[Nightfall]

Quote:

Originally Posted by elrod-tom BTW - I don't get the Grateful Dead either.

I'll fourth that. I have tried, over the years, and simply cant get into them, or understand the appeal, hard as I may try. Its a mystery


JC

 

[mkmelt]

The earliest albums by the Grateful Dead are not their most accessible. If you want to experience the Dead at their best (my opinion), you need only listen to the following:

Workingman's Dead (Studio album, second only to American Beauty)

American Beauty (Studio album, their best studio album)

Europe '72 - (Recorded live, there ain't nothing better than driving while listening to the following Dead set: Jack Straw-You Win Again-China Cat Sunflower-I Know You Rider-Brown Eyed Women.)

Live Dead - (This album is a must listen if only for the highy acclaimed instrumental performance, Dark Star)

 

[zoboomofo]

If you think the Doors are far-out, you might like Vanilla Fudge. I can dig it, Jack.

 

[mkmelt]

I really enjoy hearing Vanilla Fudge's psychedelic cover of the Supreme's "You Keep Me Hanging On", also their version of Donovan's "Season of The Witch". Other than those two performances, for me, the Vanilla Fudge is a necessarily short trip down memory lane.

 

[gflded]

Brand new to this forum. I was just looking for some headphone recommendations and I stumbled here.
I grew up in the Bay Area and heard many of these bands. I now co-host a radio show devoted to this era.
Some really non-mainstream bands I might suggest:
HP Lovecraft (Transplants from Chicago)
Incredible String Band
Stoneground (more blues-jugband oriented)
It's A Beautiful Day
David Crosby's "If I Could Only Remember My Name"
Charlatans (Early Dan Hicks)
Spirit or Randy California's solo stuff
Steve Miller (Sailor, Children of the Future)
Strawbs (Grave New World, Hero & Heroine)
Early Genesis
King Crimson (Crimson King-First album)
Much of this has been re-issued. Try Collector's Choice or Sundazed first.

 

[Wmcmanus]

gflded, the standard greeting for first-time posters here is, "welcome to head-fi, and sorry about your wallet," but I think it this case it will be my wallet that suffers! Thanks for your suggestions. I'll have to check some of them out, bit by bit, as I get back into this era of music (my "wish list" for CD's keeps getting longer)...

 

[Wmcmanus]

In addition to the "Nuggets" box set, I've just made another haul from Deep Discount CD:

The Zombies - Odessey And Oracle: 30th Anniversary Edition
Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow
Captian Beefheart - The Mirror Man Sessions
Donovan - A Gift From A Flower To A Garden
Donovan Storyteller [SACD Hybrid]
Pearls Before Swine - Balaklava
David Crosby - If I Could Only Remember My Name

Then I picked up some of Santana's catalog from Amazon.com, so I'm going to check of this thread for a while! Whew!!!

 

[markl]

Wayne, BTW, there's a Nuggets 2 box set as well (haven't heard it, no idea if quality drops off). I also recently picked up Hallucinations Psychedelic Pop Nuggets on Rhino Handmade, it's a sort of "Son of Nuggets" comp, a single-disc collection that focuses on the major-label psych-pop from the late 60's, as played by more professional (probably straight) musicians in better studios, instead of the garage-rock psych by genuine acid-eating amateurs. Hallucinations is a lot of fun, too, worth checking out.

 

[aiiee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wmcmanus In addition to the "Nuggets" box set, I've just made another haul from Deep Discount CD: The Zombies - Odessey And Oracle: 30th Anniversary Edition Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow Captian Beefheart - The Mirror Man Sessions Donovan - A Gift From A Flower To A Garden Donovan Storyteller [SACD Hybrid] Pearls Before Swine - Balaklava David Crosby - If I Could Only Remember My Name Then I picked up some of Santana's catalog from Amazon.com, so I'm going to check of this thread for a while! Whew!!!

I hope you like the Captain. I personally think he's the best thing since non-dog-eared bread

If you do like "Mirror Man" be sure to pick up "Strictly Personal" as rumor has it that "Personal" was to be the studio half of a double album along with Mirror Man. Pick it up for nothing else than the amazing gatefold shot of the band inside LOL, when you see it, you'll know what I mean. "Personal" features "alternate" renditions of "Kandy Korn" and "Gimmer Dat Harp, Boy", which are different enough that you can enjoy them even though they are on "Mirror Man". After that, of course you can explore all of the dozen or more albums Beefie cranked out, which are, with maybe one exception, brilliant. His first "Safe As Milk" is not dated even though it is over 30 years old, a great place to start, in other words.

 

[The Actual]

I listened to Blows against the Empire the other day and it was pretty good. It was released around the time when Jefferson Airplane was breaking up, and it doesn't sound too psychedelic, but I was surprised by how good it was. I found it among all of my parents old LPs and thought I would listen to it just because they were famous, but if you ever have the chance to check it out I'd say go for it.

 

[Wmcmanus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aiiee ..."Personal" was to be the studio half of a double album along with Mirror Man. Pick it up for nothing else than the amazing gatefold shot of the band inside LOL, when you see it, you'll know what I mean.

Let me guess, a group "mooning" shot? I was in on one of those back in high school. Must have been 20 of us guys, with the girls track team huddled for a meeting as the background. The odd thing was, to get the shot right, we had to moon the cameraman, and not the girls.

Go figure...

 

[mkmelt]

Blows Against The Empire is one of my favorite albums. The title is an abbreviation of a quote, "It's a fresh wind that blows against the empire".

Jefferson Starship - Blows Against the Empire was conceived by Paul Kantner of the Jefferson Airplane. It features a cast of California musicians that would come to be known as the Planet Earth Rock & RoLL Orchestra (PERRO). PERRO was the official unofficial joining together of a whole group of luminary northern California musicians including members of the Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, Dave Crosby, and Graham Nash. PERRO members played on each others records frequently, with credits when their recording contracts allowed it, and anonymously when they didn't. I have read that Graham Nash was responsible for mixing down the multi-track master of Blows Against The Empire to the final 2-channel master when Paul Kantner was unable to continue due to fatigue, burn out, drugs .... who knows?

Some may be interested to know that Blows Against The Empire was nominated for the prestigious Hugo award for science fiction for best dramatization. At that time (1970), it was the first record album to have been nominated.

The PERRO players:
Paul Kantner
Grace Slick
Jerry Garcia
Bill Kreutzmann
Mickey Hart
Joey Covington
Jack Casady
David Crosby
Graham Nash
David Freiberg
Harvey Brooks
Peter Kaukonen
Phil Sawyer

Credits:
Paul Kantner - guitar, vocals, banjo, bass machine
Grace Slick - piano, vocals

Mau Mau ( An angry protest song. Listen for the Nixon reference "Hey Dick",
and also for the expletive "Drop your *****in bombs, burn your demon
babies".)
Special Credits:
drums - Joey Covington
lead guitar - Peter Kaukonen

The Baby Tree
(There are no separate credits listed, but the vocals are definitely Paul Kantner. I have read that Paul also plays the banjo on this track, although it is nice to think this might be banjo playing by Jerry Garcia.)

Lets Go Together (As good if not better than any anthem ever performed bythe Jefferson Airplane. Listen for Jerry Garcia's banjo plucking on this
one. An interesting piece of Empire trivia, on the original LP and the very first CD release, Paul Kantner sings the verse "Shall I go off and await bright Andromeda, shall I sail my wooden ships to the sea." For some unknown reason, all subsequent CDs of this album have an alternate take of this song with a different verse, "Shall I go off and await South America".)
Special Credits:
banjo - Jerry Garcia
drums - Bill Kreutzmann

A Child is Coming
Special Credits:
guitar - David Crosby
bass - Jack Casady
vocal - David Crosby

Sunrise
Special Credits:
vocals - Grace Slick
bass - Jack Casady

Hijack (Starting with Hijack, then proceeding through Home and Have You Seen the Stars Tonight, the album builds in energy until it bursts open with Starship.)
Special Credits:
conga - Joey Covington, Graham Nash

Home
Special Credits:
sound effects - Paul Kantner, Phil Sawyer, Graham Nash

Have You Seen the Stars Tonight (A beautiful song with incredible
lyrics. The fansite "A-Deck" takes it's name from the second verse of this song.)
Special Credits:
guitar - David Crosby
pedal steel - Jerry Garcia
percussion - Mickey Hart

X-M (If a starship hyperdrive engine had a sound, this would be it!)
Special Credits:
sound effects - Paul Kantner, Phil Sawyer, Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart

Starship (This songs wails wider, deeper, with more emotion than any song
on this or any other Airplane or Starship album. Listen for Jerry Garcia's lead guitar in the left channel, throughout this track. His playing is masterful!)
Special Credits:
guitar - Jerry Garcia
bass - Harvey Brooks
vocal touch - Graham Nash, David Freiberg, David Crosby

This album can be appreciated with or without headphones, I like it best in
the car when I can play my favorite tracks over and over while I drive. I once played this CD continously in my car for about 6 months. It is a masterpiece, I never tire of it.

 

[aiiee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wmcmanus Let me guess, a group "mooning" shot? I was in on one of those back in high school. Must have been 20 of us guys, with the girls track team huddled for a meeting as the background. The odd thing was, to get the shot right, we had to moon the cameraman, and not the girls. Go figure...

Actually, it's this:

mooning may have been less disturbing

 

[hintermute]

Woah, this is a pretty expansive list. Although i lack
bands specifically, there is a set of compilation albums
that my brother's had for a while. Im not sure of the
era, but the music is psychedelic rock at it's unknown
bests. There are 7 albums under the title of psychedelic
archaeology 1-7. In a search for those albums a while
back i ran upon another compilation album called psy-
chedelic sitar headswirlers 3. That album in particular
has some pretty jive stuff, including an instrumental
sitar cover of The Beatles' Elenore Rigby(sp?).

And just now, looking for a link to post i also found a guy's
list of records with a good deal of psych related goodies.
The second link has a little info on the sitar comp as well.
You can find a lot if you just google psychedelic archaeology.

http://www.stud.uni-hamburg.de/users..._samplers.html
http://homepages.tesco.net/~beautifu...ompilation.htm

 

[gflded]

From mkmelt above: Blows Against The Empire is one of my favorite albums. The title is an abbreviation of a quote, "It's a fresh wind that blows against the empire".

An interesting piece of Empire trivia, on the original LP and the very first CD release, Paul Kantner sings the verse "Shall I go off and await bright Andromeda, shall I sail my wooden ships to the sea." For some unknown reason, all subsequent CDs of this album have an alternate take of this song with a different verse, "Shall I go off and await South America".)
Special Credits:
banjo - Jerry Garcia
drums - Bill Kreutzmann

Never knew there was an alternate take for this song, since all I have is the original LP and what must be a first release CD. Ahh, Ignorance is bliss!

Blows is also one of my favorite albums of all. Actually many of the albums that came out of Heider Studios during that PERRO period are in my top 20.