To end of this month, I present Volume 3 of my ‘Psychedelic Years’ compilations. This is the first one that did not take the majority of its tracks from one, or two compilations. The songs were from whatever was left over from the already used compilations, mixed in with tracks from more famous artists such as The Beatles. I have also used artists on more than one occasion which is something I normally try and avoid, but those tracks fit into the overall sound of the playlist.
Some musicians that appeared in bands here before going on to be more famous elsewhere include King Crimsons’ Robert Fripp (Giles, Giles & Fripp), Andy Summers from The Police (Dantallion’s Chariot), Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan & Roger Glover (Episode Six) and Dave Edmunds (Love Sculpture). Jimmy Winston was going the other way, having originally been in The Small Faces but here fronting his own band, Winston’s Fumbs.
Disc 1
My White Bicycle – Tomorrow
I Can Hear The Grass Grow – The Move
Father’s Name Was Dad – Fire
My Friend Jack – The Smoke
Fire – The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown
Magic Potion – The Open Mind
I See The Rain – Marmalade
Celeste – Donovan
Love Hate Revenge – Episode Six
It’s A Sin To Go Away – We All Together
Walking Through My Dreams – The Pretty Things
Listen To The Sky – Sands
Days Of Broken Arrows – The Idle Race
I Wish I Was Five – Scrugg
I Talk To The Wind (Version 2) – Giles, Giles & Fripp
Come On – The Atlantics
Madman Running Through the Fields – Dantallion’s Chariot
Real Crazy Apartment – Winston’s Fumbs
Word’s Enough To Tell You – The Mascots
Garden Of My Mind – The Mickey Finn
You Stole My Love – The Mockingbirds
Dance ‘Round The Maypole – The Acid Gallery
War Of Hands Of Time – The Masters Apprentices
In The Land Of The Few – Love Sculpture
Disc 2
Paper Sun – Traffic
Ginza Strip – The Executives
I Can See Through You – Episode Six
Venus – Shocking Blue
Candy – Cinnamon Quill
Time Seller – The Spence Davis Group
Vacuum Cleaner – Tintern Abbey
Tamaris Khan – The Onyx
Locked In A Room – The Poets
Butcher’s Tale (Western Front 1914) – The Zombies
Citadel – The Rolling Stones
Fire Bridge – The Move
Royston Rose – The Koobas
Season Of The Witch – Donovan
Come Back June – Pussy
A Girl Named Sandoz – Eric Burdon & The Animals
I Won’t Hurt You – Neo Maya
Loving Sacred Sacred – The End
Country Life – Blonde On Blonde
Feeling Easy – Billy Nicholls
This Wheel’s On Fire – Julie Driscoll With Brian Auger & The Trinity
By 1995, Quentin Tarantino was riding on the crest of a wave. He had received an OSCAR for writing the film Pulp Fiction, his film Reservoir Dogs was critical as well as financial success and his screenplays for True Romance as well as Natural Born Killers had only increased profile. Four Rooms was the only blip in this upward momentum. Posters for both Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs as well as their soundtracks graced the rooms of many of my fellow students when I was at University. It is the soundtrack albums that I am going to focus on here.
Film soundtracks at that time could be classed into two categories. The first was the one which had a soundtrack specifically written for it. These tended to be, but not exclusively, classical in nature. John Williams seemed to do quite a number of these but he did not have exclusive on this. Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman and James Horner are but a few of the composers who produced film scores before the rise of Tarantino. Even Queen got in on the act when the scored Flash Gordon. The other was to take a few star names with a below par song they were looking to offload, some relative unknowns and some up and coming acts who were desperate for the exposure. These songs would be shoehorned into the film and then a soundtrack album would be released with the hope that they might shift a few units or that one song would become a massive hit. Top Gun, Mallrats and Cocktail are but a few I could have mentioned that fit into this category. Then there were the films of Tarantino.
These films had soundtracks of already released music, some of which had been used in other films that seemed to have been carefully considered beforehand. The choice of music was instrumental in some of the scenes. Look at the use of ‘Stuck in the Middle With You’ by Steelers Wheel in Reservoir Dogs. Would another piece of music have worked as well as that in that scene? There were also snippets of dialogue from the films that would sometimes, but not always, introduce the song that was about to be played. This was a man, it would seem, that took the music as seriously as he did the film he was going to make.
What I was looking to produce here was a compilation of songs from Tarantino films. These would also include some the dialogue as having played some of these soundtracks to death back when they were released, I find it difficult to listen to them without the actors in there as well. This compilations includes films from Reservoir Dogs up to Grindhouse.
Disc 1
Shaw Brothers Theme
‘Pumpkin & Honey Bunny’/Misirlou Amanda Plummer & Tim Roth/Dick Dale & his Del-Tones
Jungle Boogie – Kool & The Gang
Who Is He (& What Is He To You?) – Bill Withers
Son Of A Preacher Man – Dusty Springfield
Baby, It’s You – Smith
Natural High – Bloodstone
Strawberry Lette 23 – Brothers Johnson
‘And Now Little Green Bag’ – Steven Wright
Little Green Bag – George Baker Selection
Staggolee – Pacific Gas & Electric
‘Everybody Be Cool’ – George Clooney
Truck Turner – Isaac Hayes
‘Super Sounds’ – Steven Wright
Stuck In The Middle With You – Steelers Wheel
Jeepster – T.Rex
Foolish Heart – The Mavericks
Bustin’ Surfboards – The Tornadoes
Graceland – Charlie Sextion
Hooked On A Feeling – Blue Swede
You’re So Cool – Hans Zimmer
Sentimental Journey – Esquivel
Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time) – Delfonics
The Grand Duel (Parte Prima) – Luis Enrique Bacalov
Since I First Met You – The Robins
You Belong To Me – Bob Dylan
My Grudge Blues (Urami Bushi) – Meiko Kaji
‘Let’s Get A Taco’ – Harvey Keitel & Tim Roth
Disc 2
‘Kill The Band’ – Tom Savini
Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) – Nancy Sinatra
That Certain Female – Charlie Feathers
Surf Rider – The Lovely Ones
Rumble – Link Wray & His Ray Men
‘Jack Rabbit Slims Twist Contest’/You Never Can Tell Jerome Patrick Hoban & Uma Thurman/Chuck Berry
Coconut – Nilsson
Lonesome Town – Ricky Nelson
Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon – Urge Overkill
If Love Is A Red Dress (Hang Me In Rags) – Maria McKee
Street Life – Randy Crawford
Let’s Stay Together – Al Green
Run Fay Fun – Isaac Hayes
The Green Hornet Theme – Al Hirt
Battle Without Honour & Humanity – Tomoyasu Hotei
The Lions & the Cucumber Vampire’s – Sound Incorporated
Flowers One The Wall – The Statler Brothers
Across 110th Street – Bobby Womack
Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood – Santa Esmeralda
Summertime KIller – Luis Bacalov
The Flower Of Carnage – Meiko Kaji
The Lonely – Shepherd Zamfir
‘Ezekiel 25:17’ – Samuel L. Jackson
Both the title and the cover of this compilation were taken from an actual release from 1996 which was the inspiration for completing this in the first place.
This playlist could not be reproduced on Spotify because the it would seem that that platform has not secured the rights to the dialogue.
Well, here we are with the third and final volume of ‘Endless Bummer’ the worst recordings of The Beach Boys. A quick recap first though. These collections was inspired by ‘Elvis’ Greatest Shit’ Bootleg and one dedicated to The Beach Boys called ‘Endless Bummer, The Very Worst of The Beach Boys’. As I said back in previous two posts on this topic, that Beach Boys sure does live up to its title. There is a drunk Carl Wilson trying to make his way through ‘Good Vibrations’, Mike Love making a quick buck on some adverts, a Spanish language version of their massive mid 80s hit, ‘Kokomo’ as well Brian Wilson’s father berating him in the recoding. However, all of these recording from this have not been released commercially as far as I can tell, and it is unlikely that they ever will be anyway.
In these collections, I have only looked at songs that the band officially released with this collection looking at the period between 1980 and 1996.
As the Beach Boys entered the 1980s, they were doing well as a concert band but their records of new material were not. One of the reasons for this could date back to 1974 when the compilation ‘Endless Summer’ was released. It was a massive seller, especially in the USA. All of the songs on that record had all been released before ‘Pet Sounds’, so when the public came to watch the band, they wanted to hear those old hits. What were The Beach Boys to do? Play their new material which might lose them their audience, or play those old hits which might struggle to gain them a new one. With the newer albums, should they continue with the method of working that had been artistically satisfying (for most of the band anyway) but did not sell as many records as they had been doing before etc the ill fated ‘Smile’ sessions? They sort of came up with this hybrid of new material and covering oldies. The concerts still sold out but the albums started to flow the law of diminishing returns.
This does not mean that there wasn’t quality material being recorded. Dennis and Carl Wilson put out solo albums with both either taking time out for the band or leaving, just not permanently. Mike Love was also recording plenty of material. He recorded two solo albums called ‘First Love’ & ‘Country Love’. Neither saw the light of day at the time as well as front another band called Celebration. Bruce Johnston who spent most of the 1970s out of the band also got in on the solo album act. Brian was going through a hard time due to his growing dependency on drink and drugs. He would become engaged in musical projects but he would not see them through to fruition. Dennis Wilson’s life was also spiralling out of control. Only Al Jardine seems to have taken a back seat when it came to putting out an album.
So, as we can see The Beach Boys were a bit of a mess but that does not mean they were going away. First up was the album ‘Keepin’ The Summer Alive’ as well as the only live performance with the six core members of The Beach Boys on stage when they played at Knebworth. Between that album and their next self titled album five years later in 1985, they struggled to escape their past. The band put out a best of compilation of music from 1970 to 1980. Capitol, their original label put out another best of compilation, a rarities album and a mash up single of loads of their hits. These were all the rage in the early 1980s.
‘The Beach Boys’ album followed by yet another best of in 1986, but it did at least have two new tracks on it. ‘Still Cruisin’ appeared in 1989 and was made up mostly of material that had been used in films, and could be argued to be a bit of a rip off. Out of the ten songs that made up this record, the last three were all from the 1960s that had been used in films produced up to six years earlier. We then get to ‘Summer in Paradise’. Arguably the worst record the band ever released, and one of the worst records put out by anyone. It is so bad, I could have included the whole record on this compilation and was very tempted to do so. It has been out of print for years and is noticeably absent from streaming services. There have been numerous podcasts and YouTube videos not his record, but this one by Todd in the Shadows is all you need to get an idea of how bad this record truly is (see below).
The Beach Boys finished the century guesting on a record by Status Quo as well as putting out an LP of reworking of their earlier output with country starts singing the lead vocals. The output of the band significantly slowed after this but there was still enough to collect another worst of The Beach Boys and without doubt, this is definitely the worst of the three.
Side A
Wipe Out (With The Fat Boys) (Still Crusin’)
Make It Big (Still Cruisin’)
Rock ’n’ Roll To The Rescue – Percadella Mix (12’ Single)
Crack At Your Love (The Beach Boys)
Male Ego (The Beach Boys)
California Calling (The Beach Boys)
Happy Endings (7” Single)
Side B
Problem Child (CD Single)
Crocodile Rock (Two Rooms – A Tribute To Elton John & Bernie Taupin)
Surfin’ (Summer In Paradise)
Summer Of Love (Summer In Paradise)
Remember “Walking In The Sand” (Summer In Paradise)
Summer In Paradise (Summer In Paradise)
The Warmth Of The Sun (With Willie Nelson) (Star & Stripes Vol.1)
Bonus 12” Single
Here Comes The Night (L.A. (Light Album)
Beach Boys Medley (7” Single)
Rock ’n’ Roll To The Rescue – Beach Party Mix (12” Single)
Wipe Out – The story goes that this was originally meant to be recorded with Run DMC, but then Mike Love stuck a deal with The Fat Boys instead. A huge hit in the UK and a top twenty in the States, The Beach Boys seemed to be happy to trade on their past. The video was full of what could only be described as Beach Boys cliches as it includes women in bikinis, surf boards, opened topped jeeps and a trip to the beach.
Make It Big – Used in the film ‘Troop Beverly Hills’ (yes I have not heard of it either), the song tries to inspire an aspiring actress to make it in Hollywood. As will become apparent in this compilation, the lyrics were written by Mike Love who has to put in some call backs to the bands 60s heyday, or the music that inspired them. In this case, Johny B. Goode is name checked.
Rock ’n’ Roll To The Rescue (Percadella Mix) – As I mentioned in the notes to Volume 2, The Beach Boys were once setting the trends. By the 80s, they were following them and this is a case in point here. The production screams 80s which might have seemed modern at the time, but now sounds more dated than the records they put out in the 60s and early 70s. More references to the past in Mike Love’s lyrics with a mention for surfer girls as well as the songs Tutti Fruity and Blue Suede Shoes. The video once again includes surf boards, women in bikinis and a singer in his mid 40s ogling women young enough to be his daughter. You can work out whom.
Crack At Your Love – not the worst song on here, but this sounds more like a demo than a fully produced record. The drum machine sounds so dated and the rest of the production has not aged well either.
Male Ego – A bonus track on the CD version of ‘The Beach Boys’ album, the lyrics are all about a man who is all about the ladies and the potential for one night stands. In fact, he is so sure of his prowess as a ladies man that believes he will still be wooing the ladies well into his eighties. Oh dear.
California Calling – This is most 60s sounding Beach Boys track in, except for the 80s production that is. More call backs to their heyday with references to surfing, woodies and custom cars. I was surprised to find that Mike Love had nothing to do with writing this. It would seem the other Beach Boys were getting in on the act.
Happy Endings (7” Single) – ‘Still Crusin’ was meant to be an album of songs that The Beach Boys had produced that were used in films. That album came out in 1989 but this track which was used in the 1987 film ‘The Telephone’, which I have only heard of because it was written by Squire favourite, Harry Nilsson. Why wasn’t this used on ‘Still Cruisin’. Could it be that Little Richard who shares vocal duties on this record seems to ruin it with a performance that does not suit the sentiments of the record. Shocking.
Problem Child – This is also another song from a film, the title of which is the same as the tune. The film was a big hit, but this single was not. By the looks it, but only came out on cassette and promo CD. Once again, the production is so of its time, it has dated quite badly. The call back to previous music seems to be Da Do Ron Ron
Crocodile Rock – A band who have spent the previous five years or so writing loads of lyrics referencing the rock and roll era covering a song written in 1972 doing exactly the same thing. You could not make this up.
Surfin’ – The next four songs come for the ‘Summer in Paradise’ album and I cannot stress enough that I could have included the whole album, it is so bad. This song was their first ever single and the original recording is basic, and so is the song. However, this update has some of the worst programmed drums you can get and why would you want this old song on your album? Surely they could have written something newer? This is so overtop, I am sure that someone on the albums personal list miss being credited with playing the kitchen sink.
Summer Of Love – Mike Love raps. Now I know that Brian Wilson did the same thing a few years before but that remains unreleased. This however escaped. There should be a bingo card for anyone listening to this song, the amount of references there are to old hits by not only The Beach Boys, but The Mamas & The Papas. This was written as a potential duet between Bart Simpson and Mike Love, but the producers of the TV show wisely turned it down. The producers of Baywatch did not, and the video of this is full of more women in bathing suits, a beach and a surf board. This is getting beyond a joke.
Remember “Walking In The Sand” – An absolute classic mid 60s pop record, ruined by the production on this record. How not to produce a cover.
Summer In Paradise – The parent album was said by Mike Love to be a record about environmental protection. Well, ‘Summer in Paradise’ did do its bit for the environment as it reportedly sold less than 1000 copies in the USA and led to the company that distributed it to go bankrupt. This song about environmental protection starts of with a verse about having fun, fun, fun, singing about surfing and rocking with Rhonda and Barbara Ann. Recycling lyrics, that’s environmentally friendly isn’t it.
The Warmth Of The Sun (With Willie Nelson) – Written in response to the assignation of John F Kennedy, ‘The Warmth of the Sun’ is a beautiful song. The harmonies are great, the production subtle but perfect. The voices of The Beach Boys on the original 1964 recording are an example of harmonies done brilliantly. Well, Willie Nelson has written some great songs but a great vocalist, he is not. It is almost as though he is talking through this rendition.
Here Comes The Night – Originally released on the ‘Wild Honey’ album, this recoding was made in 1979 when The Beach Boys were releasing disco records, two years later than its heyday and just before the Disco Sucks movement kicked into gear. The original version was just under three minutes but this breaks the ten minute barrier. Sometimes less is more people.
Beach Boys Medley – Medleys were big in the early 80s. Even The Beatles released one even though you would be hard pushed to find one on a singles collection from after 1982. Anyway, the idea was to take lots of songs, edited them down and then put them to make continuous listening experience. This one made the top 20 in the USA, but really is a novelty that soon wore out.
Rock ’n’ Roll To The Rescue (Beach Party Mix) – The same as above really, but with more of it. 80s production has a lot to answer for.
The cover for this was taken from the ‘Keeping The Summer Alive’ and/or ‘Living With A Heartache’ (depending on where in the world you lived) single picture sleeve. It perfectly sums up the band at that time. Bruce Johnson and Mike Love seem to very happy to be there. Brian Wilson looks ill and Carl Wilson looks like he would rather be anywhere else. Possibly where ever Dennis is as it looks like he is off having fun somewhere else. Al Jardine, well I’m not sure. The title and a different logo were added.
The YouTube video by Todd In The Shadows regarding the ‘Summer In Paradise’ album is well worth a watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DoFMALzWZI
Looking at classic albums came out 1973 (because everyone loves a 50th anniversary re-release don’t they), one name really does stand out. That is ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ by Pink Floyd. I had a think about what I could post to celebrate the anniversary of this release? How about a live album based around the concert recorded for the BBC performed at the Empire Pool (now Wembley Arena) back in 1974. Why pick this? Well, up until this point, it has never seen an official release as a stand alone release, having been put out piecemeal on the Immersion Edition’s and ‘Early Years’ box set over the last ten years. If it hd been released back in the day, say early 1975, it would have been a nice stop gap between ‘Dark Side’ and whatever the band were planning on releasing as their next album. I say this because ‘Dark Side’ was such an albatross around the bands neck at this point, they did not have that many ideas knocking about as that what their next album should be. There was a proto version of ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ which would be the centre piece of the next album they would eventually release in the shape of ‘Wish You Were Here’. There was also the infamous abandoned project, ‘Household Objects’ which saw the band used sounds such as wine glasses filled with water, elastic bands tuned to sound like a bass guitar and aerosol cans instead of hi hats. Needless to say, common sense prevailed on this one and the band just picked up their actually instruments and produced another classic album.
So, what material could be included in this release? Well, the whole of the ‘Dark Side of The Moon’ album of course. I was a bit reluctant to follow the actual LP when it came to sequencing this album. That was because the second side of ‘Dark Side’ clocked in at over 31 minutes. Not only is this very long for an LP, especially in the 70s, but Pink Floyd were always keen to present their music in the best sound quality as possible. 31 minutes on an LP would compromise the fidelity some what. Anyway, I would start thing off with ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’. Even at this stage, the song clocked in at over 20 minutes so that would take up the whole side of an LP. Sides 2 and 3 would follow the ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ album. Side 4 would include the encore, ‘Echoes’.
A double album would be the perfect format for this album. However, it could have been a potential triple because there were two songs which I did not include. These were ‘Raving & Drooling’ and ‘You’ve Got To Be Crazy’, early version of songs that would eventually appear on the ‘Animals’ album. Both were quite long, but ‘Raving & Drooling’ was only 12 minutes long so this additional disc would be quite short in comparison to the other two. Triple albums are quite rare even though not unheard of at the time. For example, ‘Wings Over America’ from Wings was a live triple and that came out in 1976.
Why did Pink Floyd not release this at the time? Essentially, they would be releasing the same material they had release just over a year before. Even though this was a live version of ‘Dark Side’, this would not have been seen as good value for their fans who had only just purchased the original LP. It would also have released a track that would be on their next album in the shape of ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’. Why put songs out that you may wish to out out on your next album before you have even recorded it?
Anyway, not long after I had written this entry together, Floyd announced that they were putting the ‘Dark Side’ part of this concert as a stand alone release as part of their own 50th anniversary celebrations. It would be interesting to hear what Side 2 sounds like considering how much music there is on there.
Side 1
Shine On Your Crazy Diamond
Side 2
Speak To Me
Breathe (In The Air)
On the Run
Time
The Great Gig In The Sky
Side 3
Money
Us & Them
Any Colour You Like
Brain Damage
Eclipse
Side 4
Echoes
What amazes me that when I was looking into this is that the band had been performing the ‘Dark Side Of the Moon’ album in its entirety (granted, not in its final form) a whole year before the studio album came out. What successful band these days would preview their new album before it had even been recorded int he studio. They did not learn their lesson as songs previewed during the 1974 tour would contain songs, some of which would not been recorded in the studio until three years later.
The cover was taken from a post by andrewskyDE on a Steve Hoffman post regarding this album.
