums available was a 7" single of Green-Eyed Lady & Tongue In Cheek, their 2 radio hits. This is what I heard anyway....

I thought Sugarloaf was gonna be a supergroup but it never quite happened.

My favourite neo-delic album, that I've heard so far, I may try that magnetic group, is 25 O'Clock by the Dukes Of The Stratosphear (XTC's alter ego). It's a short album/long E.P., whatever you want to call it. Being short, the vinyl has wide grooves and really screams. It's bit more subdued on the 2-fer Dukes' CD. The vinyl is very hi-rez to me. I like short records, many of them really sound grand. I think it'd be prime M/C fodder.

I saw Beck, Bogart & Appice. The playing was great. The singing was poor. They missed Rod Stewart who was supposed to join but couldn't after the delay of Beck's auto wreck. By the time Beck was back, Rod was doing too well to come join 'em...or somethin'...?

I saw the Monkees in 1968. I didn't love them but it was the first "rock" show to come to Knoxville. I went because it was the only show in town literally. 1969...not much.... The last month of 1970 was the beginning of real shows coming here. First we got Savoy Brown/Small Faces (Rod & Ron in)/...the Grease Band was a throw-in opener. Then the Stones' 1971 tour with Stevie Wonder, opening, tested the water in little ole Knoxville on the 30th of December. I liked Stevie better than them. Stevie was mocking the Jackson 5 and singing sillized verses of Rockin' Robin as bridges between his songs. He was extra kool! The Stones did their no encore 50 minute set which was mean to audiences and the norm on that tour. To me, that was a low point for the Stones in a way. Their attitude was not endearing.

 

[Zen Butler]

Hey man, what's with auto link when I use the word headphone? That's a trip. What other words do this?

Rachael, your first concert was the Monkees and you didn't love it? My first concert was Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods.(Don't Laugh ) Although, I didn't love them, it was still an aw experience. Around that time I also saw The Bay City Rollers, that was pretty cool too. Pretty bubblegum stuff, but first exposure to big live music. At that age, I didn't complain, I was out of the house. Then I saw Black Sabbath/Van Halen in 1979. What a way to kick off the teen years. Oh boy!, Van Halen was absolutely ridiculous, except that I was on Eddie's side of the stage and he was quite mind-blowing. I must have tuned that awful rhythm section out, because I don't remember much of that.

Rachael, as to Sugarloaf, is Spaceship Earth the place to start?

Okay, out of curiosity, anyone own the Rhinoceros LP's.

Also, one that may even impress you guys. 3 pages and not a mention of the underrated Blues Magoos.

Jack, I understand what you're say about the Strawberry Alarm Clock and the ilk. Dammit though, if that isn't about the coolest band name ever. Plus, not fully understanding the times i.e. not being there, it took me a bit longer to sift through the fluff.

I presume I'm a bit easier on the "psychedelic sunshine pop" than others. I happen to like Sagittarius, Yellow Balloon, The Pretty Things among others.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

My first concert was The Incredible String Band. But you always knew I was an oddball.

 

[Rachael B]

Guyz, my first concert was the Monkees because there was nothing else on the horizon. Even then I would of much rather have seen the Beatles, Animals, Zombies, Who, Donovan, Zappa, Led Zepplin, James Taylor, or even the Dave Clark Five. I thought the Monkees amusing but not real rock. It was a substitute in a relative desert of nothingness beyond kuntry & bluegrass. Remember this is one of the kulture capitols of that sort of thang. The Monkee were the only show in town, so I saw the Monkees. It was fun but I was already jones'in for better. I was really keen on the British Invasion, myself....

 

[Rachael B]

Zen, there's a CD with Sugarloaf's first two albums available from Collectables. The first album is good in it's own right but there's fewer band members, only one guitar. I have a purr-fect vinyl of their first album. My vinyl of their second is so-so, I bought it used. So, I got the CD for their 2nd. Their 2nd album is definitely the height of the group but Green Eyed Lady is on the first...

 

[Zen Butler]

Rachael, you're not going to get any ribbing from me.
Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. is in my collection. Just watched Head and I thought it was pretty trippy. So lock me up.

I'll certainly get some Sugarloaf

 

[LarryDavenport]

Hey, don't knock the Monkees. I think they were great! And Mike Nesmith was a great song writer. Had history been different, it would have been Stephen Stills instead of Peter Tork on rhythm guitar.

 

[Zen Butler]

Here's the artwork to the Electric Prunes dvd.



Talk about longevity. These guys are still touring and releasing albums.

Their 2004 release California got some pretty damn good reviews.
http://www.classicrockpage.com/ncr/e...california.htm

Listen to some samples. This is some pretty good stuff.
The Electric Prunes-California

 

[Jack Briggs]

The Monkees weren't so great, but their Tin Pan Alley songwriters were (as well as the studio musicians who did the hard work on those first two albums).

Another name from the 1967-68 period: The Blues Magoos. Ever think there would be a lengthy, feedback-laden, psychedelic cover of "Gloria"?

 

[Marty M]

I don't remember the Blues Magoos doing Gloria. I do remember their psychelic version of Tobacco Road.

I almost hate to admit that I was a huge Monkees fan in 1967 and 1968 when I was 18 and 19 years old. I went to a Monkees concert in summer of 1967 and I think I was the only person in the audience that was old enough to drive himself to the concert. I really liked the Monkees TV series and have purchased Season 1 DVD. Monkees music is miles away from Jefferson Airplane.

 

[Zen Butler]

Jack, I mentioned this(The Blues Magoos) above, a few posts. I was surprise that 3 pages had gone by and no mention of this underrated band.

Anyone lurking? Pick-up the Blues Magoos first two albums
Psychedelic Lollipop & Electric Comic Book. The album titles alone would make a great band name. WOW has a 2on1 of both albums for about $16. I love those records immensely.

Here's one for Rachael. An ad for some lava lamp, nearly 30 years old. The Blues Magoos are in the ad.