VA - Acid Drops, Spacedust & Flying Saucers, Psychedelic Confectionery From The UK Underground 1965-1969 [2001] (4 x CD's)

ACID DROPS

VA - Acid Drops, Spacedust & Flying Saucers, Psychedelic Confectionery From The UK Underground 1965-1969 [2001] (4 x CD's)

Lovingly compiled by those scholarly scribes at Mojo magazine (and with excellent sleeve notes from genre connoisseur Jon Savage), the 72-track, four x CD box set Acid Drops, Spacedust & Flying Saucers is a veritable encyclopedia of British 60s psychedelic pop. Come, let us leave our monochrome 21st-century adult lives and climb the technicolour loft-ladder into an enchanted and forgotten childhood attic of Benzedrine bedtime stories, liquorice allsorts, toy trains, rainbow trees and--in the case of Mandrake Paddle Steamer--strange men walking across the lawn. As Acid Drops correctly points out, American psychedelia was all about napalm guitars, carbon monoxide poisoning and "they're coming to take me away to Vietnam" psychosis. However, its cuddly, post-ration book British sibling was more concerned with sniffing the school chemistry set, eating sweets and something or other to do with gardening. Thus, beat-band blokes from such unlikely places as Scunthorpe, Hove and Hounslow set sail for new musical horizons--possibly on flying carpets made out of flutes and mellotrons--with the pioneering zeal of Victorian free-thinkers. Aside from cult cornerstone classics by The Poets, Timebox, Kaleidoscope, David McWilliams, Amazing Friendly Apple (whose "Magician" really does sound like the work of mysterious robed men with long white beards) and World Of Oz (although surely the pervy nursery rhyme "Muffin Man" would have been a better choice than "Peter's Birthday"), Acid Drops boasts plenty of familiar hit parade fare from The Move, Donovan, The Yardbirds. The Hollies et al, plus obscurities galore. Who, exactly, were proto-punk freak-beat exponents Allen Pound's Get Rich and how come they sounded like Adam and The Ants 11 years before the event? Bamboo Shoot? Nope, us neither--nor the compilers. With such notable absentees as Svensk and Dantalion's Chariot, a whole tangential area of weird-folk to explore and with EMI holding the magic key to the locked cupboard of early Floyd outtakes, here's hoping this essential, un-put-downable box set is the first in a very, very long series. (Amazon)

Just when you thought the mine of obscure 60's British psychedelia had been stripped, MOJO magazine's merry music geeks have gleefully assembled one of the best collections of the genre. Amazingly, only a relative handful of selections cross over with Rhino's recent and similar "Nuggets II" box--so if you're a hardcore collector, it won't be too over-spendy to scoop up both. Fascinating liner notes in the companion booklet are a nice bonus (you'll be surprised at how many of these no-hit wonders, with hilarious names like Mandrake Paddle Steamer, actually represent the fledgling appearances of later-to-be-famous rock stars.)  Sound quality is as good as you can expect, keeping in mind that 1) you are dealing with 1960's studio technology, and 2) many of these songs are so obscure that the only existing copies are probably on vinyl sources! Wisely, MOJO does mix in some Who, Kinks, Animals, Yardbirds, etc., giving the collection a nice historical balance and context for the more casual music fan. (Amazon)

MOJO magazine's wide-ranging tribute to the British psychedelic age wraps its arms around pretty much everything the genre entailed. Included here are household names like Donavan, the Yardbirds, the Animals, etc. but the treasure of course lies in the obscure acts. Bamboo Shoot's "Fox Has Gone To Ground" is virtually unfindable in its original 45 format, for example. Felius Andromeda's "Meditation," one of my favorite tracks, has been comped elsewhere (i. e. on "Psychedelia") but even some of these comps are hard to find. The tune sounds like British psych performed by Gregorian chanters. As one chronicler noted so accurately, in the US, psychedelia usually expressed itself in the form of the politically driven LP. Often in response to our country's war and turmoil. In the UK, it expressed itself in the form of the 45 rpm, often in a Lewis Carroll-like fairy tale theme. This compilation does as good a job as any summarizing the UK approach. Get it while you can. (Amazon)

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Track lists

CD01

01 McGough & McGear - So Much In Love 4:01

02 Aquarian Age - 10,000 Words In A Cardboard Box 3:26

03 Nice - Flower Ring of Flies 3:17

04 Rupert's People - Dream On My Mind 3:24

05 Shy Limbs - Reputation 3:32

06 Tintern Abbey - Vacuum Cleaner 3:06

07 David - Light Of Your Mind 2:51

08 Misunderstood - I Can Take You To The Sun 3:39

09 Grapefruit - Dear Delilah 2:28

10 Procol Harum - Shine On Brightly 3:33

11 Bamboo Shoot - The Fox Has Gone To Ground 2:52

12 Who - Armenia City In The Sky 3:13

13 Focus Three - 10,000 Years Behind My Mind 2:16

14 Timebox - Gone Is The Sad Man 3:44

15 World Of Oz - Peter's Birthday 2:55

16 Tickle - Subway (Smokey Pokey World) 2:41

17 Felius Andromeda - Meditations 4:09

18 Warm Sounds - Nite Is A-Comin' 3:00

CD02

01 Kaleidoscope - Flight from Ashiya 2:41

02 July - The Way 4:14

03 Incredible String Band - Witches Hat 2:33

04 Donovan - Celeste 4:09

05 Rameses & Selket - Mind's Eye 2:42

06 End - Shades Of Orange 2:41

07 Virgin Sleep - Love 2:25

08 Barclay James Harvest - Pools Of Blue 3:08

09 Tales Of Justine - Monday Morning 3:23

10 Billy Nicholls - Girl From New York 3:19

11 Accent - Red Sky At Night 3:14

12 Mick Softley - Am I The Red One 2:31

13 Orange Bicycle - Laura's Garden 3:14

14 Caleb - Baby Your Phrasing Is Bad 3:17

15 Amazing Friendly Apple - Magician 3:23

16 Moles - We Are The Moles, Part 1 4:33

17 23rd Turnoff - Michael Angelo 2:25

18 Bill Fay - Screams In The Ears 3:25

CD03

01 Purple Gang - Granny Takes A Trip 2:36

02 Smoke - My Friend Jack 3:06

03 Idle Race - Impostors Of Life's Magazine 2:18

04 Pretty Things - Talkin' About The Good Times 3:43

05 Donovan - Hurdy Gurdy Man 3:12

06 Spencer Davis Group - Time Seller 2:51

07 Denny Laine - Say You Don't Mind 3:10

08 Move - I Can Hear The Grass Grow 2:57

09 Kinks - See My Friends 2:43

10 Peter Cook & Dudley Moore - The L. S. Bumble Bee 2:45

11 Yardbirds - Happenings Ten Years Time Ago 2:56

12 Small Faces - Green Circles 2:42

13 Hollies - King Midas In Reverse 3:08

14 David McWilliams - The Days Of Pearly Spencer 2:34

15 Herd - From The Underworld 3:18

16 Eric Burdon & The Animals - Sky Pilot 7:38

17 Traffic - Paper Sun 4:12

18 Simon Dupree & The Big Sound - Kites 3:44

CD04

01 Attack - Colour Of My Mind 2:29

02 Allen Pound's Get Rich - Searchin' In The Wilderness 3:18

03 Fire - Father's Name Is Dad 2:32

04 Orange Machine - Dr. Crippen's Waiting Room 3:02

05 Penny Peeps - Model Village 2:54

06 Fairytale - Run And Hide 2:30

07 Mandrake Paddle Steamer - Strange Walking Man 3:13

08 Status Quo - When My Mind Is Not Live 2:49

09 Poets - In Your Tower 2:32

10 Sands - Listen To The Sky 3:45

11 Syd Barrett - Octopus 3:46

12 Apple - The Other Side 3:18

13 Flies - I'm Not Your Stepping Stone 2:41

14 Herbal Mixture - Machines 2:04

15 Tomorrow - Revolution (Phased Version) 3:48

16 Sorrows - You've Got What I Want 1:59

17 Koobas - Royston Rose 3:52

18 Sam Gopal - Escalator 2:50

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