The Rolling Stones Get 3-D in 1967

1967.    Things are getting psychedelic,  The Rolling Stones were having a rough year.    The year started off ok with Let's Spend the Night Together.    Drug busts followed and for a time it was possible that both Mick and Keith could be in jail for a long time.    Their summer of love single, We Love You, tanked.  By the end of the year they managed to get an album out.  

The Rolling Stones - Their Satanic Majesties Request  (London 1967)

The record is kind of a mess.   There are four classics (She's a Rainbow, 2000 Man, Citadel, and 2000 Light Years From Home).  The rest is trippy  hippy meandering.   If only they would have filled it out with We Love You, Dandelion and Child of the Moon.  I'd let them leave in Sing This All Together and On With The Show.  Now that would be a record for the ages.

Original pressings came with a 3D cover.  

I found this copy at a thrift store.   The 3D plate covered with some sort of greasy oil and was very dirty.   Some household glass cleaner did the trick and now I have a beautiful copy

The gatefold cover came with a maze to while away the time while you shake the seeds out

And a custom inner sleeve.   A rarity at the time

Oh yeah, and a record - trippily labeled front side/back side

After a while, the 3D was replaced by a flat version.   

A few little known facts about this record.....
1.  The record company made them change the title from 'Her Satanic Majesties Request'
2.  The last sounds on Side 1 which sound like electronic doodling, will actually play 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas' if played at 45.
3.  The first Rolling Stones album to have an identical track listing on both sides of the Atlantic.
4.  The strings on She's a Rainbow were arranged by future Led Zeppelin bass player John Paul Jones.

Let's Twist Her

Bill Black was the bass player in Elvis' original band.  DJ, Scotty and Bill.  When he moved on, he formed a rockin' pop combo that put out a series of instrumental albums.  I found this one at a thrift store.  

Bill Black's Combo - Let's Twist Her (Hi 1962)

Since this was Bill Black record AND a twist record. I had to have it.  The cover and record were not in the best shape.  The record cleaned up real nice after my thrift store decontamination ritual.  Turns out this is one of the finest twist records I have.

Something kind of bothers me about the title.  It's not 'Let's Twist' as in let's dance.  It's not 'Let's Twist WITH Her' as in we'd like to dance with her.  It's  'Let's Twist Her.'  It somehow seems a bit more sinister.

Yes - For the Love of Prog

So sue me - I've got a soft spot for progressive rock.  This genre tended to be a bit pretentious.  It has roots in classical rather than blues.  Songs stretched over long suites (sometime just random songs strung together).  There were classical themes.  There were quasi-hippie lyrics.  There was usually over mixed keyboards and/or mellotrons.  All this with rock and roll instrumentation.

 There probably isn't a much better introduction to the genre than Yes.  The mainstream prog band.

This band hit it big in the USA.  They hit their peak of pretentiousness with this one.

Tales From Topographic Oceans (Atlantic 1973)

One song each side filled this double album.  It's over the top with self importance.  It's boring at times.  The lyrics are silly.  This is the record that naysayers will attack when discussing the genre.  I can't defend it.

but....

There are time it rocks.  The players are in sync.  The only things that really date it are the keyboards and the lyrics.  I just played all four sides.   For some reason, only side 1 of my copy shows any sign of wear.  I assume the previous owner attempted to play the whole thing, but never made it past the first side on several occasions.

Yes had just lost their drummer (Bill Bruford) to King Crimson.  The new guy was session musician Alan White.  Rick Wakeman makes his (temporarily) last appearance with the band.  He would  soon be replaced by big haired Yani lookalike Patrick Moraz.  

And those lyrics!   Here are some samples

Getting over overhanging trees Let them rape the forest

Does a lamb cry out before we shoot it dead

As one with the knowledge and magic of the source Attuned to the majesty of music They marched as one with earth

It comes with the requisite 'special label' as nothing screams class like a 'special label'

I once saw a DJ copy of this record in the used bin.  Someone had written on the cover 'Do Not Play - Boring.'   It was selling for more than one with a clean cover


Yes wasn't my favorite of the progressive bands.  That honor probably belongs to King Crimson, Gentle Giant or (Peter Gabriel Era only) Genesis. For the unfamiliar, Yes is probably a good place to start.

Addendum.  

Since I wrote this, I've actually listened to it all the way through a few times.  I'm finding it hard to put down.  Who knew.  I started making fun of it an now I'm digging it.  Just make sure your woofers are in good shape.  There are a lot of high ends in this.  Without good base to offset them, the results will sound shrill.

His Name is Wonderful

His Name is Wonderful - The Haven of Rest Quartet

Well Jesus' name may be wonderful, but I think three of the guys on the cover could call themselves Lucky Pierre.  Hello sailor!

This was another Thrift Store find.  Evidently these guys are preachers at a church shaped like a river boat.  They dress as sea captains.

As one of my readers just pointed out - There are five guys in the quartet!

This is on the Word label out of Waco, TX.   Like all good inspirational records, the liner notes advise on the benefits of stylus hygiene.  'This recording is worthy of the finest needle.'

B-52's Mesopotamia

The world's greatest party band.  Few bands had the sheer sense of joy of the B-52's.  By 1981, the band had already released two albums which were drawn largely from their live set developed over the prior few years.  Now they were due to make a third album with new material.  They were convinced to bring in an outside producer.  David Byrne was chosen and we get.,,,,,

The B-52's - Mesopotamia (Warner Brothers 1981)

Byrne was a good choice.  The band knew him well as they toured with the Talking Heads extensively a few years before.  He brought in outside musicians to flesh out the sound.  Most of them were from the Talking Heads 'Not Making Sense' touring band.  

The sessions ended early.  Byrne was taking too long.  The record company (always with great art in mind) needed product.  The end result was an EP.   One of my favorite items from the band, but one can't help but wonder what could have been.

The record came in one of those ridiculous Warner Brothers bag inner sleeves, but it did carry a special label for class.

Their career hit the skids after this release.  It would be a few years before they had a major comeback with 'Love Shack.'

I saw them when they toured with this album (see concert ad below - $10).  I'm scheduled to see them tonight, September 13, 2015 at the Hollywood Bowl ($100).  I hope to Dance This Mess Around......

Wild Man Fisher - From Straight Jacket to the Street to the Studio.

Wild Man Fischer was a genuine crazy street person.  Institutionalized at 16 for allegedly pulling a knife on his mom.  Diagnosed as a bipolar schizophrenic shortly thereafter.  Legend has it he walked away from a mental institution and nobody bothered to track him down. 

In 1968 he was living on the Sunset Strip performing his original songs for passers by at 10 cents a pop.  Frank Zappa was looking to expand the roster of his Bizarre Records label and signed the guy.  The resulting album is presented below.

An Evening With Wild Man Fischer (Bizarre 1968)

This is a two record set that consists of 36 'songs.'   Some of them are merely crazy street person rants.  Some of them could be considered actual tunes.  Supposedly, he was institutionalized after pulling a knife on his mom.  He's saying he's sorry on the cover.

I picked this up at End of an Ear in Austin, TX.   They didn't know how much this was actually worth.  The Goldmine Record Guide prices this one at $100 in mint condition,  Mine was under $10. The copy I have is far from mint in the cover department, but the record is extremely clean.  Most of them are.  Nobody ever played this one over and over.

I Found What I Wanted

Religious records are always fun to look through at the Thrift Store.  I came across this one in Burbank, CA one day.  I guess....

I Found What I Wanted - Bob Daniels (Sacred 1960)

Who knows what he wanted.  Could it be the Metallica tickets?  Someone put a $20 bill in the book? Pressed flowers?   Rolling papers?   Tickee for Laundry?  Who knows.  My dad was a stamp collector and for many years we would find stamps placed in our family encyclopedia for un-curling.  (My family tended to look in the encyclopedia for answers rather than The Bible).

I would venture to guess that it's some obscure bible verse that supports a twisted societal view.  That's why it took him so long to yell huckle-buckle-beanstalk.

This record is magical.  Check out the promises on the back.

This record claims it.....

• Provides Tranquility at Eventide
• Starts Your Day with Happiness
• Brings Joy to Lonely Hearts
• Helps Youth Appreciate Good Music
• Increases Office Efficiency
• Lightens the Day for the Hospitalized

And most importantly....

• Keeps Romance Alive in the Home

That's right folks, this is a schtup record.   Move over Barry White.

Incidentally, this record comes from Whittier, California.  The town of my birth.  

Trippin with Ike & Tina

Ike & Tina Turner - Let Me Touch Your Mind (United Artists 1973)

One of the last great Ike & Tina albums before they split and Tina became an annoying pop singer.  Tina was still in her element as an earthy untrained powerhouse.  The slickness of her later records stripped her of this gift.

This album came out during the heyday of album packaging.  It's quite trippy, but not very functional.

The back features four pictures of Tina doing the 'I'm wearing glasses' thing.   Perhaps this is her way of silently protesting that Ike wouldn't let her buy a pair.

Functionality was not this cover's forte.  In order to get the record, you had to unfold the back like one of those paper fortune teller things that teenagers used to make.  My teenage daughter referred to them as 'cootie catchers.'