The Band XTC Could Have Been Dept.

 

 

 

The Dukes Of Stratosphear had everything the adenoidal herberts from Swindon's Sausage City lacked - color, fun, and imagination. Also, great album sleeves. They delivered where XTC checked boxes. But after two perfect albums, they decided to pack it all in and leave XTC to do the heavy lifting.

Sir John Johns (real name Wayne Phlegm) lead guitarist [left - Ed.], puts it this way: "we were enjoying being the Dukes too much. The first album sold better than any XTC album, and people loved it. It transcended pastiche to become the real thing, real psych-pop that stood alongside anything out of the sixties. So in a way it kind of negated all the pseudo-punk art-pop XTC were doggedly churning out for their miserablist fans. XTC had a stab at the genre with Oranges And Lemons, but it wasn't in the same league. So we burned our kaftans."

It was the world's loss.

Yeah, yeah ... XTC ... ZZZ, you ax me.

Artie Fishell's AI Fun! Dept.

 

Answer in comments - no fair peeking!

The Internet's Artie Fishell [below - Ed.] sez:

Yo! Wassup, bro?! Got a little quiz goin' for ya! Simply study above image of bucolic brotherhood [or sisterhood, or theirhood - Ed.] and in yer own words state in a comment if it's AI [write: YES - Ed.] or not [write: NO - Ed.].

Lucky winner will get their own exclusive dedicated downloadable deliverable! 

Class Out Th' Ass Dept. - The Bangles

Glossy gals who knew how to throw a pose!

 

Massive global hits when singles sales and radio plays meant something The Bangles wrote, played and sang as fantastic as they looked, and whipped up a storm live. Forget the "greatest girl group ever" tag - which they were - The Bangles are the last great Pop Group.

Today's deliverable is something that plays itself all the way through with no trouble at all. It's not a comprehensive chronological anthology, just a pretty obvious selection of Imperial Period gold, with a couple of "rarities" bundled in. Unusually, the extended versions don't outstay their welcome.

Good for a daily dopamine rush, and to remind yerself of how unbelievably great pop could get. As an added bonus [left - Ed.], a live recording from '84, when you still had your own teeth.

That track list in full!

 

This post funded in part by Veeblefetzer King® "The King of Veeblefetzers!"™

It's Not You, It's Me! Dept. - Jellyfish

I should like these guys, what with the hooks and chops and everything, so why don't I? Something to do with the airless, ELO-like production? Good story about Brian Wilson visiting them at work in the studio - they proudly showed off their vintage equipment, and he remained stoney-faced and left saying barely a word. Later he spoke to the guy he was with, and said he'd done all that years ago, he was really disappointed because he wanted to learn something new!

I don't like their covers, either, which doesn't help, but I can do something about that. 

 

Gee whiz - what am I missing? 

 

It's The Freakbeatles! Dept.

The Creations, yestiddy!

The Creations, day before yestiddy!

Every once in a while, mainly when we're running short on inspiration, we'll be featuring a new feature featuring an Am*zon Reviewer Album Du Jour Of The Day! Take it away, Am*zon Reviewer!

🎸mrrocknroll

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Reviewed in Yemen on November 22, 1957

Verified Purchase

BOUGHT THIS FOR MY HUSBAND HE LOVES IT! ANYONE WHO KNOW ME KNOW I DONT GIVE AWAY FIVE STARS LIGTLY I HAVE OVER 1 HUNDRED "CD'S" SO KNOW WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT AS A LONGTIME FAN OF MR RONIE "JAMES" DIO (THE KING OF "ROCK" N 'ROLL) I AWARD THIS ABLUM FIVE STARS MASTERING BY BENNIE GROUNDHOG HIGH MIDS AND WARM SOUNDSTAGE ON MY VEEBLEFETZER VALVE AMP AND TITANIUM TURNTABLE MAT ALHTOUGH I WOULD NOT RECCOMEND THIS AS AN INTRODUCTION NOOBS SHOULD START WITH HIS ICONIC CLASSIC FIRST ABLUM ARIVED IN GREAT CONDITION CASE SLIGHTLY CRACKED WOULD USE THIS SELER AGAIN REVIEW BY MRROCKNROLL AUTHER OF BESTSELLER JOHN MILES MUSIC WAS HIS FIRST LOVE. RECOMENDED

The Creations, day before day before yestiddy!

Thank you, Am*zon Reviewer! Unfortunately we couldn't find any Ronnie James Dio ablums here on th' Isle O' Foam©, so here's swell UK freakbeat combo The Creation with their definitive collection Action Painting, instead!

 

This post re-published because frankly I've run out of things I want to write about, except my book, which I'm spending about six hours a day on. My last bid for overnight success!

TV News! Dept.

Ongoing goings on, going forward ...

 

 

 

"Where's Davy?" - The Monkees Head Dept.

This all started years back, with my dissatisfaction with the movie soundtrack album, which I loved (owning three copies at a time when it was harder to locate than a rhinocerous clitoris) but felt needed work - the kind of work Jack Nicholson put into that dizzying sound collage (heard here in unique mind-blowing stereo). It needed to be more like the movie. It needed to be continuous, like a movie. Above all, it needed to be a puzzling, disorienting trip; not a bag of odds and ends. It took much more work than I anticipated, and I suspect some of the stuff I put in will never get out - trapped in the black box.

Pre-digital effects (like this and the 2001 trip) were truly special

You can now play the album on an eternal loop, mirroring the structure of the movie - "and when you see the end in sight, the beginning might arrive." The theme of being trapped in a kind of Möbius Sunset Strip that twists through the movie is echoed even in the lyrics of the unused songs. "It's the end, the living end!" someone shouts at the beginning of California, as Peter sings "here I come, right back where I started from." Nesmith puts his characteristic spin on the Strip: "These things I think are new, I guess they're really old. It seems I've done 'em all before. Now I will go to someplace ... where things don't start just to end." That'll be Hollywood, mythical birthplace of the most fascinating and still misunderstood pop group. And Peter, who's always been the dummy, the idiot savant, sums up the frustration with Do I Have To Do This All Over Again, back on the wheel, stuck in the box ... puppets waking up from a dream - of being a boxer, a soldier, a musician, a suicide, a guru - into another dream ...

Although there are more songs on this version than the official release, it's a more intense listen, and it does justice to an intense movie; multi-layered, dreamlike, endlessly rich and deep. Fuck Kubrick. Grab your headphones and half an hour to yourself. Extra points for spotting the Firesign Theatre.

The James Joyce Connection (no, really, stick with it)

From an internet: "James Joyce’s experimental novel Finnegans Wake (1939) is considered a revolutionary masterpiece. Written over the course of nearly two decades, Joyce attempted to create a dreamlike state. Like the eighteenth-century Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico, Joyce believed that history is cyclical. Finnegans Wake is modeled on this concept. The story is written in a circular structure with no beginning or end. In fact, the novel’s opening line is a fragment of a sentence from the novel’s closing line which was left unfinished. Due to the complicated and fluid nature of the novel, critics find it difficult to summarize the plot. The novel does not have a single plot - instead, it has many stories ..."

Supernatural? Perhaps. Baloney? Perhaps not. This concept can occur to, and be expressed artistically by, a bunch of super-smart Hollywood brats quite as well as any Literary Genius or 18c philostopher. "The novel does not have a single plot - instead, it has many stories", or, as Head puts it: "We hope you like our story, although there isn't one ... that is to say there's many ..." The protagonist in Finnegans Wake is referred to as HCE, which can be understood as Here Comes Everybody. In this Fractal Expansion the Head equivalent is Here We Come, or HWC. Here they come, and there they go.

Swim with the mermaids ...

Back cover supplied (above, struggling against white background) . 

Unused poster

Mental Health Dept. - Stress

Original artwork, run through a few filters.

WhatCulture:

Another wonderful group with only a single album to their name, British neo-psyche rockers, Stress, released their sole, self-titled record in 1990, but what a record it is!

Despite proving a commercial disappointment, the band were well-received critically, with comparisons drawn between themselves, Hendrix and The Beatles [eh? - Ed.].

Those comparisons are well-earned. Nothing feels forced here, and the core group of Wayne Binitie (lead vocals, guitar), Mitch Amachi Ogugua (bass) and Ian Mussington (drums) manage to reference those past greats without ever seeming to ape them.

The core trio are joined by a bewildering amount of players, including such notables as the wonderful Talvin Singh on tabla, Steve Byrd on guitar and Raf Mizraki on “various Turkish instruments.”

You may think that you've heard every variety that psychedelic rock has to offer, but Stress really do bring something different to the table, not least a fine ear for melody, imaginative arrangements and an admirable width of musical vision.

 

Allmusic:

Well-done flower rock with a lot of musical strengths. It's laden with sitars, tablas, odd sounds, and melodies, though it doesn't resort to the tricks of nuevo-psychedelic [eh? - Ed.] music to get by.

 

IoF©:

Groovy, swell, you'll dig it!

 

If this sounds the sort of thing you might like (trust me, it is) you'll find the link in the comments. 

 

This Is Fantastic

 

The Only SMiLE You Need

Cover art ©FalseMemoryFoam Art Department Of Art Dept. - spot the source clues?

RE-UPPED. Read th' screed!

I could be wrong [horrors - Ed.] but I think this version gets lost in the avalanche of SMiLE reconstructions because it seems to take away more than it gives. Looking at the track list, there's nothing new here, only a slight re-shuffle, and it commits the cardinal crime of using any available source, rather than attempting an "authentic" contemporary reconstruction, which fans want but will never get. If you have the attention span, please read on, because there's a bullet-proof logic behind the process that resulted in thirty minutes of crystal holy bliss.

One of the many reasons for SMiLE's non-completion is not lack of content; it's the opposite. Brian was coming up with just too much material, finding it impossible to stay focused. Every SMiLE reconstruction has had the same problem. Coming up with a CD length reconstruction, leave alone a forty minute album, has meant trying to find a home for innumerable snippets and unfinished fragments that detract and distract.

The ground rules for this version are:

- No cartoon whimsy Brian at various times suggested it was going to be a comedy album, whatever that is, and this was one of the many distractions that became an unstoppable  shitstorm of ideas. So no I'm In Great Shape, He Gives Speeches, Barnyard, Vegetables or George Fell Into His French Horn skits. This is SMiLE as a work of art.

- No fragments of cover versions No Gee, I Wanna Be Around, You Are My Sunshine, The Old Master Painter ... Ask not why I cut them out, ask why they were ever included in the first place.

- No "elements suite" Another unfinished concept he was trying to shoe-horn in (or not, depending on who you read). It's an unnecessary complication. Fire never resolved itself into an actual piece of listenable music; it was always a big banging howling thrash that never fit anywhere without totally disrupting the flow. 

- Nothing from Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE A curiously sterile affair, with some material that just sounds ... wrong. Blue Hawaii? On A Holiday? The grotesque butchery of the Cool Cool Water section? What the actual? Overly academic, missing the (available) verse to Cabinessence, and completely devoid of the magic that saturates every note of the original recordings. Any bootleg build is preferable to this hollow replica.

So that's snipped a lot of tape, but we're still left with enough songs in a state of completion to constitute an album (the Beach Boys had form for half-hour albums).

Good Vibrations
Wind Chimes
Cabinessence
Wonderful
Roll Plymouth Rock
Heroes And Villains
Cool Cool Water
Surf's Up
Child Is Father To The Man
Our Prayer

This is the order (and the titles) I chose, and it makes no claim to be definitive. It is more coherent than other mixes, a suite flowing through developing movements.

Brian was so damn close to completing SMiLE. Much closer than he's generally given credit for. The biggest missing from the list was the verse to Roll Plymouth Rock, which Dae Lims brilliantly exhumed from a brief studio fragment (on YouTube, but I can't find it now). Why that didn't make the SMiLE box, or Brian Wilson Presents is baffling - the extraordinary melody is right there. The lyric was written. If Brian had spent another day on the song in the studio, and maybe a focused week in total, free of distractions, we'd have the album! But ... his life was complex. That he survived at all is something of a miracle.

I haven't been purist in my choice of sources. This isn't a historical document, and I've used whatever sounded good to me, which means the original recordings wherever possible, and the Surf's Up version of Surf's Up. Why not? It's The Beach Boys, fercrissakes, and the gap between SMiLE and the Surf's Up album dwindles to effectively nothing from the perspective of 2025.

Material is taken from the Beach Boys official catalog (any period), a little Dae Lims and SonicLovesNoise. My many edits and segués are exclusive to this version. Listen for in the late afternoon and tell me it's not the sweetest version of Wind Chimes you ever heard. Listen for the crows and the piano thump in the wide-screen Cabinessence. Listen, listen, listen ...

Cover references (to the overall mythology, not this particular edition):

Crow: flying over some corn (probably). From the Americana cornerstone, Cabinessence (I refuse to call such a majestic work 'Do You Like Worms').

Bicycle Rider: just see what you done!

Fire Chief hat

Leopard: from Smiley Smile's jungle

Sunflower: the first appearance of Cool, Cool Water

Chinese slave railroad labor

Capitol Building on fire! 

A little bit of surf 

Native Americans from Surf's Up

Choo-choo train

 

Jesus Explains Dept. - File Compression

 

Jesus delivers the Parable of the Suitcase (original Foam-O-Graph©, colorized)

When seeketh the humble pilgrim authoritative advice on file compression formats, to whom doth he turn? Why, to Jesus, because as the Son of God, verily doth he know his shit when it comes to this type thing.

Book O' Foam chapter XI verse IV: The Parable Of The Suitcase

So it came to pass that a man of Nazareth was sorely vexed by compressed music files, and came to Jesus saying, lo, for I am sorely vexed by compressed music files. Which shall be closer to God, the humble @CXCII of the honest yeoman, or the bloated flac file favored by the Roman Oppressor? And Jesus answered him, saying, When thou packeth thine suitcase, perhaps for business trip or vacation, and the lid will not close, what dost thou doeth? And the man replied, saying, why, I jumpeth up and down upon it until it closeth. And Jesus spoke, saying, Dost thou discard such garments that prevent its closure and travel without? And the man laughed, saying, why, that would be folly! And Jesus replied, saying, think therefore of the garments as music, and the suitcase as the file format. When thou compresseth the garments that thou mayest close the suitcase, thou dost not lose any of the garments. It is the same with music. And the man fell to his knees, crying, verily Lord Jesus thou doth knowest thine shit!

 

This post sponsored in part by Th' Pork Bend Pontifical Church And Car Wash Co.

 

 

Shining Paragons Of Uniqueness Dept. - The Third Ear Band

Whichever way you slice the Third Ear Band they look, sound, feel, and smell like nothing else. The boxes they don't tick spread across every musical genre. Wyrd Folk, you say? Didn't exist at the time. They haven't yet invented the box this band could tick with any confidence.

They're not going to play at your wedding. Unless it's at Stonehenge.

From '69, peak year for stuff like this. There wasn't any.

Putting band name on cover in shameless bid for show-biz acceptance and chart action.

They're possibly still out there, creaking and droning away, either in physical or ætheric form. Deliverable includes first three albums (xtry trx) and a massive compilation, but there's more! Shuffle on down to your nearest physical media outlet and scoop up a sack o' Thirdie goodness while you still have the strength!

Does anybody read this crap? Asking for a friend.

 

 

"Frank Zappa" (SWIDT?) Dept.

 

Quick! Your favorite Zappa quotes!

Artie Fishell's AI Fun! Dept.

Yes, AI is here to stay, and it'll only get better/worse! [writes TV's Artie Fishell - Ed.], so we might as well get some yoks out of it. The keen-eyed among you will have already spotted this is fake because the "Marine" is pushing "Trump's" big sloppy old ass onto a plane.

 

Artie Fishell, yestiddy

This is first in what promises to be a popliar regliar FoamFeaturette©. As to the contentious issue of AI-created "content" in the media, if you haven't learned by now to distrust every image that's fed you, and every word you read and hear, you will continue to be played for a patsy. Remember - only Foam-O-Graph© delivers the objective, un-spun truth! Look for the Foam-O-Graph© brand wherever visual content is present!

Wake Up! It's The 'Nineties! Dept. - Idle Wilds, Semisonic, Umajets

You, probably. I still dress like the dweeb on the left.

 

Three überswell langspielersteschallplattenalbum from the last decade that matters! I bought all these on release, and such was my disassociation from contemporary culture I was astounded when none of them turned out to be hits. Semisonic would have their MTV moment with Closing Time from their second album, but there's beaucoup songs in this three disc box set its equal. The Great Divide is the most polished in terms of playing and production, and the most varied in style, but the quality of songwriting is uniformly high across the Umajets (ex-Jellyfish) and Idle Wilds (straight outta nowhere, and straight back in again) discs.

 

Sultry Susanna Hoffs [above - Ed.] sez: "You won't regret downloading today's powerpoptastic deliverables!

 

 

Paul McCartney: "Beatles To Reform" Shock!

Sir McCartney at his private Isle O' Foam© suite, yestiddy! Copyright FoG™ (Foam-O-Graph©)

 

Sir McCartney [above - Ed.] is no stranger to th' IoF©, granting regular interviews and sharing news n' views on today's exciting "pop scene" with your genial host, but our latest FoamExclusive© is sure to send "fans" reeling!

Sir McCartney relaxed poolside whilst [grammar - Ed.] Kreemé [below left, and 18 my ass - Ed.] served signature Elk Spleen and Hospital Tub Water Smoothies!

FT3 Heyyyy! Sir Macca! Lookin' good! Is that a toupé or a wig?

PMC Ha ha! Eh?

FT3 So, tell us more about your exciting plans for the future what will send the pop world reeling!

PMC Have I had me dinner yet?

FT3 You'll get your soup soon as you spill the beans.

Kreemé [18 my ass - Ed.]

PMC Where's me glasses ... oh! I'm wearing 'em! Silly old Macca! (peers at card) I am pleased to announce the reformation of iconic pop group The Beatles, with a tour and a new album in the New Year. The boys and me are very excited about this, and hope our many fans out there will be, too. We feel the time is right. Livin' in these times in which we're livin' in, the world needs the happy-go-lucky sounds of the Fab Fours more than ever. It's swingin'! (makes signature thumbs up gesture for non-existent camera).

FT3 Is Ringo on board with this?

PMC Ringo?

FT3 The drummer. In the Beatles.

PMC Oh, him. Yeah, I don't see a problem there. Last I heard, he was doing a kids' show on the telly about toy trains. Mind you, he must be getting on a bit.

FT3 What about John and George?

PMC They haven't done anything for yonks. They'll be grateful. It's not like they have to write any songs. I've got dozens ... there's Bippity-Flippity-Flop, My Little Squeezy Duckie, Mrs. Grandma O'Grady's Washtub, Let's All Go On A Caravan Holiday, (La La La) La La La La, Give Israel Back To The Hittites, (Do The) Hokey Croquet, Sing A Silly Song, It's An Xmas Easter, Legless (Song For Heather), Yokoyoko Smackey Monkey, Watercress Sandwiches And A Thermos Of Tea, Have I Had Me Dinner Yet?, I Came Into This Room For Something, Big Bag Of Werthers ...

FT3 Er ... 

PMC Linda will be part of the band, too, she's written a pop opera about vegetarians on the moon! So maybe it'll be a double album! Whoops ... oh dear ... sorry about that ...

FT3 Nurse? NURSE?

[tape runs out - Ed.]

[Ed.]'s Pick O' Th' Week Dept. - Donovan

[Ed.] MC'ing the Neverending Ending Of The World Luau™, yestiddy.

There's a rumor going round that [Ed.] ain't real. That he's some kind of AI bot or algorithmic data recombobulator or sock puppet or something. He's real enough, as this Foam-O-Graph© shews [above - Ed.]. [Ed.]'s been Junior Content Editor since th' IoF© opened for bizness. He's the world's oldest intern, paid in Cheez Whiz and, when we can get it, kibble!

Every week, going forward, we'll be giving him his own platform to showcase a rekkid what he's lissnin' to. There's no censorship, no guidelines, just his own oft controversial viewpoint delivered in his own signature style!

This is sure to be a popliar and long-running FoamFeature©, and we wish [Ed.] every success with his bold new initiative! Watch out for it when it starts next week!

In the meantime, here's the best album Donovan ever made, and the only one you need, in response to a request from Snorky.

Groovy cover by th' IoF© Art Department O' Art Dept.

 

It Came From Outta Th' Crawlspace Dept. - The Fake Watch Band

 

From early 2022, when you were denying the onset of elderliness, comes this lovingly-wrought screed about some music you never bothered to pick up at the time. Or maybe you did but lost it down the back of the couch or just wandered off to find some paint or something in the garage. Well, grab hold of it now with all the strength you can muster in your arthritic old fingers, get Nurse Diesel to tweezer your ear hair, and plug in the buds for a sonic holiday! You certainly won't regret downloading today's re-featured deliverable!

Back when psychedelia was first being rediscovered - immediately post-Nuggets - the correct attitude was to sniff at Ed Cobb's studio additions to Chocolate Watch Band albums. Dey wus fake! The Chocolate Watch Band was a snarling, biting proto-punk combo, and Cobb's dreamy and sophisticated confections were not welcome. They weren't even played by the band! BOO!

Yes, the Choccies (as absolutely no-one was calling them) were one of the great garage punk combos, and it's impossible not to love their Sunset Strip spin on the Yardbirds and the Stones. But I always dug (man) Ed Cobb's Fake Watch Band cuts quite as much - more, if I'm honest. So here's Dark Side Of The Mushroom And Other Trips On Gossamer Wings, the first album ever by the Fake Watch Band.

The three gorgeous numbers that made up the first side of The Inner Mystique (if there's a lovelier album side I've yet to hear it) are here in their perfect sequence, as side two. The six cuts on the first side are the remaining recordings of the Fake Watch Band, and I've snuck in a couple of tracks with original band members that sound more Fake than Chocolate to make up the running time, anticipating the snooty dismissal of the purists who consider them not genuine Fakes at all.

It's a totally groovy 'sixties psych album, a soundtrack to blissing out in the park on a hot summer's day. And credit where long overdue; to Ed Cobb, Richard Podolor, Bill Cooper, Wayne Proctor, Don Bennet, Ethan McElroy, and the nameless session musicians whose contributions created such an evocative - and superbly recorded - piece of work. All thirty delicious minutes of it.

Ed Cobb [Ed left - Ed.] was in The Four Preps before moving to production in the late sixties. He produced Steely Dan, Pink Floyd, and Fleetwood Mac, among beaucoup others. He also wrote Tainted Love, a big hit for Soft Cell, Dirty Water for The Standells, and Every Little Bit Hurts, a hit for a busload of artistes. Major dude. Show him some respect by enjoying this album as the world goes to hell.

Delayed Gratification Dept. - The Churchill Downs

 

Artwork copyright FalseMemoryFoam© Art Department O' Art Dept.

This here album was recorded in '67/'68, shelved by the record company (I've said it before - record companies is a buncha schnooks) and eventually issued in 2011 [fercrissakes - Ed.] in a sleeve you'd scroll or flip right past, such was its undistinctiveness (I've said it before - record companies is a buncha schnooks) which is a damn shame, on account which it's swell. Great acid guitar, strong harmonies, all the perquisites of consolette time here on th' IoF. It's free, you'll dig it.

The Frantics tell the same sad story. Equally excellent, although leaning into hard rock. FoamFeatured™ antecedently, but duct-taped to the deliverable whether you want it or not!

Departmental Artwork © IoF© Department of Art Department Dept.

 

Return Of The Son Of StealthLink®! The access portal to the deliverable has been cunningly embedded in the post, using the latest in computer technology! Can YOU find it? Oboy! Some fun, huh?

 

 

 

Frog-Pop Dept. - Vanessa Paradis

Plus Frenchie que ça, on meurt ...

I've been a fan since her extraordinary second album Variations, made with Serge Gainsbourg, up with who's shit she would not put, inspiring his "Paradis, c'est l'enfer" quote. I was living in France at the time, and the eye-popping video for Tandem [below, you skeevy perves - Ed.] got me rushing out for the record.

Since then, every release has been a subtle grower of a blast. She has impeccable taste, she's whip-smart, and she knows what she wants, which has given her the reputation of being a bit of a brat.

 

 

Arriving a scant seven years after her last, her latest album Le Retour Des Beaux Jours [below, Ed.] comes as a hugely welcome surprise (at least to je), and it's another partnership with the truly gifted Etienne Daho. Of all her albums, it's perhaps the most diverse, leaping effortlessly across style barriers, and because of this will be a swell introduction should youse bums be unfamiliar with her œuvre [Fr. egg - Ed.]. It's a damn shame you're too dumb to speak French, because the lyrics are as thoughtful and clever as ever, but you'll appreciate the grooves and the vibes and the sumptuous sound. And that elusive quality of Frenchie sophistication, which she has out th' ass.

My birthday present! Thanks, Nessa! Album O' Th' Year, and by some way.

Re-Post Dept. - In The Garden Of Scented Sitars

SITARSWAMI WRITES: A late-night Google search of my memory banks reveals that the sitar first entered public consciousness in early 1966, centered around a fifth-grade group art project. There were four of us huddled close to the school’s portable record player auditioning Rubber Soul. The three of us content to do the least amount of work acceptable had agreed with an idea put forth by our class’s sole long-haired boy: we make hand puppets of, and pretend to be, The Beatles performing a song off their latest record. Hazy recollection suggests we chose “Run For Your Life” for our quickly forgotten pantomime (was I Ringo or George?). I wasn’t a Beatles fan, due to my older sister’s short-term obsession, but “Norwegian Wood” tickled the tinder in my ten- year-old brain. Later that year, stoked by the release of “Paint It Black” and “Turn-Down Day,” the smoldering embers sparked into a slow, burning, infatuation.

If incense was the olfactory signpost of late-60’s flower power, then a sitar was the aural manifestation. On the strength of its 18, 19, 20, or 21 strings the sitar provided world music with its first inroad into western pop. Soon, the scent of sitars permeated society heralding a golden age. Its aromatic, yet sublime, spice spread into the far reaches of the entertainment industry -- from film soundtracks to comedy routines. Teen music magazines tried to follow the beat widening their reportage and fanciful profiles. In Hit Parader and Tiger Beat you could now devour articles on Ravi Shankar (“Ravi & Raga at Monterey Pop” or “It’s A Happening, A Sitar Sensation”) along with the Brian Goes Back To The Beach exposés and Zappa’s “Folk Rock is a Drag” Hagstrom guitar ads.

When some listeners proved allergic, science responded. Genetic experiments conducted by Dr. V. Bell at Danelectro laboratories successfully bred a sitar with an electric guitar. Creating, in retrospect, a questionable, if not-illegitimate, offspring and one who will not be heard in this article.

Smelling profit, record label executives used the whiff of a sitar to entice novice buyers. With fifty years hindsight, these cash-in attempts seem harmless, charmingly naive. Some, like Emil Richards’ Journey to Bliss, should be heard. Others (e.g., Flower Power Sitar by Rajput & the Sepoy Mutiny or Kali Bahlu’s Cosmic Remembrance on the glorious World Pacific label) aren’t listenable for more than a few minutes but manage to evoke a timeless “What were they thinking?” excitement. Proof that the western-pop-sitar craze had blanketed the globe was the album release, in India, of Balsara & His Singing Sitars’ Great International Hits, featuring “the exciting new sounds of sitars” playing classics like “Tequila,” “Edelweiss” and “These Boots Are Made For Walking.”

But it’s those few plucked or strummed moments of eternal bliss that we live for. When I hear sitar in any recording the endorphins flow and my mood elevates suddenly. Who can ask more of any instrument?

The bulk of songs found In the Garden of Scented Sitars were recorded in the 1960s. By the early 70’s the sitar had fallen increasingly out of fashion, but the seeds planted grew. Throughout the decades devoted musicians have tended to the garden and its admirers continue to record.

I’ve sprinkled a few familiar tracks along the garden path and rather than presenting the Four Or Five Guys© with well-considered and researched insight into each of the sixty-nine bouquets displayed, below you’ll find only random commentary and indiscriminate petals of thought. Let’s digress:

The Flower Power Atomizer

Brewer & Shipley wrote Noel Harrison’s (the UK’s answer to Nancy Sinatra) one toke beyond ode to her eyes and to her mind.

The ID Company lp features Inga Rumpf on one side and Dagmar Krause on the other. I&D had previously recorded together in the German folk-blues unit, the City Preachers, and it’s a bit unnerving to hear Dagmar sing a rollicking version of “An Old Shanty Town.” Inga went on to front Frumpy before going solo, while Dagmar joined Slapp Happy and Art Bears.

One side of (Farq favorite) Shawn Phillips’ non-lp single soars into Tim Buckley territory. You’ll find the flipside further along the path.

Sheb Wooley, the “Purple People Eater” perpetrator, lays waste to the counterculture.

Sopwith Camel delivers one of my sitar favorites. Who could have guessed that harmonica & sitar would blend so magically?

Ravi’s student, Warren Klein, ex-Factory and Fraternity of Man, adds age-appropriate sitar to Beck’s latter-day downer.

Ron Nasty, not Elvis Costello or Jeff Lynne, would have been the perfect replacement for John Lennon in the reformed church of The Beatles.

Every garden contains a poison bloom: Here, the A-side of The Meditations’ juicy, unbelievably bad, 45 frees the inner man with an overripe Elvis Presley-styled recitation b/w a b-side (appearing later) so creepy it reminds me of an incident related by a friend’s wife. She worked the front desk of a chain hotel in a small college town where the Beach Boys stopped for a one night stand. When Mike Love registered, he invited her up to his room after the show “to practice Transcendental Meditation.” Inspirational TM lyric: “Follow sense into infinity/When our day-to-day life flowers and blooms /and I touch reality.”

At the Shrine of the Paper Sun

Meghana Bhat introduces sitar jangle pop.
Now playing: the finest sitar pop instrumental ever waxed courtesy of Ravi’s nephew, Ananda .

Pastor John Rydgren issues a stern warning of the dangers to be found in the garden, simultaneously creating new dimensions in the middle of reality.

The Trees’ original version of Jane Delawney was ranked #1 in an informal poll taken by fellow sitar-heads of “songs that should have included sitar.” #2) “Summer Breeze” by Seals & Crofts, #3) the Bonzo’s “Kama Sutra,” followed by, at #4) either (pick one) “Iron Man” or “Planet Caravan,” with The Kinks “Fancy” rounding out the top five.

Erstwhile Bruce Brown surf instrumentalists The Sandals combine sitars & monster mash.

It’s not The Kinks, but the Smell of Incense is nothing to sniff at and will give you some idea re: #5 above.

One reviewed opined “(Hiromasa Suzuki’s) backward journey along the lights and shadows in search of the musical and cultural sources of mainland Asia, from the gates of India to the roots of China...” To me, it’s an alluring mix of electric piano & sitar, thoroughly intoxicating despite the worst abrupt fade-out encountered in years.

Clark & Marilyn Burroughs were The Joyride. Clark sang tenor with the Hi-Lo’s, a late 50’s- early 60’s vocal group and replaced Curt Boettcher as The Association’s arranger at their insistence. His work for the group commenced with “Windy.”

A Hidden Path Discovered

ILYABT, a collage of snippets from the best sitar film soundtrack. Resistance is useless in the face of Brute Force.

Presenting The Petals and the high-flying mushroom infused folk-rock that made Milwaukee famous.

I’ve not heard sitar-flavored bluegrass but Fit & Limo’s take on The Dead leads me to suspect it might play well.

A longtime Beatle impersonator and Ravi’s lesser-known daughter cover a George b-side.

Brothers released the only non-Mountain/Leslie West album on Windfall records. The album’s cover art would provide a great alternative to Farq’s superb work found on this set.

I’ve excluded a conspicuous number of rare and precious, or popular, sitar gems from this post – no Traffic, no Rolling Stones, Chocolate Watch Band, Vince Donofrio, Alison Gros, John Renbourn, Pentangle, Elmer Gantry, ISB, Donovan, Pretty Things. Boeing Duveen, not even Joe Harriott or the Zodiac Cosmic Sounds. Sorry, maybe next time!

 

REPOSTED IN ITS ENTIRETY FROM 11/9/22 - THANKS TO SITARSWAMI FOR THE RE-UP!

Kudos to Sitarswami for the swell sounds 'n screed!