Melancholia Vol 19 - Singers and Songwriters

Time for another themed edition of  my Melancholia series just in time to finish off the year. This one focuses on the singer/songwriter genre that peaked in the early 1970s. Many of these artists are among my favorites and this genre is close to being comfort food for me so it surprises me that it's taken me so long to put this together. It has become a regular listen between everything else I've been listening to.

Some of these artists, Joan Beaz, Fred Neil, have their roots in the pre and early sixties folk movement and others, Neil Young, Glen Campbell, are on the fringe of the genre. Shawn Colvin is more contemporary but has carried on the tradition nicely, I love her first album.

Because many of these artist have appeared on other Melancholia editions, song choice was dictated as much by the need to avoid track duplication as it was by my own tastes and likes. Enjoy.

Tracklist

01 Loggins and Messina - House At Pooh Corner
02 Anne Murray - Danny's Song
03 Dave Loggins - Please Come to Boston
04 Joan Baez - Diamonds & Rust
05 Glen Campbell - Gentle on My Mind
06 Steve Goodman - The Dutchman
07 Harry Chapin - Cat's In The Cradle
08 Paul Simon - Something So Right
09 Carole King - Will You Love Me Tomorrow
10 Bruce Cockburn - Wondering Where The Lions Are
11 Leonard Cohen - Suzanne
12 Seals & Crofts - Summer Breeze
13 Cat Stevens - Moonshadow
14 Jim Croce - Lover's Cross
15 John Denver - Rocky Mountain High
16 James Taylor - Carolina in My Mind
17 Joni Mitchell - The Circle Game
18 Fred Neil - Everybody's Talking
19 Shawn Colvin - Shotgun Down The Avalanche
20 Harry Nilsson - Me And My Arrow
21 Neil Young - Old Man

Melancholia Vol 18 - The MTV 80s

Time for another themed edition from the Melancholia series. This one revolves around the 80s at the peak of MTV influence. I first heard each of these songs while watching MTV in the eighties, back when MTV actually played music. While still not a big fan of the era these songs stuck with me. There are a couple bands on this comp that I further explored but for the most part, to me, these are mostly one hit wonders in my book. But such cool songs that seem to perfectly encapsulate what the eighties were for me.

I have one more themed edition to post and two non-themed volumes that I may or may not post which are more catch all type collections that I enjoy playing but don't seem to have the same emotional impact the others do. I might revisit and restructure them.

Tracklist

01 Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls
02 Tears For Fears - Everybody wants to rule the world
03 Scandal - Goodbye To You
04 The Fixx - One Thing Leads To Another
05 Psychedelic Furs - Pretty In Pink
06 Animotion - Obsession
07 Fine Young Canibals - She Drives Me Crazy
08 Glass Tiger - Don't Forget Me When I'm Gone
09 Haircut 100 - Love Plus One
10 Human League, the - Fascination
11 Kajagoogoo - Too Shy
12 Katrina and the Waves - Walking On Sunshine
13 Madness - Our House
14 Naked Eyes - Always Something There To Remind Me
15 OMD - If You Leave
16 Talk Talk - Talk Talk
17 The Outfield - Your Love
18 Simple Minds - Don't You (Forget About Me)
19 Soft Cell - Tainted Love-Where Did Our Love Go (Extended Version)
20 Split Enz - I Got You
21 Wang Chung - Dance Hall Days

Melancholia - Volume 17 - The 90s What's Going On

This will be my last regular post for a while. Time is short these days and I'm having more fun reading everyone else's blogs. I'll keep an eye out for comments but my posting schedule for a while will look more like Sonic's and the other part-timers. I do have two more Melancholia volumes to post so you may see those sooner than later. Thanks for reading.

This is the most recent edition to my Melancholia series. The theme I was going for is mid-90s alternative rock or sometimes referred to as college rock. A mix of rock, grunge and dirty power pop, it was a good time for music.

When I started putting this together I consulted my younger brother and a few online lists for song titles. Between my brothers list and the lists online I ended up with about 50 songs and ended up putting together a three disc comp for my brother before trimming the list down to the 21 songs found here.

I've been enjoying this comp a lot and it is quickly becoming one of my favorite Melancholia editions. I drew the cover pic during a recording/rehearsal session for one of the bands I work with. The subtitle comes from the song What's Up by 4 Non Blondes. I never cared for the song but it is one of my brother's favorites so in concession for leaving the song off (I did put it on his multi disc version) I used the title here. Enjoy.

01 Alanis Morissette - Hand In My Pocket
02 Everclear - Santa Monica
03 Republica - Ready To Go
04 Cracker - Low
05 Bush - Glycerine
06 Green Day - When I Come Around
07 Pixies - Here Comes Your Man
08 Stone Temple Pilots - Interstate Love Song
09 Blink 182 - All The Small Things
10 The Divinyls - I Touch Myself
11 The Toadies - Possum Kingdom
12 Live - I Alone
13 Meat Puppets - Backwater
14 Weezer - Buddy Holly
15 Goo Goo Dolls - Slide
16 Presidents of the United States - Lump
17 Garbage - Only Happy When It Rains
18 Screaming Trees - Nearly Lost You
19 Nirvana - All Apologies
20 Smashing Pumpkins - I Am One
21 Collective Soul - December

Melancholia - Volume 15 - Praying

I still have a few of these to go yet.

In my senior year of high school I became a bit of a holy roller. While I wasn't one of those "in your face" fundamentalists it did affect my everyday life, including my music listening habits. I started buying more Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) and less secular music.

This phase of my life only lasted about five years before moving on and exploring other religions but I discovered lots of music that I still listen to occasionally. While I still listened to a lot of rock and hard rock it now had a religious overlay.

This comp is focused more on the softer and worshipful tracks but came out of that period. Of the artists represented here there are some that I still listen to not because of the message but because I found them to be true song craftsmen. The one common trait among those are that most of them started out with some success in the secular industry. Many of these artists also appear on other Melancholia editions.

Obviously Bob Dylan falls into this category. Amy Grant, while best known as a CCM artist, dabbled for a while in the secular market with some success. Phil Keggy first tasted fame in the band Glass Harp which had a large fanbase and opened for acts like The Allman Brothers. Dion is of course of Dion and the Belmonts fame with early rock hits like Runaround Sue, The Wanderer and Abraham Martin and John. Brothers Terry and John Michael Talbot were the core of the 70s country rock band Mason Proffit who had at a few minor hits including Two Hangmen. Stryper was an unusual crossover act. paying their dues as a secular band then breaking through as a CCM act while still appealing to a large secular audience.

Larry Norman is still one of my favorite artists. Larry came out of the band People! who had a hit with the song I Love You. Larry is considered the a pioneer and godfather of Jesus music releasing his first album in 1969 on Capitol Records. What always struck me about Larry is that I never felt that his songs were just last weeks sermon set to music. His music had humor and honest lyrics. He sang about his life and loves as well as his beliefs. Even at his preachiest he always felt honest and genuine. Unfortunately his discography is a bit of a mess. Over the years when many of his albums were reissued they were remixed with many tracks changed with additional recording or even re-recorded which makes it hard to figure out his original intentions. There might be a Larry post sometime in the future.

Audio quality varies as there is an abundance of vinyl rips. Especially with the more obscure stuff. Enjoy.

01 Lamb - The Sacrifice Lamb
02 Bob Dylan - I Believe In You
03 Steve Camp - Farther and Higher
04 Amy Grant - All I Ever Have To Be
05 2nd chapter of Acts - I Fall In Love-Change
06 John Fischer - Beggar
07 Randy Stonehill - Find Your Way To Me
08 Phil Keaggy - What A Day
09 Dion - Only Jesus
10 Ray Hidlebrand - Didn't He
11 Stryper - All Of Me
12 Fireworks - Someone's Got a Hold of Me
13 Malcolm and Alwin - Tomorrow's News
14 Terry Talbot - Lamplighter
15 Petra - More Power to Ya
16 Marijohn - Where I'm Going
17 Chuck Girard - Think About What Jesus Said
18 David and the Giants - Noah
19 John Michael Talbot - Cast Down Your Cares
20 Larry Norman - UFO
21 Keith Green - Make My Life A Prayer To You

Melancholia - Volume 16 - Not Feeling Guilty

This edition is based on a series found on the Any Major Dude blog. Named after his series, Not Feeling Guilty, which currently is up to volume 8, it is chock full of middle of the road late 70s early 80s pop. Perfect for playing in the background while you sit in your comfy chair reading romance novels.

If I have a musical guilty pleasure, this might be it. I mean, this is the stuff our parents listened to when they wanted to feel hip and contemporary. Lots of blue-eyed soul, light R&B and general middle of the road schmaltz. Enjoy.

01 Bob Welch - Sentimental Lady
02 Ace - How Long
03 Commodores, the - Easy
04 Player - Baby Come Back
05 Christopher Cross - Sailing
06 Atlanta Rhythm Section - So in to You
07 Poco - Crazy Love
08 Ambrosia - How Much I Feel
09 Dave Mason - We Just Disagree
10 Little River Band - Lady
11 Robbie Dupree - Steal Away
12 Doobie Brothers - Takin' It To The Streets
13 Orleans - Still The One
14 King Harvest - Dancing in the Moonlight
15 Paul Davis - I Go Crazy
16 Randy Vanwarmer - Just When I Needed You Most
17 Robert John - Sad Eyes
18 Elvin Bishop - Fooled Around And Fell In Love
19 Stephen Bishop - On And On
20 Firefall - You Are The Woman
21 Hall & Oates - She's Gone

Melancholia - Volume 6

I have a few more Melancholia volumes to post yet. There are two more themed editions and a few non-themed editions that I may or not post.

This edition was the first volume to be constructed from CD to tape and the last non-themed edition that was constructed on a physical medium. At the time I used a 60 minute tape and remade it every few weeks or so. This construction is a summary of sorts featuring those songs that made repeat appearances timed to fit on a single CD.

This is a good snapshot of what I was listening to at the time. All of the source CDs were new purchases with only a few being repurchases of things I once had on vinyl and most of the songs were roughly contemporary with a few old favorites thrown in. There are a few songs from the time that did not fit due to space limitations. Those songs found space on later editions.

01 Rhythm Corps - Common Ground
02 Maggie's Dream - Love and Tears
03 Soup Dragons - Divine Thing
04 Sun-60 - Out of My Head
05 King's X - It's Love
06 Michael Hedges - Spring Buds
07 Prince - The Cross
08 Chris Cornell - Seasons
09 Guns N' Roses - You're Crazy
10 Matthew Sweet - Divine Intervention
11 Julian Lennon - Rebel King
12 Queensrhyche - Gonna Get Close To You
13 The Church - Under the Milky Way
14 Hoodoo Gurus - Death Defying
15 Jesus Jones - Right Here, Right Now
16 Elvis Costello - Alison
17 Pete Townshend - The Seeker
18 Uncle Wiggly - It's Looking Good
19 Larry Norman - Looking for Footprints

Melancholia - Volume 5

I think of all of the non-themed volumes, this is my favorite.  What makes this compilation slightly unique is that it is the first and only comp in the series originally made from dubbing cassette to cassette. It was made at a time when I was between buying vinyl and not yet buying CDs. Because of this, this is a good cross sample of what I was currently listening to at the time whereas previous collections were a mix of new discoveries and old favorites. There is still that mix but everything was purchased around the same time.

At the time this was complied I was working at a restaurant where on my breaks I would go and sit in the dinning room and chat with the other workers. We had a jukebox that played three songs for a quarter and I would always play the same three songs; Free Fallin' by Tom Petty, The Flame by Cheap Trick and Almost Hear You Sigh by the Rolling Stones. I'm not sure why the Stones song didn't make the comp but it should have. I must have run out of room.

01 Tom Petty - Free Fallin'
02 The Rainmakers - No Romance
03 Jimi Hendrix - The Wind Cries Mary
04 Heart - Love Alive
05 Ringo Starr - It Don't Come Easy
06 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Feel Your Love
07 Love and Rockets - So Alive
08 Tracie Spencer - Imagine
09 Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers - Tumblin Down
10 Vanilla Fudge - Ticket To Ride
11 David Crosby - Tracks In The Dust

12 Cheap Trick - The Flame
13 Nazareth - Love Hurts
14 Belinda Carlisle - Mad About You
15 Guns N' Roses - Patience
16 Indigo Girls - Closer To Fine
17 Tin Machine - Amazing
18 Eric Clapton - Please Be With Me
19 Living Colour - Broken Hearts
20 Ike & Tina Turner - River Deep Mountain High
21 Paul McCartney - Distractions
22 Prince - Mountains
23 Enya - Orinoco Flow

Melancholia - Volume 4

This edition is my least favorite. Not because of the track list but more because of the time it was done. At the time of compiling I was living with my brother to be closer to the band we had. I lived in one city and everyone else lived in another. My records were in storage so I made this from my brother's stack of records. While we have some overlap in our tastes he leans toward more heavy stuff than I do, so finding songs that fit the Melancholia feel was a challenge. Of all the volumes in the series this would be the easiest to trim to fit on a CD.

The one song of note is the Pink Floyd song Grantchester Meadows. Long before I had any albums of my own my brother played this song for me. It was the first all acoustic song I remember hearing and I remember being very stunned by its simplicity. I used to sneak into his room when he wasn't home and play this song a few times then sneak out. I still find the song hauntingly beautiful and I'm sure it had a lot to do with my preference for more acoustic based music.

Side A
01 Montrose - Rich Man
02 Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes - Sasha
03 Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Lend Your Love To Me Tonight
04 Pink Floyd - Grantchester Meadows
05 Angel - Flying With Broken Wings (Without You)
06 Steve Howe - Ram
07 Missing Persons - Surrender Your Heart
08 Bruce, Lordan, Trower [BLT] - It's Too Late
09 Joe Walsh - Tomorrow
10 Pete Townshend - Evolution
11 KISS - Beth
12 Doobie Brothers - Listen To The Music

Side B
13 Captain Beyond - Sufficiently Breathless
14 Alice Cooper - You and Me
15 Neil Diamond - Be
16 James Gang - Spanish Lover
17 Grateful Dead - Dire Wolf
18 Saxon - Northern Lady
19 Steve Vai - Junkie
20 Tommy Bolin - Hello, again
21 Harry Chapin - Flowers Are Red
22 Yes - We Have Heaven

Melancholia - Vol 9 70s Edition

I do have a few other projects in the works but until they are ready the Melancholia fest continues.

There's a certain sound or production style that was popular in the early 70s. I never put my finger on it but I think it had something to do with a certain type of reverb and how it was used. The shimmery strums of acoustic guitar and the liberal use of the Fender Rhodes electric piano seem to be prevalent as well. Either way when I hear that sound I'm transported somewhere else.

This compilation was my attempt to bottle that nostalgia for easy consumption and I think it turned out pretty good. While '67 to '75 seems to be the period of music I gravitate to, I'm always surprised at how many of my favorite songs or albums come from 1973. This comp covers more than just that year but the bulk of the tracks are from right around that time. This is definitely a desert island disc for me. It also contains the most "big hits" than any other Melancholia comps with exception of the K-Tel Generation collection. Enjoy!

01 Neil Young - Heart Of Gold
02 Carly Simon - You're So Vain
03 Paul McCartney - Band on the Run
04 Rod Stewart - Maggie May
05 Lou Reed- Walk on the Wild Side
06 Paul Simon - Still Crazy After All These Years
07 Badfinger - Day After Day
08 America - A Horse With No Name
09 The Kinks - Lola
10 Led Zeppelin - Hey Hey What Can I Do?
11 David Bowie - Heroes
12 T.Rex - Bang A Gong (Get It On)
13 Ringo Starr - Photograph
14 Gary Wright - Love Is Alive
15 Bill Withers - Ain't No Sunshine
16 Joe Cocker - Feelin' Alright
17 Joni Mitchell - Big Yellow Taxi
18 Eric Clapton - Let It Rain
19 The Hollies - The Air That I Breathe

Melancholia - Volume 3

This volume of my Melancholia series was again sourced from the best vinyl I had. It also contains more (sort of) current (at the time) songs than the previous volumes.

This is still one of my favorite editions. It has the right blend of new, classic and deep cuts. Many of these songs are still among my top favorites ever. If I were to make a best of Melancholia collection this volume would be well represented.

While not the last comp to be sourced from vinyl it was made when my record collection had reached its peak. Soon after this edition I went into a nomadic stage in my life which necessitated my collection going into storage and eventual reduction to make moving easier. During this time of limbo I purchased cassettes over vinyl and eventually embraced CDs.

Side A
01 Lone Justice - Shelter
02 Tommy James - Kelly Told Anne
03 Paul Simon - Take Me To The Mardi Gras
04 Bob Marley and the Wailers - Redemption Song
05 Lou Reed - I Love You
06 Crosby-Nash - The Wall Song
07 Rickie Lee Jones - On Saturday Afternoons In 1963
08 Led Zeppelin - Going to California
09 Grateful Dead - Black Muddy River
10 Amy Grant - Family
11 The Faces - Ooh La La
12 Dire Straits - Why Worry

Side B
01 Love and Rockets - Waiting For The Flood
02 Leo Kottke - Tiny Island
03 Lloyd Cole - 2cv
04 T'Pau - Heart And Soul
05 Klaatu - I Don't Wanna Go Home
06 Melanie - Holding Out
07 Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - The Wild One, Forever
08 Squeeze - Black Coffee In Bed
09 Fleetwood Mac - Storms
10 Randy Stonehill - Christine
11 Yardbirds - Still I'm Sad
12 Billy Bragg - The Man In The Iron Mask

Reality Notes

I'd like to address naming conventions. Like many here, I have a large digital library. Early on I knew I needed a way to go through my files efficiently and I needed a way to organize my collection to make it accessible through my library manager (Media Monkey), my iPods or just browsing through the folders.

My general solution was to create a folder structure and naming convention that made my collection browsable no matter how I looked at it. At the folder structure root is a folder named Music (obviously). Inside there is a folder for each letter of the alphabet plus about a dozen special folders for certain genres that I wanted to keep separate from the mainstream general folders. The are folders for soundtracks, various artists, country, classical, jazz and a few others.

Artist are sorted by last name so folders within the main folders follow the naming convention of  last name first, first name last for solo artists. Band names with a "The" in front have the "The" placed after the name (IE: Beatles, The). Windows does not ignore "The" when sorting folders unlike Apple. If a band member has any solo albums I generally put those in with the main band's folder unless the solo artist has a sizable discography of their own. Examples are Stevie Nicks is separated from Fleetwood Mac but The Soft Boys get put in the Robyn Hitchcock folder. Solo Beatles have their own folders but I like to keep all solo Dead inside the Grateful Dead folder.

If a band has more than four or five albums the album folders include the number of the album (04 Beatles For Sale) or the year the album was released (1968 The Beatles [White Album]). This sorts the albums in chronological order. Live bootlegs, if numerous, are put in a special folder named '[bootlegs]" within the band folder with both the folder and album names matching using the format: "Year [date] venue, city, state/country - boot title(if applicable)", (1968 [08-13] The Catacombs, Boston, MA). Again this puts them in chronological order and easier to search.

Tags within the tracks themselves follow a similar convention. Last name first, first name last for solo artists and in most cases "The" is placed after the band name following a comma. I have since stopped this because most library managers and iPods ignore "The" when sorting by artists.

Various artist albums were a challenge. My library manager recognizes both the Artist and Album Artist tags. General convention says to put the artist in the artist tag and Various in the Album Artist tag. But iPods would generally put tracks where these two tags differ at the end of the device library thus putting some songs/albums out of order. My solution was to put the name of the various artist album in the Album Artist and Artist tags as well as the Album Title. If the album is a part of a series (like Melancholia) I would put the volume name in the Album tag. I would then put the artist name in the Title tag with the tile using the convention of "Artist - Title". File names use the "Track# Artist - Title" convention.

When I share a various artist collection I will retag the files to better comply with the general consensus of tagging styles. I always embed front cover art within the tag as well as as a separate file within the album folder. I realize there are most likely as many ways to organize a collection as there are collectors but this has worked for me and has proven to scale as the collection grows. How do you organize your collection?

Melancholia Vol 13/14

The following Melancholia sets were recorded on 45 minute tapes so I have bundled them into one post and download. They were named after phrases I found in magazine articles and advertisements. I used to cut them out to use as tape cover decorations along with pictures I would use for covers.

Bits Of Reality was compiled on the fly one night after a rough day at work. I was in a bad mood and chose songs to reflect my feelings. As the comp progressed my anger softened. You can almost hear my mood lift through the first four songs.

01 David Bowie - All the Madmen
02 The Rolling Stones - Dead Flowers
03 The Beatles - Baby You're a Rich Man
04 The Kinks - Celluloid Heroes
05 John Mellencamp - Pink Houses
06 Blues Image - Ride Captain Ride
07 Lou Reed - Wild Child
08 U2 - Seconds
09 The Band (ft The Staples) - The Weight
10 The Rascals - Mustang Sally

Tattered Furniture is almost a companion piece to Bits Of Reality. It was a little more planned out and not an emotional outburst. Four songs came from the same source. The songs from The Eagles, Uriah Heep, The Doors and Foghat all were found on another various artist album. It was a Warner Bros. double album called Heavy Metal Vol 1 (never did see a volume two). Despite the name the closest it got to heavy metal was a song each from Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. The rest was from the likes of The J. Giles Band and The Grateful Dead.

01 Eagles - Outlaw Man
02 Humble Pie - Natural Born Boogie
03 Uriah Heep - Stealin'
04 Ten Years After - I'd Love To Change The World
05 Fleetwood Mac - The Green Manalishi
06 The Beatles - Doctor Robert
07 Norman Greenbaum - Spirit in the Sky
08 Tom Petty - American Girl
09 The Doors - Touch me
10 The Guess Who - No Sugar Tonight - New Mother Nature
11 Foghat  - What A Shame
12 The Who - Pinball Wizard
13 Steve Miller Band - Take The Money And Run

Melancholia - Volume 2

Volume two of my Melancholia mixtape series.

For volume two I also wanted to gather some of my favorite songs but I loosened my criteria as far as the condition of the vinyl source. Naturally the reconstruction here mostly comes from CD but there may be one or two that are sourced from vinyl rips. There is also a more acoustic base to the collection.

This volume was a cleanup of sorts and covered what was missed on the first one due to space limitations or vinyl conditions. This volume initially suffered from the "hoping lightening strikes twice" syndrome. In the end the collection had a charm of its own and was enough to push the series onward.

Side A
01 Bob Dylan - Positively 4th Street
02 Derek & the Dominos - Bell Bottom Blues
03 Dr Hook - Sylvia's Mother
04 Mason Proffit - Two Hangmen
05 Dire Straits - Wild West End
06 John Prine - Souvenirs
07 Al Stewart - Year of the Cat
08 Ten Years After - Over The Hill
09 Johnny Rivers - Summer Rain
10 The Firm - Together
11 The Kinks - Tired of Waiting For You

Side B
01 Bad Company - Shooting Star
02 Fleetwood Mac - Gold Dust Woman
03 Dan Fogelberg - Leader Of The Band
04 Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade of Pale
05 Jesse Colin Young - The Peace Song
06 Harry Chapin - Taxi
07 Jethro Tull - One Brown Mouse
08 Alpha Band - Love and Romance
09 Don McLean - Vincent (Starry Starry Night)
10 George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
11 The Beatles - Julia

Melancholia - Volume 12 [Special Edition]

Another Melancholia mixtape. I flip flopped on how I was going to post these. In chronological order or  randomly. I decided to post the first six volumes in order with the special themed volumes in between them.

This is the first of the themed collections. In reality, none of the themed tapes were intended to be a part of the series but when my library went digital I included them in with the series. They just seemed to fit together.

This edition has a slight country influence with splashes of reggae. I was going for something slightly off of mainstream with a bit of a Grateful Dead feel. In fact the first few times I played this at work we would play "find The Dead". This was also compiled on a 100 minute tape so it is a bit long but it's a nice kind of long.

Side A
01 Little Women - Breakfast at Lucille's
02 Kingfish - My Pledge of Love
03 Pete Townshend - There's A Heartache Following
04 Canned Heat - On The Road Again
05 The Wallflowers - Shy of the Moon
06 Roger Miller - King of  the Road
07 New Riders of the Purple Sage - Last Lonely Eagle
08 Peter Tosh - Ketchy Shuby
09 Joni Mitchell - Blue Motel Room
10 Steve Goodman - City of New Orleans
11 Paul Simon - Proof
12 Garcia, Grisman - A Horse Named Bill

Side B
01 Little Village - Don't Go Away Mad
02 Sugar Minott - Good Thing Going
03 Buffalo Springfield - Kind Woman
04 Bob Dylan - Hard Times
05 Solar Circus - Fortune Teller
06 The Rolling Stones - No Expectations
07 Led Zeppelin - That's The Way
08 KD Lang - Lock Stock & Teardrops
09 Neil Young - Are You Ready For The Country
10 John Lennon - You Are Here
11 Grateful Dead - Monkey And The Engineer
12 Bob Marley & The Wailers - One Love/People Get Ready
13 Arlo Guthrie - Hobo's Lullaby

Melancholia - Volume 1

noun: melancholia
 deep sadness or gloom; melancholy.
 
"rain slithered down the windows, encouraging a creeping melancholia"

Real life is encroaching on my time and I'm running thin on ideas that interest me so I think it's time to honor my promise/threat to post my Melancholia mixtape series (named after a Pete Townsend song). I'll be posting these when I have no other projects to post. I will give a short description of each collection and the tracklist but no further analysis. They are what they are.

You will see some artists make multiple appearances across the series but no artist appears more than once on any collection unless they are musicians in more than one band or a solo artist that is also in another band.

On my hard drive the series is 16 volumes. I won't be posting all of them. Three volumes (7, 10 and 11) are in flux at the moment and I have already posted one of the themed volumes which was the K-Tel edition. The first six volumes are general collections but starting with volume eight I started doing special themed compilations. Also the first five volumes were compiled on 90 minute tapes so they will not burn to a single CD.

When I made this first volume in 1985 it was not my intention to start a series but it turned out so well I kept it going. My goal with this comp was to gather some of my favorite songs with a focus on using only my cleanest vinyl and showcasing tracks that had a lot of headphone candy while at the same time being genre agnostic. Each volume has its own personality but there is a common feel that runs through the whole thing. Essentially this is my musical equivalent of comfort food. My wife at one time commented how the series does not make her sad like the name suggested and I had to correct her saying that it was meant to bring you out of sadness, not push you into it.

Side A
01 Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Lucky Man
02 Elton John - Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to be a Long Long Time)
03 Grand Funk Railroad - Some Kind Of Wonderful
04 Love and Rockets - Haunted When the Minutes Drag
05 The Bangles - More That Meets The Eye
06 T.Rex - The Slider
07 Bruce Springsteen - Atlantic City
08 Cat Stevens - The Wind
09 War - Low Rider
10 Alice Cooper - Only Women Bleed
11 The Police - Walking in Your Footsteps

Side B
01 Kansas - Dust in the Wind
02 Pure Prairie League - Amie
03 Bob Seger - You'll Accomp'ny Me
04 Paul McCartney and Wings - Let Me Roll It
05 Doobie Brothers - Black Water
06 Pete Townshend - Behind Blue Eyes
07 U2 - Bad
08 Buckingham-Nicks - Crying In The Night
09 Crosby, Stills & Nash - Helplessly Hoping
10 The Rolling Stones - Play With Fire
11 Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Southern Accents
12 Billy Vera & The Beaters - Hopeless Romantic

I have a common template for the covers. Each features some form of fantasy or classic artwork.

The Mother of Pearl Love Dog Bone Temple Jam

Here's another mixtape. First made when these CDs were new and later recreated as a playlist in my library.

This collection works on two levels. On the surface it looks like the evolution of Pearl Jam but deeper it's really a tribute to Andrew Wood.

Andrew Wood, AKA Landrew the Love Child, was the lead singer and bassist for Malfunkshun. A Seattle based power trio that mixed hard rock, glam and a pinch of punk. Formed in 1980 with his brother Kevin Wood on guitar and Regan Hagar on drums the band is often cited as the godfather of grunge.

While still working with Malfunkshun, Andy started working with Jeff Amet and Stone Gossard from Green River. With the addition of Bruce Fairweather (also from Green River) and drummer Greg Gilmore, Mother Love Bone was born. After Andy passed away from a drug overdose just days before their debut album was released Amet and Gossard picked up the pieces and formed Pearl Jam. In between they joined with Chris Cornell and Matt Cameron of Soundgarden and recorded Temple of the Dog in tribute to Andy. Pearl Jam's first album weighs heavy with Andy's influence.

Andrew Wood made a huge impact on the Seattle music scene before his death. In some ways musically but more so for his personality and charm. Temple of the Dog was not the only tribute to Andy. Alice in Chains, War Babies and Faster Pussycat are among the many bands who have songs dedicated to or written in Andy's memory. If the Seattle grunge scene had a heart and soul, it was Andy. He was only 24 when he passed.

01 Gentle Groove
02 Reach Down
03 Alive
04 Stardog Champion
05 Hunger Strike
06 Breath
07 Holy Roller
08 Say Hello To Heaven
09 Black
10 Bone China
11 Pushin Forward Back
12 Even Flow
13 Chloe Dancer/Crown Of Thorns
14 Wooden Jesus

Reality Notes

A simple mash-up of Mother Love Bone, Temple of the Dog and the first Pearl Jam album. At the time I made the mixtape that was all I had. To properly fill the playlist out as a full on tribute to Landrew or a fuller evolution of Pearl Jam you would have to add tracks from Malfunkshun, Green River, Solo Andrew Wood and maybe a few tracks from Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger album.

Before I decided to post this as it was I toyed with the idea of adding songs from the other related groups or at least some tracks from Badmotorfinger which was released about the same time. But I would have had to remove some songs to make room or push the collection bigger so it no longer would fit on a single CD. (I did include in the archive three songs from each as last minute, unlisted bonus tracks. I did not run them through the process that I normally do so volume levels may not match and there may be some pre or post song stuff that I would normally edit out.)

The cover features a photo of Andrew.

Melancholia Vol. 8 - The K-Tel Generation

Back in the day I had a mixtape series called Melancholia. The basic running premise was that each song had a certain feel to them that took me somewhere else. The first volume was a collection of headphone friendly tracks from my cleanest vinyl. The series continued after the media format changed from records and tapes to CDs and playlists and has now run for 16 volumes.

The first four volumes were compiled from Vinyl. Volume five was made by dubbing from tape to tape. Volume six took me into the CD era and for a while it was a rotating tracklist on a 60 minute tape that I would recompile every few weeks where earlier volumes were all on 90 minute tapes. CDs were easier to work with and blank tape was starting to become harder to find so this worked better at the time. I later finalized volume six once CD burners were more affordable and all older volumes have been reconfigured to fit on CDs.

Later volumes often followed a theme. This CD here is based on volume 08. All of the songs are early to mid 70s AM Top 40 and all of them are songs I either first heard or only knew from various artist albums. Most, if not all, were on K-Tel records. K-Tel was the "That's What I Call Music" of its day. These albums were budget collections of the hits of the day. Somehow they managed to squeeze ten songs on one side of an LP.

Each one of these songs brings a smile to my face and an indescribable sense of nostalgia. While I might have heard them on the radio when I was younger, I discovered them listening to records. Sometimes at a friends house, sometimes they were found on a various artist album I bought for a completely different song. Each one seems to be part of a memory from somewhere.

I'm not going to do track by track notes for this one. None of these songs are rare or obscure in any way. Collected together they do create a unique and satisfying listen. I'll post more Melancholia volumes in the future.

01 Jonathan Edwards - Sunshine
02 Albert Hammond - The Free Electric Band
03 Sammy Johns - Chevy Van
04 Audience - Indian Summer
05 Bill Withers - Lean On Me
06 Dobie Gray - Drift Away
07 Five Man Electrical Band - Signs
08 Lobo - Me and You and a Dog Named Boo
09 Thunderclap Newman - Something in the Air
10 Jim Stafford - Spiders and Snakes
11 Mungo Jerry - In the Summertime
12 Starland Vocal Band - Afternoon Delight
13 Looking Glass - Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)
14 Mel & Tim - Backfield in Motion
15 Vanity Fair - Hitching a Ride
16 Johnny Nash - I Can See Clearly Now
17 The Jaggerz - The Rapper
18 Freeda Payne - Band of Gold
19 R Dean Taylor - Indiana Wants Me
20 Rick Springfield - Speak to the Sky
21 Tommy James - Draggin' The Line
22 Steeler's Wheel - Stuck in the Middle with You
23 Sweet - Little Willie

The cover does its best to emulate those old K-Tel albums

The Originals - Various Artists

So many songs we know and love are not the original versions. They are either covers or remakes (there is a difference though off the top of my head I can't remember). For this compilation I have gathered 20 of the more interesting original versions of songs that became better known as covers. Some of these songs have histories that go beyond the recording era. Others were written and recorded about the same time as the definitive versions. Still others were written and recorded years before the hit version we know and love.

If you find this as interesting as I do head on over to Any Major Dude's site where he has done a great series that explores the origins of many songs which we take for granted that the defacto versions are the original version when in fact they were one version in a long line of previous version. His song swarm series looks at one song and gathers as many versions of that song as possible.

There are a couple of songs here that I did not have the original but did have the first charting version so I provided a link to the YouTube video of the original.)

Track by Track

01 Richard Berry & The Pharoahs - Louie Louie (1955)
Definitive version: The Kingsmen (1963) One of the most covered songs ever (I have almost 50 and that is a small fraction of what's out there). The Kingsman version is notable not only for being the most recognizable but also for how it was recorded. Recorded for $50 in a small studio in one take along with the B side - also only one take. The vocalist had to scream into a microphone hung above the band which rendered his vocal nearly unintelligible leading many to assume the lyrics were dirty. This prompted an FBI investigation into the matter. Weirdly, most missed the actual expletive yelled by the drummer about a minute into the song after dropping a drumstick.

02 Big Mama Thornton - Hound Dog (1953)
Difinitive version: Elvis Presley (1956) The first of several Elvis related songs included here. Written by Leiber and Stoller, Thorton's version spent 14 weeks on the R&B charts with seven weeks at number one and was listed as one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll" but for some reason everyone only remembers Elvis' version

03 Bessie Banks - Go Now (1964)
Definitive version: The Moody Blues (1964) While I was more familiar with the version on Wings Over America I later found out about Denny Laine's tenure with the Moody Blues who had a hit with this song before he left that band. The Moody's version was released in the UK ten months after Bessie's version and two months later in the US where it peaked in the charts at #10.

04 Arthur Alexander - Anna (Go to Him) (1962)
Definitive version: The Beatles (1963) supposedly a favorite of John Lennon's the song was a regular in The Beatles live sets and appears on their first album.

05 Mark James - Suspicious Minds (1968)
Definitive version: Elvis Presley (1969) Written by Mark James, his version failed to chart. The song was given to Elvis which became his last #1 single.

06 Johnny Burnette - The Train Kept A Rollin (1956)
Definitive version(s): The Yardbirds (1965), Aerosmith (1974) First recorded by Tiny Bradshaw in 1951 the original, with lyrics borrowed from an earlier song, done in the jump blues style but it was Burnette's version that inspired The Yardbirds who inspired everyone else after.

07 Betty Everett - You're No Good (1963)
Definitive version: Linda Ronstadt (1975) Dee Dee Warwick, the sister of Dionne Warwick, niece of Cissy Houston and the first cousin of Whitney Houston, cut the song a few months before Betty Everett in 1963 but it was Everett's cover that was the first to chart. The Swinging Blue Jeans version hit the charts the following year. Linda Ronstadt started performing the song in 1972 and recorded her version in 1975 which hit the #1 spot.

08 Leadbelly - Gallows Pole (The Gallis Pole) (1939)
Definitive version: Led Zeppelin (1970) This song has a long history going back before the advent of recording technology. Originating in Holland it exists in many forms as a traditional folk song. This Leadbelly version is the first known recorded version. It has been recorded many times since then by a variety of artist including Bob Dylan and Judy Collins. The content of the song differs according to what version the artist was familiar with. Led Zeppelin was inspired by the version by American Fred Gerlach, included on his 1962 album Twelve-String Guitar for Folkways Records. Zep credited the song as Traditional: Arranged by Page and Plant.

09 Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats - Rocket 88
Definitive version: Ike Turner & His Kings of  Rhythm I kind of cheated on this one. Rocket 88 is considered to be one of, if not the first, Rock and Roll songs and features what is believed to be the first recorded instance of "fuzz" or distorted guitar and it's a song about a car. It was originally released by Chess Records under the name of Ike's sax player as Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats.

10 Mort Shuman - Viva Las Vegas (1963)
Definitive version: Elvis Presley (1964) Another slight cheat. Elvis recorded the first and definitive version of this song but this is the songwriter's demo that Elvis' producers used to make their arrangements from. Elvis' version was recorded shortly after this demo but was not released until the following year in conjunction of the movie release.

11 Irma Thomas - Time Is On My Side (1964)
Definitive version: The Rolling Stones (1964) Written by Jerry Ragovoy (using the pseudonym "Norman Meade") it was first recorded by jazz trombonist Kai Winding and his Orchestra in 1963 but that version only had the lines "Time is on my side" and "You'll come runnin' back". Irma's version was the first to include the full lyrics written by Songwriter Jimmy Norman for her just before Irma recorded her version which served as the template for the Stones version..

12 Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup - That's All Right (1947)
Definitive version: Elvis Presley (1954) Presley's first single for Sun Records reaching #4 on the local Memphis charts but failed to chart nationally. Eventhough Crudup was credited as the composer he reportedly never received any royalty payments.

13 Earl Jean - I'm Into Something Good (1964)
Definitive version: Herman's Hermits (1964) Written by the songwriting team of Goffin & King, Earl Jean's version peaked at # 38, Herman's Hermits version hit #1 in the UK and #13 in the US.

14 Lou Johnson - (There's) Always Something There To Remind Me (1964)
Definitive version: Naked Eyes (1983) Written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David this was one of the few Bacharach songs where Burt had no role in the production of the definitive version.

15 Lavern Baker - Jim Dandy (1956)
Definitive version: Black Oak Arkansas w/ Ruby Starr (1973) Whether or not you can consider Black Oak Arkansas' version definitive is debatable but it was the first version I heard. The cover seemed natural for B.O.A. as their lead singer had been using the stage name Jim Dandy for some time.

16 Dennis Linde - Burning Love (1972)
Definitive version: Elvis Presley (1972) The first recorded version is actually by Arthur Alexander who is featured here with Anna (Go to Him) but this is the original songwriter's demo that both Alexander's and Presley's were modeled after. Linde also played the guitar opening and riffs on the Presley version.

17 Jake Holmes - Dazed and confused
Definitive version: Led Zeppelin (1969) This one kind of hurts. Jimmy Page has a reputation for not giving credit to the original writer's of many of their songs. While one could argue in most cases that Zep's versions are more reworkings and sound little like the originals That does not hold up for Dazed and Confused. On the 1967 Yardbirds tour, they shared the bill with Jake Holmes. After hearing Holmes perform the song, drummer Jim Mcarty encouraged the band to add the song to the Yardbird's set. The song quickly became a jamming vehicle with Page experimenting with the violin bow. With the crash of the Yardbirds and the rising of Led Zep from the ashes Page and crew continued to play the song live. When Page recorded the song (albeit with altered lyrics) for the first Zep album Jake's name was nowhere to be found. Holmes sued but not until 2010. The suit was dismissed after Page and Holmes reached a settlement afterwhich remastered versions of the song are credited as "By Page – Inspired by Jake Holmes".

18 The "5" Royales - Dedicated to the One I Love (1957)
Definitive version: The Mamas and The Papas (1967) The Royals' original release failed to chart but reached #81 on re-release in 1961. The Shirells cover hit #83 in 1957 and #3 in 1961. The Mamas & The Papas recorded the song for their The Mamas & The Papas Deliver and released as a single which reached #2.

19 Helen Kane - I Wanna be Loved by You (1929)
Definitive version: Marilyn Monroe (1959) Written by Herbert Stothart and Harry Ruby, with lyrics by Bert Kalmar for the 1928 musical Good Boy, it became Helen Kane's signature song. Helen had based her vocal style on "Baby" Esther Jones. Kane had seen Esther perform at The Cotton Club in Harlem some years earlier. Kane was also one of the inspirations for the cartoon character Betty Boop who also performed the song. And of course, my favorite version is by Ginger Grant of Gilligan's Island fame.

20 Harry Champion - I'm Henery The Eighth (1910)
Definitive version: Herman's Hermits (1965) Written by Fred Murray and R. P. Weston it became a signature song of Brittish music hall performer Harry Champion. It was revived in 1961 by Joe Brown before being recorded by Herman's Hermits and becoming their second UK #1.

The cover illustration drawn by one of my favorite comic book artists Donald Simpson comes from the cover of the anthology comic Wasteland

Alternate Universe - Various Artists

Not much time to work on these lately so here's a mix tape to fill the gap. It's been a great six month run of weekly postings but time and ideas have been running short and real life is getting in the way of maintaining that at the moment. I still have a few projects in the works so keep checking in. And, if I do run out of ideas,I have a stack of mix tapes to share with you.

Every track on this compilation is either an alternate version (live or studio outtake), original version or a cover version that challenges the so called definitive for superiority. Most of these songs were officially released in some way but many can only be found on bootlegs. A couple of songs appear, to the best of my knowledge, nowhere else but here. All volume matched to the best of my ability and timed to fit on one CD.

Track by Track

1. Anchor Man – Afternoon Delight
From the movie Anchorman, performed live by Will Ferrell and supporting cast. This is the live vocal version taken from the movie. Ripped from the DVD.

2. AC/DC – Back In Black
I found this track on the bootleg Shockingly Rare which claimed it was from recording sessions before Bon Scott's death. Not being an uber fan I believed it. I have since learned that is is not AC/DC but comes from the tribute album Thunderbolt - A Tribute To AC/DC from 1998. Joe Lynn Turner from Rainbow is on vocals, who did a convincing enough job of emulating Bon's vocal style to fool me. Also, Phil Collen from Def Leppard is on guitar and on drums is Simon Wright who was the drummer for AC/DC from '83 to '89.

3. John Lennon – Watching The Wheels
The original acoustic demo version. First heard on The Lost Lennon Tapes radio show, can be found on the Lennon Anthology. This is my preferred version.

4. Big Star – In The Streets
In the Streets was recorded by Todd Griffin as That '70s Song with additional lyrics by Ben Vaughn as the theme song for the television sitcom That '70s Show. Another recording of That '70s Song by Cheap Trick was used as the theme beginning with season two. This is the original version. A big thanks to Smash Adams at The LP RE-construction blog for his Big Star post which pushed me to seek out this band I missed the first time around. From the album #1 Record.

5. Dwight Yaokham – I Want You To Want Me
From the album Tomorrow’s Sounds Today, Dwight's covers album. Another Cheap Trick related track. This is a cover of the seminal track from the In Color album.

6. Gloria Jones – Tainted Love
The original version from 1965 released as a B side. Gloria rerecorded the song in 1976 for an album titled Vixen which was produced by Marc Bolan. It was that remake that the band Soft Cell based their cover version on.

7. Beach Boys – California Girls
Vocals only version. From the box set Good Vibrations: 30 Years. Ooh, the harmonies. Say what you want about Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys but this track truly demonstrates Brian's amazing arrangement skills and the band's vocal abilities.

8. Guns ‘N Roses – You’re Crazy
The original acoustic version outtake from the Appetite For Destruction CD. Found on the Welcome To The Jungle CD single. They re-recorded the song to give the album a more consistent heavy sound.

9. Tom Petty – The Waiting
Acoustic performance from the It’s Gary Shandling’s Show. Recorded direct from a VHS recording of the original airing onto cassette courtesy of my friend Redfreak then digitally transferred to CD. Later reruns edited this performance down to just one or two verses. This is the complete performance. I'm really surprised that I have not seen this on any bootleg compilations.

10. Stills & Nash – Dear Mr. Fantasy
Outtake from the Crosby, Stills and Nash, Daylight Again LP. This CSN album started life as a Stills & Nash project due to David Crosby’s drug problem during that time. I may be a bit soft but Stephen's lead guitar work on this song has brought me to tears more than once. From the CSN box set.

11. Elton John – Tiny Dancer
Live solo piano/vocal performance from The Old Grey Whistle Test aired on BBC television during the early 70’s. I would love to get my hands on Elton's multitrack session tapes so I can strip them down to the bare essentials. Originally ripped from DVD but the song can be found on the three CD 40th Anniversery set.

12. Masked Marauders – Can’t Get No Nookie
From an parody album that was based on a fake LP review in Rolling Stone magazine. The Masked Marauders was a supposed supergroup featuring Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and an unbilled drummer.The album contains many great performances including an epic 10 minute version of Season of the Witch as sung by Bob Dylan. Vinyl rip.

13. Michael Hedges - All Along The Watchtower
From the album Live on the Double Planet. This album was the first CD I ever purchased. Michael recorded a version for his Watching My Life Go By but this is version is magic. For me this cover even tops Jimi Hendrix's version as the definitive version of this song.

14. Brian May – ’39
From the Making of A Night At The Opera edition of the Classic Albums DVD series. This is a solo performance. Ripped from DVD special features.

15. Pink Floyd – Pigs On The Wing
The "complete full version", Features both parts 1 & 2 with an additional middle section featuring a guitar solo by Snowy White between. This was essentially Snowy's audition for the job of touring guitarist for the band. First appeared on the 8-track version of Animals.

16. Julian Lennon – Saltwater
Acoustic version. Most likely found on a CD single somewhere or possibly from a live in the studio performance. I downloaded this from a file sharing network back in the days of Napster so if anyone has more info please share.

17. Dolly Parton – Shine
From the Little Sparrow CD. Another one of those few cover versions of a song which in my opinion outdoes the original. On her next album she covered Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven and failed to capture any of the magic found here.

18. Bruce Springsteen – It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City
Original Acoustic demo. Found on the Tracks box set. There are acoustic demos of almost the entire first album spread across many bootlegs and rarities collections.

19. David Bowie – Space Oddity
Original demo version. Before making it big as a solo performer, Bowie was part of a duo. This song originates from a tape of demos they were shopping around at the time. From the Sound and Vision box set.

20. The Beatles – Watching Rainbows
From the last day of the Twickenham rehearsals, which George did not attend, for what became the Let It Be album. One of the many one-off songs that were recorded by the cameras during the filming of the Let It Be movie while the songs for the album were being developed. This is my own unique edit joining two takes (one full and one partial) which can be found on the Beatles bootleg The Black Album.

The cover features an illustration from the cover of an issue of the comic book Weird Science.

Donovan - Sand and Foam - 1967

The following does not fall into any of the normal coulda/woulda/shoulda categories we deal in around here. This a mixtape I made in the mid 80s but has its inspiration from an earlier time. Think of it as more of a memory soundtrack. The story goes like this.

Back in the late 70s when I was just a teenager exploring music and finding out what I liked and didn't a friend of mine had Donovan's Mellow Yellow album. He played it a lot except he would never play the record past the title song which opened the album. He was stuck on that one song. I loved the song too and bought the album myself and continued his practice of only listening to the song Mellow Yellow.

One day I was cleaning my room. As always I had music playing while I cleaned. I put on the Mellow Yellow album and listened to the first track then started the song over and continued with my tasks. I got caught up in what I was doing and let the album play for the first time and I was blown away by what I heard. I stopped cleaning and sat enraptured in front of my speakers. What I heard was not your ordinary psychedelic music but an amalgam of musical styles and textures that was unlike anything I had ever heard before. I couldn't stop listening.

I checked out the Sunshine Superman album and found more of the same although there were a few more "hits" on that album. So fast forward back to the mid 80s I made a mixtape using a 100 minute tape. On one side was a mix of Richie Havens favorites and on the other was this. For every one time I listened to the Richie side I played the Donovan side at least three. This became an album to me and an important one that I would revisit often. When someone mentions Donovan this is what I hear in my head.

01 Writer In The Sun
02 Sand and Foam
03 Three King Fishers
04 The Observation
05 Bleak City Woman
06 Ferris Wheel
07 House of Jansch
08 Bert's Blues
09 Young Girl Blues
10 Museum
11 Guinevere
12 Hamstead Incident
13 Sunny South Kensington
14 Celeste

Reality Notes

This is basically a mashup of two albums (Mellow Yellow and Sunshine Superman) with all of the better known and longer songs removed. What we end up with is a collection of songs that blends many different styles and genres not only from song to song but from within each song. You hear dixie brass alongside sitars alongside mod drumming and electric guitars all underlain with superb Bert Jansch style fingerstyle acoustic guitar. Yet, throughout this diversity is a cohesive whole unified by the songs themselves. World music long before the term was even hinted at.

This collection demonstrates two things. One, not all psychedelia is created equal and two, sometimes mixtapes can have more influence on the psyche than the albums the songs came from. There may be more projects like this in the future.

1967-68 was a strange and wonderful time for music. With the release of The Beatles' Sgt Pepper album the LP suddenly became more than just a distribution vehicle, it became an artistic medium. More and more artists were, with varying success, delving into the studio craft and releasing ambitious projects that would take months to record where the norm was weeks. What I think sets Donovan apart from most is his straight forward simplistic approach to his arrangements in opposition to the densely layered and complex arrangements found on albums from other acts of the time. Donovan's work here transcends the psychedelia tag that gets placed on it.

There is only a small handful of albums that have and still really transport me to somewhere else and this is one of them. Among the others are Michael Hedges Live On The Double Planet (his final album Torched is very close behind), Ravi Shankar's Genius and Unicorn by Tyrannosaurus Rex. I like sparse instrumentation. I prefer string quartets over full orchestras. I prefer "live in the studio" recordings over densely layered productions. There are exceptions of course but mostly I like things simple.

For the cover I wanted to emulate the art nouveau themes of the Mellow Yellow and Sunshine Superman covers. I like how, from further away, the curve of the text around the picture forms an eye.