rex_weblen

[	Current Mood	|	worried	]
[	Current Music	|	Jim Sullivan - U.F.O	]

Album: U.F.O
Artist: Jim Sullivan
Release date:1969
Genre:: Psychedelic folk, psychedelic rock, space country, baroque pop
Scene: LA underground

Album: Earth Rot
Artist: David Axelrof
Release date:1969
Genre:: Psychedelic Rock, baroque pop
Scene: LA underground

Album: Supertramp
Artist: Supertramp
Release date:1970
Genre:: psychedelic rock, progressive rock, progressive pop
Scene: London

Album: Joy of a toy
Artist: Kevin Ayers
Release date:1969
Genre:: Progressive rock, progressive pop
Scene: Canterbury

In this post I decided to focus on the albums wiht exist on the border between pop and either progressive or psychedelic music. Probably, these albums could had feet on the the other comps. But that what I got.

The first album is "U.F.O." by Jim Sulivann. The biography of Jim Sullivane is remarkable, because in the year 1975 he desapeared without a trace. Probably, he was taken by U.F.O.; But jokes aside, this is very nice, gentle music. It gives me vibes of Nick Drake's "Pink Moon". By this mean a very tender ыщгтв with touches of melancholy. But the orchestrations here are slightly more elaborate, so I don't know if I can consider it a pure folk album. Overall this short album is very easy to listen to. So, after listening to I can't remember any particular sound or lyrics. Maybe I'm being kdnapped by an U.F.O every time I listen to it and my memory is being erased because this album contains some secret messages? I don't think so. Sadly, this album doesn't contain any alien weirdness or direct or coded messages about them. It's just the usual romantic melancholic stuff.

"Earth Rot" is another short album. It's a work by a genre-defying composer David Axelrod. Before it David released two albums "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience", where the poetry by William Blake was transformed into jazz. In this album "Earth Rot" the central topic is the ecology and the murder of living nature by hands of man. I think this nice and interesting in the sense of being unusual. But it's also to short to be really memorable.

The "Supertramp" by the eponymous band is my favorite and least forgettable album on this comp. It really sounds like something from the 80's. But because of the production of sound. But because of it's overall passion it sound from the time of New Romantic. The sounds actually includes lots of keys and some kind of them so could have reminded me of the 80's New Wave sound. But of course, this is not a new wave album. The only bad thing about this album is it's opening, which is too tender and popish. And may create a false impression about further contents of this album, which are far more diverse than this opening promises. The next song "It’s a Long Road" is already a much more interesting song with romantic lyrics, and a progressive instrumental bridge. The lyrics is already unconventional for the 60': "Well, the road I see before me \\ Threatens pain at every bend, yeah \\ Well, I might meet some men I understand \\ And hope to call 'em friends \\ Well, good company, it may comfort me \\ But I don't want love to distract my heart from the way..." and "Now your love, it gave me sorrow \\ And a broken heart to mend, yeah \\ So I took me to this lonely road \\ My sweet hopes to defend \\ Oh, and why pretend? I won't look back \\ Even though the love of a happy man waits before ...". This is very different from the Beatles who famously song "all you need is love". The next song "Aubade / And I Am Not Like Other Birds of Prey Lyrics" is a progressive lullaby, where lyrical hero presents himself as some kind of magical owl who protects another character:"Soft is my flight \\ And my eyes kill the lies that attack you \\ Life is my right". The third real song on this album "Words Unspoken" is also starts very tender. But under all this tendering there is a sting which brings pain:"Why sing a lonely song? \\ The whole world knows that love goes wrong \\ Why bruise a heart that isn't broken? \\ It isn't broken, it can't be broken...". And then the chorus adds in falsetto: "And follow, and maybe \\ you'll correct me \\ I wish you'd never met me \\ I am no gentleman \\ And follow, and while you watch and wonder \\ I'll pull the world asunder \\ And show you who I am</i>". There is probably something brutal behind this song, something which brutally destroys lives in name of love. The romantic ballade "Maybe I’m a Beggar". There the lyrical character sings: "My father was a blind man, my brother was a fool \\ My mother told me, "God is love", but hatred makes the rules". The refrain "Teach me to fly \\ So I shan't drag my feet in the sand \\ Give me the sky \\ I would take the whole world in my hand \\" made me to recall the novel "On wings of Song" by Thomas M. Disch. The insane vocalizations of Richard Palmer who sings "Maybe I'm a beggar \\ Just check your sympathy \\ They throw away their gentle love \\ And keep their pain for me" also reminds me one described in this book. They combine some black blues ways of singing with falsetto a lo opera bel canto. But this song doesn't even stops here. It also erupts with a beautiful progressive guitarwork. Next two songs "Home Again" and "Nothing to Show' have some simple lyrics but they have much more significant banger instrumental sections. "Shadow Song" is a very calm slow song with bongo drums and flute as leading instruments. It's sort of a break down, a pace killer of the album. But some of flute's lines in this song are very good. "Try again" is also a very interesting song, and my second favorite on this album. Very interesting dramatic melody with movements and also dramatic lyrics everywhere over this songs. In the chorus:""Try again", she replied to some story I told \\ "Try again", yes, I will if I can \\ Oh, all I need is somebody to hold". And the verse lyrics is song in kind of whisper. And the second half of this song is again an instrumental banger. I'm afraid to ask but is this song is about impotence? Some of the best parts of this album feels like early tender King Crimson's tracks like "the Moonchild". But Supertramp attracts not only with his musical mastery, but also with his passionate and confessional atmosphere. Overall. I'm impressed how well this album opposes already dated sixties psychedelic sentiments and the upcoming hard rock's cock-rock mentality. I'm not sure If I can oppose this album with the prog-rock canon. But nevertheless, it's pretty unique album for me.

"Joy of the Toy" is an album by Kevin Ayers one of the members of infamous experimental jazz-rock band "Soft Machine". As the title suggests, this album is rather playful. And Ayers here playfully mixes different styles of music. Some of them actually lean towards pop and some towards usual soft-machine extravaganza. That's what makes this album so hard to pinpoint to one description. Lyrics thematically are almost a complete inversion of Supertramp. Here they are deliberately silly and often clings and reference to the core 60' culture. For example the song "Song for Insane Times" deliberately references Beatles song "I'm the Walrus". So this album feels like an album of love-songs. But not love-songs targeted towards girls towards the 60' silly absurdist humor and atmosphere. Note, that "Joy of the toy" originally was a song for Soft Machine's debut album. And this album opens with a track "Joy of the toy continues". But the style of the track is completely different. It sounds not as experimental jazz-rock but as the carnival polka-like carnival music with a "Strawberry Fields Forever" vibe. The original track with Soft Machine's references to the Burroughs in the name made me feel like the titular toy probably was a sex-toy, a steely Dan perhaps. its But wasn't the carnival music something berried in the original experimental track? Or was the carnival music in the heart of all Soft Machine's songs? Now we have to ask questions.