Month: May 2023

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Various Artists – The Psychedelic Years Vol.5

It is the fifth month so it must be time for Volume 5 in my series of collections looking back at the Psychedelic Years. Like previous efforts, this one is a collection of well known bands mixed with a lot of obscure (some would say very) artists. The better known include The Rolling Stones with a song from their underrated psychedelic effort, ‘Their Satanic Majesties Request’. Fairport Convention were not always the folk rock band and their first record was closer to the Jefferson Airplane than the songs they found at Cecil Sharp House. Genesis also make an appearance in their pre-prog days with a song from their much maligned debut album. Personally, I really like this record.

On the other side, we Bobak, Jons, Malone which included cult producer Will Malone in their ranks. Jessie Taper makes an appearance with ‘Fall Down’ taken from the ‘Guitar Absolution In The Shade of The Midnight Sun’ album. Lifted from the only known acetate of this record, this is possibly the greatest unreleased album of all time. Andy Ellison was a member of the infamous John’s Children before going soloing Kippington Lodge featured a pre-fame Nick Lowe.

More of the same next month.

Disc 1

  1. S. F. Sorrow Is Born – The Pretty Things
  2. Care Of Cell 44 – The Zombies
  3. Tarot (Ace Of Wand Theme) – Andrew Bown
  4. Jenny Artichoke – Kaleidoscope
  5. The Castle Has Fallen – The Ghost
  6. Sueno – The Truth
  7. It’s Alright Ma, It’s Only Witchcraft – Fairport Convention
  8. The Eagle Flies On Friday – The Exception (UK)
  9. Silver Tree Top School for Boys – The Beatstalkers
  10. Good Times – Eric Burdon & The Animals
  11. 2000 Light Years From Home – The Rolling Stones
  12. Boy Meats Girl – Paper Blitz Tissue
  13. I Wonder Where My Sister’s Gone – Anán
  14. Trip On An Orange Bicycle – Orange Bicycle
  15. Let’s Live For Today – The Living Daylights
  16. Nodnol – The Spectrum
  17. Hey! Mr. Carpenter – The Fox
  18. Shout It – Kate
  19. And Life Goes On – The Mirage
  20. Fairylights – Bent Frame
  21. Love & Best Wishes – The Uglys
  22. With A Little Help – World Of Oz
  23. Sylvie – The Hills
  24. Lord John – The Bobcats
  25. On A Meadow Lane – Bobak, Jons, Malone
  26. Sunshine – Gun

Disc 2

  1. Rainbow Chaser – Nirvana (UK)
  2. Hey Conductor – The League
  3. I’m Flying – Serendipity
  4. Colour Of My Mind – The Attack
  5. Flight From Ashiya – Kaleidoscope
  6. Wildflowers – The Holy Mackerel
  7. Lydia Purple – Dunn & McCashen
  8. In The Beginning- Genesis
  9. Fall Down – Jesse Harper
  10. House Of Many Windows – Motherlight (Bobak, Jons, Malone)
  11. My New Day & Age – The Mindbenders
  12. Supernatural Fairytales – Art
  13. Good Evening – Tickle
  14. Drizzle – 14
  15. A Night To Remember – Alan Avon & The Toy Shop
  16. I Can See Her Face – Kippington Lodge
  17. Yellow Balloon – Icarus
  18. The Golden Lion – The Lomax Alliance
  19. Yellow Rainbow – The Rocking’ Berries
  20. Fool From Upper Eden – Andy Ellison
  21. 53 Summer Street – Turquoise
  22. World Spinning Sadly – The Parking Lot
  23. Castles In The Sky – Blonde On Blonde
  24. World Of You – The Aerovons
  25. It Brings Me Down – Billy Nicholls
  26. Look At Me I’ve Fallen Into A Teapot – Cliff Wade
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Various Artists – Come To The Sunshine

The summer months are almost upon us so what better time is there to present a compilation looking at the period in the mid 60s where music makers from the USA* were producing tunes that reflected the then more innocent age. There are songs about cars, mopeds, having fun, girls (and boys) and there are hints at the more reflective music that would become more prevalent later int he decade. ‘Guess I’m Dumb’ by Glen Campbell being a good example of that. Brian Wilson’s finger prints are all over this compilation as well. He was churning out so much music in the mid 60s that he recorded with more than just The Beach Boys. These included The Honeys which featured his future wife, Marilyn, within their ranks. The songs by The Survivors, the aforementioned Glen Campbell as well as Jan & Dean have Wilson’s fingerprints all over them. 

Future Beach Boys collaborators, Bruce Johnson and Terry Melcher are also represented here, not only under their own names (Bruce & Terry) but as The Rip Chords. Harry Nilsson and Phil Spector are both represented by their writing credits on the song ‘This Could Be The Night’ by The Modern Folk Quartet. Phil Spector also produced the original version of ‘Chapel of Love’ by Darlene Love. This was not released until 30 years after it was recorded. There are numerous other artists, some more well known than others but whenever I play this, it always makes me think of summer. 

Disc 1

  1. Let’s Dance – Chris Montez
  2. Johnny Angel – Shelley Fabares
  3. Walk Don’t Run ’64 – The Ventures
  4. Surf City – Jan & Dean
  5. Kick That Little Foot Sally Ann – Road Robin
  6. I Get Around – The Beach Boys
  7. Not The Lovin’ Kind  – Dino, Desi & Billy
  8. Three Window Coupe – The Rip Chords
  9. Little Honda – The Hondells
  10. I Live For The Sun – The Sunrays
  11. That’s The Way The World Has Got To Be (Part 1) – Chris Lucey
  12. For You – Rick Nelson
  13. Anywhere The Girl Are – The Fantastic Baggys
  14. Another Saturday Night – Sam Cooke
  15. Strange Love – Darlene Love
  16. Rising Sun – The Deep Six
  17. Everybody Loves A Clown – Gary Lewis & The Playboys
  18. The Big Beat – Bob & Sheri
  19. I’m A Drifter – Joe & Eddie
  20. Meet Me Tonight Little Girl – Philip & Stephan
  21. The Night Has A Thousand Eyes – Bobby Lee
  22. Man With Money – The Everly Brothers
  23. Summer Means Fun – Bruce & Terry
  24. Smokey Joe’s – Donna Loren
  25. Let Me Be – The Turtles
  26. You Say Pretty Words – Ramona King
  27. So Hard To Find – The Critters
  28. Guess I’m Dumb – Glen Campbell
  29. I Can’t Help But Wonder Where I’m Bound – Dion & The Wanderers
  30. Baby What You Want Me Top Do? – Bob & Bobby
  31. This Could Be The Night – The Modern Folk Quartet
  32. Keep On Dancing – The Ronettes
  33. Land Of The Free – Bonnie & The Treasures

Disc 2

  1. Pamela Jean – The Survivors
  2. Ride Away – Bob & Sheri
  3. Walk Right In – The Moments
  4. Twistin’ The Night Away – Sam Cooke
  5. Hey Little Cobra – The Rip Chords
  6. Tell ‘em I’m Surfin’ – The Fantastic Baggys
  7. Dream For Sale – Joey Paige
  8. The Rebel Kind – Dino, Desi & Billy
  9. Roses & Rainbows – Danny Hutton
  10. That’s How It Goes – Joey Heatherton
  11. Somebody Groovy – The Mamas & The Papas
  12. Haloween Mary – P. F. Sloan
  13. They’re Jealous Of Me – Doona Loren
  14. The Birds & The Bees – Jewel Akens
  15. Many Are The Times – Lee Mallory
  16. Over You – Paul Revere & The Raiders
  17. I’m Sweet On You – Tina & The Mustangs
  18. June Bride Baby – The Goldbriars
  19. The Sh-down Down Song (You Better Leave Him Alone) – The Ginger-Snaps Dandee Dawson
  20. Deep Purple – Nino Tempo & April Stevens
  21. I’m Through With You – Mark V
  22. He’s A Doll – The Honeys
  23. The End – Ian Whitcomb
  24. This Diamond Ring – Gary Lewis & The Playboys
  25. Baby I See You – Deana Martin
  26. Eve Of Destruction – Barry McGuire
  27. Bye, Bye, Bye – The Tikis
  28. What Am I Going To Do – The Dovers
  29. Call Me – Chris Montez
  30. Baby Dear – Wildflowers
  31. Chapel Of Love – Darlene Love
  32. All Summer Long – The Beach Boys

The cover art is adapted from one used by Andrew Sandoval for his podcast of the same name. If you have not heard any of the episodes, I would highly recommend it. 

This compilation could not be reproduced on Spotify due to one or more songs not being listed don that platform.

*I think that is where all of the artists on this compilation were from anyway

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Pink Floyd (feat. Syd Barrett & Ron Geesin) – Corrosion In The Pink Room

I was inspired to put this compilation together by an old work colleague who was into, what he called ‘noisy music’. I had only just bought Pink Floyd’s rather pricey but quite comprehensive ‘Early Years’ box set. Lots of psychedelic noodling, progressive jamming and in some cases, just noise was included on the box. I also thought I would use some of the noisy tracks from the official Floyd catalogue (such as Ummagumma), some tracks from the collaboration between Roger Water and Ron Feesin as well some bits and pieces from Syd Barrett, the bands original guitar player.  

There was so much material to use that the project soon ballooned to a three disc set, with tracks edited, cross faded and sometimes laid onto of each other. In the end,  I produced a work that would be a cohesive sound experience. This is also designed for the playing time of a CD and not vinyl, which is what I normally do. 

The releases that were used to complete this project were: 

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (Stereo Mix)

A Saucerful Of Secrets (Stereo Mix)

More

Ummagumma

Zabriskie Point

Relics

Omay Yad (Bootleg)

Obscured By Clouds

Dark Side Of The Moon (Immersion Box Set)

Wish You Were Here (Immersion Box Set)

London ’66-’67 EP

The Early Years 1965-1972

Music From the Body (Roger Waters & Ron Geesin)

An Introduction to Syd Barrett – Downloadable Bonus Track (Syd Barrett)

Disc 1

  1. John Latham 1
  2. John Latham 2
  3. John Latham 3
  4. John Latham 4
  5. John Latham 5
  6. John Latham 6
  7. John Latham 7
  8. Nick’s Boogie
  9. Rhamadam (Syd Barrett)
  10. Saucerful Of Secrets
  11. Moonhead (Incorporating John Latham 8)
  12. Main Theme For ‘More’
  13. Bike (Sound Effects Only) 

Disc 2

  1. The Grand Vizier’s Garden Party Part 2 (Entertainment)
  2. Love Scene (Version 1)
  3. Quicksilver
  4. Careful With That Axe Eugene (Incorporating Come In Number 51, Your Time Is Up)
  5. Love Scene (Take 1)
  6. Sysyphus
  7. Several Species Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in A Cave & Grooving With A Pict
  8. Love Scene (Version 2)
  9. Heart Beat, Pig Meat
  10. Up The Kyper
  11. Wine Glasses
  12. Seabirds (Incorporating The Womb Bit & Embryo Thought)
  13. On The Run – 1972 Early Mix (Incorporating More Than Seven Dwarfs In Penis Land)
  14. Unknown Song – Take 1 (Incorporating Embryonic Womb-Walk & Jugband Blues)
  15. Cirrus Minor

Disc 3

  1. Love Scene (Version 7)
  2. Interstellar Overdrive – Mono (Part 1) 
  3. Fingal’s Cave (Part 1)
  4. Oneone
  5. Explosion
  6. Aeroplane
  7. Pow R. Toc H. (Stereo)
  8. Theme – Beat Version (Alternative Version)
  9. Fingal’s Cave (Part 2)
  10. The Narrow Way (Part 2)
  11. Dramatic Theme
  12. Love Scene (Version 4)
  13. Obscured By Clouds
  14. When You’re In
  15. Heart Beat, Pig Meat (Film Version)
  16. Interstellar Overdrive – Demo (Incorporating John Latham 9)

The title of this compilation takes it name from an improvised instrumental the band did in 1970 for a TV performance, which I didn’t end up using for this. 

The cover is very much in the vein of Hypnosis, who did so many of Pink Floyd’s covers but I suspect I found this image on the Twitter site, Images that could be album covers. 

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Boney M – Nightflight To Venus (Deluxe Edition)

Boney M started off as a studio project by West German producer and song writer, Frank Farian. Farian had released a number of songs under his own name before he had a hit with ‘Baby Do You Wanna Bump’, a loose remake of Prince Busters ‘Al Capone’. He released the song under the name of Boney M, but not wanting to appear in the spotlight himself, he hired some performers to take the songs he was writing out on the road. The people who were chosen to front Boney M, all hailed from the Caribbean. These were Maizie Williams (from Montserrat), Bobby Farrell (from Aruba) as well as Liza Mitchell and Marcia Barrett (both from Jamaica). However, Williams and Farrell did not sing on any of the studio recordings, even though they were heard when the group performed live. 

The group struggled to follow ‘Baby Do You Wanna Bump’ until they were invited on the German TV show, Musikladen performing ‘Daddy Cool’. This became a big hit in Germany and the group began to have hits in other countries around Europe. Their first album ‘Take The Heat Off Me’ was a modest hit outside of mainland Europe, and the follow up ‘Love For Sale’ improved upon its predecessors sales and chart performance. Their singles up to this point were huge chart successes in all the major markets except the USA but when their third album was released, the groups sales went through the roof. 

‘Nightflight To Venus’ came out in July 1978 and contained the double A-Side single ‘Rivers Of Babylon’ and ‘Brown Girl In The Ring’, one of the biggest selling singles in UK history. With the follow up release being the disco classic’ ‘Rasputin’ and they were able to achieve another million selling UK single with the then non-album track, ‘Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Love’. The B-Side of this Christmas related single was ‘Dancing in the Streets’, a new song and not a cover of the Martha & The Vandellas track. This album was also a massive seller, achieving Platinum status in many territories but when it comes to re-releases, these have been thin on the ground. This album is ripe for a deluxe edition and so The Squire is here to provide one.  

‘Nightflight to Venus’ lends itself to this format just because of the numerous different versions of the songs that were on the album. Normally when a record comes out, it tends to be definitive version with all of the mixes and edits finalised. However, with ‘Nightlight To Venus’, this was not the case. Four versions of this record were released, most of which were exclusive to Germany. The different versions can be easily identified by the length of the first track, ‘Nightflight To Venus’ which is the only song with a different duration on each version. The opening song was on the first version had a playing time of seven minutes and eleven seconds but by the time the forth, and final version was released, this had been edited down to four minutes and forty six seconds. The song itself is based around Cozy Powell’s ‘Dance With The Devil’ single, but as this was in the era before sampling, I suspect the songwriters did not receive any monetary recompense for this drum pattern. Anyway, I digress. 

This fourth and last version is considered to be the finished version and is the one that most people around the world would have heard. This is also the version that was released on CD. So what happened to all of the different versions of the songs that were released before the fourth and final version came out? These seemed to have been reassigned to the archives, for now at least. Apart from these different album version, there was also numerous single mixes. This album was released at the high of disco so not only were there 7” single version, but extended 12” mixes. These singles mixes as well as LP variation would neatly fit onto a three CD release of the album. This would also include the single ‘Mary’s Boy Child/ Oh My Lord’ with its B-Side ‘Dancing In The Streets’ in all its variations as well, as this came out in the same year. 

The cover I used is the same as the original with the Deluxe Edition logo also present. 

Disc 1

  1. Nightflight To Venus
  2. Rasputin
  3. Painter Man
  4. He Was A Steppenwolf
  5. King Of The Road
  6. Rivers Of Babylon
  7. Voodoonight
  8. Brown Girl In The Ring
  9. Never Change Lovers In The Middle Of The Night
  10. Heart Of Gold

Disc 2 – Single Versions

  1. Rivers of Babylon (Original 7” Version 1978)
  2. Brown Girl In The Ring (Dutch Single Mix 1978)
  3. Rasputin (7” Version 1978)
  4. Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Lord (7” Version 1978)
  5. Dancing In The Streets (7” Version 1978)
  6. Rivers Of Babylon (US 12” Version 1978)
  7. Rasputin (12” Version 1978)
  8. Dancing In The Streets (12” Version 1978)
  9. Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Lord (12’ Version 1978)
  10. Rivers Of Babylon (US Promo 12” Version 1978)

Disc 3 – Variations

  1. Nightlfight to Venus (German 1st Pressing)
  2. Rasputin (German 1st Pressing)
  3. He Was A Steppenwolf (German 1st Pressing)
  4. Rivers Of Babylon (German 1st Pressing)
  5. Voodoonight (German 2nd Pressing)
  6. Nightflight To Venus (German 2nd Pressing)
  7. Rasputin (German 2nd Pressing)
  8. Nightflight To Venus (German 3rd Pressing)
  9. Rasputin (German 3rd Pressing)
  10. Painter Man (German 3rd Pressing)
  11. He Was A Steppnwolf (Alternative Full Length Version)
  12. Voodoonight (2nd Verse Edit)