Are Not For Smoking (Rev-Ola CD)
New York City is not exactly known as a hotbed of '60s soft-pop, but when you consider the likes of The Left Banke, Every Mother’s Son, Canterbury Music Festival (reviewed later),
and The Blades Of Grass all came from those environs, the
Big Apple can certainly make a case for itself. The Blades
Of Grass (so named to perpetrate a 'hazy' allusion) were
a foursome whose lone album, Are Not For Smoking…
was one of the lost treasures of '60s pop, and it's reissued
on this disc along with appended a's and b's. Their sound
falls neatly between the aforementioned Left Banke and the
more angelic UK duo Twice As Much. The album is made up
of band originals, songs penned by outside writers specifically
for the band, and well-chosen covers. As with much New
York soft pop, there’s a hint of melancholia in virtually
all the songs, including the unlikely named ‘Happy’, (which
reached #87 on Billboard and hit top 10 in several U.S.
markets…but alas, not enough of them), 'Just Ah', 'Satin
Slipper', and 'Or Is It The Rain', and 'Just Another Face'
contains some of that angst-ridden tension that marked a
lot of Left Banke tunes (appropriately enough, The Blades
do a neat cover of 'Walk Away Renee'). The bonus tracks
include nifty covers of The Hollies' 'Charlie And Fred'
and the movie theme 'I Love You Alice B. Toklas', but the
crown jewel of these (and the whole disc, actually) is 'Pageant',
a work of regal elegance that will bring many a tear to
your eyes. Are Not For Smoking is truly one of
the finer resurrections of the year. David Bash
in a historical and chronological order, this is a compelling
and worthy musical document. Much of this will be overly
familiar to Bolan buffs of course, especially on discs three
and four which contain the hit material (and of course Edsel
have done sterling archaeological and reissue work in this
period of Bolan's career). But there are still nuggets to
be had. Disc One opens with Bolan's first known recordings
from the Winter of 1964 /65, 'The Road I'm On (Gloria)'
and 'Blowin' In The Wind', remarkable as much as anything
else for their lack of the trademark Bolan warble. Disc
two provides a 30-second snippet of Steve Perrigrin Took
singing 'Do You Remember' and David Bowie's 'The Prettiest
Star' with Bolan playing lead guitar. Historically, a moment
of note is when producer, Tony Visconti asks Bolan immediately
prior to recording "What's this one called Mark?" to which
Bolan replies "'Ride A White Swan'" and a star was born.
The first two discs are full of the prime cuts from all
four Tyrannosaurus Rex albums and the first T.Rex LP. On
a compilation so daunting, favourites are inevitably omitted
(mine are 'Throat Of Winter' and 'Stacey Grove'). For those
of my generation who grew up with T Rextasy, but have not
subsequently delved that deeply into the back catalogue,
Discs three and four are something of a revelation. Often
decried as lazily generic after 1973 (and okay, riffs are
recycled a-plenty, granted), much of the material from the
T Rex albums presented here, to my ears anyway, sounds great!
For instance, I'm up for 'Futuristic Dragon' now for sure!
In general, if you like Bolan but are not a hardcore fan(atic),
this box is a dream, it provides so much of worth; if you
are a fanatic then no doubt you will have to have this for
the odd previously unissued track and the packaging which
is very nice (a book set with two discs clipped into the
inside of both covers with a booklet of many previously
unpublished pics and overseas issued pic sleeves of 45s).
This is a beautiful and long overdue career retrospective
of one of pop's true stars. 
wearing Cole ARE just that. The '50s rockabilly purists
at work said this was shit and that Stud couldn't sing for
shit, and that set me up nicely even before hearing it.
What do they know about weird trashy shit I thought! And
yes, this oddity works for me. The idea of a '50s styled
teen pin-up transported to late '60s California backed by
a Brit Invasion styled R&B band is absurd, and that's what
it is. Let me use that oft used 'only in America' tag, as
it's tailor made for Stud Cole. This is crazy shit, and
what dimension it came from is beyond me. To say this sounds
like "Elvis singing with '66 Yardbirds" may be somewhat
of an exaggeration, but it's about as close as you'll get.
Byrds. In fact, founder Doug Dillard had recently left the
group and hooked up with ex-Byrd Gene Clark with whom he
would record two groundbreaking albums in 1968 and '69.
NW sound, and if you like that, you'll like these. Or more
like, garage heads, you'll know them already. Not all of
it blows me away, but then my preference for garage isn't
really the primo-riff driven NW sound. By '66 a more pop
friendly edge crept into the band's repertoire; 'You Were
Just A Child' has a subtle production, which brings to mind
The Remains and Guess Who. Harmony vocals, subtly placed
fuzz and even a Harpsichord were as important as the stompin'
Dave Clarke drum beat, and to me it's the pop works the
best for Don and the boys. By the time of the '67 Epic single
'I Could Be So Good To You' Don & The Goodtimes were pure
pop; all the bite had gone. Nevertheless their reading of
Nitzsche's tune is wonderful proving that they were as capable
a pop act as they were stompers. However, here ended their
career. 
How about just plain stupid?!
Inept and comical, doesn't equal good garage/psych. Just
because 'The Reality of (Air) Fried Borsk' and 'Horror Asparagus
Stories' adorned the fab Pebbles #3 The Driving
Stupid have interested collectors since. But they're not
decent, not even an eighth decent. They're not Psych either;
their music is the product of frat hall humour. They can't
play, and they're not funny. And I for one hate this. Sorry
Sundazed for the lack of constructive criticism, but I can't
put it any other way. 
described as North Dakota's best sixties group by Tom Tourville
in his book 'Rockin' The Northern Plains'. The vinyl edition
of this set features both sides of all four of their 45s,
three of which were released on Studio City, the in- house
label of the Minneapolis based Kaybank Recording Studio.
These are all originals, and there are also three live cover
versions (the CD has five). There is perhaps an argument
for this to have remained an eight-track ten-inch showcasing
the 45s with the live tracks saved exclusively for the CD
edition. On closer listening however, the live tracks demonstrate
elements of the group's appeal not so apparent on the 45s
(a searing lead break on land of '1000 Dances' and faultless
harmonising on The Zombies 'You Make Me Feel So Good' for
instance), so where's the victim? The 45 sides are good
accomplished numbers which sound maybe a year behind the
trends of the period ('66 -'68) in which they were recorded.
Being the US of course, this only serves to show the relative
isolation some sixties scenes existed in to each other in
a country that large. Nonetheless, moody, mid-paced minor-chord
garage sulks like 'Fire In My Heart' rub shoulders with
a couple of delicious ballads ('Without Your Love'; 'My
Love For You Won't Die'), a chugging horn led soul-pop beater
('Do You have To Be So Cruel', their last 45 from '68) and
fuzzing beat, pop and garage numbers ('Someone To Hold',
'That's Why I Need You', 'Baby I'm Forgetting You'). Add
to this the sumptuous LP sized four-page liners with lotsa
pics and info and this makes for an all-round quality product
that would enhance any garage collection. 
the endless recompiling of existing recordings tiresome,
make an exception and buy this. Completists will have some
of the stuff on the album already, but the main incentive
is 'Shake Some Action' from a July '73 session at Capitol
Studios in L.A. Cyril Jordan believes the band never topped
this version, and he don't lie. A completely different arrangement
with mandolin and vocal harmonies gives it an almost country
rock feel, and it swings in a way that the 1972 Rockfield
track never quite managed. The alternate cut of 'When I
Heard Your Name' from the same session emphasises this impression
- imagine if the predominant influence on the Groovies had
been The Byrds instead of The Beatles and the Stones and
you're just about there. The other tracks are more predictably
in the Groovies mode, but just as kickin': demos of various
faves ('Slow Death', 'Dog Meat', etc.) from 1971, 'Roll
Over Beethoven' from a 1972 French TV show and the United
Artists single version of 'Tallahassee Lassie'. Oh, and
if that's not encouragement enough, you also get a whole
host of Cyril Jordan's "celebrities I have known and taken
drugs with" tales in the sleevenotes. Garbled but highly
entertaining! 
and inserts these at first site appear do appear really
interesting! And that they are. Well, kinda. Kimla Taz,
the first obscure band to be tackled, were a Welsh band
who formed in '67; members would go onto UFO amongst other
major and minor tier bands of the '70s. The first two cuts
on this CD, although taken from a scratchy Decca acetate,
will be of great interest to the psych collector. 'Tomorrow'
is a heavy slice of late-period freakbeat/rock, which makes
use of a jaunty riff, Hammond organ and some slow raga sections.
Not exceptional, but it's pretty darned good. Think later
era Les Fleur De Lys and Small Faces, but without the songcraft.
With me? The second cut 'See You In The Morning' is more
along the lines of early Fairport Convention (Pre-Denny)
and Humble Pie; pastoral, but still psychedelic, in as much
as the time it was recorded. And in fact, it's pretty decent.
However, the remainders of the tracks are below average
live blues-rock from '76. 
'On The Beach'/'Don't Ignore Me' the guys were typically
mod-y club soul. Not bad, but nothing to shout about. By
'70 both blues-rock (theirs doesn't grab me), folk-rock
(they do a decent version of Fairport Convention's 'Meet
On The Ledge') and garage-y Cream/Hendrix styled psych (a
take of 'Daytripper' kinda works). Oddly enough the rather
ragged later-period commercially-tinged demos 'Can't Stop
Loving You' and 'Dreaming' are their finest moments, recalling
the earlier club soul days via the Love Affair. 
first four tracks) that Tony Blackburn played it on Radio
1, an okay version of the Stones 'She Smile's Sweetly' was
released and next the band were re-shaped (meaning Ellis
sang with Keith Mansfield's Orchestra backing him) and 'Everlasting
Love' stormed the charts! Love Affair were now a sensation!
The teeny-bopper classification insulted the band, but on
album tracks and b-sides they wrote and played their own
stripped down material, which was an indication of how they
sounded live. 'I'm Happy' is a fab freakbeat stomper, not
unlike Wimple Winch or even The Creation, whilst the tremendous
'Let Me Know' is so much like high-octane late '60s US garage
rock that it was included on a volume of the Boulders
series, Ellis' final 45 b-side 'Accept Me For What I Am'
rocks big time; strewn with searing guitars, Hammond and
a powered Ellis vocal it runs the LOUD competition into
the ground! The a' sides shouldn't be knocked though as
they represent the zenith of blue eyed soul bubblegum. How
can one not appreciate Ellis' vocals on 'Everlasting Love'
or melt from the good time movie-theme-like 'Bringing On
Back The Good Times'? After Ellis quit the band in '69 he
recorded an impressive version of Jimmy Webb's 'Evie' backed
once again by Keith Mansfield. The result is a hybrid soul/loungecore/country-tinged
slice of groovy balladry soaked in Euro pop strings and
fuzzy guitar. The remaining 45s Ellis recorded until the
formation of the Ellis Band are like a more honed version
of The Faces with pop rather than rock aspirations. The
a-sides, such as 'Take Your Love' were commercial fare,
whilst b-sides like 'Fat Crow' and 'Jingle Jangle Jasmine'
were rootsy, bluesy rock. 'Goody Goody Dancing Shoes', (Ellis'
final self-written b-side of his solo career) is a tumultuous
portion of power pop/rock that has an edge not unlike his
pal Roger's Who! 
the Take A Picture album, and she instantly became
a cult icon. Her prepossessing tunes are undated and beautiful,
yet convey the sleek James Bondian Jetset vibe of the '60s
wonderfully. Perfect retro-lounge music for the 'In Crowd',
and folks like Beck have picked up on her too—whether that
is creditable or not is another matter. These 27 cuts were
all recorded as demos between '66 and '78, and whatever
the musical climate of the time all are quintessentially
Guryan. In fact, she quit recording as modern pop was such
a misdemeanour to her. Guryan conveyed sensuality, a laid-back
humorous philosophy and composed cracking tunes that are
always a delight to hear. Sublime, and understated! 
garage sound'—'Don't You Think It's Time You Stopped Your
Crying' could be called nothing else than moody. 'At The
Rivers Edge' is relatively tough, with a pumping bass line,
shrill farfisa and garage-y R&B guitars driving it, but
the calm vocals subdue the franticness. It's great, and
an all time garage fave of mine. Most of the material on
'66 debut, Breakthrough however are haunting pieces
of teen-pop. their version of 'Mister Than You're A Better
Man' softens all the edges of The Yardbirds original, but
the impact is by no means lessened. As some crappy NME critic
wrote a year or so back: 'Quiet, is the new loud.' Well,
mate, hasn't that been the case for sometime? The early
era New Colony Six made the utmost of melancholy and their
delicacy stands up. Sod Coldplay, this is where it's at!
Fab stuff! 
A slice of seriouser than
thou prog-pop dedicated to Salisbury Cathedral (from my
home town) is terrible; the pompousity and playing above
themselves is scarily amusing. Oh dear. But a number of
the songs from these teens have something. Although recorded
in '75 their folky-pop style sounds much more like a product
of the late '60s. 'Lucy Gray' and 'Leave The Last Day' are
easy to digest, and the sweetly sung melodies are endearing
If acoustic pop folk not unlike early Strawbs appeal this
may be worth investigating. 
Has anyone seen that episode
of the original Star Trek where a group of peace
loving, singing adolescents who look like Ancient Greeks
– clearly supposed to be Flower Children—get beamed aboard
the Enterprise? Not only does the 17 year-old Mike Oldfield
and his elder sister look like these characters, but their
medieval-esque odes are just like the songs they sang too.
Okay, I'll let the cat out of the bag now and tell you something
personal – when I was 16 the first song I wrote was a little
tune called 'Pacifist'. At that time I was a hippy-kid in
awe of Donovan, The Incredible String Band and smoking as
much dope as possible. My song was just like these. Naïve
Flower Child twaddle that treated the World as if magical
castles in the skies, fair maidens and magical goblets were
reality. I suppose that's why I like it. Third rate, but
comical. C'mon, it's cute. 
'Oceans Inside Mine' and 'It's
A Beautiful Day', which begin this rare '69 album sound
like The Orange Wedge or Stereo Shoestring (OTT heavy garage
rock indebted to Sabbath), things dip into average blues-rock
before picking up with the similarily vibed 'Assembly Line'
(fab, stop-start stoner rock, with big fuzz and fret wanking
galore) and the lengthy, funky 'Woodstock'. The LP is a
mixed bag, veering from heaviosity to average rock. Far
from a classic, but these kids made a loud enough noise
to warrant inspection. 
somewhat with the passing of time, but still, even with
my 'softer tastes' a percentage of the LA pop that the band
recorded is still too tame and sclmatzy; missing out 'pretty
creativity' for 'dinner club variety'. Jimmy Webb's 'Up,
Up And Away' is bloody twee and 'Happy' too jolly for it's
own good. 'Look Here Comes The Sun', however, cuts down
on the sickly sweetness, and with a favourable melody and
a gentle lead vocal, the end result is folky sunshine pop
par excellence. With an arsenal of decent songwriters, prime
picking of the 'wrecking crew' and a use of top studios
their 'hippy for the masses' pop did turn out more than
a fair few treats. When the folk roots were allowed to shine,
they excelled. 'Springtime Meadows' is a dead-ringer for
'67/'68 era Fairport Convention (who oddly enough, were
inspired by The Sunshine Company after hearing their records—so
could my comparsion be arse about tit?) Guitarist Maury
Manseau's sublime acoustic/ocarina combination 'I, To, We
And Back Again' is very remiscent to the forlorn folk that
Marty Balin encompassed on 'Comin' Back To Me', and although
the 'peace and love' message is laid on with a trowel on
their version of 'Let's Get Together' it is nevertheless
a pleasing version, with harmonies that shine, whilst Manseau's
'Without Really Thinking' has a lovely Beatles feel. They
even went heavy too: 'A Stictch In Time' is cool fuzzy psych-rock,
which was a real break away from their mainstream shackles.
right. His arrangements in the 60s for Sandy Shaw and Tom
Jones amongst others would be instantly recognisable as
would be the title of the CD Town Talk, Jimmy Young's Radio
2 signature tune for decades! On this disc we have compiled
the two LPs Woodman with his Piccadilly Brass recorded -
That's Nice from 1966 and Vibration from
1969. The first album comprises instrumental treatments
of his own arrangements for singers (Chris Andrews' 'That's
Nice' and 'Yesterday Man' for instance) the odd cover of
a hit of the day ('Day Tripper') and his own material such
as the excellent 'Mexican Flyer' and 'Twelve By Twelve'
(both featured also on Past & Present's Instro Hipsters
A Go-Go series). The second album is much more funkified
and looser in approach with suitably groovy instrumental
takes on The Move's 'Fire Brigade' and Manfred Mann's 'Mighty
Quinn' amongst others. For lounge and orchestrated instro
fans this is very much a worthwhile purchase. 
through to heavily orchestrated affairs from '69, Fading
Yellow's overall concept of 'pop-sike' and more so
'other delights' is fully realised. Some may argue that
by the end of the year a certain type of collector will
be becoming hot under the collar on hearing mention of a
rare '67 Ken Dodd acetate that features lush orchestration
and sustained fuzz guitars! Diddy Men in the sky with diamonds,
indeed! Cynicism aside, the psych/pop compilation is clearly
becoming far poppier with the passing of time, and such
a fine example as Fading Yellow sits perfectly
on the cusp of the Rubble series most commercial
selections and the more recent and uneven Ripples
compilations (albeit a lot more interesting). 
different matter. Here Roslie and crew throw in some tough
soulful melodies into their token drivin' beat. They'd moved
on and forged more of a style. The Live Five borrowed as
much from The Zombies as The Sonics; 'Yes Your Mine' is
perfect-pop just that little different than the NW sound,
but the drums still stomp away. The Galaxies' 'Along Comes
The Man' sexs it up in a way that combines the Raiders,
Monkees and Sonics; it's certainly the finest cut compiled.
For me, NW garage-punk falls between two camps: the unadulterated
rhythm driven numbers and the slightly later cuts that borrowed
the more commercial styling of mid-period Raiders. And I
prefer the latter as it all became a bit more crafted at
this point. I suppose to put down tough garage-rock in Shindig
is heresy. And it is. But after years and years of the same
frat-rock chord progressions, it can become boring. That's
why The Feelies '68 bubblegum-punk version of 'Louie Louie'
is so wonderful; it just offers something less dimensional.
any professional job, if not better. Musically everything
is pretty rare; cherry picked from the 1967-1971 era that
delicately mix Wirtz' quirky pop and psych-ish material.
The sadly neglected '68 sing by The Whales, 'Come Down Little
Bird' combines the harmony styling of The Turtles and Beach
Boys, whilst the bizarre Philiwit & Pegasus' 'Psuedo Phony
Mixed Up Crony" is wonderfully batty, somewhat like Big
Boy Pete in a head on collision with The Goodies. The Wirtz
led studio group The Matchmakers, who released a few singles
and an album, were supposedly formed and recorded to sell
publishers songs, all tracks were written by and feature
Wirtz. 'Thank You Baby' could easily be a lost track from
The Koobas superb '69 album; mixing big pop with strong
vocals and a slight soulful edge. And indeed, 'Fantastic
Fair' is very much in the blue eyed soul tradition that
was a major selling point in '68/'69. The best of the bunch
is the beautiful 'Sandy'. Its hazy edge, oddly enough, is
rather reminiscent of later period Dutch melancholists Sandy
Coast. A far lighter approach can be heard on the unfinished
solo Wirtz country-punky-pop piece 'The Singer Sings His
Song (The Gambler Gambles On)', which is exceptional and
really, really should have been recorded by The Troggs.
What a loss! And finally, and of great importance, are the
four tracks from the sadly ignored Judd album, released
on Penny Farthing in '69. Wirtz put everything into these
and created a delicious blend of bombastic pop. 'Thee' is
an incredible accomplishment, laced with West Coast laid
back hippy trappings. 
the era. Oddly, it has always been claimed (not least by
Australian enthusiasts themselves) that psych was not an
Australian favoured genre. Admittedly, the heavier or acid-rock
end of the spectrum seems to have been pretty spartan at
the time, but for the harmony vocal, ragged edged pop and
pop-pysch, and mod gone wonky varieties they seem to have
been as proficient as anyone else as is demonstrated here
very amply. The 27 track set kicks off with The Valentines
great take on the Easybeats' 'Peculiar Hole In The Sky'
(see the Sweet Floral Albion comp reviewed elsewhere
for the original) and continues in similar vein throughout.
The only problem with this series is that it is culled entirely
from the Festival catalogue. Whilst Festival has a plethora
of exotic and wondrous delights in its vaults, much in this
series has been reissued before on Australian labels. From
this volume for instance a number appear on, Forest Of Goldtops
and Daytura Dreamtime, though many are new to me
at least (The Wild Cherries 'Chrome Plated Yabby'; Lloyd's
'World Brass Bird'; and the two cuts by the 1863 Establishment
amongst them) Though you may already have some of these
(and more so on volumes 2 and 3 where many of the songs
have already appeared on comps like Devil's Children
or Pretty Ugly et al) they are here taken from
the masters and hence the sound is vastly better. I hope
some of the indie Australian labels can be as well researched
and comped at some point. If you don't have many or any
of the Australian issued comps, this one is worth every
penny, if you do have a few of them, the sound is worth
buying this one for alone. 
Simple Image's 'Spinning, Spinning, Spinning' and Dennis
Couldry & Smile's 'Tea & Toast Mr Watson (also featured
on the vinyl only Oddities Vol.1 LP). A delightful
and tuneful package is only spoiled (for these ears anyway)
by the rather crass and monolithic meandering of Gun's 'Take
Off', although as a closing shot I can see why it was chosen
and probably will work for some more than others. How the
times they have-a-changed is demonstrated by the Fruit Machine,
whose 'Cuddly Toy' is not talking about plush covered teddy
bears! Pentad's 'Don't Throw It All Away', is a prime example
of mod gone fuzzy round the edges (although it's reissue
premiered on the vinyl only Beat Us If You Can Vol.2
LP a while back). The 'celebrities' include two early cuts
by The Sweet but the pick of the bunch is the Nems demo
acetate of The Bee-Gees hitherto unissued 'Deeply, Deeply,
Deeply Me', on which they sound distinctly more than eight
miles high and is a prime exhibit in the aural psych pretenders
'You've Been Framed' awards, worth the price of admission
alone! Overall, this is a delightful collection and Dave
Thubron is to be congratulated on excavating and providing
more psych artefacts for the discerning fan, it's another
must have and I sincerely hope there will be a Volume 2
in similar vein.