Monday, 31 October 2022

Black Sabbath "The End" (DVD+CD) 2017💀💀💀💀

Oh no! It's Halloween, and I don't have a relative album to post! And, to make matters worse, I've missed too many Friday the 13th's too. So I decided to cheat and repost an older review. You may think I've run out of "horror rock" albums to present, but that is absolutely not the case! I just don't want to do any of the obvious ones - not yet! I still have a few centuries for that - and I will need centuries to finish presenting my record collection at this pace. All I need is a vampire to come and bite me, and then I've got it made: listen to my records and CD's all day long (no wasting daytime sleeping in coffins for me, thank you), write in my blog, and roam the streets of Delft at night hunting juicy TU students for their blood. Next morning there'll be another bloodless body floating in the canal - call Van Helsing to the rescue! I'm not kidding, professor Van Helsing lives right down the street and teaches at TU Delft! And if you think Delft is no place for vampires, you obviously haven't watched Werner Herzog's Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht. Most of the town scenes were filmed here - boy do I know some crazy stories about the filming of that movie, that guy Herzog was a first-class loon, just like his protagonist Klaus Kinski. But I'm not going into them today - no, I want to write instead about the DVD playing on my home cinema right now.
It's called Black Sabbath The End, and it documents the last concert of the last tour ever by that happy-go-lucky boy band, Black Sabbath. The boys have been through a lot these past years: when I last saw them in concert almost a decade ago, guitarist Tony Iommi was battling cancer but he looked healthier than Ozzy who looked and sounded like one of the zombies from Walking Dead. In this DVD, though, he just sounds like an older version of himself, and seems in good shape: a bit like an artificially re-animated corpse who has recently been taken care of by a master undertaker. Iommi and Geezer Butler ooze class, and drummer Bill Ward looks thirty years younger - scratch that, he has been replaced by Tommy Clufetos. Maybe Ward had an embalming fluid accident, it wouldn't be the first time a musician's reanimation goes bad - if you've seen the cult movie Dracula Of Exarchia you know what I mean. Adam Wakeman (son of Rick, who also played with Sabbath in the 70's) has the unenviable task of playing keyboards at a Sabbath show. Of course pitted against the heaviest guitar in the universe he stands as much chance as Tiny Tim in a boxing match against Mike Tyson. The concert in this DVD took place on February 4th, 2017 at the band's home town of Birmingham. It is augmented by "The Angelic Sessions" a few tracks recorded live-in-studio a few days later. I thought I was getting both the concert and bonus tracks on CD plus the DVD but no - you can get either the audio CD or the DVD plus a CD with The Angelic Sessions. If you want everything, you'll have to spend a small fortune for the super deluxe edition.

If you have to choose, go for the DVD. It's well-filmed, and the 5.1. surround sound is fantastic. The editing gives the movie a fast pace, many different angles are used, and the picture is given an atmospheric tint. Every instrument sounds crisp and clear, allowing you to admire the mastery of the musicians, especially Butler whose bass was previously all-too-often buried in the mix. Iommi is, of course, the riffmaster but he lays down a few nimble solos too. Clufetos also takes the spotlight for a long and powerful solo, and Ozzy sounds pretty good. Except when he talks, I can hardly make out anything he says. How the hell did he end up with his own TV show? What do they do - dub him or use subtitles? The concert starts with the perfect Halloween tune: the eponymous song "Black Sabbath", slow and heavy with menacing lyrics like "What is this that stands before me? Figure in black which points at me...Satan's sitting there, he's smiling/ Watches those flames get higher and higher". Well, what did you expect from a band named after a horror movie with Boris Karloff? Lucifer appears frequently in the lyrics, together with a homicidal Iron Man, bloodthirsty generals, fairies with boots who dance with dwarves, Death as the Grim Reaper, paranoid men, dirty women and the children of the grave. References to marijuana and cocaine also abound. The songlist relies heavily on the first four albums, while the Angelic Sessions CD finds some room for 5 classics left out of the concert: On "The Wizard" we get a rare chance to hear Ozzy blow some blues harp, "Wicked World" sports some pretty wicked guitar, and "Sweet Leaf" is a solid run through an old favourite. I found the performance on "Tomorrow's Dream" a bit sloppy, but the emotive piano and vocals on the closing ballad "Changes" made for a fittingly emotional coda to the career of this iconic band.
DVD (*** to ****) Black Sabbath, Fairies Wear Boots, Under The Sun / Every Day Comes And Goes, After ForeverInto The VoidSnowblindWar PigsBehind The Wall Of SleepBassically/ N.I.B.Hand Of Doom, Medley:Supernaut/Sabbath Bloody Sabbath/MegalomaniaRat Salad/Drum SoloIron ManDirty WomenChildren Of The GraveParanoid
CD **** for The Wizard, Changes *** for Wicked World, Sweet Leaf ** for Tomorrow's Dream

Thursday, 27 October 2022

Gli Avvoltoi "Il Nostro e Solo Un Mondo Beat" 1988 (orig) 2007 (comp)****

I recently visited Rome for the second time, finding also time to visit many of the record shops that evaded me during my first visit (you can read my report on them here). One of those was Radiation Records in Monti, where I bought this CD. I was determined to get some Italian beat music, and this is the one that caught my attention. In the beginning I was a bit hesitant, because I already had the band's second album Quando Verrà Il Giorno which I had found rather unremarkable. But I was convinced by the prospect of hearing Italian language versions of 60's favorites like Paint It Black, Gloria, Hey Joe and others. I wasn't disappointed: all the covers are nice, and sometimes offer other interesting variations, besides the language e.g. the slower tempo of "Hey Joe" or the flute/sitar combination in "Tutto Nero/Paint It Black". Next to the 10 songs of the original album, this CD adds a number of bonus tracks from contemporary singles, EPs and compilations. These include Sonics cover "Ora Sai Perché/The Witch" and a version of The Kinks' Well Respected Man called "Un Uomo Rispettabile". I like how they don't just translate the words but also the cultural references: this "well respected man" takes brioche and cappuccino instead of tea. I was also able to recognize two Italian beat covers: "Era Un Beatnick" (by Le Teste Dure) and "L'Abito Non Fa Il Beatnik" (by Evi, presented here). There may be more covers here: the (gatefold) CD cover doesn't contain information as to the composers of the songs, but many sound familiar, especially the wild garage rockers like "Questa Notte", "Non Voglio Pietà" and "15° Frustata". Then again, there are a couple of more melodic songs: "Giardino Dei Fiori" is a waltz-like psychedelic pop reminiscent of early Le Orme, and "Tu Lo Sai" kicks off with proggy flute to continue with organ-dominated R&B. "È Tornato Fra Di Noi" is another atmospheric mid-tempo tune. The first two songs of the album constitute the band's introduction to us, but I managed to leave them for last: "Il Nostro È Solo Un Mondo Beat" is groovy pop rock with organ, "Gli Avvoltoi Sono Qua" sounds more like British Beat groups of the 60's. And, seeing as I seem to be doing everything upside-down today, let me add some biographical details on the group, as an epilogue: apparently they formed in Bologna in 1985, and were offered a recording contract by Contempo Records after a legendary live show in '87. Their debut ...Mondo Beat was well-received, leading to many gigs around Italy, and even TV performances. Nevertheless, the original band soon imploded. They continued going with different lineups, featuring singer Moreno Lambertini as the only constant. Of their other endeavours, the only one I've listened to second LP Quando Verrà Il Giorno. As I remember it, it is mostly retro-flavored melodic pop-rock. Not bad, but also not to my taste, while the debut is full of Farfisa-led garage rock, exactly my cup of tea - or should I say cappuccino?
**** for Il Nostro È Solo Un Mondo Beat, Tutto Nero, Questa Notte, Questa Notte (version 2), Un Uomo Rispettabile, L'Abito Non Fa Il Beatnik
*** for Gli Avvoltoi Sono Qua, Giardino Dei Fiori, Tu Lo Sai, Gloria, È Tornato Fra Di Noi, Hey Joe, Farfisa, Era Un Beatnick, Ora Sai Perché, 15° Frustata, Non Voglio Pietà, Giardino Dei Fiori (version 2)

Thursday, 20 October 2022

Various "The British Psychedelic Trip Vol. 2 1966-1969" 1986 (comp)****

I had, until recently, ignored Netflix series The Crown. The news is always full of gossip regarding the British royal family, but I avoid reading about it. Now that queen Elizabeth is gone though, the series has a different character for me: a biographical drama about a dead historical personality is something I might be interested in. So we were watching it with my girlfriend the other night, when I came across a name I wasn't expecting to see: I knew of Chinese-Trinidadian actress/dancer Jacqui Chan as a guest vocalist on 60's hit single "Kites" by Simon Dupree & The Big Sound. Then she appeared as a character in The Crown; in what is the most explicit scene in the series so far, she is portrayed having sex with photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones, love interest and future husband to princess Margaret. So that prompted me to get the CD out and give it a spin, thinking I'd present it for my blog. Then I realized I had already presented it here. Undaunted, I remembered it also featured on an excellent vinyl compilation of mine. So here it is: as promised, I present you British Psychedelic Trip vol. 2.
Looking at the track-listing now, it seems to contain more mainstream artists than other psychedelic compilations which focus on the rare and unknown. But then, you have to make allowances for the time this was released: in 1986, many of the original albums here remained out of print; it's only thanks to the dominance of CD's as a medium during the 90's and 00's that almost all things 60's have become available again. Tomorrow open the LP with "My White Bicycle", one of the greatest psychedelic singles, ever. Like Barrett-era Pink Floyd, they combined catchy melodies with psychedelic effects (sitar, phased/double-tracked guitars etc) and whimsical lyrics. Apparently The Beatles were present at the recording and nicked a few ideas for their Sgt. Peppers LP. Conversely, Tomorrow cover here The Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever" - nice, but unnecessary. Tomorrow didn't get too far, but guitarist Steve Howe found fame in the 70's with prog superstars Yes.
   
Likewise, Idle Race guitarist Jeff Lynne would find fame later as leader of ELO. Singer Roy Wood would also have a successful career, both solo and member of The Move. They are represented here with the whimsical (that word again, but it can't be avoided when one's dealing with British pop circa '67) music hall-style "Skeleton And The Roundabout" and more typically psychedelic "Worn Red Carpet". Love Sculpture's "In The Land Of The Few" is another excellent composition. Closer to pop and psychedelia than their customary blues, with a brilliant guitar solo by Dave Edmunds, they are followed by the aforementioned "Kites", a gorgeous psychedelic ballad by Simon Dupree And The Big Sound, soon to morph into prog stars Gentle Giant. Actress Jacqui Chan adds some sensual Chinese spoken vocal. Locomotive's "Mr Armageddan" is a heavier piece with wah wah guitar and organ, while the vocals and sax give it a soul tone. "You've Got A Habit Of Leaving" was recorded in 1965, and is consequently more garage/R&B than psychedelic. Produced by Who producer Shel Talmy, and obviously influenced by them, the single wasn't a success, prompting singer Davy Jones to change style, as well as his stage name - to David Bowie. Tomorrow's Keith West sings on "Excerpt From A Teenage Opera" based on an idea by producer Mark Wirtz. It's a heavily orchestrated piece featuring a children's choir. Despite its success, the record company didn't approve the recording of a whole "Teenage Opera" album, and the idea was abandoned. Kinks-y follow-up single "On A Saturday" did not chart at all, and West fell into obscurity. Kippington Lodge, featuring later pub rock stars Nick Lowe and Brinsley Schwarz, offer two light and pleasant singles "Rumours" and "Lady On A Bicycle".
 
Lemon Tree's "It's So Nice To Come Home" is another heavily orchestrated pop single, followed by the refreshingly heavy "Real Love Guaranteed". Keyboardist Ken Hensley and drummer Lee Kerslake would later find fame with Uriah Heep, bassist John Glascock with Jethro Tull. Their cover of The Beatles' "Hey Bulldog" closes this compilation. The Moles are apparently Simon Dupree And The Big Sound in disguise. "We Are The Moles (Part 1)" is a much more experimental piece, yet very listenable. Chanted vocals, haunted organ, distorted guitar make for a great single that wouldn't sound out of place in a new wave 80's album. July is now considered a psychedelic classic, but back when this comp was released it was completely forgotten. "Friendly Man" and "I See" are British 60's psychedelia in its best: with trippy effects, sitar, and fuzz guitar, they combine melody and psychedelic weirdness in the manner of early Pink Floyd. Which brings us to the last group here. Formerly R&B tough guys The Pretty Things unexpectedly turned psychedelic in 1968, producing arguably the first concept album/rock opera S.F. Sorrow. From that rock cornerstone we get "S.F. Sorrow Is Born" and "She Says Good Morning". Those who want more details on any of the recordings/groups here only have to read the liner notes on the back cover. It has slightly fewer words than War And Peace, but that's all the info you'll need. Provided you can decipher those tiny letters; I can't now, and could hardly do so when I bought it 3 decades ago. As a whole, and despite the absence of obvious scene leaders like The Beatles and Pink Floyd, this compilation makes for one of the best single LP showcases of British psychedelic pop I've ever heard. Containing both classic and rare tracks, and offering a chance to hear the early works of future favorites, it's most highly recommended. For those who prefer CD's there's an expanded CD edition called The Great British Psychedelic Trip, Vol. 3.
 
 ***** for My White Bicycle (Tomorrow), Kites (Simon Dupree And The Big Sound), Real Love Guaranteed (The Gods), We Are The Moles Part 1 (The Moles), S.F. Sorrow Is Born (The Pretty Things)
**** for Skeleton And The Roundabout (Idle Race), In The Land Of The Few (Love Sculpture), Mr Armageddan (Locomotive), You've Got A Habit Of Leaving (Davy Jones And The Lower Third), Friendly Man (July), I See (July), Worn Red Carpet (Idle Race), She Says Good Morning(The Pretty Things), Hey Bulldog (The Gods)
*** for Excerpt From "A Teenage Opera" (Keith West), Rumours (Kippington Lodge), It's So Nice To Come Home (The Lemon Tree), Lady On A Bicycle (Kippington Lodge), On A Saturday (Keith West), 
Strawberry Fields Forever (Tomorrow)

Monday, 10 October 2022

Albert Collins "Iceman" 1991***

Albert Collins played in my hometown (Athens, Greece) the year this album was recorded. It was a fantastic for blues lovers triple-bill, also featuring Buddy Guy and John Mayall's Blues Breakers, I wouldn't miss it for the world. All of them were in their fifties, a good age by blues standards. Buddy Guy and The Blues Breakers' Coco Montoya are great guitarists, but that day they were eclipsed by Collins and his crystal-clear sound. To tell the truth, his is still in the Top-3 "clean" guitar performances I've seen live, ever; the other two being B.B.King and Carlos Santana, which should tell you something about the league he's in. I remember having a great time that night, and as if to confirm to me that the concert really was that good, a few years later ERT (Greek State TV) just happened to play a large, professionally shot, extract of the concert, and there I am on the third row or something, visibly grooving to the music. It was shown unannounced during one of those "musical intermissions" they had in those days, when they'd fill post-midnight slots with musical archive footage. Crazy, those programmers at ERT. On another nocturnal transmission, they started showing classic Bob Dylan documentary Don't Look Back. Remember, this was 30 years ago. That film, which had in the meanwhile gained legendary status, was impossible to stream, or download, or watch at a movie theater, or rent in VHS, at least not in Greece. And what do they do? They play 30 minutes of it, and at 02:00 or whatever the closing time was back then, they just cut it short and show the end-of-transmission signal with the clock. Anyway, that 1991 blues festival starring Albert Collins, John Mayall, Buddy Guy, and myself, has never been shown again that I know of, never been leaked to youtube, I have never even heard of anyone else having watched it or know of its existence. Did I really see it or did I dream it?
One thing I remember clearly though, is Collins opening his show with the same song he opens this CD, "Mr. Collins, Mr. Collins". Effectively an instrumental, except for the voice of some ladies (on the record, in the concert it was some of his bandmates) asking him not to play so loud while he was letting rip on guitar. The song has a funky beat, soul horns, and the ultra-clean production that was typical of the 80's. Blues albums at the time, at least by black artists, had to sound as "modern" as possible - as if the genre's birth at the cotton fields of Mississippi was something to be ashamed of. But when the trimmings don't overwhelm the tunes, and when Collins' voice and guitar is at the front, you get why he was dubbed "the master of the Telecaster". Certainly the next couple of songs (upbeat R&B "Iceman" and slow blues "Don't Mistake Kindness for Weakness") are fine examples of latter-day electric blues. "Travellin' South" is generic boogie rock but has some nice guitar/organ interplay. "Put the Shoe on the Other Foot" and "Head Rag" are funk-by-numbers, "The Hawk" is a quasi-rap, "I'm Beginning to Wonder" is B.B. King-style R&B, "Blues for Gabe" a jazzy instrumental, and "Mr. Collins, Mr. Collins (Reprise)" is basically the same as the opening track, only faded sooner. All in all, a typical mainstream electric blues album of the era; in my opinion it runs out of steam halfway through but is redeemed by the consistently good guitar playing. Not nearly as impressive as his live presence would suggest; unfortunately I would never get to see him play again as he succumbed to lung cancer only a couple of years later. Iceman would be his last album, and while it's not an outstanding work, fans of classic R&B and rockers drawn to electric guitar solos will not be disappointed by it. Blues purists, on the other hand, may want to look elsewhere. 
**** for Iceman, Don't Mistake Kindness for Weakness
*** for Mr. Collins Mr. Collins, Travellin' South, I'm Beginning to Wonder, Mr. Collins Mr. Collins (Reprise)
** for Put the Shoe on the Other Foot, Head Rag, The Hawk, Blues for Gabe

Tuesday, 4 October 2022

Various "Bosstown Sound - 1968: The Music & The Time" 1965-1971(rec) 1996 (comp)***

I woke up this Saturday morning and went down to the living room to get coffee, to find my girlfriend watching a film with Brad Pitt on TV. Now I know she's not a fan of the star, so I asked her how come she's watching a movie so early, and she answered it's a film about baseball. Normally that would do it. I can't for the life of me understand this sport: A player throws a ball, and another tries to hit it on the air with a stick (It's called a bat, I know that much). When he finally does, the rest of the players start running around, seemingly aimlessly. Until that time, all these other guys are just standing doing nothing. As you can probably tell, I'm not an American. I'm Greek. We don't have a baseball league in my country - we had one for a brief period, as well as a women's softball league. My girlfriend being one of the 50 people who understand this game in Greece, she played competitive softball, but that was before we met so I've never been to a baseball or softball game. Anyway, what I meant to say is that, at the end of the movie, we learn that the Boston Red Sox won the championship for the first time after 80-something years thanks to the system invented by Brad Pitt's character.
Something familiar, at last! I was like "sure, I know the Red Sox. In the late 60's, Boston band Earth Opera had a hit with a song called 'The Red Sox Are Winning'. I have it somewhere here"... and out came this CD for the first time in more than a decade. It's a compilation entitled Bosstown Sound - 1968: The Music & The Time. First of all, why the music and the time? Because this music is of its time, and can't be viewed separately from the drugs, psychedelic and otherwise, the Vietnam War, and the rise of a youthful counterculture. The liner notes (probably the biggest advantage CD's have to offer over both vinyl and streaming) try to put that into perspective. As for the title of Bosstown (a.k.a. Boston) Sound? At the time it was a slogan used for a promotional campaign trying to create a buzz about a bunch of bands from the Boston area, mostly psychedelic pop produced by Alan Lorber at MGM studios. Lorber hoped to establish Boston as a music scene to rival San Francisco. After all Boston was home to many interesting bands, music clubs, and -above all- a huge student population. The campaign got picked up by nation-wide media, but quickly lost steam as critics disparaged it as an obvious commercialization attempt, as opposed to the "authentic" psychedelic sound coming from California. The review on allmusic is a good example: it lazily buys into received wisdom, describing the music here as "dreary, second-rate psychedelia, heavy on pretentious wordplay". In fact, this compilation includes a variety of different styles, and some excellent compositions and musical performances - as well as some forgettable ones. I mean, if opener "(Ballad of) The Hip Death Goddess" is "second-rate" psychedelia, I don't know what qualifies as first-rate.
 
Ultimate Spinach are represented here with 6 songs, more than any other, and rightly so. Their first two albums are classics of the period, reminiscent of  West Coast psychedelia (Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe & The Fish) but somewhat more experimental/progressive. Ian Bruce-Douglas is the main singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist. Barbara Hudson's enchanting vocals can be heard here on "Hip Death Goddess" (lead) and "Fragmentary March Of Green" (harmonies), while "Baroque #1" is essentially an instrumental. For some reason, we get no less than three tracks from the band's 3rd and least interesting album, recorded after Bruce-Douglas's departure: "Eddie's Rush" is a good blues instrumental, while the other two are more conventional pop-psych songs. Lost only made 3 singles, but provided the alma matter for other bands, including Bagatelle and Chamaeleon Church; we get four songs from them: folk-rocker "Everybody Knows", the Dylan/Barry McGuire-sounding "Maybe More Than You", and two gentle ballads. Singer Willie 'Loco' Alexander went on to form Bagatelle, who can be heard here in a more orchestrated, slightly inferior, version of "Everybody Knows". He'd later join a latter-day version of Velvet Underground, and have a long solo career. 
       
Orpheus are also represented with 4 songs. They were one of the major Boston groups, but to me they exemplify the worst trait of the scene: too pop-oriented, with melodic harmonies and heavy orchestrations more appropriate for the likes of Sinatra than for a rock band. Nevertheless, "Can't Find The Time To Tell You" is a great radio-friendly pop single, and "Walk Away Renee" an excellent but pointless Left Banke cover. The last band on disc 1 are Chamaeleon Church. Their music is also orchestrated psych-pop, with some Indian touches on "Off With the Old". Good songs, but probably the most interesting fact about them is that their drummer was future comedian/Saturday Night Live star Chevy Chase. Disc 2 opens with two songs by The Apple Pie Motherhood Band: Cream cover "Born Under a Bad Sign" and psychedelic ballad "Gypsy", the latter featuring violin and bluesy guitar. Next up are two tracks by Eden's Children: gentle ballad "Goodbye Girl" and instrumental "Just Let Go"; both benefit from laid-back and jazzy electric guitar.
   
The Beacon Street Union were one of the biggest bands in the scene; while they're missing from here, we get 3 tracks from their descendants, Eagle: "Come In It's All For Free" (hard rock), "Kickin' It Back" (soul) and "Separated" (pop) are quite decent but ultimately forgettable. The Rockin' Ramrods were one of the best garage/folk-rock bands in the region. We get 2 tracks from 1966, garagey "Bright Lit Blue Skies" and the folkier "Can't You See". By 1968, they were going by the name Puff. Of the 3 Puff tracks here, "Go With You" sticks out, with its garage/soul organ and nice harmonies. Front Page Review are a heavier proposition; with their anti-war and mystical themes, imposing organ, and psychedelic effects, they show similarities to West Coast groups like The Doors. They recorded an album in 1968, which remained unrelased at the time this CD was compiled. Of the three songs included here,"Valley of Eyes" is the best and most upbeat. Ill Wind are represented by both sides of their single "In My Dark World/ High Flyin' Bird" - a masterpiece of acid folk. Side A is a brooding piece with gorgeous female vocals, while side B is also a terrific performance whose only downside is that it sounds too similar to the Jefferson Airplane version. The last band here are Earth Opera. From their 2nd album we get their 10-minute opus "The American Eagle Tragedy". A complex composition with alternating loud and quiet passages, it culminates in urgent drumming, noisy fuzz guitar, and desperate cries "Stop The War". The closing "The Red Sox Are Winning", a title from Earth Opera's debut, is subtler: instead of dystopic imagery, we get flashes of everyday routine; normal life going on while the war is raging far away. All people seem to care about is that "the Red Sox are winning" - apparently the season of 1967/68 really was an exceptionally good one for the Boston team, eclipsing any worries about the war in the mind of "squares".
   
The fact that the CD closes with bunch of dark and pessimistic songs is indicative of the clouds gathering ahead by the end of '68: the summer of love was over, and war and racial violence were looming in a year that saw further escalation of the Vietnam War and the assasinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. This music here takes us back to that time. It contains a number of great songs as well as some that are simply typical of the era. The compilation provides us with a good snapshot of the Bosstown scene, but falters in two counts: firstly, it's too long. Some rather pedestrian bands are represented with multiple songs when one would be enough. I guess the compilers wanted to include some previously un-reissued tracks for the sake of collectors. Secondly, many bands are missing e.g. The Art of Lovin', Beacon Street Union, Flat Earth Society, Fort Mudge Memorial Dump, The Tangerine Zoo etc. I have records (well, mostly CD's actually) from all these bands, and will present them separately in this blog some time.

**** for [Ballad of] The Hip Death Goddess (Ultimate Spinach), Fragmentary March of Green (Ultimate Spinach), Can't Find the Time to Tell You (Orpheus), Everybody Knows (The Lost), Off With the Old (Chamaeleon Church), Gypsy (The Apple Pie Motherhood Band), Goodbye Girl (Eden's Children), Just Let Go (Eden's Children), Bright Lit Blue Skies (The Rockin' Ramrods), Prophecies / Morning Blue (Front Page Review), Valley of Eyes (Front Page Review), In My Dark World (Ill Wind), High Flyin' Bird (Ill Wind), The American Eagle Tragedy (Earth Opera), The Red Sox Are Winning (Earth Opera)
*** for Baroque #1 (Ultimate Spinach), Walk Away Renee (Orpheus), Tomorrow Man (Orpheus), Maybe More Than You (The Lost), Mystic [Seven Starry Skies] (The Lost), Violet Gown (The Lost), Everybody Knows (Bagatelle), In a Kindly Way (Chamaeleon Church), The World Has Just Begun (Ultimate Spinach), Happiness Child (Ultimate Spinach), Eddie's Rush (Ultimate Spinach), Born Under a Bad Sign (The Apple Pie Motherhood Band), Come In It's All For Free (Eagle), Kickin' It Back (Eagle), Go With You (Puff), Can't You See (The Rockin' Ramrods), Silver Children (Front Page Review), 
** for Brown Arms to Houston (Orpheus), Back on the Farm (Bagatelle), Separated (Eagle), Vacuum (Puff), Looking in My Window (Puff)