The Smoke (Sidewalk; LP)
OK, it's safe to say that '60s pop fans of a certain musical persuasion will already be familiar with this wonderful artefact, The Smoke's eponymous lone album from 1968. You may even own a copy too - it's been bootlegged a couple of times, first as a fair-sounding vinyl edition (possibly originating in Greece!) about ten years ago and again last year as an average fidelity CD from Taiwan.
The Smoke was a one-off project based around young hotshot writer/producer/all-rounder Michael Lloyd (vocals, keyboards, bass) who, along with Stan Ayeroff (vocals, guitars) and Steve Baim (vocals, drums), had already cut some sides as The Laughing Wind, The Rubber Band and Max Frost & The Troopers (of 'Shape Of Things To Come' fame). Lloyd was also producer and "invisible" member of the West Coast Pop-Art Experimental Band whom Ayeroff would join briefly as a touring member in
1968. Lloyd had also been working with one Mike Curb, cutting garage-rock soundtracks for teensploitation b-movies such as Wild In the Streets under the Max Frost guise.Lloyd pitched his idea of a new studio-only project to Curb who agreed to sign the threesome and release the results on his Sidewalk imprint. The album appeared in mid 1968 and sank without trace.
Yet contained within it's concise 28 minute running time is a sequence of complex mini-opuses, sparsely scored for string quartet and a multitude of exotic keyboard instruments, that recalls the best of Brian Wilson's LSD-era teenage symphonies to God, Curt Boettcher's sinister sunshine pop, The Left Banke's all-conquering baroque 'n' roll and adds just enough of that oblique Pop-Artex creepiness to keep you wondering what's coming next.
Lloyd's friend and future Three Dog Night founder Jimmy Greenspoon was so enamoured of the sessions that he asked to join the band and was eventually pictured on the cover despite not playing a note on the record!
When Curb was appointed president of MGM Records in 1969 he signed the 23-year old Lloyd up as his head of A&R (as well as simultaneously purging the label's roster of any 'unruly' elements). Lloyd has since gone on to become one of America's most successful producers, notching up dozens of Oscars, Grammies and other industry awards.
The Smoke's failure to secure an official re-issue is a mystery. It's frequently rumoured overhaul during the last few years, usually in connection with the Sundazed label who've issued most of the Pop-Artex back catalogue, has so far led to nothing while the adequate bootlegs continue to be sought out and snapped up by those in the know. It seems likely that Michael Lloyd's God-like position in the industry may be a reason, although other Lloyd-related items such as the October Country album are on the re-issue schedules as we speak.
In a recent edition of Mojo magazine, no less an unlikely character than Johnny Vegas (amiable drunken UK comedian and TV personality) bemoaned The Smoke's continued non-availability. You can almost picture the bootleg sitting in his kitchen next to the piles of rejected voiceover scripts and crates of Guinness.
It can only be a matter of time before one of the so-called specialist labels finally gets their finger out and pushes for the long-overdue and eagerly anticipated release of this quintessential late 60's acid-pop recording.
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Andy Morten