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Posted: February 07 2015 at 18:19
SteveG wrote:
Why early American Prog sounds like this:
...
Taking the advice of both their manager/producer and a top record executive, The Vanilla Fudge made one the most bizarre outré albums of the late 1960s. Combining studio improvisation, sound collages, excepts of classical music, and short reworkings of Beatles songs into free form whole, all of this was interspersed with snippets of historical sound excerpts such as speeches by JFK and Hitler. The result of all this effort was the album The Beat Goes On.
Vanilla Fudge: The Beat Goes On. As far out as you could get in 1968.
Trashed by both critics and fans, it remains a black mark on the otherwise stellar work produced by Vanilla Fudge after the release of this debacle.
...
I found that record at my local record store for five bucks. The second side is a pretentious attempt to imitate Frank Zappa, while a good chunk the first side is a silly, yet harmless, Disney-esque attempt to document the history of Western Music from Mozart to the Beatles. I think the first side had potential and had it been a bit more polished, it would have been one of their best pieces.
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Posted: February 07 2015 at 11:19
^No, The Jefferson Airplane Takes Off never left the runway for me. It, tellingly, was made up of Folk Rock love songs composed by Marty Balin prior to the group's formation.
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Posted: February 07 2015 at 10:52
Yep, even parts of The Doors started out in the folk scene.
Do you see anything psychelic in the first Jeff Airplane lp? I guess I did not: had an origional copy and traded it off fast. (There is some kinda rarity press on that first Jeff Airplane. I forget the story - and too lazy to look it up. Some sort of cover variation on the mono press, maybe???)
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Posted: February 07 2015 at 10:46
Was the greatest Psychedelic album ever made hijacked by the Prog?
Dark Side of the Moon: Pink Floyd 1973.
Dark Side Of the Moon by Pink Floyd is without a doubt the stoner classic of all time. And for good reason. It's many studio effects such as deft stereo panning coupled with sound effects such as a person running that's pursued by what appears to sound like a helicopter (which ends in a loud crash) along with infinite amounts of chiming clocks, a chinking cash register in addition to bizarre disembodied talking and madman laughs.
That's not saying that the musical content is not stunning. Because it is. Breath, Time/Breath (reprise) and the Great Gig In the Sky are some of Floyd's musical high points.
DSotM is listed in PA under the Psychedelic/Space Rock genre. What's strange to me as how few reviewers actually refer to the album as Psychedelic. (Kudos to those who did.) A masterpiece of Progressive Rock seems to be the catch phrase even as the Pysch effects mentioned above are clearly stated and remarked upon. Particularly the VCS3 effects for the song On The Run.
To me, DSotM is a brilliant synthesis of progressive music and pyschedelia, and may be the last the Psych Rock album to spend years on the charts.
A brilliant Prog album? Certainly! Just don't forget the bong. The creators of this album certainly didn't and I feel they would be lying if they said otherwise. Far out.
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Posted: February 07 2015 at 09:53
^No argument here about The Beat Goes ON. However, it strikes me as strange that even used copies of the CD sell for ten dollars or more!
Also, there's no cause to argue where Psychedelic rock originated. As your new to PA, I suggest you read my past posts in this thread on Psych pioneers The13th Floor Elevators and The Moving Sidewalks, who both originated out of Texas.
The same holds true for The Red Crayola, Lost and Found, and Bubble Puppy, who also hailed from Texas.
I merely inferred that the 13th Floor Elevators were influential in turning the previously Folk oriented California Bay Area bands electric by there touring the area in 1966.
How you interpreted anything other than that is not a mystery to me. That's usually the case when one member's post is taken out of context. It's a good idea not regard a single post as an all encompassing book or expose, but as an open ended conversation.
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Posted: February 07 2015 at 08:05
When I first got "Beat Goes On " lp, I was totally appalled and traded it off (for next to nothing) immediately. In my book their only good lp - one closest to prog - is Renaissance.
.....
Psych origionated out of Texas. Not the West Coast. I'm not going to argue it. (You never really stated so, still it should be made clear.)
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Posted: February 06 2015 at 08:33
^Cool, but just be careful because as a friend of mine who had no ear for melody once opined "It sounds more like Sgt. Shultze's than Sgt. Pepper's." Again, it's a quaint melodic period album, but I doubt it blow your mind as it's far from as being a psychedelic knockout.
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Posted: February 06 2015 at 03:01
nice presentation, again , makes my posts look like crap I'm gonna give The Zombies a chance, I've never listened to a full length from them, just a few songs. Santana made an awesome cover of the famous She's Not There in 1977.
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Posted: February 05 2015 at 14:40
The Zombies.
Odessey and Oracle 1967.One of the more confusing albums that I purchased back in the day. Odessey (sic) and Oracle was the second and last album put out by the U. K. group The Zombies. It was mostly recorded in July and August of 1967 in the famed Abbey Road studios.
The Beatles had just completed recording Sgt. Pepper's and left most of the studios open to The Zombies. In studio one, the mellotron that was used for the opening first few flute notes on the song Strawberry Fields Forever and will always signal to the listener the arrival of that Beatles' landmark song, was lest behind.
Self produced and knowing that this would be their final album together (the group was suffering from irreconcilable musical differences and decided to disband after the album's completion), The Zombies utilizedthe same four track Studer tape recorders, used for recording Sgt. Pepper's, for extensive and sometimes elaborate harmony vocal overdubs. The music consisted of minimal guitar playing and relied heavily on the keyboard work of Rod Argent. Piano, organ, celeste, and The Beatles' mellotron were used to supply the delicate textures and mock strings and woodwind accompaniment to go along with Argent's deft electric or acoustic piano or organ leads.
One recorded song was a bone of contention between Argent and lead singer Colin Blunstone. Written by Argent, it was called Time Of The Season. Prodded to sing it in style he was not comfortable with, Blunstone finally sang the song as Argent requested. It was the final track of the album and sounded like nothing else on it.
The album was released in 1968 on both sides of the Atlantic by CBS Records before it sank without a trace. An American A&R representative was intrigued with album's closing track and convinced CBS to release the song as a single in 1969. It was an immediate hit as it fit in with entire counter culture zeitgeist.
When I purchased the album in 1969, I was dumbstruck by the twee and baroque sounding songs that made up most of the album before getting to the closing hit track Time Of The Season. The vocal harmonies reminded me a bit of The Beach Boys at times. Not something I wanted to play after Led Zeppelin.
Strangely, after playing the album occasionally for almost forty years, I have come to appreciate it's "Britishness", for lack of a better term, and a few of it's songs that seem to proceed what was come later by Syd Barrett. They feature a deadpan delivery style in the sane vain as Jug Band Blues with Syd's eccentric lyrical slant. And of course the steely mellotron sounds are indeed music to my ears in more ways than one.
More barouque than psychedelic at times, Odessey and Oracle has truly grown on me. As long as I don't play it after anything by Led Zeppelin.
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Posted: February 05 2015 at 10:35
^Thanks Dan. I really appreciate that as I have some vision problems that act up from time to time and made this post a bit hard for me. I'm still finding some missing words in the text and correcting it! Thanks again.
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Posted: February 05 2015 at 09:09
SteveG wrote:
Why early American Prog sounds like this:
Instead of early British Prog like this:
No one can define a definitive and comprehensive reason for why British Prog evolved from Psych Rock into early symphonic Prog groups like King Crimson while early American Prog evoved from Psych into artists like Captain Beefheart and the jazz musing/satirical commentary of Frank Zappa.
But I feel it's safe to say that although psychedelic drugs on the both sides of the Atlantic Ocean were the catalyst, the social and cultural situations of the U.S. and the U.K. were extremely different. The U.K. was in a state of cultural change while the U.S. was clearly in a state of anger, disillusionment, and rebellion due to the Vietnam War and racial tensions, along with younger versus older citizens conflicting views on the status quo.
In the U.S., the 1966 rock albums that kicked off Psychedelic rock were initially Freak out! by the Mothers of Invention (until people became away of Zappa's anti hippie and drug stance) and the first album produced by The Thirteen Floor Elevators The Psychedelic Sounds of the Thirteen Floor Elevators.
The Elevators were only regionally successful, but their influence on the nascent San Francisco 'acid rock' scene cannot be understated as most of the major bands, such as the Jefferson Airplane, were originally part of the West Coast American Folk revival who quickly turned electric after The Elevators showed up to tour the Bay Area in 1966.
Where as the British took influences from The Beatles, The Zombies, the Moody Blues, Family, Pink Floyd and The Nice and were focused on musical progression, many U.S. bands were attracted to the rebellious sounds of Anti Rock noise, deconstruction of melody and the arty Avant Garde. All these U.S. interests were naturally comingled with counter culture lyrics that questioned conventionality and the American social problems of the day.
One of the must outré albums of this era was 1967's Red Crayola musically reductive and Anti rock noise "free form freak out' album The Parable of Arable Land. Using minimal studio effects but utilizing a whole lot of people to create noise collages that was placed between minimalistic songs about social issues such as War Sucks, while the vocal's were delivered in a neurotic deadpan style that would have made David Byrne envious.
Red Crayola: The Parable of Arable Land. As far out as you could get in 1967.
Following this noisy Pyschedelic groundbreaker was an even more bizzare album that surfaced in 1968 from the newly successful group Vanilla Fudge who had a big hit with a slow and heavy hard rock reworking of The Supremes mega hit You Keep Me Hanging On.
Taking the advice of both their manager/producer and a top record executive, The Vanilla Fudge made one the most bizarre outré albums of the 1960s. Combining studio improvisation, sound collages, excepts of classical music, short reworkings of Beatles songs. All of was interspersed with snippets of historical sound excerpts such as speeches by JFK and Hitler. The result of all this effort was the album The Beat Goes On.
Vanilla Fudge: The Beat Goes On. As far out as you could get in 1968.
Trashed by both critics and fans, it remains a black mark on the otherwise stellar work produced by Vanilla Fudge after the release of this debacle.
The bottom line to all this is that the zeitgeist of the sixties effected American rock music in different and, in some cases, bizarre ways. However, I think it gives a clue as to why American Prog, what little of it was produced, was radically different from what our cousins were producing across the pond.
Worth posting again, great post SteveG A valid analysis of the beginnings of UK prog and US prog.
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Posted: February 05 2015 at 08:38
dr wu23 wrote:
Cristi wrote:
Armaggedon was a German band that released also just one album, self-titled, in 1970. The band played a couple of covers (Jeff Beck and Spooky Tooth), but their own compositions are great. I think they were suggested to be added on PA at some point but were rejected as they were not progressive enough. but still, awesome blues-rock/hard rock.
If it's the same Armageddon I have that on cd and they aren't German per se but British guys; two from Renaissance (Relf and Cennamo) and Pugh from Steamhammer and Caldwell from Capt Beyond. It was put on a German label I think for whatever reason.
Ahh,,,,different band ...same name., that happens now and then.
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Posted: February 05 2015 at 08:33
Cristi wrote:
Nice post Steve, quite informative. i have to admit Captain Beefheart is not up my alley and also that I've never heard of Red Crayola, but I live and learn.
I'll just say something about a couple of bands I mentioned earlier. Homer was a short-lived Texan band that only released a couple of singles and one album - Grown in USA; still, there are some British invasion influences to their music, they even threw a bit of mellotron here and there.
Armaggedon was a German band that released also just one album, self-titled, in 1970. The band played a couple of covers (Jeff Beck and Spooky Tooth), but their own compositions are great. I think they were suggested to be added on PA at some point but were rejected as they were not progressive enough. but still, awesome blues-rock/hard rock.
If it's the same Armageddon I have that on cd and they aren't German per se but British guys; two from Renaissance (Relf and Cennamo) and Pugh from Steamhammer and Caldwell from Capt Beyond. It was put on a German label I think for whatever reason.
Ahh,,,,different band ...same name., that happens now and then.
Edited by dr wu23 - February 05 2015 at 08:35
One does nothing yet nothing is left undone. Haquin
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Posted: February 04 2015 at 09:46
Lear'sFool wrote:
Look what I found! A copy of this weird, music ending experiment popped up at my favourite local LP&CD shop, so I bought it. One of the guys working there told me that he's got his own copy from '97, but never got the chance to go all four. One day I'll collect a few old CD boomboxes and try it out.
For a diehard Lips fan, I have never even heard the music from this 4 disc space trip! Please let me know what you think of it.
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Posted: February 04 2015 at 09:44
^Thanks for the background info on the bands of these two excellent posts, Cristi. I really enjoy learning about who put the music together and sometimes the artist's stories are as fascinating as the music!
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Posted: February 04 2015 at 03:00
Nice post Steve, quite informative. i have to admit Captain Beefheart is not up my alley and also that I've never heard of Red Crayola, but I live and learn.
I'll just say something about a couple of bands I mentioned earlier. Homer was a short-lived Texan band that only released a couple of singles and one album - Grown in USA; still, there are some British invasion influences to their music, they even threw a bit of mellotron here and there.
Armaggedon was a German band that released also just one album, self-titled, in 1970. The band played a couple of covers (Jeff Beck and Spooky Tooth), but their own compositions are great. I think they were suggested to be added on PA at some point but were rejected as they were not progressive enough. but still, awesome blues-rock/hard rock.
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SteveG wrote:
, makes my posts look like crap 
