Longplaytime * Langspeeltijd: The Soul and Blues of 1967 * Mayall, Musselwhite, Johnnie Taylor, The Seeds, Mel Brown [Ed’s Show, 2017-03]

LONGPLAYTIME:  The Soul and Blues of 1967 with John Mayall, Mel Brown, Sky Saxon Blues Band, Johnnie Taylor, Charlie Musselwhite : ** REPEATED:  THE ALBUMS of 1967, part 2: Grateful Dead, Tim Hardin, Walker Brothers, Sonny & Cher, Pretty Things, etc.  **** RADIO 68: ALL THE SOUNDS AND ALL THE VOICES OF THE SIXTIES ****

PLAYLISTS

NEW SHOW:  THE SOUL AND BLUES OF 1967 JOHN MAYALL: THE BLUES ALONE ** SKY SAXON BUES BAND (aka THE SEEDS): A FULL SPOON OF SEEDY BLUES with members of The Muddy Waters Band ** CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE’s SOUTHSIDE BAND: STAND BACK! HERE COMES,  feat. Barry Goldberg, Harvey Mandel, Fred Below, Bob Anderson ** JOHNNIE TAYLOR: WANTED ONE SOUL SINGER (Stax) ** DUSTER BENNETT: SMILING LIKE I’M HAPPY (Blue Horizon, 1968) ** MEL BROWN: CHICKEN FAT, 1967 **

REPEATED SHOW: THE ALBUMS of 1967, part 2
THE GRATFUL DEAD: THE GRATEFUL DEAD ** THE ELECTRIC PRUNES:  UNDERGROUND (A-side) ** THE WALKER BROTHERS: IMAGES ** THE PRETTY THINGS: EMOTIONS (B-side) ** TIM HARDIN: TIM HARDIN 2 (B-side) ** THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION: ABSOLUTELY  FREE  ** SONNY & CHER: IN CASE YOU’RE IN LOVE (A6, B1, B2)  ** WORD:  High in de Rai (Hippie, Amsterdam, 1067) * JIM HIGHTOWER: Natural Parks * ALAN GINSBERG reads ‘Nova’ (Dialectics of Liberation, 1967) * GRACE PETRIE: They Shall Not Pass ** HAROLD PINTER, Nobel Prize Winner Literature *

SHOWTIME 

HIGHLIGHT

MEL BROWN: CHICKEN FAT

“ Guitarist Mel Brown is hailed as “An Impulse! Discovery” on Chicken Fat, his debut for the label, and this album does feature a fantastic unique sound. Brown played in the bands of T-Bone Walker and John Lee Hooker, and has an aggressive (though not harsh) single-string picking style. For this date he is paired with either Herb Ellis or Arthur Wright on guitar, Gerald Wiggins on organ, and Brown’s regular rhythm section of Paul Humphrey on drums and Ronald Brown on electric bass. There are a couple tracks that are played as pretty straight blues, but this is a hoppin’ soul-jazz date. The tunes are bouncy and funky, and Brown’s playing is a real treat. His bluesy, almost reckless soloing gives a vastly different flavor that the playing of guys like Grant Green or Melvin Sparks. Gerald Wiggins’ organ playing is cool and swinging, and the electric bass of Ronald Brown makes this album about as funky as Impulse ever got. Both Herb Ellis and Arthur Wright get some solo space as well, with Ellis sounding quite interesting playing an unamplified 12-string on a couple cuts. Brown gets some nice tones as well, and on “Hobo Flats” plays “an electronic guitar with Wah-Wah distortion” (remember, this is 1967 jazz) “that gives a weird shimmering sound,” according to the liner notes. Leave it to Impulse! to put a new spin on the guitar/organ sound. This is hot stuff”. By Sean Westergaard, all rights reserved, https://blinddogradio.blogspot.be/2016/07/chicken-fat-by-mel-brown.html

THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION: ABSOLUTELY FREE

“ When following up a great debut, a band has to take in consideration to not make a rehash of the previous album. They also need to make a record that is capable of bettering the debut, which for most groups, is a difficult feat. For The Mothers of Invention, the latter was not a problem at all. In 1967, the magnificent follow-up to “Freak Out!” was released. Known as “Absolutely Free”, this record takes all the elements from “Freak Out!” and expands on it, but in a more condensed form.
With the improvements present on “Absolutely Free”, it would be incorporated into two suites, “Absolutely Free” and “The M.O.I. American Pageant”, both movements in “Underground Oratorios”. The first side, a zany suite consisting of songs dealing with the “Duke of Prunes”, showcasing Zappa’s composing skills, makes for an entertaining listen, and from the first listen, is highly accessible. Side two is practically The Mothers playing in a bar, which from the start you can see a visual of sitting in a dimly-lit bar, fogged up with cigarette smoke while watching the bar band play their music for a few bucks.

The use of nightclub sound effects in the suite would be highly influential and would be used over the years by artists such as Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, and The Beatles. Also in the suite is one of Zappa’s well-known tunes, “Brown Shoes Don’t Make It”. The track begins with an attack on the media and American society, later transitioning to a bizarre tale of a city official fantasizing about sexual intercourse with a minor. “America Drinks & Goes Home” ends the album perfectly: in absolute chaos. And for posterity, “Big Leg Emma” and “Why Don’tcha Do Me Right?”, both extras on the reissue and originally a single, are both decent, but have no place on “Absolutely Free”. It’s unfortunate they were never released on an official album despite it called “a dumb attempt to make dumb music to appeal to dumb teenagers”. (Source: http://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/57014/The-Mothers-of-Invention-Absolutely-Free)

ABOUT LONGPLAYTIME

As both “Free Speech” and the Dutch poetry  show  end this September, Radio 68 is happy to present  a new show: MY GENERATION LONGPLAYTIME. The concept of LONGPLAYTIME is simple: we will play full albums, album sides or selected album tracks.  Naturally, MY GENERATION LONGPLAYTIME follows the philosophy  of my Sunday show MY GENERATION and the aims of Radio 68 in general. We will stress overlooked, forgotten, ignored, misjudged, rare, non-commercial and media-banned music and artists, throwing in a hit album for good measure. All from or related to the sixties –  of course!
Besides: to play albums is a rare thing in itself nowadays. The schedule is temporary, but we should have made up our minds by November.
Any feedback welcome! Enjoy the LongPLAYTIME.

Thanks, Ed

OVER LANGPSPEELTIJD

Nu de shows “De Gedachten zijn Vrij” en “Dichter in de Lucht” verdwijnen, presenteren we met plezier  MY GENERATION LONGPLAY TIME – in het Nederlands LANGSPEELTIJD. De idee achter LANGSPEELTIJD is eenvoudig: we draaien volledige albums, LP-kanten of een keuze uit een langspeelplaat. Uiteraard volgens de filosofie van My Generation (mijn programma op zondag) en van Radio 68 in het algemeen: wij hebben vooral  oog voor muziek en artiesten die vallen onder de categorieën “vergeten,  vreemd, geweerd, over het hoofd gezien, verkeerd begrepen, gecensureerd, zeldzaam “.  Met nu een dan een dikke hit ertussen. Trouwens, LPs draaien is de dag van vandaag sowieso al vreemd en zeldzaam. Het uitzendschema is voorlopig, zo tegen november komen we me iets definitiefs.
Alle reacties welkom. Geniet van de langSPEELTIJD

Bedankt,
Ed