Psychedelic Pop/Freakbeat: Blues Magoos - Electric Comic Book 1967 (2004 Repertoire Records) Flac & mp3

The Blues Magoos' first album, Psychedelic Lollipop, earned the band a major hit single, "(We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet," and in the grand tradition of striking while the iron was hot, the New York-based quintet were back with their second LP, 1967's Electric Comic Book, less than five months later. The sophomore effort is a noticeably more ambitious piece of work than the Magoos' debut, and while psychedelia was a catchphrase more than anything else on the first record, Electric Comic Book sounds trippier and a bit more expansive by comparison (the goofy "Intermission" tosses in some fairly obvious marijuana and cocaine references which would have been almost unthinkable in 1966, and the drug angle in "Pipe Dream" isn't exactly subtle).

In addition, a few months of playing live had tightened up a combo who already sounded pretty good together, as well as bolstering the confidence in Ralph Scala's vocals and keyboard work and the fuzzy interplay of guitarists Mike Esposito and Emil "Peppy" Thielhelm. However, the blues and R&B elements that were a large part of Psychedelic Lollipop's strength have faded into the background here (except for a overdone cover of Jimmy Reed's "Let's Get Together"), and though the band could come up with a respectable pop tune, "Baby, I Want You" and "Take My Love" sound like throw-aways that were tossed together quickly to fill out a record not quite 30 minutes long (though "Take My Love" does have the very memorable line "Take my love and shove it up your heart").

Psychedelic Lollipop is well short of a classic, but overall it's a stronger and more coherent set of songs than Electric Comic Book, which sounds like the quickly recorded follow-up that it truly was, though it does have moments that suggest the band could have made another album as good as the debut with a bit more time and attention.(allmusic.com)

Have fun with the second album
                                                    Frank

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Psychedelic Pop/Freakbeat: Blues Magoos - Basic Blues Magoos 1968 (2004 Repertoire Records) Flac & mp3@320

Basic Blues Magoos (1968) -- the final long-player with the lineup of Ralph Scala (keyboards), Ronnie Gilbert (bass), Emil "Peppy" Thielheim (guitar), Mike Esposito (lead guitar) and Geoffrey Daking (drums) -- is arguably their best and easily most progressive outing. Perhaps this can partially be credited to the combo's retreat from creating in the comparatively uninspired environs of a studio. Instead, they essentially cocooned themselves into their legendary Bronx, New York digs, which at one time had been inhabited by none other than Gram Parsons.

The autonomy paid off, as did their sizable influence from the U.K.-derived mod and freakbeat scenes, kick-started no doubt by a recent tour with the Who. Nowhere is that more evident than the cover of the Move's "I Can Hear the Grass Grow" or the similarly spirited original light psych opener "Sybil Green (Of the In Between)" and the propulsive "There She Goes." "All the Better to See You With" and "Chicken Wire Lady" provide a harder edge and sit well beside the notable Brit pop vibe of "I Wanna Be There." "I Can Move a Mountain" is a long lost jangle pop side tinged in a darkness recalling "Love Seems Doomed" from the Magoos' debut, Psychedelic Lollipop (1967), especially the insidious vocal arrangement.

On the other side of the spectrum is the affective baroque-tinged "Yellow Rose." The refined acoustic ballad is unlike the majority of the album's aggressive amplified excursions. As the title might suggest, "Presidential Council on Psychedelic Fitness" is a bit of an indulgence, as is "Subliminal Sonic Laxative," the latter being nothing more than a minute and change of a sole subsonic frequency -- a 'D' note. Collectors and enthusiasts should be aware of the highly recommended and significantly expanded Basic Blues Magoos [Bonus Tracks] (2004) from Repertoire, tacking on monaural 45 rpm versions of "I Wanna Be There," "There She Goes," "I Can Hear the Grass Grow" and "Yellow Rose." Also included is the rare single "Let Your Love Ride" b/w Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love," issued prior to the Magoos' late-'60s reformation with only Emil "Peppy" Thielheim.

Sadly, Basic Blues Magoos failed to join their earlier LPs on the charts, as it is debatably their most solid effort.(allmusic.com)

Wonderful psychedelic pop rock freakbeat work from a band that, in contrast to the debut, has changed a part of their personalities and quite naturally presented an album that fit perfectly into the time and offered the whole palette of a music that was not self-evident for bands of this genre. Too bad that the band broke up after the album. 
Have fun
               Frank        
 
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New links for the deleted zippy links!!!

Hello Folks,
as i said in the posting before i have no clue what is happening with zippy. I have created new links for all the files people mentioned in their comments. Moby Grape is still in progress but i think it will also up in ten or fifteen minutes. Someone wrote me it had happened on other sites, too. I don't know. I hope everything will go on now fine again.

Frank

p.s.: Beryl Marsden, Shotgun Express, Normie Rowe, Shane, Moby Grape all with new links.

ZIPPY KILLS ?

Hi folks, as you may have noticed, files have been deleted by Zippyshare after a very short time. This have happened on other blogs and sites as well.

Mod/Power Pop by The Pleasers - Thamesbeat 1977 + EP & Single (1997 Lost Moment Records) Flac & mp3@320

10 years earlier this album would probably have hit like a rocket in the charts. Yeah, but that's how it is with pop music. It's often not enough to release a very good album, also the timing has to be right. That this is a very good album will not seriously deny anyone who deals with pop music of the sixties and seventies.

Absolutely recommendable for everyone who loves sixties mod pop sounds and of course the Beatles. Power Pop fans will certainly love the album, too. The band has a fine sense for great melodies and the arrangements also show sensitivity for the songs. The album was produced by Tommy Boyce. Hope you like it.
Have fun
                Frank

            Flac part 1   &   Flac part 2         mp3@320

Paul McCartney - Run Devil Run (1999 Parlophone) Flac & mp3@320

When Paul McCartney returned to the studio a year after his wife Linda's death, he wanted to cut loose and have a good time. He gathered a bunch of friends, most notably guitarist David Gilmour, with the intention of cutting a collection of rock & roll oldies with minimal rehearsal and a handful of takes.

On the surface, that makes Run Devil Run like Choba B CCCP, but there are subtle differences that make Devil a far superior effort. This time around, there's a real freshness to the performances. Gilmour, in particular, amazes, turning in some of his finest playing in years. Similarly, McCartney is invigorated, leaving behind his vocal schtick, laying back and rocking out with a set of fairly unfamiliar oldies.

Only three songs -- "All Shook Up," "Lonesome Town," and "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" -- are radio staples; and while "I Got Stung," "Blue Jean Bop," "She Said Yeah," "Honey Hush," and "Movie Magg" are known by aficionados, they're not ubiquitous standards.

This leaves room for a few more obscure numbers, such as Little Richard's "Shake a Hand," the Vipers' "No Other Baby," and the Fats Domino B-side "Coquette," plus three terrific new songs from McCartney: "Run Devil Run," a fantastic Chuck Berry-styled narrative; "Try Not to Cry," a strong bluesy pop number; and "What It Is," a catchy up-tempo shuffle.

Best of all, McCartney and co-producer Chris Thomas create an appealingly out-of-time production -- heavily compressed sound, yes, but cleaner than '50s recordings and livelier, grittier than most '90s albums. It all adds up to a dynamic, loose, carefree, and utterly infectious record, one of his best solo albums.(allmusic.com)

Even today, in 2017 it is still one of his best solo albums for me. Without doing hero worship here (and the danger is always given to me by Beatles musicians) Macca presented a very expressive album here. The choice of songs is brilliant and his vocals almost become the yardstick for his other solo productions. And by the way he delivered  probably the best rock' n' roll album of 1999. Absolutely recommendable and not only for Beatles fans. 5 stars out of 5. Hope you like it like i do.
Enjoy
         Frank  



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Garage Pop Of The 60's: The E-Types Introducing...The E-Types 1965/66 (1995 Sundazed) Flac & mp3@320

Twenty-two tracks, including both sides of their four singles and previously unissued demos, outtakes, and live performances. The four singles are legimitately fine finds if you collect obscure '60s pop-garage. "Long Before," "I Can't Do It," and "Put the Clock Back on the Wall" are outstanding, and the cover of Lennon-McCartney's "Love of the Loved" (which the Beatles never officially released themselves) rates as one of the best unknown Beatle covers of the '60s. Most of the rest of this archival compilation is padding, though, consisting largely of faithful British Invasion covers and some outtakes that are markedly inferior to their singles. It's an enjoyable listen for collectors of mid-'60s rock, boasting considerably more pop-oriented material and accomplished production than the garage norm. But it couldn't be considered in the top drawer of this sort of thing.(allmusic.com)

 The band had a great weakness which prevented the big success with a lot of other talented bands: They didn't have enough convincing songs of their own. They had a good performance and very well arranged titles but remained a footnote in the history of pop music. This Sundazed collection make a lot of fun if you like 60s jangle pop music with a light garage feel.

Enjoy   Frank

New Flac part 1 &  New Flac link part 2         - New mp3@320 link

Psychedelic Pop Of The Sixties: Blossom Toes - We Are Ever So Clean 1967 (2007 Sunbeam Records) Flac & mp3@320

Imagine the late-'60s Kinks crossed with a touch of the absurdist British wit of the Bonzo Dog Band, and you have an idea of the droll charm of Blossom Toes' debut album. Songwriters Brian Godding and Jim Cregan were the chief architects of the Toes' whimsical and melodic vision, which conjured images of a sun-drenched Summer of Love, London style.

With its references to royal parks, tea time, watchmakers, intrepid balloon makers, "Mrs. Murphy's Budgerigar," and the like, it's a distinctly British brand of whimsy.

It has since been revealed that sessionmen performed a lot of these orchestral arrangements, which embellished the band's sparkling harmonies and (semi-buried) guitars. But the cello, brass, flute, and tinkling piano have a delicate beauty that serves as an effective counterpoint. The group sings and plays as though they have wide grins on their faces, and the result is one of the happiest, most underappreciated relics of British psychedelia. [Ten bonus tracks were added to the 2007 Sunbeam edition.] (allmusic.com)

Certainly one of the most extraordinary works of 1967 in the field of psychedelic sweetened pop music. And one of the best of the year as well. The band had really good musicians in their rows. Jim Cregan, for example, who later accompanied Rod Stewart as a sideman to his rise to pop stardom and played a not inconsiderable musical part in it. But that's another story. Have fun with the great album of the Blossom Toes.
cheers
            Frank

                              New Flac link 1 & New Link Flac part 2   & New Link Flac part 3            - New mp3@320 link

Link for ''If Only For A Moment''

Australian Normie Rowe - Shakin All Over - 30 Of The Best 1965 - 1973 (1999 Raven Records) Flac & mp3@320

Normie Rowe is one of those perennially popular figures on the Australia music scene--given that his career has carried him from covering rock 'n roll standards like "Shakin' All Over" to playing Valjean in the Australian cast of Les Miserables, he might be most easily compared to Tommy Steele or Joe Brown in England, except that his music has crossed several rock genres, even brushing up against psychedelia during the late 1960's.
Rowe was a part-time singer who never intended to become a full-time entertainer until he was fired from his day job because of the length of his hair. A white soul-style singer in the manner of Fred Heath, aka Johnny Kidd of Johnny Kidd & The Pirates, emerged as a popular figure in Australia fronting a band called the Thunderbirds, who managed to compete effectively with the English bands that dominated the island-nation's charts during the mid-1960's. He became popular on local television in the mid-1960's, and in 1965, with his group the Playboys, he hit the charts for the first time with a version of "It Ain't Necessarily So." Later that year, Normie Rowe and the Playboys were responsible for the biggest Australian rock 'n roll hit of 1965, a version of "Que Sera Sera" done in the style of "Louie, Louie" and the manner of "Hang On Sloopy." The whole record was knocked off on the fly, in a quick session that even resulted in a whistled cue ending up on the finished track, but it outsold every other homegrown piece of rock 'n roll released that year.

In the wake of the success of "Que Sera Sera," he left Australia for England. The Playboys, known in England as the Australian Playboys and featuring Kevin Peacock in their line-up with Rowe, released an extraordinary 45 r.p.m. single in 1967 on the Immediate label--"Black Sheep RIP" b/w "Sad" was a classic and bold piece of psychedelic pop featuring some memorable guitar behind Rowe's singing, but like most Immediate singles it never sold, and is a seriously collectable record. Rowe later toured Canada and America before returning home, where he was drafted and served in Vietnam. Rowe's career never regained the prominence and momentum that he'd had in the mid-1960's. Like a lot of other early '60s rockers, he moved to the cabaret circuit and gradually regained some of his popularity. He later emerged as an all-around entertainer and singer, most notably taking the part of Jean Valjean in the Ausatralian cast of Les Miserables. In recent years, he has also taken up an anti-drug crusade, partly because of his daughter's life-threatening experiences with heroin. Rowe remains a fondly remembered icon from early Australian rock 'n roll, and a much-loved musical figure.(allmusic.com)

Normie Rowe is certainly one of the most underrated Australian artists in Europe and the United States. His songs always had a convincing urgency in his kind of performance. And he was certainly not the worst singer either. On the contrary, as his musical works prove. Raven has put together a really good compilation and Normie Rowe should not be missing in any good collection of  Australian pop music.
 Have fun
                   Frank

New Flac Link 

New mp3 link

Four Track Single: The Shotgun Express - I Could Feel The Whole World Turn Around (1966 Columbia EMI) mp3@256

Here is the four track single by The Shotgun Express with members Rod Stewart, Beryl Marsden, Peter Green, Peter Bardens and Mick Fleetwood.

New mp3@256 link

Sixties Pop By Beryl Marsden - The Story Of Beryl Marsden (2012 RPM Records) Flac & mp3@320

Hello friends and folks,
First of all, I would like to thank you again for your kind comments about my return to Blogger land.
At first i want to post Beryl Marsden today. For me, Beryl Marsden is and was actually the woman of the British 1960s women's pop scene, who deserved a career similar to that of Cilla Black.
Okay, I hope you have just as much fun with this really fine compilation. For those who are interested i will post the Shotgun Express single also later but i have it only in mp3. Below you can read a review from allmusic.com about the album. It's a little different to my opinion about Beryl Marsdens skills, haha.

Have fun and enjoy
                                 Frank

And to stay in comparison with Cilla Black for a while; in my opinion Beryl had the better songs, the better performance and the better vocal expression. Which I don't mean that Cilla Black doesn't deserve to be in the limelight like that. But in my opinion, Beryl Marsden was not only Black's toughest competitor, she was the real number 1 in the then popular girls' pop scene. ''Gonna Make Him My Baby'','' Who You Gonna Hurt'' show only two sides of an artist who was extremely versatile in her musical expression.

New Flac Link                     new mp3 part1    new mp3 part 2

Beryl Marsden is one of those names that diligent British Invasion scholars are likely to be aware of, but unlikely to actually have heard much or at all. She has footnotes in some history books as being one of the most popular woman vocalists in Liverpool in the early to mid-'60s, as well as for singing on a 1966 single by the early quasi-supergroup the Shotgun Express (who also included Rod Stewart and Peter Green). This has all dozen of the tracks she issued on Decca and Columbia from 1963-1966, as well as, less interestingly, three 1979-1981 recordings, and eight done just a few years prior to this 2012 compilation. It's one of those anthologies that doesn't really live up to the reputation of the artist, frankly, as Marsden was an OK singer, but not superb. Her '60s singles (there's also a live track from the At the Cavern LP) had serviceable covers of American soul and girl group-type songs that didn't match the originals, as well as some more Merseybeat-influenced pop tunes (including "Love Is Going to Happen to Me," co-written by a young Lesley Duncan with her brother).

The orchestrated pop of the Shotgun Express single "I Could Feel the Whole World Turn Around," though not typical of her style, is actually the best song (a previously unreleased alternate take of the subsequent Shotgun Express track "Funny 'Cos Neither Could I" including her voice is also here, though the issued 45 did not include her vocals). The recordings of a more modern vintage are way too synth pop-heavy (even on the '60s soul/girl group covers) to be of much if any interest to those who are curious about her British Invasion-era recordings,

though her voice remained in good shape. The compilation's for a specialized audience even by British Invasion collector standards, but the packaging's excellent, the lengthy liner notes including many recollections by Marsden herself.(Richie Unterberger, allmusic)

At Request! Shane - Saint Paul - The Very Best of Shane (1969-1973) (2001 EMI Music NZ Ltd.) Flac & mp3@320

Hey Folks,
i'm back from vacation with my family and I think now I have to come back to earth, lol. We are already a few days back and I also used it to