Original released on LP Warner Bros W 1693 (mono) (US, April 1967)
One of the bands that came to Warner Bros. in their buyout of Autumn Records were the Tikis. They had only recorded a handful of singles, and in terms of musical direction and group identity, they definitely had potential. Enter producer Lenny Waronker and session musician / arranger / songwriter / general musical architect Van Dyke Parks. The two of them brought then-drummer Ted Templeman up to the front as co-lead vocalist, along with Dick Scoppettone, and created a soft-rock identity for the group, renaming them Harpers Bizarre. Their first single was perhaps their greatest shot: a cover of the then-brand new Paul Simon song, "Feelin' Groovy." Buttressed by an amazing Leon Russell arrangement and some great performances from the A-list of L.A. session cats, the song quickly went into the Top Ten. The resulting album is almost as great as the single, with songs by Van Dyke Parks ("Come to the Sunshine"), Randy Newman ("Debutante's Ball"), and others. An excellent and definitive slice of California soft pop. This 2011 New Sounds CD reissue brings us the glorious original mono mix of the album, which has been out of print since 1967. Also included are single versions and first-time-on-CD instrumental mixes. Finally, seven sides from the pre-Harpers Bizarre band, the Tikis, are presented also in their original mono mixes.
After enjoying considerable success with their own, unique brand of rock and roll, the Everly Brothers opted for a change of style on "Instant Party!", their fourth album for Warner Brothers. Taking twelve songs from a bygone era, Phil and Don gave their own interpretations of such standards as "Oh My Papa", "Long Lost John" and "Trouble In Mind". It was a radical change of direction for an album (their singles were still in the same rock and roll vein) and struggled for acceptance in their homeland, although once again British audiences lapped it up, turning the album into another major success, hitting #20 in July 1962. (in Amazon)
"Instant Party!" isn't very highly regarded as an Everly Brothers album, for the good reason that it showed the Everlys stepping outside of their rock & roll personas. Apart from the crisply played and sung opening track, "Step It Up and Go" - which had been suggested by Ike Everly - and a few minor bright spots such as "True Love" and "Ground Hawg" (another Ike Everly-spawned track), the material was pretty dire, confined almost entirely to the pop standards of another era, including such chestnuts as "Bye Bye Blackbird," "Autumn Leaves," and "Oh! My Papa." It was sung well enough, and much of the playing was impeccable, but also, apart from three exceptions, incredibly boring, something the Everlys had never been before. "Instant Party!" marked a low point in their artistic fortunes yet, ironically, even as they were delivering it to Warner Bros, the Everlys were recording singles such as "Crying in the Rain," which represented their sound and their work far better. (Bruce Eder in AllMusic)
Forty-six summers ago on August 31, 1970, 35-year-old Leonard Cohen was awakened at 2 a.m. from a nap in his trailer and brought onstage to perform with his band at the third annual Isle Of Wight music festival. The audience of 600,000 was in a fiery and frenzied mood, after turning the festival into a political arena, trampling the fences, setting fire to structures and equipment – and stoked by the most incendiary performance of Jimi Hendrix’s career. As Cohen followed Hendrix’s set, onlookers (and fellow festival headliners) Joan Baez, Kris Kristofferson, Judy Collins and others stood side stage in awe as the Canadian folksinger songwriter-poet-novelist quietly tamed the crowd. Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Murray Lerner, whose footage of the 1970 festival did not begin to see release until 1995, was able to capture Cohen’s performance. This package is available in two formats. The DVD/CD contains the new documentary by Lerner and the full performance on CD. All tracks are previously unreleased (apart from bits of “Suzanne” which were featured in the documentary Message to Love, also by Lerner) (in Amazon)
Memories, Dreams and Reflections
I was just two months shy of my seventeenth birthday at 4 am on August 31 1970 and I knew all the words, I was maybe 50 to 75 yards from the stage just outside the overrun VIP and Press enclosure and Leonard Cohen was about to appear on stage at the Isle of Wight Festival. My older brother Chris was to blame for me being there, for he introduced me to Leonard Cohen, and I had become smitten, I had caught the Leonard Cohen bug big time, which I would be unable to shake off for the rest of my life. I knew all the songs and all about Marianne, Suzanne and Nancy. And I knew "Tonight Will Be Fine", for I had waited 5 days and nights with hardly any sleep, after hitch hiking 250 miles with a friend Johnny Vernon from Manchester in the north of England to be there. I had just slept through most of Jimi Hendrix's set, though disappointed to have missed him, that was unimportant as I had come to see Leonard Cohen, and was slowing moving forward to get as close as possible to the stage. Looking back now it seems like a dream and I have woken up and am watching the DVD of my Dream, compulsively, 3 consecutive times so far and also listened to the whole CD. It's as if time had become dislocated and the warp and woof of reality expanded to include a 40 year Present Moment.
As I watch I am really identifying very intensely with almost spiritual longing with that young man at the beginning of the DVD who was about my age, it was like coming to Bethlehem to see baby Jesus he says, except Leonard Cohen is no 'baby Jesus', and it also felt as much like Babylon as Bethlehem, with Fires, Chaos and Free Love all on display. But it was still like a holy pilgrimage for me.
I wanted so much to connect the 2 time-streams, as I watched Leonard on the DVD, the present with the past, to be there again, with my 17 year old self who was waving matches in the night, through the cold mists of time, trying to signal his presence to his future self. The strangeness of being a mere part, a cell in the huge Beast of Babylon that was the crowd, a Body of 600,000 people. «You Know Who I Am, You've Stared at the Sun», sang the poet and prophet in the middle of the night and we stared at the stage where there was a human star burning with such bright intensity, as we stood in awe in the vast dark, small points of light, our matches in our hands.
The 1970 Leonard Cohen never looked so prickly and real, so unshaven, so raw and human yet so sensitive and spiritual, so powerful and yet so frail. So spaced out yet so centred in the moment. Speaking and singing from the heart with words and songs that communicate with the souls of men. He looked like some suffering Christ like figure that came to tell the world the truth but had just been woken up and did not really want to bother. This was the biggest rock festival in the history of the world and there has not been anything like it since. I was there to see Leonard Cohen in 1970 at the Isle of Wight and feel after viewing the DVD in 2009 that events like these go beyond their stated purpose and moment, reverberate through time and become cracks in the fabric of the world and as Leonard would say, `that's how the light get's in', we enter a Communion with the Higher Powers. «We pray for the angels and then the angels pray for us» to misquote LC. The negative forces on Devastation Hill become insignificant, they had played their part to pump up the intensity and now are just another part of the story, another part of the myth... of how the artist calms the savage beast and opens a spiritual channel for transcendent love to flow and manifest in the world.
Leonard Cohen's words and songs are mined from the very deepest heart and soul. They are like the golden thread from some magical loom, which weave their way through time and remain with us from moment to moment, as we grow older they make our lives richer, more meaningful and bearable. I am so pleased to have had this chance to be transported back 40 years in time and relive my younger days again. It`s been an experience full of unique and extraordinary memories and emotions. And thanks to Leonard Cohen for being a beacon of light in the darkness of the world, truly he transcends past and present, to bring us the timeless truth of the heart. If you want to know what it was like to be at one of the defining moments in musical history... buy this DVD/CD. (Peter Solomon in Amazon)
"Can I ask each one of you to light a match, so I can see where you are..."
Os fans de LC sabiam há muito da existência destas gravações e destas filmagens, e os mais velhos, como eu, interrogavam-se até se alguma vez haveriam de as ver em vida. Um pouco como estava a acontecer com os “ficheiros secretos” do Neil Young, recentemente também divulgados… A chegada desta obra ao mercado deveria ter sido acompanhada de foguetes, toques de sino, fanfarras, eu sei lá… Mas não, pelo menos por cá. O mercado e os jornalistas que o alimentam andam demasiado entretidos com Michael Jackson e com os milhões que gravitam à volta da sua imagem… Eu não me vou alongar sobre o que se passou nessa mítica noite de 31 de Agosto de 1970, que o livro que acompanha a obra documenta bem. Dir-vos-ei, apenas, que chegaram à Ilha de Wight para os 5 dias de concertos 600.000 pessoas, quando as melhores expectativas dos organizadores não excediam as 200.000. As condições logísticas para acolher tanta gente eram, naturalmente, precárias, e isso lançou uma onda de confusão que se iria alastrar durante todo o evento.
Antes de LC ter subido ao palco já Kris Kristofferson tinha sido obrigado a abandoná-lo por força das garrafas de cerveja que lhe caiam em cima, aparentemente por o som estar a sair em más condições. E durante a actuação de Jimi Hendrix uma parte do palco foi incendiada… A anarquia tinha-se instalado naquele último dia do festival e tudo era possível. No meio de toda essa confusão não se sabia muito bem os horários de cada “performance”, e consta que LC foi acordado às 2 da manhã quando dormia na sua “roulote”. Kristofferson diz que até o chegou a ver em pijama, mas foi já com o seu casaco de safari que Cohen se apresentou em palco, acompanhado por um conjunto de músicos que se auto-nomearam “The Army”, dos quais faziam parte nomes conhecidos como Bob Johson e Charlie Daniels. E o inevitável coro de meninas também já por lá andava, nessa altura…
Cohen apresentou-se despenteado e com a barba de três dias com que o haveríamos de ver, no ano seguinte, na capa de “Songs of Love and Hate”. Adivinha-se o pior mas Cohen, com uma calma impressionante, conseguiu controlar a multidão e quase hipnotizá-la… Começou por contar uma história antiga dos tempos em que ia ao circo com o seu velho pai e, a propósito, pediu a cada um dos presentes que acendesse um fósforo, de modo a que ele os pudesse ver e todos também se pudessem ver melhor, uns aos outros… E arrancou, muito lentamente, com o “Bird on the Wire”. Mas o que faz deste disco uma obra indispensável não é tanto o CD, embora este reúna verdadeiras preciosidades pouco ouvidas “ao vivo” no futuro, já que se baseia nos primeiros e mais intimistas dos seus álbuns. Aqui não há lugar a “First We Take Manhatan”, “I’m Your Man” ou “Tower of Song”’s, que tanto sucesso público fizeram no futuro e de que eu tão pouco gosto …
Em contrapartida, são reveladas pela primeira vez três músicas que hão-de fazer parte de “Songs of Love and Hate” (“Famous Blue Raincoat”, “Diamonds in the Mine”e “Sing Another Song, Boys”), com a particularidade desta última ser, precisamente, a versão “ao vivo” que há-de aparecer nesse terceiro disco. E a versão de “Tonigh Will be Fine” é a que haveremos de encontrar em “Live Songs”, álbum de 1973. Em boa verdade, o que mais me impressiona são as imagens de Cohen: a pureza do seu olhar perdido no vazio, a forma como saboreia e coloca cada palavra das suas canções e dos poemas que declama, o sorriso triste e efémero que lhe perpassa pelo rosto… Não me envergonho de vos dizer que, aqui e além, me vieram lágrimas aos olhos. Não de nostalgia por esses tempos passados… Mas de pura emoção, como um dia me lembro de ter chorado durante uma missa no interior de uma capelinha de St. Wolfgand, nos lagos austríacos, eu que sou profundamente ateu... «God bless Leonard Cohen and his music», diz-nos Judy Collins numa entrevista do filme de Lerner. Não podia ter escolhido melhores palavras. (Luís Mira)
The Isle of Wight may be a haven for PE teachers and community police officers; a safe, branded sanctuary in which the world's distinctly average can "party on down" while listening to Olly Murs. But before little Olly was born, the Isle of Wight Festival used to be one of the best in the world. Jimi Hendrix, Dylan, everyone; they've all played there. The 1970 event say almost 700,000 (mostly ticketless) punters descend on the meagre island which - compared to the fact Glastonbury only holds 135,000 and, at the time the island's own population only reached the 100k mark - gives an idea of the chaos that ensued. By the final day of the fest, following the organisers' attempt to build a fence to keep any newcomers out, multiple riots had erupted around the site. Performers had been treated to a hostile reception for the entire festival: fire broke loose following Jimi Hendrix’s set at midnight, while both Joni Mitchell and Kris Kristofferson had been booed offstage prior to Cohen taking to the stage at around 4am. Having only just been awoken from a slumber in his trailer, Cohen took to the stage and - still starry-eyed - requested the audience to strike matches so he could see them and they could see each other. «I know that you know why you’re lighting them,» he added with an almost philosophical inclination, before kicking into “Bird On The Wire”. After that, the audience were putty to Cohen’s charms, and the incident has been cited to have calmed any animosity for the rest of the duration. (Luke Morgan Britton)
After Marvin Gaye recorded tributes to Broadway and Nat King Cole in the previous two years, Motown fans may have had their suspicions raised by an LP titled "Moods of Marvin Gaye". Yes, there are a few supper-club standards to be found here, but Gaye moves smoothly between good-time soul and adult pop. Most important are his first two R&B number ones, "I'll Be Doggone" and "Ain't That Particular," both from 1965 and both produced by Smokey Robinson. Berry Gordy's right-hand man also helmed "Take This Heart of Mine" and "One More Heartache," another pair of big R&B scores, and just as good as the better-known hits. As for the copyrights not owned by Jobete, the chestnut "One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)" certainly didn't need another reading, but Gaye's take on Willie Nelson's after-hours classic "Night Life" was inspired. Marvin Gaye was improving with every record, gaining in character and strength of performance, and "Moods of Marvin Gaye" is a radically better record than its predecessors. (John Bush in AllMusic)
Original Released on LP CBS D-63280 (UK 1968, April 19)
"Odessey and Oracle" was recorded in 1967 after the Zombies signed to the CBS label, and was only the second album they had released since 1965. As their first LP, "Begin Here", was a collection of singles, "Odessey" can be regarded as the only true Zombies album. While their first album included several cover versions, "Odessey" consisted entirely of original compositions by the group's two main songwriters, Rod Argent and Chris White. The famous misspelling of "odyssey" in the title was the result of a mistake by the designer of the LP cover, Terry Quirk (who was the flatmate of bass player Chris White). The group began work on the album in June 1967. Some songs were recorded at EMI's Abbey Road Studios, where earlier in the year the Beatles had recorded "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and Pink Floyd recorded "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn". This was the first time Abbey Road would be used for an independently produced (non-EMI) release. By the time the recording was finished, in late 1967, the Zombies were effectively disbanded, due to lack of financial success. "Odessey and Oracle" was released in the UK in April 1968 and in the United States in June. The single "Time of the Season" became a surprise hit in early 1969, and Columbia Records (in the United States) re-released "Odessey" in February, with a different album cover that severely cropped the original illustration.
The gap in time between the UK and US record release dates owes to the Zombies having not prepared a stereo mix initially, a condition the American label insisted on. At the urging of Al Kooper and Columbia / Epic / Date records, Argent and White spent their accrued royalties to book studio time and remix the album for stereo specifically for that US release. However, the one song "This Will Be Our Year" was not mixed into stereo in 1969 owing to a "missing" horn overdub not on the original multitrack tape. Since its release the LP has come to be regarded as one of the greatest of all pop albums, with indelible melodies, complex harmonies, and an air of nostalgia and longing that makes it comparable to such albums as Love's "Forever Changes" and the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds". In 2002, Rolling Stone placed "Odessey" in 80th place on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
One of the bands that came to Warner Bros. in their buyout of Autumn Records were the Tikis. They had only recorded a handful of singles, and in terms of musical direction and group identity, they definitely had potential. Enter producer Lenny Waronker and session musician / arranger / songwriter / general musical architect Van Dyke Parks. The two of them brought then-drummer Ted Templeman up to the front as co-lead vocalist, along with Dick Scoppettone, and created a soft-rock identity for the group, renaming them Harpers Bizarre. Their first single was perhaps their greatest shot: a cover of the then-brand new Paul Simon song, "Feelin' Groovy." Buttressed by an amazing Leon Russell arrangement and some great performances from the A-list of L.A. session cats, the song quickly went into the Top Ten. The resulting album is almost as great as the single, with songs by Van Dyke Parks ("Come to the Sunshine"), Randy Newman ("Debutante's Ball"), and others. An excellent and definitive slice of California soft pop. This 2011 New Sounds CD reissue brings us the glorious original mono mix of the album, which has been out of print since 1967. Also included are single versions and first-time-on-CD instrumental mixes. Finally, seven sides from the pre-Harpers Bizarre band, the Tikis, are presented also in their original mono mixes.
