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If I heard it all the way, I would love to nominate Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants. I'm sure there will be someone who would rate it here.

For this post, I remember the title of a good a ha single, "Move to Memphis" and take the time machine back to '68 and '69 for some good albums made there which deserve more fans.

Paul Revere and The Raiders, Featuring Mark Lindsay (actually Mark Lindsay and some legendary Memphis Session musicians...) - Goin' To Memphis (1968)

The band was facing changing times as Revolution (1967) marked a slow downturn in their fortunes, and it was decided to do something a little different, one can safely think that this album was a result of possibly looking at the success of The Box Tops (with Cult Music favorite Alex Chilton), knowing their more Soulful sounds of "Peace of Mind" made it (and would also be the only performance by the full band on this album), and knowing that their featured lead vocalist could seriously do something like this for a whole album - something that seriously suited their talents. A look into the album first shows that at least the grooves were a success even if the album was a sales disappointemt: Mark Lindsay's vocals were first rate all the way, and even if his originals including "Every Man Needs a Woman" and "I'm a Loser Too" were not up to Stax level, at least they were damn good considering the situation while the covers of classics like "Soul Man" were good considering that in the hands of a weaker singer, this would have been a major fail. In a way, this seriously is among the best crossovers of a Rock band going into Soul when such a move was seriously head turning.

Keep in mind that this is a damn good album in The Raiders' long line of good albums, but also keep in mind that they covered up the fact that this was reportedly just their excellent singer with Producer Chips Moman's crew (although the band could have done these songs live with no problem anyways) - Take note of the only in-studio photo with only Mark in the frame. Sadly, this was released with one of the worst album covers ever, featuring a cartoon style drawing that made it like like a Kid's album, already turning off a lot of potential listeners (Back in my very young days, even I did not venture even if I knew of their G-Pop classics). Then, to make matters even more disappointing for the fans of the album who at least made it go into the lower half of the Top 100 Albums, the Raiders' fans who were more used to their catchy Pop were cold to the convincing Soulful sounds of Lindsay and the Moman Crew. The album is still a fan favorite, and while it may not be the best way to start, it is something to get into after going through a hits collection and moving your way into one of the more interesting music projects of 1968.



Mitch Ryder - The Detroit/Memphis Experiment

From a cool Pop Soul happening to the ultra Real Deal, although this time there was no chart action for the album.

In 1969, Paramount was Distributing Stax Records (Note the G+W on the original pressings - Gulf and Western = Paramount), and Mitch Ryder, fresh from parting ways with Bob Crewe, was free to do the kind of project he wanted to. Of course, knowing that the label he was on was Distributing one of his favorite labels, he worked with the Stax Crew. The result: One damn fine album including the under-rated single "Sugar Bee" and plenty of choice cuts like "I Get Hot," Liberty," and "Raise Your Hand." Sadly, even after showing that Ryder was back in serious music action after a 1968 of flop singles, this went into the cut-outs very quick with yet another pretty bad cover, although the liner notes which may have been a little more honest about his opinions of the music industry than the company was used to may have halted the promotion. No matter what, this should be found and heard on sight.