What are you listening to?

[Savonarola]

Moby Grape - Moby Grape (1967)

Moby Grape released five singles on the same day from this album (Fall on You, Sitting by the Window, 8:05, Omaha and Hey Grandma.)  That was one of the better decisions made by the record company (or their managers or the band members) for Moby Grape which is why they never lived up to their potential.  Even so this is a great album; one of the best ever to come out of the San Francisco scene.  They could rock as hard as Jefferson Airplane or be as folksy as the Grateful Dead.  They even created the psychedelic soul sound that Motown would emulate.

[garbon]

Donna Summer and Barbara Streisand - No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)

[mongers]

David Bowie - David Bowie (1967)

I think there was something in the water (or they were adding something to their water) at the time.  See Giles, Giles and Fripp from 1968, which became most of King Crimson just a year later.  Fripp is known for hardly ever smiling, but you'd never realize it from this album cover.

Wow.  I've put that on the list for 1968.

One of the Giles brothers, I forget which, went on and made an interesting album with another KC refugee, McDonald; quite a good aalbum.

[frunk]

Reggie Watts @ The Lot Radio

[Savonarola]

Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band - Safe as Milk (1967)

Quite a bit more accessible than almost anything else Captain Beefheart ever did; this is almost straight out blues-rock (with a very young Ry Cooder on guitar.)  It does have a garage band sound, you can tell it's Don Van Vliet signing and there is some weirdness and surrealistic lyrics on a couple songs; but it's pretty tame by the standards of Captain Beefheart.  By the standards of 1967 it's not even all that experimental.  If you're unfamiliar with Captain Beefheart this is a very good place to start.

[Savonarola]

Otis Redding – Live in Europe (1967)

The sound recording isn't the best, but otherwise this is great.  Otis, backed by Booker T and the MGs, is on fire and the audience is really into it.  The high point is listening to the entire audience sing along to "Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)".  This would be Otis's only live album released in his lifetime; and recorded only nine months before he died. 

"Dock of the Bay" isn't on this; that was unfinished when he died.  The whistling at the end of the song was because he hadn't written the additional vocals yet.

[The Minsky Moment]

The older Steve Cropper gets, the more he looks like James Gandolfini.

[Savonarola]

The Young Rascals - Groovin'

This is the last album they're billed as "The Young Rascals" they'd become "The Rascals" on their next album.  They left the garage behind on this one and delivered something between psychedelia and blue eyed soul (there is a cover of "Place in the Sun" on this.  Fortunately the band had the wisdom not to try to sound like Stevie  .)  The title track is the standout on the album (they even had a sticker on the album which proclaimed "This is the album with the really big hit;") but it's good throughout.  (There were four charting singles on the album; five if you count the Spanish and Italian release of "Groovin'".)

[The Minsky Moment]

Paul Bley - Open, To Love (1973)

Solo piano.  This was released early in the history of the ECM label, received positive critical attention, and is considered as a key defining document of what became the "ECM sound" - there's a clear connection between this and Keith Jarret's work as a tent pole artist for ECM.  I'm ambivalent about it for the same reason I'm ambivalent about the ECM sound generally.  It's nicely written and performed, but the influences on some tracks are more from Schoenberg and the American minimalists than from Jelly Roll, Bud Powell or Monk.  By way of comparison MJQ was often accused of chamber music sensibilities, but their MD John Lewis was a bluesman at his core, and Connie Kay on drums learned his trade backing top end R&B acts at Atlantic.  Bley has those skills too, and a blues groove comes through on some tracks (Harlem, Ida Lupino).  But to my mind it's sort of stylistic tweener.

[The Brain]

Hard-FI - Stars Of CCTV

[Savonarola]

Pink Floyd - The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967)

T-R-I-P-P-Y

The British Tabloids of the era called the album "Music for LSD users" which made it certain Pink Floyd had a hit on their hands.  The rest of the band said that only Syd Barrett was using LSD at the time this album was made; but I get the impression that he was doing enough for the rest of the band, and a couple additional bands as well.  This is probably why the lyrics are mostly cheery and whimsical covering themes about childhood and space travel; while the music tends to be more eerie.  Some of the longer jams don't work out; but overall the album is good.  In the spirit of the times there are no singles on the British version of the album ("See Emily Play" is on the US release.)

[Josephus]

See Emily Play was not on any release.

They released two singles before the album came out, Arnold Layne and See Emily Play, neither was on the album.
They did in fact release one single from the album, Flaming, but it didn't chart.

And when you say some of the "longer jams didn't work out"...there was only one long jam, Interstellar Overdrive, which is recognized as a Floyd classic.

Sorry, but I'm a Floyd freak. 

[Savonarola]

See Emily Play was not on any release.

They released two singles before the album came out, Arnold Layne and See Emily Play, neither was on the album.
They did in fact release one single from the album, Flaming, but it didn't chart.

And when you say some of the "longer jams didn't work out"...there was only one long jam, Interstellar Overdrive, which is recognized as a Floyd classic.

Sorry, but I'm a Floyd freak. 

Wiki backs me up; it's track one on the US release.

[Josephus]

I stand corrected. Interesting they removed Astronomy Domine from the tracklist which has become the ONLY song still played live by David Gilmour (including on his last tour two years ago). I suppose current US versions contain the proper listing

[PDH]

Jethro Tull - Cold Wind to Valhalla