The Kinks "Golden Hour Of The Kinks Vol. 2" 1964 - 1966(rec) 1973(comp)***

First of all, a word concerning the Golden Hour compilation series: Golden Hour was a budget record label that took off sometime in '71 and lasted until the end of the decade. Most of their releases were by easy listening orchestras, comedy acts like Benny Hill etc. but there were also some by bona fide rock and pop stars such as The Kinks. I used to own a few of these Golden Hour compilations (Donovan, Status Quo, The Kinks). Tremendous value for money; you get "Sixty Minutes Of Entertainment" for very little - OK, I bought them second hand but even as new releases they were much cheaper than the average LP. Today's experts will tell you that it's impossible to cram 60 minutes of music in a single LP vinyl without a devastating loss of quality, so record companies split 45+ minute LPs into two heavy 180-gram vinyls. Unfortunately though, the sound isn't actually that improved because there just aren't true craftsmen cutting engineers any more; all you get is the appearance and weight of a quality product to justify its hefty price. On the other hand, while these old comps may not be the height of hi-fi, I assure you they provide a perfectly adequate listening experience compared to streaming, MP3 or most CDs. 

For years, all I owned by the Kinks were these Golden Hour comps: Golden Hour Of The Kinks, Golden Hour Of The Kinks Vol. 2, and the double LP Lola, Percy & The Apeman Come Face To Face With The Village Green Preservation Society... Something Else! Put together, you get 99 tracks (!) virtually all of the band's 60's stuff. I believe I sold Vol.1 because it overlapped completely with a CD comp I bought later. By now I've also bought the complete Kinks discography of that period on CD, but I kept the other two Golder Hour LP's just because I sometimes find it more aesthetically pleasing listening to 60's and 70's music on vinyl. Vol.2 was released in 1973, and contained the band's early rock'n'roll/R&B stuff - I believe it includes the eponymous 1964 LP and 1965's Kinda Kinks almost in their entirety, missing the tracks already included in the Golden Hour Vol.1 compilation but adding some single-only releases. The original mono mixes have been "electronically re-channelled for stereo", fortunately in an unobtrusive manner. Unusually for The Kinks, these early albums also included covers by Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley etc. All of The Kinks' contemporaries (Beatles, Stones, Animals, Them) relied on similar covers in their live sets, and the versions The Kinks present us with are very pleasant and energetic in the band's early garage-rock style. That said, it is Ray Davis' own compositions that steal the show: not yet the mini-vignettes of everyday life and quaint Englishness he later became famous for, but certainly well-written pop songs like "Stop Your Sobbing", initially ignored but a big hit in the 70's for The Pretenders. "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" was likewise not an immediate smash but destined to become a much-covered garage rock classic. It's the only song here dating from 1966 - the rest come from 1964 - '65. It is amazing to think that, within those two short years, The Kinks managed to record these 24 songs as well as a dozen more that are even better and not included here - and yet the quality of the songwriting is consistent throughout. Most of them are raunchy garage rockers similar to their first big hit "You Really Got Me". "I Need You" is a worthy successor, with its crunchy riff and wild solo, while "It's All Right", "Got My Feet On The Ground", "I Gotta Move" and "Come On Now" are more rockers in that vein. Add the Stonesey R&B material, both original and American covers, and you have enough beat tunes to keep the go-go dancers occupied for quite some time - an unexpected feat by a band that later became synonymous with smart and elegant pop. Here we also get some lighter Beatlesey pop ("Such A Shame", "You Shouldn't Be Sad", "Don't Ever Change", "Something Better Beginning"), a few folkier ballad-type tunes ("So Long", "Nothin' In The World Can Stop Me Worrying 'Bout That Girl") and the country-ish "Wait Till The Summer Comes Along". "Don't You Fret" has a minimal arrangement, an acoustic folk ditty occasionally derailed by raunchy guitar. An unusual combination that reminded me of The White Stripes. Ultimately though, despite its generous 25-song tracklisting, this compilation only makes sense as an addendum to Golden Hour Vol.1. Yes it's pleasant listening by itself, but when you consider all the songs stemming from the same period but omitted ("You Really Got Me", "All Day & All Of The Night", "Tired Of Waiting For You", "Till The End Of The Day", "A Well-Respected Man", "I'm a Lover, Not a Fighter", "Set Me Free", "See My Friends" etc.), you realize this is a collection of leftovers, and who wants that?

***** for I'm Not Like Everybody Else, I Need You

**** for Wonder Where My Baby Is, Got Love If You Want It, Come On Now, It's All Right, Such A Shame, Look For Me Baby, Ev'rybody's Gonna Be Happy, I Gotta Move, Nothin' In The World Can Stop Me Worrying 'Bout That Girl, Stop Your Sobbing

*** for Don't Ever Change, Something Better Beginning, Dancing In The Street, Just Can't Go To Sleep, Long Tall Shorty, Got My Feet On The Ground, Don't You Fret, Wait Till The Summer Comes Along, Beautiful Delilah, Naggin' Woman, Cadillac, So Long, You Shouldn't Be Sad

We The People "Declaration Of Independence" 1966-68(rec) 1992(comp)****

Yet another 60's garage band chosen with the "random selection" method - I guess that's natural because I have a lot of those in my collection. The first thing I noticed upon hearing this CD again was a light crackle, which had me wondering: is it a symptom of the CD getting corrupted somehow? I can't remember if it was there from the beginning. You read so much about disc rot, yet you rarely notice it. For my part, I've mostly seen it happen to many self-recorded CD-Rs. I long since got rid of (almost all of) my CD-Rs anyway, as I don't have any space left for them. Then I do have a few legitimate CDs (1 or 2 per 1000) that suffer from the typical disc bronzing, combined with sound deterioration. But this one shows neither a bronzing effect nor the pin prick marks that are also consistent with CD rot. Which makes me think it may be a flaw in the source material: the source most probably is original old 7' singles, in less than mint condition.

We The People never did release an LP in their lifetime, although their singles (7 of them, for 3 different labels) were pretty successful locally. For whatever reason, they failed to gain radio play nationally, but proved nevertheless quite influential, with bands like The Fuzztones covering "You Burn Me Up And Down" and "My Brother The Man", while "In The Past" was also covered by bands as far away as California, Paris, and Athens. This (semi-bootleg) French compilation, initially released in vinyl in 1983, was their first ever LP. The CD version (from 1992) adds two "bonus tracks", the contents of their debut single My Brother The Man b/w Proceed With Caution (1966), both written by Wayne Proctor (guitar/vocals). The former is memorable for its muscular riff, fuzz guitar, and strange yelps, while the latter is also a potent garage rocker. The LP contains 2 more garage/fuzz monsters, "Mirror Of Your Mind" and "You Burn Me Up And Down" (also 1966, by 2nd guitarist/singer Tommy Talton). Once again, the pounding drums, distorted guitar, organ, and aggressive vocals with lots of screams, are the band's calling card. The B sides are a nice ballad called ”The Color of Love” and “He Doesn’t Go About It Right”, a folk rocker reminiscent of electric, Highway 61-era, Dylan. Out of the 16 songs here, there's only one cover (of The Rascals' "Love Is A Beautiful Thing") which is pretty rare for 60's garage bands. But We The People just happened to be a sort of garage "supergroup" comprised by members of various bands of the Orlando (FL) area, and each brought their own talents (and songs) in the mix - Proctor's "In The Past" being one of the most interesting. The fast arpeggios of the intro, which are repeated later, reminded me of some of Dick Dale's "oriental" tunes like "Misirlou". In reality it was a home-made variation of an instrument called octophone, similar to a much larger mandolin. Proctor had further customized it by using banjo strings and inventing his own tunings for it. Despite the catchy chorus and in-vogue sitar-like sound (The Beatles and Yardbirds were experimenting with sitar around the same period), it didn't catch on, with local DJ's preferring the B Side, a ballad called "St. John's Shop". This compilation includes two versions of it: 1st version is folkier, while 2nd version has a more accomplished baroque/psychedelic sound - probably this was the one on the single. Where they found the other one, I don't know - not by the band members themselves, a later interview reveals they never had any contact with the label whatsoever. Another previously unreleased track was "Declaration Of Independence", a nice pop-rock number. Probably from 1967, it bears some resemblance to their other singles from that year "Follow Me Back To Louisville" and "Love Is A Beautiful Thing". "Lovin' Son Of A Gun" sounds like some of the Stones' mid 60's pop/country hybrids. By that time, Proctor had left the band to enroll into college - not for the education per se, but in order to avoid the draft and Vietnam. "The Day She Died" is an affecting Tommy Talton ballad, while the band's last single from 1968 consists of a heavy fuzzed-out rocker ("When I Arrive") and an agreeable soul tune ("Ain't Gonna Find Nobody"). All in all an excellent garage compilation that proves We The People belong up there with the likes of Seeds, Sonics, Standells etc. But I wouldn't recommend it, since now there are other compilations available, compiled with the band's cooperation and featuring better sound and previously unreleased material. The best of these is double CD Mirror Of Our Minds.

***** for You Burn Me Up And Down, In The Past, My Brother The Man

**** for Mirror Of Your Mind, He Doesn't Go About It Right, Declaration Of Independence, When I Arrive, St John's Shop (2nd Version), Proceed With Caution

*** for (You Are) The Color Of Love, Lovin' Son Of A Gun, St John's Shop (1st Version), Follow Me Back To Louisville, Love Is A Beautiful Thing, The Day She Died, Ain't Gonna Find Nobody (Better Than You)

Power of Zeus "The Gospel According to Zeus" 1970***

There's some similarity between this band and my previous presentation: just as The Baroques got picked up by Chicago's Chess label, Power Of Zeus (PoZ) were signed to Detroit's Motown. Both important labels, but not a good fit for them: Chess specialized in blues rather than psychedelia, while Motown was rightfully nicknamed Hitsville U.S.A. for having released a seemingly neverending string of pop-soul smashes, but had no experience with hard rock whatsoever. Now this is Detroit circa '69-'70 we're talking about, some of the heaviest bands of the era were operating in that area: Iggy & The Stooges, MC5, Grand Funk, Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent's Amboy Dukes, Frijid Pink, SRC, The Up, The Frost... imagine how difficult it'd be for PoZ to stand out against such fierce competition. I can't posibly know what they sounded like live, but their LP is relatively tame in comparison with the abovenamed bands, and I suspect the reason is Motown's in-house producers and engineers. Used as they must have been to producing pop hits, I can imagine them freaking out with the loudness and distortion levels emitted by these hard rockers, and trying to tone it down. Remember, Motown was pretty conservative musically - even acclaimed masterpiece What's Going On was initially strongly opposed for breaking the mold, despite Marvin Gaye being one of the label's best selling artists. They also forced the band to change name: they were previously known in the live circuit as Gangrene, a pretty aggressive moniker to say the least. "Power of Zeus" seemed to convey the message that this is a heavy rock band without being offensive. A poem was printed on the back cover (also on the CD inner side) that somehow justified the name change. On the plus side (for some), it is probably thanks to Motown that most songs remain short and punchy: Most of them last between 2 and 4 minutes, the golden standard of commercial radio at the time. Opener "It Couldn't Be Me" would have made for a great single with its guitar/hammond interplay reminiscent of Deep Purple or Atomic Rooster, while "In The Night"'s vocal harmonies give this otherwise heavy tune a West Coast psychedelic aura. This is even more evident on "Green Grass & Clover" with its calm melody and romantic harpsichord. "I Lost My Love" is the first song that bares similarity to Motown's soul sound: at times the vocals even remind me of The Four Tops. It's a very short and rhythmic tune, with killer bass and drums that remind me of Vanilla Fudge. Too bad it only lasts for 2'12''. "The Death Trip" closes Side A  of the vinyl, but if you have it on CD as I do, it just makes for an overlong (8-minute) interlude whose slow and heavy groove disrupts the flow of the record. Not impressed with it. You need an Ozzy on vocals and an Iommi on guitar to make that schtick work. "No Time" is a Zeppelin/Sabbath-like heavy rocker while "Uncertain Destination" is a more 60's psychedelia-type of tune. "Realization" starts off with a groovy beat, cool riffs and organ. Monster solo, too. The vocal harmonies I'm not a fan of, they're one of the weaker traits of PoZ. Lead single "Hard Working Man" is a too-short hard rocker with a nice riff and strong lead vocal, while the CD closes with a longer track called "The Sorcerer of Isis". It is loose and psychedelic, with great guitar solos and drum & bass breaks that get often sampled by hip hop artists. Not many songs can claim to having won the hearts of stoners and rappers alike, but here you have one. At its time, The Gospel According to Zeus failed to find an audience - maybe because of Motown's inexperience with handling rock bands or just because of the awesome competition it had e.g. English hard rock albums released that year include Deep Purple's In Rock, Black Sabbath's Black Sabbath and Paranoid, Led Zeppelin's III, and Uriah Heep's Very 'eavy...Very 'umble. Locally, the competetion included The Stooges' Fun house, MC5's Back In The USA and Grand Funk Railroad's Closer to Home. Just like The Baroques did, PoZ disbanded soon after the release of their sole album, with only singer-guitarist Joe Periano staying in the business for a while, as producer or session guitarist for other Motown acts. Today their fame is rehabilitated, and although they remain a cult band, they're highly regarded -possibly even overrated- by DJs and collectors, with original copies of The Gospel...LP commanding prices upwards of $100. Some time ago, it was even presented on MOJO Magazine's monthly "Buried Treasure" column. But, in my opinion, this is just an interesting album. Certainly worth listening to if you're into early hard rock, but hardly the lost classic it's made out to be.

**** for It Couldn't Be Me, In The Night, No Time, I Lost My Love, The Sorcerer Of Isis (The Ritual Of The Mole)

*** for Green Grass & Clover, Uncertain Destination, Realization, Hard Working Man

** for The Death Trip

The Baroques "Purple Day" 1995 (comp) 1967-68(rec)****

When random selection brought this one out, I tried to remember how long it's been since I last heard it. I certainly haven't listened to it since we moved to The Netherlands 11,5 years ago. I just packed my records and CD's in crates and shipped them along. Why, if not to listen to them? Well, that is a dangerous question. If I answer it, I'd have to stop collecting records and probably seriously downsize my collection to something more manageable - because what is the reason of buying a record/CD if you're only going to listen to it every 15 years, as in this case? And it's not as if I didn't like this compilation either. I remember being quite happy with it when I bought it - of course at the time I was obsessed with garage/psychedelic 60's. It just takes too long for a CD to return to the stereo because there are always too many new albums to listen to and too little time.

Well, this is what I know about The Baroques: they came from Milwaukee, and were originally known (or, more precisely, unknown) as The Complete Unknowns - a typical garage band until, sometime in the late '66, they changed their name to The Baroques and jumped upon the psychedelic bandwagon as one of its first passengers. By '67, every label in the country wanted in, and The Baroques were lucky/unlucky enough to get picked up by an important one: Chess Records -home of Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Bo Didley, Howlin' Wolf, and the whole Chicago blues scene- was looking to expand into new directions. Unfortunately they were so intrinsically identified with blues that pop/rock radio stations ignored them, while "black" radio DJ's didn't know what to make out of the unfamiliar sounds of The Baroques. Thankfully the band had already built a great live reputation, and were also helped along by the controversy surrounding debut single "Mary Jane" which was perceived to be pro-drug and was banned from radio stations bestowing them an air of infamy but also ultra-hipness. Certainly both sides of the single were amazing: both the folk rock A side and the heavier garage fuzz B side "Iowa, a Girl's Name". The compositions have strong melodies, fuzz guitars and baroque keyboards - piano rather than organ which was more common at the time. Both songs were included in their sole 1967 album for Chess, included here in its entirety. Of the rest, "Seasons" is a nostalgic ballad, while "Musical Tribute to the Oscar Meyer Weiner Wagon" starts off as one but evolves into a noisy freak out jam. "There's Nothing Left to Do But Cry" and "Love in a Circle" are a couple of folk rockers with nice harmonies, "Rose Colored Glasses" and "Bicycle" are upbeat and quirky, and "Purple Day" a slow psychedelic ballad. These 9 tracks comprise their 1967 eponymous LP, but the CD isn't even halfway finished: the compilers added a bunch of rare and previously unreleased stuff. The oldest predate the album by a few months: these include early versions "Iowa" and "Oscar Meyer" and an excellent instrumental called "Baroques Theme" featuring nice piano and harmonica. Then there's 9 more tracks possibly recorded with a second album in mind - unfortunately Chess dropped them, disappointed with their lack of success. Only the last 2 songs were (self) released as a single: "I Will Not Touch You" is dark Floyd-ish psychedelia, while "Remember" is a gentle ballad with an oriental melody. Both excellent, while of the rest there are only 2 tracks at the same level: the waltzy "At the Garden Gate" and mid-tempo "Beckwith" with nice jazzy flute. "Tangerine Sunset" is a 12-minute psychedelic jam with cool flute and drums solos, while "Death of an Onion" is a collage of "nightmarish" cacophonous noise - the sole misstep in this excellent compilation. File under "Lost  psychedelic gems of the 60's".

***** for Mary Jane

**** for Iowa a Girl's Name, Seasons, Rose Colored Glasses, Musical Tribute to the Oscar Meyer Weiner Wagon, There's Nothing Left to Do But Cry, Bicycle, Love in a Circle, Iowa #2, Oscar Meyer #2, Baroques Theme, At the Garden Gate, I Will Not Touch You, Remember

*** for Purple Day, Sunflowers, Beckwith, Tangerine Sunset,

** for Death of an Onion, Flying Machine, Hand

Frank Zappa "Zappa Picks - By Larry LaLonde Of Primus" 2002(comp)***

This is one of many FZ compilations I have in my collection. I know that multiple comps are a messy way to get into an artist's work, with all the inevitable overlapping tracks and stylistic changes between different eras and evolutional stages in their life. Usually what I do is first get a good best-of comp (minimum 15 tracks). Then I go for the classic individual releases: the ones that combine great reviews and biggest sales. If I really like an artist, I work slowly through their complete discography. But that's not the way to go with Zappa: Allmusic lists 35 four or five-star albums, and some of his best-known songs aren't even included. At my pace, and with Zappa's extreme productivity, there's no way I'm getting all his "essential" albums in this lifetime. So I pick up comps ("Oh look: Here are a couple of great songs that I don't have, plus a few plain good ones, There are also 4-5 that I do already have, and 4 or 5 that I haven't heard yet. It's not too expensive, let's get it!").

Of all the Zappa compilations in my collection, this is probably the most idiosyncratic (which is, in any way, a word that perfectly fits this artist). Rykodisc, the label that has (or had?) the rights of the FZ catalogue, is renowned for the meticulous work they do on reissues and anthologies. Their first attempt to anthologize this material was in the old and tried "greatest hits" manner. That compilation, called Strictly Commercial, is of course brilliant and will be presented here later. But it's hardly representative, since FZ was anything but commercial. So they opted to ask musicians to compile their own favorites. The series (called Zappa Picks) didn't get further than 2 volumes, this one which is compiled by Primus's Larry LaLonde and another compiled by Jon Fishman Of Phish. These are a completely different beast to Strictly Commercial. FZ is famously a musician's musician, which accounts for the inclusion of many complex, experimental, almost impossible to play, instrumentals. On the plus side, LaLonde mixes it up a bit by including different styles and by mixing songs into a continuous medley that displays all the schizophrenic qualities of FZ's individual albums. Next to the instrumentals ("Five-Five-Five", "Alien Orifice", "Echidna's Arf", "Black Page No.2", the rocking "On The Bus", Hot Rats' jazzy "Little Umbrellas", and the synth-heavy "G-Spot Tornado" from the appropriately named Jazz From Hell), there are a few conventional rockers with smoking hot guitars and funky overtones ("Camarillo Brillo", "Fine Girl", "Wind Up Workin' In A Gas Station", "Doreen") and others combining rock, disco, avant-garde and general silliness ("St. Alphonso's Pancake Breakfast", "Wild Love", the comical/sleazy "Fembot in a Wet T-Shirt"). "Dog Breath" is a sample of the early psychedelic days containing comedy, pop, doo-wop, jazz, opera and the kitchen sink. "Sofa No. 2" is a pretty tune whose charm Zappa tries to mask with a splash of weird German pseudo-operatic vocals, "Evelyn, A Modified Dog" is a short poem reading over some nice piano backing, and "Village of the Sun" (about his hometown) the closer he gets to a heartfelt nostalgic ballad. According to the liner notes "Dumb All Over" was LaLonde's initiation to FZ, and what a powerful introduction it is: the hollow funky beat, scorching guitar, distorted vocal, and one of Zappa's best lyrics, a scathing rejection of organized religion and of fanatics on all sides. This is not my favorite version of the song though: I prefer the live one because the lyrics are more intelligible. Finally, you may want to ask whether this works well as an introduction to Frank Zappa. The answer is Yes, if you want to acquaint yourself with all the facets of his work and experience his glorious madness head-on; some of his discography's highlights are present, and LaLond made sure there's a lot of variation and a nice flow to the compilation. On the other hand, to the untrained ear (including mine) a couple of selections may seem overloaded to the point of cacophony. So if you're a song-oriented person who likes simpler, conventionally structured, tunes this is not where you want to start. Go straight for Strictly Commercial. You won't be disappointed.

***** for Dumb All Over, Little Umbrellas, Sofa No. 2

**** for Five-Five-Five, Camarillo Brillo, Fine Girl, St. Alphonso's Pancake Breakfast, Fembot in a Wet T-Shirt, On the Bus

*** for Alien Orifice, Evelyn, A Modified Dog, Wild Love, Dog Breath, Echidna's Arf (Of You), Wind Up Workin' in a Gas Station, Black Page No.2, Doreen

** for G-Spot Tornado, Village of the Sun