1965-1969: The Era of Masterpieces

[Babar]

Never mind the asserting thread title, but I've been really diving into the whole psychedelic-garage-swingin' 60's  era and it's amazing how fruitful the crop can be. Especially the year of 1967 which seems to have spawned endless masterpieces of music, both well known and well obscure, and the two years preceding and following are also packed full of great music and even though the music can be very different from each other, I somehow find the same atmosphere in it, even if it was recorded on different sides of the Atlantic. We all know the Sgt. Pepper's, The Pet Sounds etc. Then there are some pretty well known, yet not universally heralded masterpieces like Love's Forever Changes, Pink Floyd's Piper at the Gates of Dawn and Arthur Brown's The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Then there is some obscure stuff that's only available by the ways of some good crate diggin' or good interneting (I fall in the latter category). Here are some of my favorite hidden gems of the late 60's:



The Chamber Brothers The Time Has Come (1967)
A fantastic R&B album with soulfoul singing and always an inch thick layer of psychedelic hovering over the whole thing. The message of the lyrics is always peace and love and in that way it's very relevant to the period. The title song, which is the last song on the album, is a brilliant 11 minute opus with some crazy rhythm changes and weird sounds and a prominent yelling of the word "TIME!". Highly recommended.



Gandalf Gandalf (1969)
No, not our beloved edit0r (har har har). A one-off album by a band that broke up shortly after the release of it. It's pretty low-key but after a few listens you get into it, heartful singing and some period-y sound effects (mainly tape delays) give the album that psychedelic feel we all love. "Me About You" is in particular great.



The Hollies Butterfly (1967)
To me "Bus Stop" is one of the best songs of the sixties. It's not on this album though, but that song got me interested in the band. This album is pretty pop-esque but always with a weird touch to it (except on the terrible "Pegasus", I always skip that). On the surface I thought that the Hollies were the sort of band that had a few good hits but their albums would lack consistency, but I find this album highly enjoyable thusly refuting my own theory.



Sagittarius Present Tense (1968)
A pretty lame album cover of a very good poppy one-off album of the period (what can I say, I'm a poptimist). The strength of the first single of the album, "My World Fell Down" (youtube it now) is great indeed. What comes to mind? The Beach Boys. Is that a bad thing? Not at all! In fact, Gary Usher, a frequent collaborator of the Beach Boys, produced the album and wrote all of the songs and Bruce Johnston, who later joined the Beach Boys, sings on the first single. The album is not really a masterpiece but a very solid sunny pop album with lush orchestrations and beautiful harmonies.



The Zombies Odessey and Oracle (1968)
Not really a "hidden gem" per se, but a contender for the greatest album of the 60's for me. "Time of the Season" is definitely the only song challenging "Strawberry Fields Forever" as the best song of the 60's (or even all time, but let's not go overboard). Fantastic songwriting, both angelic and powerful vocals and a great variations of songs. "Changes" is almost nearly as good as "Time of the Season" even though it's very different and by a different songwriter.

And there are plentyful of others like the Monkees' Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd., The Pretty Things' S.F. Sorrow the Small Faces' Small Faces Donovan's Fairytale, Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin's Birkin/Gainsbourg and Os Mutantes' Os Mutantes. Then there are some great albums from the same period that don't really fit into the atmosphere of the others like Silver Apples' Silver Apples, The Delfonics' La-La Means I Love You (Definitely one of my favorite albums) and The Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo. Not to mention all of the great girl groups that were doing their thing at the time (that's really material for a whole another thread) and R&B/Soul stuff and crazy stuff like The Mothers of Invention and Captain Beefheart. So to me, that era is the era of masterpieces. Anyway, the point of this thread was to get some good recommendations about albums from this era. Obscure or not, I have not checked the whole "canon" of albums from the period. Or y'know, just some fun discussions.

So yeah, recs?

[davy]

Or, you know, basically any of their first 8 albums.

[Babar]

I got much love for the Kinks, Arthur is one of my all time favorites. But I've always been hesitated to check out there earliest catalog except for the singles. I got Something Else and I dig it, so Face to Face would be the next logical step.

[davy]

The Kink Kontroversy was their first brilliant record. You're not missing out on much by passing over the first few.

[Benmont Tench]

The 60's are the most underrepresented decade in my collection, so I'm definitely interested in further hearing about hidden gems from this "era of masterpieces".

[lucky strike]

harry nilsson's pandemonium shadow show

[Andrew_TSKS]

Since my presence was requested via PM:

Well, you've already discovered Sagittarius, but I think you should check out anything else that Curt Boettcher was involved in, particularly The Millennium's album Begin. That's some more of that great psychedelic sunshine pop. Boettcher was the ringleader of The Millennium, and wrote some really great songs for them, and it's kind of crazy that he didn't receive more notoriety for it. Check out his Wikipedia entry also, for more potential investigation. He worked with The Association, The Byrds... plenty of groups.

Emitt Rhodes' solo work seems like it'd be up your alley as well, check out his self-titled debut and Mirror. Those came out in the early 70s, but in the late 60s he was playing with a band called Merry-Go-Round, who are a bit more garagey but still along the same lines.

Have you ever checked out the Chocolate Watchband? I don't recommend any of their original albums since they were fucked with so consistently by the overbearing management they were working with, and had a lot of overdubbed extra instrumentation and sometimes redone vocal tracks added on. There is a double-disc reissue called Melts In Your Brain, Not On Your Wrist, which was released in the last 5 years or so, that is the perfect place to check out their shit, since all the real Chocolate Watchband recordings in their unaltered form are on disc 1, and all the studio-augmented/fake band recordings are on disc 2. I've never even listened to disc 2, haha, but disc 1 is great.

You mentioned the Small Faces--for the record I think Ogden's Nut Gone Flake is their true classic work. You should also check out the first Move LP, from 1968. The original lineup split after that, and Roy Wood brought in Jeff Lynne to replace some of the early members that quit, spelling the beginning of the end of that band (IMHO--many will disagree). But the first album is a true classic. Another classic is Tomorrow's self-titled LP from 1968, with Twink (Pink Fairies/Pretty Things) on drums and Steve Howe (later of, uuuuhhh, Yes) on guitar. Shit like "Revolution" and "My White Bicycle" is essential, you must have it.

And then there's John's Children, the classic lineup of which only released a few singles, most prominently "Desdemona" and "A Midsummer Night's Scene." There are other John's Children records, but these are the only ones with Marc Bolan on guitar/backing vocals/co-writing. You should really hunt them up.

The Misunderstood's Before The Dream Faded is an archival release that is essential, really only for its first 6 songs--which were recorded to be 3 singles, but the band broke up before the third one was ever released. Anyway, it's 15 minutes of the most awesome garage-psych shit ever, featuring the talents of Glenn Ross Campbell on distorted pedal steel guitar and Tony Hill on regular ol' 6-string. Hill went on to play in High Tide, who were more of a really heavy proto-metal group, but their album Sea Shanties is well worth your time as well. But DEFINITELY get the Misunderstood record if you don't have it already (ignore everything past the first 6 songs, those are the only recordings the definitive lineup ever did, and the early demos are crappy).

I could probably keep going and I'm sure later I will remember something really essential that I feel stupid for forgetting now, but this is all that jumps immediately to mind. Maybe I'll post again if I think of something else.

[dieblucasdie]

Since you mentioned Sweetheart of the Rodeo, that Flying Burrito Brothers record, if you don't already know it.  I might actually even like it better than Sweetheart of the Rodeo.  I play it more, in any case.

[dieblucasdie]

Also, Fairport Convention seems like the big so-far-unmentioned one.  & also, cosign with davy on The Kinks.

[Babar]

Haven't listened to the Flying Burrito Brothers OR the Fairport Convention so those definitely things to look for. And as I hoped Andrew delivered with some cool stuff to check out. What is your favorite late 60s album, guys? Let's even expand that time period to like, 1972, I kinda feel that same atmosphere that far in pop music history. Maybe prog-rock ruined it? Not that I'm saying "they don't make 'em like they used too" in a bad way because there's new stuff today that's great and never could have been made in the 60s. Music changes but it doesn't deteriorate.

[davy]

My four or five favorite albums from 1968 - 1972 were all released by CCR.

[donblood]

Since you mentioned Sweetheart of the Rodeo, that Flying Burrito Brothers record, if you don't already know it.  I might actually even like it better than Sweetheart of the Rodeo.  I play it more, in any case.

If nothing else, check out "Sin City"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCqxq6xqoXI

[reebty]

I think there are 38 60s albums in my collection of about 1200 and I keep meaning to rectify that.

[Killdozersnakeboy]

The Chamber Brothers The Time Has Come (1967)

I've things to add to this thread but not the time so I'm just popping in to note that Dead Moon do a great cover of the title track of that album.

[auto-da-fey]

it looks like no one mentioned the early Bee Gees. they most assuredly deserve mention in this thread--the albums can be a bit inconsistent, but their high points more than justify the bland cuts. and Odessa is a fucking masterpiece, IMHO.

[Black Amnesia of Heaven]

I submit a bunch of jazz records.

[Nick Ink]

I like The Seeds, The 13th Floor Elevators, The Jimi Hendrix experience, The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, Jefferson Airplane, The Mammas & The Pappas and The Beatles.

[reebty]

I think the entire 60s output of Bob Dylan, Jimi H

[clare]

Simon and Garfunkel (predictably). There are some rather good live recordings around (that used to be bootlegs, but have been cleaned up). If you're interested, I'll turn my brain on and reccomend a couple.

[reebty]

Hmm, that last post of mine doesn't look quite right, but it's 1:00am, so fuck it.

[kyle]

please recommend a couple.

[Nick Ink]

I know you're talking to davy there, but I just wanted to reiterate the brilliance of this record:

[davy]

I think he was addressing clare?

[lucky strike]

i cosign that seeds record

[clare]

please recommend a couple.

Me?

Live 1969
and
Live in New York City

I don't have the official 1969 one, but I'm pretty sure it's the same as a ROIO I got a while back...essential a live 'Greatest Hits' I guess, although the ROIO had Cuba Si, Nixon No on it...I'm going to have to check now...