The Greatest Show On Earth - The Goings' Easy 1970

As had been the case with the Greatest Show on Earth's (GSOE) debut long-player, Horizons (1970), the follow-up, Going's Easy (1970), made very little impact despite their originality and certainly better-than-average material. The band's rather auspicious origins were the invention of EMI Records subsidiary Harvest, who set out to manufacture a British version of Blood, Sweat & Tears or Chicago -- both of whom successfully fused a brass and woodwind section into the framework of a rock & roll combo. After a less-than-stellar initial outing, GSOE returned to the drawing board and reconvened with a disc of longer and more jammed-out sides. They had also been listening to their stateside counterparts. The extended track "Borderline" is a group-credited composition that seems to lift several distinct features from the David Clayton Thomas version of Blood, Sweat & Tears. Colin Horton Jennings' (vocals/flute/guitar) bluesy lead vocals seem to practically mimic Thomas'. In fact, GSOE even goes one better than Blood, Sweat & Tears with an exceedingly heavier rock vibe. The acoustic and lilting "Magic Touch Woman" as well as the dark, pastoral "Storytimes & Nursery Rhymes" include some well-crafted harmonies that could easily be mistaken for latter-era Hollies. This is particularly interesting as the Hollies actually scored a minor hit with "Magic Touch Woman." "Love Magnet" is another lengthy track that features some of the band's best ensemble work. Mick Deacon's (vocal/keyboard) electric organ solo is especially noteworthy, giving GSOE a really jazzy workout. Lacking consumer or industry support, GSOE disbanded by mid-1971. Even while the group was able to sell out shows throughout the rest of Europe, the total lack of interest back home inevitably sealed their fate. AMG.

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Pop Five Music Incorporated - A Peça 1969

Pop/Rock band created in 1967, Oporto, Portugal, constituted by David Ferreira, António Brito, Paulo Godinho, Álvaro Azevedo, and Luís "Pi" Vareta. They've started playing at popular dances in the north of Portugal, where they've conquered the youngsters' attention. One of the first bands to record and issue internationally. Their song "Page One" hit the charts around Europe. 

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''Hannibal'' Marvin Peterson - Naima 1978

An exciting, serpentine solo maker in the mold of Don Cherry -- Peterson has chops but leaves precision to the wind in favor of spontaneous eruptions of melody. Peterson has a more well-rounded technique than Cherry, however, and plays with greater force. Unlike many contemporary free jazz players, Peterson is adept at older styles; he's played under such adventurous yet tradition-bound bandleaders as Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Gil Evans, and Elvin Jones, and with such dyed-in-the-wool avant-gardists as Roswell Rudd, Ken McIntyre, and Deidre Murray. As a youth, Peterson learned drums and cornet. He attended North Texas State University from 1967-1969 before moving to New York in 1970. That year, he toured the East Coast with Kirk; the next, he joined Evans' orchestra, with which he would continue to play into the '80s. In the early '70s he performed and recorded with a variety of big-name leaders, including Pharoah Sanders, Roy Haynes, and the aforementioned Jones. He also led and played trumpet and koto with the Sunrise Orchestra, a group that included the cellist Murray. Tenor saxophonist George Adams was a frequent collaborator. Peterson has led recording sessions infrequently; his first album was called Children of the Fire, for the defunct Sunrise label (1974). He recorded subsequently for Enja, MPS, and Inner City. Though as a performer he's kept something of a low profile over the years, Peterson -- now known simply as Hannibal -- emerged in the mid-'90s having composed the monumental African Portraits, an orchestral piece that incorporated a jazz quartet, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (conducted by the eminent composer/conductor Daniel Barenboim), the Morgan State University Choir, the Kennedy-King College Community Chorus, the Doris Ward Workshop Chorale, four operatic singers, various traditional African musicians, and a handful of African-American vocalists. The meticulously composed (and critically hailed) piece differed greatly form the small jazz ensemble contexts with which he had made his professional name. A recorded version was issued by the Teldec label. AMG.

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The La De Da's - The Happy Prince 1969

Aside from Ray Columbus & the Invaders, the La De Das were New Zealand's most popular rock group of the '60s. As big fish in a very small pond, their work doesn't hold up to scrutiny in the company of the era's top American and English acts. But they did record some fine garage/pop numbers in the spirit of the Rolling Stones in the mid-'60s. A few of these ("How Is the Air Up There?" and "All Purpose Low") were big N.Z. hits, and they reached the Top Ten with covers of John Mayall's "On Top of the World" and a version of Bruce Channel's "Hey Baby." In 1968, they recorded a psychedelic-tinged children's concept LP, The Happy Prince; which bears resemblance to modern twee. After a failed attempt to crack the British market, the group soldiered on for quite some time with pedestrian hard rock that -- like even the best of their early work -- was very derivative of overseas trends. AMG.

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Joe Tex - Happy Soul 1969

Generic Joe Tex in Memphis from 1969. But there's still an awful lot of funky music here, and a storehouse of folksy sagacity ("Go Home and Do It," "Take the Fifth Amendment," "Keep the One You've Got") that deserved preservation. "You Need Me Baby" and "That's Your Baby" are the hits. AMG.

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Mystic Number National Bank - Mystic Number National Bank 1969

Blues-rock band from Kansas City. Released one album on Probe in 1969. The Bank played so many free concerts and anti-war demonstrations in the late 60s that they were thrown out of the Musicians’ Union. Lead singer and drummer Glenn Walters later sang and played with California’s Hoodoo Rhythm Devils. He’s still playing for crowds in San Francisco, and he has a career singing on TV commercials and film soundtracks.

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Jesse Colin Young - Light Shine 1974

Whether it was creative fervor or contractual obligation, Jesse Colin Young was back with a new album only six months after his commercial and artistic breakthrough with Song for Juli, and though the album featured more original songs, Young seemed to be stretching for material, turning the three tunes on side one into a "California Suite" with lots of jazzy instrumental work. But the writing was less important than the playing, as many of Young's backup musicians -- notably drummer Jeffrey Myer, keyboardist Scott Lawrence, and reed player Jim Rothermel -- had been with him for a while now and were playing like a tight band. Some of the songs were little more than weather reports ("Grey Day") or travelogues ("Barbados"), and when Young did have a message to convey, as in the title song (repeated from the Youngbloods' Good and Dusty album), he could come off as preachy, but the music was so delightful that none of that mattered much. Fans made it Young's highest-charting album yet, and it ranks with Song for Juli as his biggest seller. AMG.

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Ten Years After - Texas International Pop Festival 1969

A storming blues and boogie band from the U.K., Ten Years After rocketed from modest success to worldwide fame in the wake of their performance at the Woodstock Rock Festival in 1969, where their nine-minute rendition of "I'm Going Home" showed off the lightning-fast guitar work and howling vocals of Alvin Lee, the unrelenting stomp of bassist Leo Lyons and drummer Ric Lee, and the soulful support of keyboard man Chick Churchill. While the group was also capable of moody pop and acoustic-based material (as heard on 1971's A Space in Time, whose single "I'd Like to Change the World" was their greatest American hit), it was the group's raw blues-based music that remained their trademark, powered by Lee's high-speed guitar figures. While their original run would end in 1974, Ten Years After would reunite in the '80s, and they continue to record and tour more than 50 years after they started out. Here is an excellent performance at the Texas International Pop Festival, two weeks after Woodstock. AMG.

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Colosseum II - Wardance 1977

Wardance shows many of the attributes associated to symphonic rock, from a surrealistic record cover and detailed information about what amplifiers and cymbals the band uses, to song titles like "Star Maiden/Mysterioso/Quasar." But even though Colosseum II had much in common with symphonic rock, they were more of a jazz-rock or fusion band. While none of the musicians are anything even close to restrictive in their playing, Moore's solo guitar is what many of the songs are built around. His distinctive way of playing, while still in development, is clearly heard, as are similarities to his first solo album, Grinding Stone, especially in the album's only vocal song, "Castles." This was the second album released by Colosseum II in 1977, and their third in two years. The differences between the albums are not too big, but a slight lack of inspiration can be perceived here. While the songs are still technically impressive and hold an interesting mix of jazz, hard rock, and classical elements, the band often fails in making the distorted riffs meaningful, leaving an impression that the main merit of the songs is that they are extremely hard to play. The title track and "Major Keys" are exceptions, though, building on slightly simpler licks, which are developed throughout the song, instead of being lost in the Spanish-style drumming that Hiseman is so fond of. But a big fan of symphonic rock may think differently. AMG.
 

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The Pretty Things - Silk Torpedo 1974

Silk Torpedo provides an interesting glance into the glam era. Beginning with "Dream" -- a ghostly instrumental prelude that the group's friends in Led Zeppelin would later cop for "In the Evening" -- this album launches into "Joey," a superb combination of piano boogie, crashing drums, and melodramatic choruses draped in Hammond organ. Phil May's vocals on this piece run somewhere between Ian Hunter and Steve Tyler, and are every bit as effective. "Maybe You Tried" is a glittering slice of glam rock, all pouting and hip-thrusting, with a simply killer guitar hook from Pete Tolson. From this strong start, though, the album falters into a torpid sort of introspection. Still, "Belfast Cowboys" deserves kudos for taking on the Irish question long before U2 was taking its first music lessons. The CD reissue adds live versions of "Singapore Silk Torpedo" and "Dream/Joey," both recorded in 1974. AMG.

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Mandrill - Mandrill 1970

Mandrill's debut isn't half the album it could've been, since the band's talented musicianship and desire to experiment were often subverted -- by ambitions of pop success as well as a dry, over-serious approach to music-making. The three Wilson brothers, though masters of over a dozen instruments, still hadn't mastered the added burden of songwriting; "Warning Blues" is perfunctory (as is the vocal performance) and "Symphonic Revolution" is a bland summer-day soul song with cloying strings. The group sounds much more confident getting into a good groove and allowing room for some great playing; the band's self-titled song, "Mandrill," is the best here, featuring great solos for flute and vibraphone. Mandrill also loved playing with different musical forms: "Rollin' On" moves from an average rock song to a torrid Latin jam and climaxes with a testifying gospel session. Most ambitious of all is the five-part, 14-minute suite "Peace and Love," but the intriguing concept is negated by a few bizarre pieces, one of which sounds like a parody of a Vincent Price reading over a Santana jam. The band would soon learn that experimentation and stylistic change-ups were a means, not an end. AMG.

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Dead Sea Fruit - Dead Sea Fruit 1967

Combining the deadpan wit of the Bonzo Dog Band and the social-conscious lyricism of the Kinks, Dead Sea Fruit helped to bring the British Invasion of the 1960s to France. Formed in 1966, the group spent three years based in Paris thrilling French audiences with their hook-laden songs. Although all but two members relocated to Dakar, Senegal, electric bassist/guitarist/vocalist Arthur Marsh, who had replaced founding member Christopher Hall in early 1967, returned to England after three months when club owners demanded that they stick to cover tunes. Dead Sea Fruit reached their apex in 1967, when their tongue-in-cheek single, "Lulu, Put Another Record On," reached the top position on the British music charts. Their self-titled album was released the same year. AMG.

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Smoke - Carry On Your Idea 1969

Smoke was a Psychedelic Blues / Biker Boogie band. Previously known as The Nomads who were a garage psychedelic rock band from Houston, Texas. In mid-1968, the group moved to San Francisco, California, and signed with Uni Records. 

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Pluto - Pluto 1971

Pluto was an English rock band originally from London - active during the early '70s. In November 1971 they released their only, eponymously titled album, with hard rock heavily influenced by the blues and tinged with progressive rock. In 2020 a second album with unreleased material was released.

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Bear - Greetings, Children of Paradise 1968

Though a formidable lineup of talent came together for Bear's sole album, it had neither a consistent style nor compelling material. Another one-shot late-'60s psychedelic band, Autosalvage, might serve as a point of comparison, as two members of that group (Skip Boone and Darius Davenport) play on Greetings, Children of Paradise. Bear's record, though, is even more diffuse than Autosalvage's in its dodges between various circa-1968 underground rock styles, made even more erratic by some aspects which seem to aim for a bit of pop appeal. There's a little of the Lovin' Spoonful's good-time rock from time to time, but more often it's an uneasy mesh of free-floating American hippie rock with some Beatlesque harmonies and melodies. Sometimes there are jazzy beats and arrangements; at other times there are moderately heavy psychedelic guitar solos; at others, their basic folk-blues roots poke through (as on "Hungry Dogs of New Mexico"). The songs are kind of shapeless, and the melodies are on the undistinguished side, however. AMG.

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