Ulysses

I think it's probably more of a lump hammer than the insightful rapier that I'd rather it been. I won't ever write anything as long as that again here, I promise!

Ugh! You managed to sum it up in a sentence whereas I spent 10,000 words too many on saying more or less the same thing. It's similar to the famous quote about Ringo not being the best drummer in Beatles, never mind the world: Sgt Pepper wasn't even the best Beatles' album, never mind the best album in the world.

That's my big bone of contention with Sgt Pepper. A lot of praise for music is purely subjective and in the 'ear of the listener', but claims about more tangible things such as 'Sgt Pepper was brilliant because it so original/innovative/whatever' can be scrutinised and, when they are, they don't really stand-up to that scrutiny.

When I think of the most important album of The Beatles, it's between Rubber Soul and Revolver, cause that's when the metamorphosis was happening. And talking about the influence Sgt Pepper's has brought, we can notice that after this album, even The Beatles were doing the opposite by returning to their roots.


I'm never that great with identifying favourites as such, but I much prefer Revolver, Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine to Sgt Pepper, and certainly more than the White Album.

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The Fields of Mars

Ulysses

Personally, I have similar feelings about the 'White Album' as I do Sgt Pepper. I think it's a good album but I genuinely can't understand the praise it gets. I'm in agreement with our crazy-haired friend, Numberninedream, in this. No amount of whittling down the track-listing would have created a "perfect" album as by this point in time there is no Beatles to make a "perfect" Beatles record.

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The Fields of Mars

Gavin B.

Magical Mystery Tour was about the most anti-commerical project of the Beatles and is a non-linear television mockumentary that is influenced by Surrealism and Dadaism. I saw the movie several years ago and there are some brilliant moments in it and it really isn't as awful as it's historic reputation. You can't beat the soundtrack to Magical Mystery Tour. Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields Forever, All You Need Is Love, Fool on the Hill, I Am the Walrus, and Hello Goodbye are as good as it gets for Beatles songs.

From my perspective with the exception of A Day In Life and Within Without, the rest of the songs on Sgt Peppers sound like outtakes of songs that weren't good enough to be included on Magical Mystery Tour. Both albums were released in 1967 and Sgt Peppers was released first... but the music on Magical Mystery Tour predates Sgt. Pepper's because the editing of the film took so long.

Ulysses

Erm, that's not quite true is it? Whilst I'm happy to be corrected if I'm wrong, I think there were only a couple of tunes recorded during the time that Sgt Pepper was being recorded that turned up elsewhere: 'Only a Northern Song' and 'Magical Mystery Tour' itself, both from April 1967. The next Magical Mystery Tour tune that was recorded was 'Your Mother Should Know' and that wasn't recorded until after Sgt Pepper was actually released.

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The Fields of Mars

Ulysses

Ah! My second favourite album recorded at Klooks Kleek! It's even got Mayall's cover of Katie Melua's song, 'Crawling Up a Hill' on it!

Not my favourite John Mayall album by any means but there's some great stuff on it. Stanger's saxamophone on Hoot Owl is worth the price of admission alone never mind some of the between song banter - "fine young chicks" sounds so anachronistic I can't tell whether it's acceptable in post-modern recon-deconstructed new man ironic way. I'm sure those kohl-eyed ladies lapped it up at the time though. I bet whoever Doreen was wasn't so pleased though. The cheeky organ on 'What's the Matter With You?' is great too.

It's such a shame that this kind of stuff wasn't taken more seriously at the time. When you see footage such as the Look North Granada Blues programme, it's unbelievably sad that more of this music wasn't caught on camera at the time.

Again, this is someone else that garners very lop-sided respect and credit. The amount of times I've come across people (over) hyping the Beano album but haven't heard anything else Mayall did, which is a shame as he's done some stuff that far surpasses 'the Clapton album' in my opinion.

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The Fields of Mars

Gavin B.

You're right... mostly.

There are five songs that appeared on the U.S. version Magical Mystery Tour that originally were singles that were recorded at various sessions in 1966 and 1967 and released at different dates in 1967.

Here's the correct cronological order of the recording and release dates of the Beatle's 1967 catalog:

• Strawberry Fields Forever was recorded in November 1967 shortly before Sgt. Pepper's sessions were convened. It was released as a single on February 13 1967.
  
• Penny Lane was recorded in December 1966 and released on the B side of Strawberry Fields Forever on February 13, 1967. There's some overlap in session dates and it's not that clear if Penny Lane was recorded before or during the Sgt. Pepper's sessions. But Penny Lane was released for months prior to the appearance of Sgt. Pepper's.
  
• The songs on Sgt. Peppers were recorded between Dec. 1966 and April 1967 and released on June 1, 1967.
  
• Baby You're A Rich Man was recorded May 11 1967 and released on July 7 1967. It was released as the B Side of the single All You Need Is Love.
  
• All You Need Is Love was recorded on June 25, 1967 and released on July 7th, 1967.
  
• Hello Goodbye was recorded in Oct/Nov 1967 and released on November 24, 1967.
  
• The actual six song soundtrack to Magical Mystery Tour was recorded between between November 4 and November 24 and released as a full album in the USA on November 27, 1967. In the UK, Magical Mystery Tour wasn't released as a full album, but instead was released on December 8, 1967 as a six song EP with only the soundtrack to the film. British audience got I am the Walrus, Fool on the Hill, Bluejay Way, Magical Mystery Tour, Your Mother Should Know and Flying on an EP without the hit singles. Hello Goodbye played during the closing credits of Magical Mystery Tour but wasn't included in the British EP. Presumably, UK fans were expected to buy the single of Hello Goodbye which was released two weeks prior to the the UK release of Magical Mystery Tour EP. American audiences got the better deal.

My confusion had to do with the editing delays on Magical Mystery Tour. The hour long film was shown on schedule on December 26th 1967 on British television. Magical Mystery Tour got such horrendous reviews by the British press that the Beatles decided to extensively edit the film before releasing it in America. That editing process went on for almost a year as American Beatles fans waited eagerly for the American release of Magical Mystery Tour. Eventually the Beatles scrapped the editing project and Magical Mystery Tour wasn't shown in America until well after the Beatles' break up.

Those editing delays are what really confused me about the recording dates of nearly all the songs recorded in 1967, although the editing of the film was actually irrelevant to the recording dates of the songs on the soundtrack of Magical Mystery Tour.

I've been wrong before and I'm glad when somebody is astute enough to call me out on mistakes. Most my posts on MB aren't fact check or reviewed by an editor and I don't posess total recall as some folks do. I know quite a bit about the Beatles but there are quite a few people on MB that have far more expertise on their music than I do. Historical accuracy in reporting is important no matter what the subject is and I'll stand by that statement even when I'm wrong.

Ulysses

Ah, this boils down to which is the real Magical Mystery Tour, I suppose. I'm aware of the differences between the American release and the British release, but I generally take the British releases, at least during the Beatles' lifetime as a band, as the real thing if that makes any sense. Everything else being things tailored for foreign markets. Maybe it's because I'm British/English, I don't know.

That's why, to me, Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane are songs taken from a 7" single and 'All You Need is Love' and 'Baby You're a Rich Man' are either tracks taken from a single or something tacked on to 'Yellow Submarine' and so on.

With regards to Penny Lane, whilst dates of various things do overlap, the way I see it is that if 'When I'm 64' is a Sgt Pepper tune and that tune was recorded before Penny Lane (there's actually no overlap between the recording dates of these tunes as far as I'm aware) then Penny Lane was actually recorded during the Sgt Pepper sessions.

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The Fields of Mars

TheCellarTapes

We The People - Declaration of Independence
(1983)



Tracks


Over recent years a band has kept rearing its head above the parapet of acknowledgement, trying to muscle in on the world established by Nuggets in the early seventies. It is fairly accepted, particularly with the listenership of The Cellar Tapes, that bands like The Sonics and The Standells, although relatively unknown, are brilliant acts that suit the obscure world, but some acts remain hidden, even from the world of the obscure. One such band banging on this door is a garage outfit from Florida called We The People.

This drive for recognition began in 1983 with the release of Declaration of Independence, the first retrospective look at We The People’s work between 1966 and 1968, some 15 years after the band called it a day. Back in that day, We The People were quite an exciting act, young and dynamic. They were even signed to RCA at one point, but despite some regional hits, they never gained a national audience, meaning that no one took a punt and sanctioned a We The People album. Most definitely a missed opportunity if ever there was one.



The driving force behind the band was a song-writing partnership of the highest order, almost on par with anything else in America at the time. Wayne Proctor on lead and vocals also happened to be a pretty proficient guitarist, along with his co-writer, bassist Tommy Talton, the band can not only release a compilation with 100% original material, but also serve up a set of songs varied in their feel and charm.

The highlights on this album are many but there really are some beyond exceptional tracks here also, for starters there is In The Past, with one of the most hypnotic guitar riffs heard by man, this song in itself is surprising because this band is capable of even more endeavours. With songs like Mirror on Your Mind and You Burn Me Up and Down, We The People demonstrate they can also dish up a fuzz filled treat and punch a note with the best of them. God help us, this band can even do ballads.

It’s also important to raise the point that although this ’83 compilation is the first retrospective look at We The People’s work from the 1960’s, it should certainly not be considered the definitive. The reason why I am reviewing this version is because I am a fan of the band and this is merely the copy I own. To be frank, the linear notes are pretty poor, the pictures non existent and you can be forgiven in thinking it’s just a bootleg, actually maybe mine is, who knows! However the good people at Sundazed Records have had a go at repackaging this band over the years, firstly in 1998 with Mirror of Our Minds, and recently in 2008 with Too Much Noise. Although I have not seen these efforts, on past form and reputation alone, I have little doubt that Sundazed may have done a better job.



But back to the music, for whatever reason We The People never released an original album in the sixties, whereas lesser acts, minus the talent and certainly minus the sophistication, did manage to achieve such a thing. Regardless of this fact, We The People have over time become quite the cult band from the garage scene of 1960’s America, proving once and for all its very difficult to argue with quality. Whichever compilation you decide to buy containing the works of We The People, if you think of yourself as a fan of all those classic US Garage bands, I can guarantee you will not be too disappointed with your purchase.

TheCellarTapes

The C.A. Quintet - Trip Thru Hell
(1968)



Tracks

1 Trip Thru Hell, Pt. 1 9:09
2 Colorado Mourning 2:31
3 Cold Spider 4:41
4 Underground Music 4:43
5 Sleepy Hollow Lane 2:04
6 Smooth as Silk 2:12
7 Trip Thru Hell, Pt. 2 3:40
8 Dr. Of Philosophy 2:09
9 Blow to My Soul 1:59
10 Ain't No Doubt About It 2:31
11 Mickey's Monkey 2:26
12 I Put a Spell on You 2:47
13 I Shot the King 2:22
14 Fortune Teller's Lie 2:09
15 Sadie Lavone 2:49
16 Bury Me in a Marijuana Field 2:11
17 Colorado Mourning 2:13
18 Underground Music 2:08
19 Smooth as Silk 3:20

In the two years or so that I have been researching and collecting for The Cellar Tapes radio show, it has never ceased to amaze me where a few quid can take you when shopping for an album or two. Sure you own a CD at the end of the day but you may have bought much more than that, you could also have an epiphany in musical form. One such enlightening moment occurred to me a few weeks ago on listening for the first time to an album from 1968; it was entitled a Trip Thru Hell and was by a band by the name of The C.A. Quintet.

The C.A. Quintet were from Minneapolis and that’s about it really, to say they are a bit of a mystery is an understatement. They never made it big anywhere outside of the twin cities, and furthermore they only ever made this one album, a record which sold less than a thousand copies on its original release in 1968. It is sad but true to say that this band faded from memory quicker than they actually arrived. But encouraged by its obscurity, the loving and genius people at Sundazed Records have blown the dust off this forgotten gem and reissued it for the benefit of mankind.

The first thing to mention about this record is the direction of it, on the excellent linear notes accompanying the music, the writer and producer Ken Erwin comments that basically he wanted to write an album like no other as his band’s first release. Both brave and foolhardy, you cannot argue that this has not been achieved. On listening to the first track, which is entitled Trip Thru Hell (Part One), you’re hit by a feeling of desperation and anguish, was music ever this powerful before I first heard this album? This is a stunning musical creation which goes to all kinds of places, and it is by no means alone here.

This is followed by the trumpet led Colorado Mourning, by the standards set in the opening song, this second track is a pretty upbeat number with lyrical content far from it. By the end of this second song, the music descends back into the tune which ran through the bleaker opening track, this is not the last time this happens on this album. On some of these songs like Dr of Philosophy, you can just about hear that original Garage influence that The C.A. Quintet must have had in their earlier days, with a deranged organ taking pride of place. But for sure the power of the vocal harmonies, the trumpet and the overall direction of the record has ensured that this is not your typical post ’66 record



Whatever sound The C.A. Quintet wanted for their debut album it was certainly ambitious, but you know I would wager that even they didn’t realise what intensity could have been provided by their music. The Sundazed reissue of this album also includes some extra pieces of Psychedelic gold, the best of these songs is probably their cover of I Put a Spell on You, and it’s actually a triumph as covers go.

The thing about this album is that I am struggling to place it, I hate to say that it is truly unique, but I cannot imagine more than one band ever coming up with a sound as dark as what The C.A. Quintet have thrown up with a Trip Thru Hell. Combining Pychedelia with Acid Rock, what has been created is something truly unnerving and as close to terrifying that music can possibly bring you. People bang on about the power of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of The Moon, but what this unknown band from Minneapolis has done here is to have created the first decent of man to a backdrop of rock music, this album can only be described as a brutal yet beautiful masterpiece, not bad for a band nobody ever heard of eh?

TheCellarTapes

The Doors - The Soft Parade
(1969)



Tracks

1 Tell All the People 3:21
2 Touch Me 3:12
3 Shaman's Blues 4:48
4 Do It 3:09
5 Easy Ride 2:43
6 Wild Child 2:36
7 Runnin' Blue 2:27
8 Wishful Sinful 2:58
9 The Soft Parade 8:36

By 1969, The Doors found themselves as the true veterans of the West Coast music scene as well as being a band renowned in places outside of the US. However after the derelict sales figures behind Waiting For The Sun, The Doors were very much a band trying to rediscover that musical magic of 1967. But their endeavours were suffering from an increasingly erratic Jim Morrison, whose ventures into the world of booze and drugs were beginning to hamper the band both in the studio and on the stage.

With this shaky backdrop in mind, The Doors entered a studio in Los Angeles to begin their fourth studio album. Released in July 1969 on Elektra, The Soft Parade by The Doors didn’t really calm the fears amongst their support, and outsiders alike, that perhaps this band had now become rather self indulgent and far removed, even more than they were with their 1968 release.

Located within on the surface is an already over powering arrangement, with songs incorporating brass and string sections, crisp and high quality production, and a certain sense of being cheated. This was certainly not a Doors album in the traditional sense, but does that mean it’s a disappointing album? Absolutely not Cellar Dwellers!



Of all The Doors albums, I find The Soft Parade to be one of the more interesting. Obviously the stand out track on first look is the US hit from the album; Touch Me with its inclusion of string and joyous brass section, certainly divided people back in the day, in a similar way Hello I Love You did on the preceding album. But I think time has done wonders for Touch Me, a song which has become slightly overplayed for a reason.

Ignoring the hit from the album, as I am sure many of you do nowadays, there are some excellent and shockingly neglected songs to be had here. For starters the opening song entitled Tell All The People is, in my view, bloody marvellous. Yes, over time this song has been pillaged by Oasis with their bloated number All Around The World, but at just over three minutes and with Morrison at the helm, it is much more tolerable.

The third song from The Soft Parade is called Shaman’s Blues, this song feels like it goes on forever, but in a good way, you literally feel yourself being absorbed by it. This is also true of the song Wild Child, which is very Doorsesque.

A song which more than fills the track listing is the Morrison penned Easy Ride, a tune which is often overlooked by many and deserves more attention in my humble view. And finally the avant-garde is also included on The Doors’ fourth studio album, with the emphatic 9 minute title track to round off the album nicely.



For a Doors fan back in 1969, The Soft Parade may have been emotionally troubling, but rest bite was in the offing in the form of their 1970 follow up release. But it is unfair to label The Soft Parade as some kind of stepping stone between Strange Days and Morrison Hotel, and it is certainly incorrect to think of this fourth studio release as a non starter. If the truth be known I love The Soft Parade. Really any album which features the vocals of Jim Morrison, the keys of Ray Manzarek, the guitar playing of Krieger and the drumming of Densmore, is unquestionably an album well worth investigating, and I don’t think this particular Doors’ release disappoints.