2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (OST)

ON THE ROAD AGAIN - VOLUME 48

PLANET OF THE APES (OST)

OST: "ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST"

Original released on CD GDM 2062

(ITALY, 1969/2006)

Today's movie is a Sergio Leone's masterpiece from 1968 (it was first released in Italy in December 21). And this is the great Ennio Morricone at his very best! The soundtrack presented here is the ultimate version with 27 tracks (the original album was first edited in Italy - RCA OLS3 - with only 13 tracks). Excellent soundtrack (it deserves to be in the Top 5 original soundtracks of all time) giving you the complete score as it was intended - finally it looks to be the definitive version. Don't waste your time searching. This is the best you can get. Enjoy!

(ver comentário sobre o filme aqui)

The Golden Trumpet Of HARRY JAMES

Original released on LP Decca PFS 34142

(UK, April 1968)

Harry James captured in glittering "Phase 4 Stereo" with a band that he regarded as his best ever, recutting standards of his own such as "You Made Me Love You," "I've Heard That Song Before," "All or Nothing at All," and "Two O'Clock Jump," plus his versions of "Satin Doll" and "Take the 'A' Train," spiced with a James composition, "The Mole." "Ultra," written by James, features some extraordinarily dexterous playing by the man in several places, while Eric Coates' "By the Sleepy Lagoon" provides James with a perfect spot for some gentle lyricism. The sound throughout is extremely bright and crisp, in keeping with the recording's audiophile origins. (Bruce Eder in AllMusic)

Birthday Party Of The IDLE RACE

Original released on LP Liberty LBS 831 32E

(UK, October 1968)

The debut album by this unjustly overlooked band is a piece of classic British psychedelia that transcends its origins. Most British bands trying to achieve a psychedelic sound in those days simply played softly and sang in a very effete and poetic manner - the Idle Race, by contrast, play hard here and don't sound effete so much as just cheerfully trippy, a lot like the Beatles of "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever"; indeed, "End of the Road" from this album sounds like a rewrite of "Penny Lane." Jeff Lynne is the dominant personality here, as composer, guitarist, and singer, and, as one might expect given his presence, the music all has a Beatles-like quality of playfulness amid the musical invention. The single "Skeleton and the Roundabout" may be a little over-produced, but it is beguilingly innocent in its zaniness, and the softer middle section anticipates the structure of Lynne's later work with ELO. Much more indicative of his future direction are "Morning Sunshine," one of the prettiest songs to come out of the entire Birmingham music scene and displaying a languid guitar flourish that anticipates any number of ELO songs circa A New World Record, and "The Lady Who Said She Could Fly," an orchestrated Beatlesque jewel that sounds like a lost ELO track. As demonstrated here, the Idle Race weren't quite as powerful a band as their rivals the Move - who also loved to cover American soul and folk-rock and thus had a wider variety to their sound - but this album is steeped in beautiful melodies and even prettier embellishments in the singing and playing, yet never loses sight of its rock & roll underpinnings. Once in a while, as in "On with the Show," the sound effects are a little more prominent than one would like, and there's a certain music hall ambience to a few songs (such as "Lucky Man") that is somewhat distracting - but those two numbers are followed by the joyous and pounding "Pie in the Sky," so it all balances out and, overall, this album is very solid and a great deal of fun, as well as full of little surprises and signposts pointing toward Lynne's future. (Bruce Eder in AllMusic)

THE GUESS WHO: "Wheatfield Soul"

Original released on LP RCA Victor LSP 4141

(US, November 1968)

"Wheatfield Soul" by the Guess Who has become a collectors item of sorts over the years, fetching various prices in fan circles, and it is an important "first" step for the reconstituted group which initially hit with "Shakin' All Over" when it was led by Chad Allan. The album is Jack Richardson's excellent production of Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings' music played by this particular four-piece unit, which Peter Clayton's liner notes claim were together «for three years when they cut this album in late 1968.» The naïve sound of Cummings' voice on the album tracks is charming, but the hit "These Eyes" has that authority which the band would repeat on diverse chart songs like "No Time," "American Woman," and even "Star Baby" further down the road. "The Pink Wine Sparkles in the Glass" is a precursor to "New Mother Nature," but the solo Cummings composition "I Found Her in a Star" is very nice Guess Who-style pop that their fans adore. "Friends of Mine" is a strange one, though, ten minutes and three seconds of Burton Cummings imitating Jim Morrison, not just Morrison, but the copping of his vocal riffs straight from "When the Music's Over." This is a band stretching and searching for direction, and rather than hit you with hard Randy Bachman assaults which were a welcome addition to future long-players by this group, as well as Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Wheatfield Soul concentrates on Brit-pop and experimental songs. Randy Bachman's "A Wednesday in Your Garden" is British rock meets jazz, and is one of the LP's most interesting numbers. The Chick Crumpacker and Don Wardell liner notes to Ultimate Collection note that "These Eyes" «was technically the 18th release by the band.» The key is that it was the first from the quartet of Cummings, Bachman, Kale, and Peterson as produced by Jack Richardson. Ultimate Collection also notes that "Lightfoot" was written for «fellow Canadian Gordon Lightfoot.» The notes go on to point out that "Maple Fudge" and "We're Coming to Dinner" were real oddities, but a style that would reappear over the band's long and illustrious catalog. Maybe that's what makes "Wheatfield Soul" so sought after, inventive themes that eventually found their way onto later albums like "Artificial Paradise" and "Rockin'". Perhaps the tragedy is that they didn't get to work with Frank Zappa -- the Guess Who's left-field musings would have been the perfect follow-up to Zappa's work with Grand Funk. Take two of "Lightfoot" appears on Ultimate Collection, which only utilized three songs from this important first album after the band was reborn. But for all the musical wandering, it is "These Eyes" which remains timeless, the song that stands out as the masterpiece on this creative adventure. (Joe Viglione in AllMusic)

SAM SKLAIR: "Gumboot Dance"

Original released on LP RCA Victor 38 030

(SOUTH AFRICA, 1968)

Of course Sam Sklair did not invent the ‘gumboot dance’. He merely adapted the rhythms and sounds that are typical for the original style. The origins of ‘gumboot dancing’ can be traced back to the gold mines of South Africa at the height of the migrant labour system and during the oppressive Apartheid Pass Laws. The original name is ‘Isicahulo’ in the Baca language. ‘Gumboot dancing’ was performed by mine workers who worked in the Witwatersrand goldmines near Johannesburg. At best, working in the mines was a long, hard, repetitive toil. At worst, the men would be taken chained into the mines and shackled at their work stations in almost total darkness. The floors of the mines were often flooded, with poor or non-existent drainage. For the miners, hours of standing up to their knees in infected waters brought on skin ulcers, foot problems and consequent lost work time. The bosses discovered that providing gumboots (Wellington boots) to the workers was cheaper than attempting to drain the mines. This created the miners uniform, consisting of heavy black Wellington boots, jeans, bare chest and bandannas to absorb eye-stinging sweat. The workers were forbidden to speak, and as a result created a means of communication, essentially their own unique form of Morse Code. By slapping their gumboots and rattling their ankle chains, the enslaved workers sent messages to each other in the darkness. From this came an entertainment, as the miners evolved their percussive sounds and movements into a unique dance form and used it to entertain each other during their free time. Gumboot dancing has developed into a working class, South African art form with a universal appeal. The dancers expand upon traditional steps, with the addition of contemporary movement, music and song. Extremely physical, the dancing serves as a cathartic release, celebrating the body as an instrument, and the richness and complexities of South African culture.

SAVOY BROWN: "Getting To The Point"

Original released on LP Decca SKL 4935

(UK, July 1968)

"Getting to the Point" marks the debut of a vastly different lineup, still led by Simmonds but now fronted by new vocalist Chris Youlden. The pair got off to a good start by writing or co-writing most of the album. The playing is solid blues revival, and though Youlden's vocals are often overly imitative of B.B. King and Muddy Waters, he has a confident voice and frontman persona. Originals like "Flood in Houston" and "Mr. Downchild" provide the highlights. (Keith Farley in AllMusic)

The ANIMALS Complete French EPs & Singles

Eric Burdon Explains What Love Is...

Original released on Double LP MGM SE 4591-2

(US, December 1968)

It's an eyebrow-raising experience to encounter the cover of "River Deep, Mountain High" that opens the Animals 1968 double album, "Love Is". Clocking in at nearly seven and a half minutes, it's the weirdest version of the song ever cut. Self-produced by the band, it juxtaposes vocalist and bandleader Eric Burdon's staggering abilities as a rhythm & blues singer with few peers with then-modern-day psychedelia. The Phil Spector, Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry-penned vehicle for Ike & Tina Turner was never envisioned like this. There are moments of pure greatness in the track, a rough, garage-hewn rock and R&B foundation underscored by Burdon's blues wail is, unfortunately, completely messed over by the sound effects and his insistence on yelling «Tina, Tina, Tina...» ad nauseam in the bridge. And this is just the beginning. This version of Eric Burdon and the Animals contained enough serious players that they should have known better: Burdon, keyboardist Zoot Money, drummer Barry Jenkins, bassist John Wieder, and a young guitarist who'd been booted from Soft Machine after a very brief period named Andy Summers. For those who found charm and even inspiration in "The Twain Shall Meet" and "Winds of Change" - both recorded in San Francisco - "Love Is" may hold some sort of place in the heart. For those who looked back to the Animals catalog that included such dynamic albums as "Animalism" and "Animalization" as well as a slew of killer four-track EPs, this must have seemed like the bitter end. On the other hand, this trainwreck of an album has some interesting moments - mainly for hearing how hard they tried to imitate other acts who were successful while at the same time trying to forge a new identity from the ruins of who they once were as a band whose day had come and gone. 

The utterly awful reading here of "Ring of Fire" is almost laughable. Other covers include a rave-up cum psychedelia version of Sly Stone's "I'm an Animal," Traffic's "Coloured Rain," and the Bee Gees "To Love Somebody." The latter - which has to be heard to be believed - begins with Summers playing Chuck Berry licks as an intro before it slows down into a completely over-the-top Don Covay-styled soul shot with Burdon underscored by a female backing chorus which counters to push him into the stratosphere. Despite its cheesy organ sound, it has enough power drumming, crunchy guitar, and a neat little piano break by Money to make it work. It's easily the best thing here even if it is absolutely mental. Burdon had heard ex-bandmate Chas Chandler's young guitar protégé Jimi Hendrix's "Third Stone from the Sun" from the Jimi Hendrix Experience's debut album as well. In fact, he enlisted Money's buddy, guitarist Steve Hammond (of Johnny Almond's Music Machine) to come up with a long-form psychedelic suite that evoked it and some of Pink Floyd's weirder experiments at that time. The end result, "Gemini," is hysterically funny now, and must have just seemed to be ecstatically drug-addled tomfoolery at the time. The closer, "The Madman (Running Through The Fields)," by Summers and Money would have been a killer single if they'd edited the acid-fried middle section out of it. As it stands, "Love Is" was a mess from a band who, once great, had completely lost its way and was on its last legs. (Thom Jurek in AllMusic)

ERIC BURDON & THE ANIMALS: "The Twain Shall Meet"

Original released on LP MGM SE 4537

(US, May 1968)

The mix of topical songs, surreal antiwar anthems, and diffuse psychedelic mood pieces on "The Twain Shall Meet" is extremely ambitious, and while much of the group's reach exceeds its grasp, it's all worth a trip through as a fascinating period piece. In fact, the mood pieces predominate, mostly underwritten and under-rehearsed, and recorded without the studio time needed to make them work. "Just the Thought" and "Closer to the Truth" are dull and unfocused, even as psychedelia, while "No Self Pity" and "We Love You Lil" are above average musical representations of mind-altered states. "We Love You Lil" opens with a clever play on the old popular tune "Lili Marlene" that leads to an extended guitar jam and ethereal backing that rather recalls the early work of Focus, among other progressive rock acts. "All Is One" is probably unique in the history of pop music as a psychedelic piece, mixing bagpipes, sitar, oboes, horns, flutes, and a fairly idiotic lyric, all within the framework of a piece that picks up its tempo like the dance music from Zorba the Greek while mimicking the Spencer Davis Group's "Gimme Some Lovin'." On the more accessible side are "Monterey," a distant precursor to Joni Mitchell's more widely heard post-festival anthem "Woodstock," with some clever musical allusions and a great beat, plus lots of enthusiasm; and the shattering "Sky Pilot," one of the grimmest and most startling antiwar songs of the late '60s, with a killer guitar break by Vic Briggs that's marred only by the sound of the plane crash in the middle. (Bruce Eder in AllMusic)