You can say a lot of things about the 1960s and a lot of
people have, but for me the best thing about the 1960s was still the music.
Without the music you wouldn’t have the cultural revolution and all the icons
that go with it. But having said that, a lot of the music produced in the 60s
was pretty horrid and it hasn’t stood up too well over time. In fact, most of
the key figures in 60s music actually annoy the hell out of me.
Bob Dylan – what the hell is he on about? His voice barely rises above the spoken word and his harmonica playing is like nails on a
blackboard. There are a handful of his songs I can deal with but on the whole,
too much to say and no blues to give it any feeling. Icon one down.
The Grateful Dead? OMFG no. Apparently you had to see them
live to appreciate them. The tabs would have helped too so you could at least watch
the light show, because musically they are so lame they are lifeless. Mock soul
vocals, pomped out lyrical drivel and wimped out guitar solos that go on and on
and on and on without achieving anything. All the Dead Heads that have followed
them around for 50 years qualify for a big three-foot-high, gold-plated
get-a-life trophy. Icon two down.
Jefferson
Airplane. I own a copy of Surrealistic Pillow. It has a lot of good songs and a
good atmosphere that was lost on everything else they did subsequently. Their
biggest problem, apart from Marty Balin’s stoned out, mock soul vocals, is the
fact that Jorma Kaukonen came up with THE worst guitar sound in recorded
history. Whoever told him that putting an extra pick-up on a semi acoustic
guitar then feeding it into a fuzz box was a good idea should have been shot.
It produced the tinniest lead guitar sound imaginable and it has the same
effect on the nervous system as Bob Dylan’s harmonica. Surrealistic Pillow is
good because there are very few guitar solos on it and those they do are played
clean. Everything they did subsequently is plagued by Jorma and Marty’s
shortcomings. I don’t want to sink the boot in too much because their song
writing is so good, but I honestly find most of their stuff unlistenable. Icon
three down.
So who do you like Alvis? Come on. You spent most of the
last post railing against the state of the Universe - tell us something good already.
Okay, okay. Sinking the boot into icons is actually a lot of
fun, but I’ll get back on topic. And I didn’t even get around to the Beatles.
I’ll spend the rest of this post hooking you up with my
favourite tracks from the 60’s. Yes tracks. Because in a lot of cases it’s just
the odd track that people did that floats my boat, not their overall legend or
output (with the exception of Jimi, but that’s a given – they could dig him up
now and he’d still be cooler than anyone else treading the boards). So here goes. In no particular order, you need to hear these:
Section 43 –
Country Joe and the Fish. Not the version on their first album, but
the one on their first EP. If any 1966 track qualifies as ‘psychedelic’ this is
it. The whole thing seems to come from a place further than far east, and it
sounds like it is being played in a key of its own. It’s actually just an
ordinary minor key, but the languid baseline uses a musical language outside
anything ‘rock’ had produced up to that point, and ever since too for that
matter. Truly music to trip to. Even the silly country twang in the middle
makes sense in this world.
A Beacon from Mars
– Kaleidoscope. Music to trip to is a theme across these tracks
actually. This is the title track from Kaleidoscope’s second album, recorded in
1968. What is particularly mind-blowing about this track is that the band
recorded it live in the studio. Starting
out barely audible with a slow take on Howling Wolf’s Smokestack Lightning it
develops over 12 and half minutes into a nocturnal journey through forgotten
parts of America
and outer/inner space. It simmers and bubbles away with a hypnotic momentum, highlighted
by an incredible feedback solo halfway through. This is one of my favourite
pieces of music full stop.
Music – Kaleidoscope. Not
the same Kaleidoscope as above, but I couldn’t resist putting them both in.
This is the English band of the same name but of very different flavour. These
guys were serious intellectuals, and this is what you get when you let four Cambridge types loose in a
studio with a bunch of tabs, a phaser unit, and some musty opera samples. Not
as pompous and dated as it sounds, it’s actually a genuine assault on the
senses. Another pure one-off.
Wind Chimes – Mad
River. Not the version on their first EP this time, but the one
on their first album. The EP version has some inexplicable Hare-Krishna chants
in the middle that just piss me off. The album version has none of that and
features some incredibly deep ‘acid rock’ guitar soloing across it. ‘Acid rock’
actually just translates to the use of minor keys in a rock setting but what
the hey. Everything needs a good marketing term doesn’t it. Their first album
is the best thing that came out of San
Francisco in the late 60’s and is recommended in its
entirety. Laurence Hammond is one of hippiedom’s best vocalists and all of
these guys were seriously talented on their instruments of choice. The only
draw back is that the album was mastered at the wrong speed so it’s a bit
chipmunked, but there is probably a speed corrected version available by now so
get googlin’.
1983, A Merman I
Should Turn to be – Jimi Hendrix. No sinking the boot in here. Jimi
is, was and always will be, my main man. Ironically this track isn’t full of
guitar playing – it’s Jimi stretching out in the studio in his favourite sci-fi/fututistic/fantasy
mode, creating a movie for the mind. Almost every instrument is played by Jimi
overlaid track by track, including wind noises made by his mouth. I have
listened to this in a lot of different settings in a lot of different states.
If I get the choice it will be what I listen to on my death bed. It’s THAT
good.
Mommy, What’s a
Funkadelic? – Funkadelic. Yes indeed – we need some funk in here.
This just scrapes in on topic as it came out late 1969. The first track on
Funkadelic’s beyond-mere-classic first album has weed smoke wafting off it as
soon as you put it on. The album should have come with its own little bag. Slow
paced and kinda sleazy, it hits the spot whenever you are in the mood for
something a little warped. The only drawback is the thin guitar sound and
slightly out of time drums in places – but who knows, that might have been intentional (or unavoidable).
The Fool –
Quicksilver Messenger Service. One of the common features across these
tracks is the lack of vocals or lyrical content (Funkadelic don’t really write
lyrics!). This one is the only ‘song’ in the list, but it’s a long one,
clocking in at around eleven minutes. The lyrics and vocals aren’t the most
memorable feature it has to be said. The high notes are cause for any cats in
ear shot to run out the door, but these guys were jammers so give them a break.
It’s guitars to the fore this time. Brilliant solos all across it, with a nice
little percussive wah-wah break taking it to places a little other-worldy.
Spaced out tarot-rock anyone?
It’s All Over Now,
Baby Blue – The 13th Floor Elevators. What happens when
you take a Dylan song, give it some decent vocals and overlay it with floating
guitar lines of the sort the Grateful Dead can only dream of? You get this.
I had to include an Elevators track because they are genuine 60’s icons for all
the right reasons – chemical overindulgence, free thinking and musical talent
taken to illogical extremes with an enduring cult following to match. Roky
Erikson is a survivor of bizarre proportions given what he put himself through
in the late 60s, and he was still able to put out stand up music into the 1980s
when all of his contemporaries had either sold out or completely lost the
(musical) plot. This track is from their second LP Easter Everywhere – a work
of beauty that stirred the frantic garage rock of their classic debut into a
smoother paste without wasting the crucial blues chunks. If they had kept it
together they would have been huge, but they burnt out and joined the canon of
60s what-might-have-beens instead. Sad, but almost inevitable.
Trust Us – Captain
Beefheart and His Magic Band. I need to double check when this came out
but it was before Trout Mask Replica and that was 1969 so I think we’re good.
The list ends with the most indescribable song. Everything that makes the good
Captain great is included here. Lyrics that sound profound, but are really just
nonsense. Bluesy guitar licks and wild production. It sounds mad and it
probably is (although word has it the Captain was putting it on most of the
time). It makes me laugh every time.
I’ve left out tracks by Frank Zappa, Fleetwood Mac and
Santana because their best stuff starts around 1970, and none of it has the
same vibe as the above, mainly because the atmosphere of lysergic experimentation
that produced them was starting to fade away.
As usual I’ll try and link these back to our stuff. In
reality its something of a stretch this time around, although we aren’t
strangers to slow, spaced out instrumentals so I don’t feel too dishonest. Try
Nullarbor and Void and Light Well on Posts from Planet Earth as a starting
point. They probably come up to the belly button of the above tracks. And
phasers and samples? – Well, that we can do!
Paypal users can check us out (literally) on Bandcamp.
