Index: Fire Eyes and Eight Miles High

From: Index [DC records, 1967]

Apologies for the break from posting for a little while, I’ve come into the possession of some fantastic soul and funk records and been busy going through them and picking out what I want to share with you the listener. Also, um, Modern Warfare 2 is really, really, addictive. While I put the final touches to my choices I thought that with the fantastic, rap, soul, funk and jazz we’ve had up here recently we’ve not really touched on the world of rock for a while so to balance it out thought I’d share a bit of some of the most fuzzed out psych rock I know of, Index’s self titled album from 1967.

It’s worth keeping the year this came out in mind when you listen to the album, I know that “ahead of it’s time” is an overused phrase in the world of old record appreciation but I’m going to have to use it here. The whole record is drenched in layers of feedback to the point where the guitars and percussion feel like they’re fighting to be heard over the ambient noise. For those tracks where vocals are also in the mix they appear to be sung in from an adjacent room, floating semi coherently through the wall of sound that covers the track like a sonic mist. If this sounds heavy or in any way unlistenable, I can only apologise as it’s far from it. Heavy heavy playing and a true garage sound make this record a hypnotic and fulfilling listen you’re unlikely to forget in a hurry.

Margo Guryan: Sunday Morning
From: Take a Picture [Bell, 1968]

Doris: You Never Come Closer
From: Did You Give the World Some Love Today Baby [EMI, 1970]

Linda Perhacs: Parallelograms
From: Parallelograms a [Kapp Records, 1970]

It seems my rush to welcome in the summer sun was a little premature. The blazing 30s of last week have been replaced by the low 20s and torrential storms in the UK which has put a slight dampener on my general mood and my desire to blaze out songs to sip Pimms to.

Still, I’ll never let a spot of rain and the fact the my fingers are turning numb stop me from posting good music so here you are, some summer songs from the ladies.

While geographically and, in many ways, sonically, miles apart, I’ve always linked New Yorker Margo Guryan’s Take A Picture and Swedish Doris Svensson’s Did You Give The World Some Love Today together in my mind garden.

Maybe it is just down to the fact that I discovered them within a few months of each other but to me the two albums work well as a pair, straddling the bridge between folk, pop and something else entirely while also both being great albums for a lazy summer day.

Margo’s Sunday Morning, which was originally recorded by Spanky & The Gang, has a wonderfully crisp sound with clear drums, guitar twang and then Margo’s ethereal vocals floating over the top, kind of like a Velvet Underground and Nico on prozac. To some as cheesy as they come, I just get caught by the little change down of the guitar at the chorus and am sold anew every time the hand claps enter. See what you think and let me know.

Funnily enough, while I was having a little google on Doris’ Did You Give The World Some Love Today I found a site listing this as a Doris Day album. While there are undoubtedly moments on the LP that are on the singalong side I find it hard to imagine Ms Day ever putting her vocals to something like You Never Come Closer. A psych fuelled brooding number with looping bass and a guitar line that follows Doris’ vocals as piano and other instrumentation fades in and out. Like some 70s version of Portishead, great heady stuff.

As a bonus track and something that just leapt into my head when I was posting this is Parallelograms off one of the most gorgeous albums I’ve ever laid my ears to, Linda Perhacs’ 1970 release. While travelling in her own orbit as a satellite distant from pretty much any artists I can think of the summer sadness vibes still creep through the ethereal psychedelic folk to create something beautiful, hypnotic, jarring and untouchable. Really quite one of the most extraordinary albums I know.

Spooky Tooth: Society Child and Love Really Changed Me
From: It’s All About [Island, 1968]

Sometimes you hear music that sounds so spot on to what you were searching for that you have to do a double take to check it is what it claims to be. A friend played me Spooky Tooth’s cover of Society Child after I’d mentioned how much I loved the Common People LP. Despite reassurances that the British band did record this at the end of the sixties I went on a Google and Wiki hunt to confirm the fact before I was totally convinced and purchased the album.

The reason for my wariness was that the album ticked all the boxes I wanted when looking for Psych/Prog music with it’s full thrust drums placed high in the mix, decent guitars but no long solos, and impassioned vocals. It sounded more like a modern band who’d grown up on drum breaks imitating the sound than something that came about at the time.

Anyway, the internet has soothed my fears and I can confirm that this is the real deal, the band releasing a number of albums at the end of the sixties/beginning of the seventies in a fuzz style reminiscent of their label mates Traffic. By most accounts, their first album, It’s All About, is the weakest of their releases but I personally find that hard to believe as it’s a great slice of Rock.

As mentioned earlier, Spooky Tooth’s cover of Society Child is a true gem, hefty Axelrod style drums, menacing guitar and full on wailing vocals the band go all outs on this but, to my mind at least, avoid the pastiche area that bands like Vanilla Fudge can fall into.

Love Really Changed Me has more of a soul edge with shades of Phil Spector style Wall of sound production and rollicks along at a very mean pace indeed.

Mention must be made of the top notch job done on the reissue of this which no doubt helps with the full bodied sound the band display.

Looking through their Wiki history it seems most of the band members crafted a decent career for themselves after the original line up dissolved and a number of band members are still releasing and touring today. Oh yeah, almost forgot, apparently one of the organ players in the band was none other than Gary Wright of Dreamwaver infamy so you learn something new every day. Enjoy.

Common People: Soon There’ll Be Thunder and I Have Been Alone
From: Of the People, By the People, For the People [Capitol 1968]

Myth busting on the Fuzz today as we switch up styles once more and enter the world of sixties psych music. For as long as I’ve known the music of The Common People it’s been linked to a major what if. As the story has always gone, David Axelrod was signed up to be the producer of the album and completed three tracks with the group before his wife was injured in a serious car accident. Axelrod then left the recording and the band completed the rest of the album without him.

The reason the story has never been questioned is that the first three songs on the album sound like classic late sixties Axelrod; full of swirling strings, lush percussion and a certain signature depth of sound. The rest of the album, though by no means bad, is a more standard set of sub-Love style recordings without any of the mournful beauty of the album’s opening.

However, when reading up about the group recently I stumbled across the following website which managed to locate some of the original band for a revealing interview. In this article the band members debunk the myth, stating categorically that Axelrod left the production before a single note had been recorded. The band are so sure of this it makes it hard to question though it also makes the contrast between the two wildly different styles on the record even more confusing.

Whatever you believe, there’s no confusion over why these tracks were held up as masterful Axelrod productions. As mentioned previously their combination of beauty and sorrow are up there with most of his releases from the period and make you long for lost recordings carried out with a similar sound. I’ve posted two of the three songs for your pleasure and they really are something special.

For a long time a lost gem of the sixties that never even got a domestic release in the US, the album has now been reissued on CD and by all accounts Fallout have done a cracking job. I’ve been meaning to pick up my own copy for a while now as it will no doubt do far greater justice to the recording than my crackly vinyl rip. Enjoy and feel free to wonder what if with me…….

Annette Peacock: Pony and I’m The One
From: I’m The One [RCA, 1972]

I’ve never been slow in proclaiming my love of ballsy female singers on this site and today I have another selection for you in the debut solo album of Annette Peacock.

A gifted pianist from an early age, Annette’s talent really came to fruition after her husband at the time, Gary Peacock, started touring with Albert Ayler’s band in 1964. Over the course of the next few years Annette’s songwriting developed as she started messing with the Moog (given to them by Robert Moog himself), releasing albums as part of The Synthesizer Show with Paul Bley.

Having split with Bley, Annette’s first solo album combined the experimental improvisation of The Synthesizer Show with a more pop sensibility and the results are truly outstanding. At the time of release Peacock was being lauded as the female Bowie and it’s not hard to see why as she combines experimentation with great production and song writing.

If all this sounds a bit out there let me bring you back to earth with the psychedelic funk of Pony. A bass heavy groove rumbles throughout the track as Peacock delivers a sultry vocal over the top. This is less avant garde jazz and more Betty Davis funk which, to my ears, is nothing but a good thing. Storming music.

The title track, I’m The One, is less funky than Pony but manages to successfully combine a beautifully produced torch song and wailing Moog as Annette’s husky vocals are interrupted by electronic squawks and vibrations. On a page it sounds like a mess but on a stereo it sounds like great music.

For once I can happily tell you that Annette is still making music and released her latest album in 2006. More power to her.

Susan Christie: Paint A Lady and Yesterday, Where’s My Mind?
From: Paint A Lady [Finders Keepers, 2006]

You may have picked up from my previous posts on Ruth Copeland and Lyn Christopher that I’m a 100% sucker for a certain type of female folk rock. Anything with strong female vocals over tough and moody guitars makes me do the equivalent of a mental swoon and Susan Christie’s Paint A Lady is one of the strongest offerings I’ve come across yet.

A folk singer with more than a passing interest in the playfulness of psychedelia, Christie suffered the fate of many of the artists featured on the site in that she never received her proper dues. However, Christie went one step further than most, forgoing the usual pain of having her album slept on by instead seeing the record label never release her album at all. It was only due to a private press protected lovingly for years that the album was rediscovered and reissued recently by Finders Keepers.

So, onto the music. The title song itself, Paint A Lady, is a brilliantly laid back growler of a track, simmering with intent from the moment the music starts, lilting guitars hovering over some simple but great percussion. Similar in tone to Lyn Christopher’s Take Me With You, this track glows with confidence and swagger from Christie as she paints a tale of the monotony of life. By the time the harmonies enter in the chorus I can’t see how anyone wouldn’t be sold on the brilliance evident here.

I was torn with the second track to feature here, between the Copeland’s Medal like anger of For The Love Of A Soldier, the folky bliss of Rainy Day or the psychedelic wig out of Yesterday, Where’s My Mind?. Well I dithered and Rainy Day is a truly beautiful track but I thought you’d be most interested in the wig out so here it is. The track takes it’s time to get going, spending three minutes as Christie sets the scene of wandering the streets. However, the song builds and builds on it’s initial momentum until we are left with Christie screaming at God over heavy percussion and guitars. Excellent stuff.

The album is now readily available from Finders Keepers and they’ve done a decent job on the reissue. It’s rare that an album so long slept on is great from start to finish but I would highly, highly recommend picking this up.