More U.K. Obscurities On U.S. Labels: Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera

 

ELMER GANTRY'S VELVET OPERA-Flames/What's The Point Of Leaving U.S. Epic 5-10419 1968

U.K. psychedelic rock band Elmer Gentry's Velvet Opera released six singles and an album in the U.K. with just two singles (the first of which seems more than likely not to actually exist). Today's subject was their second issued here in November of 1968 containing two tracks from their untitled album (released here as Epic BN-26415). It differs from it's British release (Direction 58-3083) as the U.K. single features "Salisbury Plain" as the B-side.

"Flames" is an interesting track that's actually quite frantic and not as remotely trippy as one would expect. It reminds me a lot of the Open Mind  but faster with it's throbbing bass and slashing guitars. There's an obligatory blistering but brief guitar solo that breaks things up a bit. The production always struck me as sounding like something from the 70's, especially the vocals. 

On the flip "What's The Point Of Leaving" sounds like a completely different band sounding like early Badfinger meets late era Idle Race, with some subtle Mellotron.  Its not unlistenable but there's nothing compelling me to play to it again either.

As mentioned earlier both tracks are available on their untitled album which has been reissued in several formats (and was even released here in America as mentioned above) and is available on streaming via Spotify. 

Hear "Flames":

 https://youtu.be/oius7z69zRU?si=PPPEIhnUbiBJaPhL

Hear "What's The Point Of Leaving":

https://youtu.be/1V6126M05tI?si=iZq4g4rfO19vPOLx

More U.K. Obscurities On U.S. Labels: On U.S. Labels: Jon

 

JON-Is It Love/So Much For Mary U.S.Epic 5-10242 1967

U.K. psych act Jon (actually a quartet not a solo artist) cut just two singles, "So Much For Mary" b/w "Polly Sunday (Parlophone R 5604 June 1967) and "Is It Love" b/w "Sing Out" (Parlophone R 8249 August 1967). In typical U.S. release fashion of British 60's singles Epic records placed "Is It Love" with "So Much For Mary" on the flip as their sole American release which it the streets in October 1967. 

"Is It Love" was first introduced to me via a delightful bootleg psych/Freakbeat CD-R "Jagged Time Lapse Volume One" in the early 2000's before gaining a proper release on the excellent CD "Insane Times: 25 British Psychedelic Artyfacts From The EMI Vaults" . It's a fairly mellow song highlighted by some high pitched backing vocals, xylophone and tack piano that gives it that "Fairy tale psych" element. The high backing vocals mesh with some slick guitar licks and the whole thing has a laid back (ie "stoned") vibe to it all. The lead singer really reminds me of someone from the 70's, only I can't decide if he's more like Gerry Rafferty or Al Stewart.

The flip side "So Much For Mary" (penned by Chris Andrews) sounds like a completely different band. It's uptempo and contains this driving beat with hand claps, Penny whistle and a poppy/happy go lucky feel not unlike The Tremeloes at their sappiest. And the melody at times sounds not dissimilar to "Hang On Sloopy". 

As mentioned above "Is It Love" is available on the CD "Insane Times..." and streaming as well. "So Much For Mary" does not appear to have been released anywhere else. The band later morphed into Still Life  who made one incredible orchestrated psych pop double sided for Columbia in 1968 "What Did We Miss"/"My Kingdom Cannot Lose" (an incredible two slider that must be heard!). 

 Hear "Is It Love":

https://youtu.be/2X5W5mN94bM?si=muVDgbkB7Eo3-c-Y

Hear "So Much For Mary":

https://youtu.be/GzVqFDbm4kY?si=2WYZj70L_6wF2xhA

More U.K. Obscurities On U.S. Labels: The Fairytale

 

FAIRYTALE-Lovely People (Like You And Me)/Guess I Was Dreaming U.S. London 45-LON-20032 1967

Warrington, U.K. 60's psych pop quartet The Fairytale had just two singles released in Britain: "Guess I Was Dreaming" b/w "Run And Hide" (Decca F12644 August 1967) and "Lovely People" b/w "Listen To Mary Cry" (Decca F 12665 September 1967). Curiously London records in the U.S. decided to marry "Lovely People (Like You And Me)" (as it was titled in America) with "Guess I Was Dreaming" on the B-side.  They also decided to drop "The" from the band's name and simply call them "Fairytale". This interesting single was launched in November 1967 where it remained in the obscurity from whence it came and as a result is fairly rare.

My introduction to The Fairytale came in the Summer of 1986 when I purchased the absolutely earth shattering See For Miles comp LP of Decca/Deram pop psych 45's "The British Psychedelic Trip 1966-1969" where they were on the front sleeve in all their psychedelic finery (see photo below) with the phased psych pop tune "Run And Hide". 

"Lovely People (Like You And Me)" is an almost fey period piece with lyrics espousing the virtues of the beautiful people (or in this case "the lovely people"). There's a cynical tone to all of it's flower power waif message though: "People hanging around you like mist on a morning lake, focus your eyes upon them don't let them slip away. The world is out to make you one of it's living dead so lift your head up slowly and reach out for the morning sun". "Lovely People" was produced by Vic Smith, who would rechristen himself Vic Coppersmith-Heaven and go on to produce the Jam. 

"Guess I Was Dreaming" has long been my favorite of the band's tracks. It's almost sinister starting out with a faint drum/bass that grows in descending volume before being met with a phlanged piano. The lyrics are full of darkness and paranoia: "All week, no sleep waiting for the man to come....Here he comes walking through my mind, in so many colors making me blind, a one eyed midget by his side...". All delivered with an almost martial/military march beat behind the phlanged piano notes. The number was later covered by The Kingsmen (of "Louie Louie" fame) on their May 1968 single on the flip of their version of Skip Bifferty's "On Love".  You can read all about that here. 

Both tracks are available on a host of CD /LP compilations. "Lovely People" is on Rubble Volume Six "The Clouds Have Groovy Faces" and "Guess I Was Dreaming" was on the Deram/Decca comp "The Psychedelic Scene". Both songs are available on streaming as well. 

Here "Lovely People":

https://youtu.be/BmGS_k-yDdc?si=zVwmd0zjqTDe1n7w

Hear "Guess I Was Dreaming":

https://youtu.be/TkiH0EcIQ4g?si=YrRFStVO6_wlyu1B

"The Association On Crystal Meth": The Cape Kennedy Construction Company

 

THE CAPE KENNEDY CONSTRUCTION COMPANY-The First Step On The Moon/Armageddon U.K. President PT 2645 1969

One of my favorite British 60's psychedelic 45's is today's subject, July 1969's (released a few weeks after the first steps were taken on the moon) one off release by the curiously named Cape Kennedy Construction Company on the groovy President records label. A YouTube user once commented on this record that it sounded like "....the Association on crystal meth" and Nigel Lees in "Record Collector" unfairly dismissed it in his "A To Z Of British Psychedelia" series (I forget his exact words but they were not kind). I think it's equally amazing on both sides, though both are vastly different and definitely have different lead vocalists. 

"The First Step On The Moon" starts out with some very churchly organ joined by some VERY Joe Meek/Tornados meets Barry Grey ("Thunderbirds/U.F.O. etc) influenced "spacey" combo organ, vibes and restrained fuzz guitar that works perfectly! The vocals remind me of a Carter/Lewis project (it's reputed that John Carter is the lead singer according to some liner notes) leading me to suspect that it was a studio only concoction. The vocals and their accompanying harmonies are positively amazing and have an ethereal charm about them when splashed up against the restrained Meek inspired musical backing.  

The flip side, "Armageddon" was first introduced to me back in the mid 90's on the bootleg "Psychedelia" series on Tiny Alice Records ("Psychedelia Volume One: Oil Emulsion Slide" to be exact). It starts with some very forlorn organ (reminiscent of Felius Andromeda's "Meditation") and a distorted and completely disembodied voice quoting scripture ("as he gathered to a place called Armageddon and the seventh angel of the Lord poured out his bowl upon the earth and the voice from heaven from the throne said it is done") that is suddenly punctuated by a sonic boom of a jet (presumably delivering "the bomb"). Both the organ and voice have always remind me of the mutant doomsday cult in "Beneath The Planet Of The Apes". The vocals are fey and plaintive sounding as the vocalist sings a protest type song about the futility of peace ("they blow us up, they put us down, they've made it up, they've made it rough") that is occasionally punctuated by bursts of a rocking section and the ominous sonic boom with the spooky organ continuing throughout on a loop with the track ending with the bleak sounds of the wind and a off kilter church bell after the organ increases in volume.

Both sides have cropped up in several places but the best place to get them both is on the President records LP/CD compilation "Sometimes I Wonder: The Psychedelic Pop Sound Of President" which is also available on streaming. 

Hear "The First Step On The Moon":

https://youtu.be/HOo1SDxKiQo?si=dcO5C4S7GnZvRNSz

Hear "Armageddon":

https://youtu.be/xyridEejOss?si=Fh2-ZdPPg2NeTxJQ

Mod Is Dead: Psychedelia Is King Part Two-The Who "I Can See For Miles"

 

THE WHO-I Can See For Miles/Someone's Coming U.K. Track 604011 1967

When Pete Townshend was staggering around a Pink Floyd gig at the U.F.O. club London in the middle of a bad L.S.D. trip in 1967 he bumped into loyal Who fan and Goldhawk club mod Ace Face "Irish Jack" Lyons who could hardly believe his eyes. His hero was wearing an Afghan coat and beads and tripping his balls off. Pete was equally astonished that Jack was still in his mod gear and declined Lyon's invite for a pint at the pub across the street instead stating that he was going to go check out the macrobiotic food stall, that his girlfriend, Karen Astley (daughter of "The Saint" theme composer Edwin Astley) was working in her risque paper dress sans undergarments. Karen  Astley was heavily involved with the U.F.O. club and appeared on one of their flyers (see below). 

Pete and Karen Astley, pre-psychedelia (note bottle of Teacher's whiskey)

Roger Daltrey has stated "The Who didn't do peace and love" and though this is essentially true Pete's acid experiences had a major impact on their third single of 1967, "I Can See For Miles". It was unleashed on the British public on October 13, 1967 , strangely it was issued in America on September 18th (where the band promoted it the previous evening on "The Smothers Brothers Show").  Much to Pete Townshend's chagrin (he considered it one of his greatest accomplishments and still does) it stalled at #10 in Britain but went on to become their highest American chart placing single to date reaching #9. The American release featured "Mary Anne With The Shaky Hand" as it's B-side, whereas the British release featured John Entwistle's "Someone's Coming". The lyrics to "I Can See For Miles", partially inspired by Pete's insecurities that Karen was cheating on him while he was on the road (one has the feeling that he was not remotely chaste at this time) were also inspired by his L.S.D. use (something he would end after a bad experience on Owsley's STP while on the flight home to England following the Monterey Pop Festival in June). During one particular trip at a Pink Floyd gig (quite possibly the same one he encountered Irish Jack at) Pete became convinced that Roger Waters was seducing Karen from the stage and was terrified that Waters was "swallowing him" and according to Pink Floyd producer and U.F.O. Club organizer Joe Boyd, Pete spent most of the gig crouched in front of the stage telling all and sundry how terrified he was. 

"I Can See For Miles" put the Who firmly back in their game of powerful singles in the tradition of "My Generation" or "Anyway Anyhow Anywhere" after light weight releases like "Substitute", "Happy Jack" and their ill advised Rolling Stone's cover "The Last Time". Beginning with a resonating power chord and Moon's surprisingly tight drumming (in fact Moon's drumming throughout the entire track is incredibly intricate and disciplined!) "I Can See For Miles" is an iconic track with layer upon layer of buzzing /stinging guitars and a chorus of harmony vocals that perfectly mesh with the thundering crescendo.  This is The Who at their best after spending forever on the road in the United States and recording on the hoof as they criss crossed the country in a Greyhound bus (the backing track was recorded in London and the vocals and overdubs were cut at Talent Masters in NYC and the soon to be finished product was mixed at Gold Star in Los Angeles). 

The flip side, Entwistle's "Someone's Coming" is a polar opposite the A-side. Backed by Entwistle's intricate horns layered in overdubs it's not an unlikable track but truly a throwaway B-side and nothing in the league of previous stellar Entwistle flip sides like "In The City" or "Doctor Doctor". 

We briefly dipped into the waters of the death of mod and the birth of psychedelia way back when in a previous post. 

Hear  "I Can See For Miles"

Hear "Someone's Coming" 

Harry's Still Freaked Out: 10 Lysergic 60's Classics

  10 Lysergic 60's Classics NOT From England:

We here at "Anorak Thing" are always on about British 60's psych so I decided it was about time to give credit to some of the other acts from other countries who took a musical trip on the technicolor rainbow ride knows as psychedelia.  A lot of countries did not make the cut because I wanted to limit the number to ten. Also because a few countries just didn't have a lot of freakout records.  Take Holland for instance.  I've heard lots by Group 1850, Q65, The Outsiders, Dragonfly etc but none of what I've heard so far is trippy like The Pink Floyd or  The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. I skipped Brazil because I'm bored to death with Tropicalia which to be honest though brilliant in places (like Caetano Veloso's debut LP) isn't exactly brain cell destroying stuff.  Let's face it psychedelia basically skipped France.  The Ye-Ye girls all sang about L.S.D. and France Gall made a few trippy pop songs on her LP "1968" but France in the 60's was pretty unhip and ignored what was going on anywhere else in the world not taking too many cues from the U.K. or U.S. past 1964.  I also decided to skip foreign versions of other people's psych cuts, like the Canadian version of "See Emily Play" or the Australian cover of Eire Apparent's "Mr. Guy Fawkes". I also made sure the list wasn't entirely from the U.S. so here's what I came up with...

1. The Klan-"Nobody Will Ever Help You"
Belgium's Klan produced a slew of catchy mod/pop songs like their Dutch counterparts The Motions before taking a cue from Pink Floyd and throwing in spacey backing vocals, Rick Wright-esque organ, and at the number's ending a disembodied "announcer" repeats random phrases while the guitar player gets all "See Emily Play" with his guitar (see Sparrow below).

http://youtu.be/w9gz8tm7-fo

2. The Tea Company-"Come And Have Some Tea With Me"
Technically most psych-heads might disdain this commercially produced LP geared purely at psychedelic exploitation by the good folks at Smash records who were known for putting out some oddball records (Gary and The Hornets anyone?).  But for a cash in its an incredible bit of complex psychedelia with a cacophony of effects that are just as trippy as anything made by real god honest freaks.  The title track (which also opens the album) is a mish mash of distorted/phased horns with lots of echo and fuzzed out guitar building to a frightening crescendo.

http://youtu.be/xbWPkp6NfNo


3. The Byrds-"Artificial Energy"
David Crosby's ode to speed from "The Notorious Byrd Brothers" is by far the most wigged out thing they ever did.  This is mainly down to the phased/compressed horns that glide from speaker to speaker like The Tijuana Brass on acid and array of "psychedelic" effects on everything including the vocals that anticipate the coming of Julian Cope and The Teardrop Explodes who were never above a flanging horn section or two. "I'm going to die before my time..."

http://youtu.be/rhARaw0x75Y

4. Aorta-"What's in My Mind's Eye"
I can't tell you much about these guys except they were from Chicago and this track hails from their untitled 1969 LP. This track is lushly orchestrated like a '67 British Deram/Decca 45 but it has this element of freakiness to it that sets it apart from orchestrated pop-sike candy floss.  Maybe its the effect on the vocals, maybe I'm having a flashback.

http://youtu.be/bEknL2Y_IKU

5. Sparrow-"Isn't it Strange"
Pre-Steppenwolf John Kay wigginess from 1966 of all times!  The vocals are unearthly and reek of a mind losing his mind, like Jim Morrison but more far out and there's the great Zippo-on-guitar neck Syd Barrett effect before Syd Barrett ever made a record and top it off with some moody percussive bits that anticipate "S.F. Sorrow".  Yes kids, they knew how to get their freak on up in Canada!

http://youtu.be/pKEpNgI0Fak

6. Lloyd's World-"Brass Bird"
Australia, like Sweden is a tough country to pick just one or two psychedelic tracks by.  A lot of their stuff is heavily influenced by their Colonial cousins the U.K.  This one is fairly poppy in parts but shows that like in the U.K., psychedelia was, in part just a bunch of mods who got turned on and blew their minds after hearing "Itchycoo Park" (this number especially is drenched in phasing/flanging aka "skying").

http://youtu.be/8aHT7AvBzPg

7. The Dee-Jays-"Striped Dreams, Checked Fear"
Though technically British The Deejays were based in Sweden for pretty much their entire career so we'll consider them Swedes.  This was from their last LP titled, appropriateluy, "Haze" (amongst such acid eating numbers like "Who But the Bomp" and "Little Children" eeeek). Cut in 1967, its a truly lysergic song that utilizes a bit of phasing, snippets of "Come All Ye Faithful" as a chorus and some brilliantly ominous flanged piano chording beneath a "Crimson And clover" style bassline.

http://youtu.be/YBnXgiOBdL0

8. We All Together-"It's A Sin To Go Away"
You could fill a shot glass with what I know about 60's South American psych, its a genre I haven't quite gotten around to investigating.  These guys hailed from Peru and were brought to my attention via the second "Nuggets" box set.  This one starts out like a Procol Harum meets Vanilla Fudge type number with some churchy organ and evolves into a choral pop tripfest awash in flanging and backwards guitars.

http://youtu.be/47uEb3j1nyo

9. Los Shakers-"Espero Que Te Guste 042 "
Uruguay's Shakers were the biggest Beatle fanatics in the Americas so when the Fab's got trippy with "Revolver" Los Shakers ditched "A Hard Day's Night" and got suitably freaked out with this track (well in truth they'd already began moving away from the '64 Beatles...).  No track better encapsulates their "new" sound than this cut full of "Revolver" era trademarks like "Tomorrow Never knows" drum beats, buzzing backwards guitars, soaring harmonies and the lot!

http://youtu.be/_3_UxqNk64I

10. The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band-"The Smell Of Incense"
Eclipsed by a lame ass semi hit cover version by The Southwest F.O.B. (aptly nicknamed by Mike Stax in "Ugly Things" once as  the Southwest S.O.B's) this is the original.  The WCPAEB were probably the biggest bunch of lunatics who in my estimation out freaked The Byrds and Love in the studio by a million microdots.  It was hard to pick just one track by them and this Eastern influenced number sets into a groove so heavy you'd swear if you closed your eyes you could smell the incense and a cloud of kiff smoke enveloping the room.

http://youtu.be/1-Nhx0HkQaI

Glossary:
phasing-
In the compositional technique phasing, popularized by composer Steve Reich, the same part (a repetitive phrase) is played on two musical instruments, in steady but not identical tempo. Thus, the two instruments gradually shift out of unison, creating first a slight echo as one instrument plays a little behind the other, then a doubling with each note heard twice, then a complex ringing effect, and eventually coming back through doubling and echo into unison. Phasing is the rhythmic equivalent of cycling through the phase of two waveforms as in phasing. Note that the tempi of the two instruments are almost identical, so that both parts are perceived as being in the same tempo: the changes only separate the parts gradually. In some cases, especially live performance where gradual separation is extremely difficult, phasing is accomplished by periodically inserting an extra note into the phrase of one of the two players playing the same repeated phrase, thus shifting the phase by a single beat at a time, rather than gradually (see flanging and/or skying).

flanging-
Flanging is an audio effect produced by mixing two identical signals together, with one signal delayed by a small and gradually changing period, usually smaller than 20 milliseconds. This produces a swept comb filter effect: peaks and notches are produced in the resultant frequency spectrum, related to each other in a linear harmonic series. Varying the time delay causes these to sweep up and down the frequency spectrum.

skying-
Coined by Richard Norris and Phil Smee of Bam Caruso records in the 80's to describe the oscilating effects created using "phasing" or "flanging" on such records as Caleb's "Baby Your Phrasing Is Bad" (and also more well known tracks like The Small Face's "Itchycoo Park" ).  Interestingly the first record to ever utilize this effect was  "The Big Hurt" by Toni Fisher in 1959!!

http://youtu.be/IlE6eHEENg4