Cacofonia De Ruídos II
(Mário Pazcheco)

Atomic Rooster
Legendário grupo fundado em 1969, por Carl Palmer e que lhe rendeu fama e estabilidade financeira, a ponto de recusar, a princípio, o convite de Keith Emerson e Greg Lake para a formação de um novo grupo: “Tenho meu próprio grupo, ganho 60 libras por noite e não pretendo trocar isso por vocês”, ele respondeu, na época. Depois de alguns meses, no entanto, Carl resolveu se juntar aos companheiros, nascendo assim o Emerson, Lake & Palmer, que logo em seguida se transformou num dos super-grupos do rock britânico.

Badfinger 
Originalmente chamavam-se The Iveys, lançando um LP homônio. Depois de rebatizados esse inesquecível quarteto gaulês descobertos pelos Beatles flertaram com confusões equivalentes ao talento de suas harmonias, culminando com o precoce falecimento de seu compositor principal Pete Ham.

Beck
Também conhecido como Beck Hansen ou Beck Campbell, é um cantor folk que fala de um outro que se enforcou com uma corda de violão e que aos 23 anos transformou-se em sensação com o autobiográfico single Loser. No seu som a steel guitar folk, ganha batida de rap, cítara psicodélica, coro gospel, apelo, dance etc. As músicas do álbum "Mellow Gold" apresentam qualidades psicodélicas divididas entre o bublegum dos Monkees mixado ao balanço e a tecnologia dos anos 90. Psicodelismo em 1996? É com Beck, filho de Bibbe Hanson, uma ex-cenarista da Factory de Andy Warhol.

Blind Faith
Efêmero mas marcante.

Blue Cheer 
Também nome de um ácido de excelente qualidade. Quem estava por trás deles era o notório alquimista Owsley Stanley. O grupo mais barulhento dos anos 60. Gravaram seis arrebatadores LPs entre 68 e 70. O LP de 68, "Vincebus Erupturm", continha Summertime Blues sendo considerado o sêmen do heavy-metal. Nos anos 80, o Blue Cher voltou em discos e shows mantendo o batera Paul Whaley e o baixista-vocalista Dick Peterson ao lado do guitarrista novato Tony Rainier que gravaram o LP "The Beast is Back".

Buffalo Springfield 
Em meados da década de 60 surgiu na América um conjunto que daria ao mundo do rock expoentes e grupos como Crosby, Stills, Nash e Young, Poco, Manassas, The Souther, Hillman, The Richie Furay Band. O nome desse conjunto era Buffalo Springfield. Em 97, toda a sua discografia foi reeditada e remasterizada.

Byrds 
Quinteto formado na escola dos estúdios de Los Angeles assim como Buffalo Springfield e The Doors, egressos do clube “Ciros”. No terceiro disco, FIFTH DIMENSION, o equivalente ao RUBBER SOUL da música americana por incluírem efeitos eletrônicos, temas espaciais e alterações da estrutura espaço/tempo e pela faixa Eight Miles High (proibida nas rádios por supostamente se tratar de baratos) abriu caminho para a comercialização do acid-rock por parte das gravadoras. Em What’s Happening do mesmo disco David Crosby fez a sua primeira gravação individual, tocando uma guitarra que imitava uma cítara e abrindo outro caminho para o raga-rock, combinação de música oriental com ocidental, há uma versão de que foi David Crosby “quem apresentou George Harrison à cítara”... 5TH DIMENSION foi o 9º mais vendido em 1966.

Canned Heat
Genre: Blues & Boogie Rock, Rock/Pop, Boogie Rock 
The blues-rock band Canned Heat was formed in Los Angles in 1966 by blues fans Al Wilson and Bob “The Bear” Hite and burst onto the national scene with an appearance at the legendary Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967. The group’s eponymous debut album demonstrated their deep knowwledge of the blues and a showed more authenticity than similar blues-rock bands of the time; the quintet further bolstered their image with a 1968 joint release with blues legend John Lee Hooker. Yet somhow Canned Heat never quite made the big time, depite their acclaimed albuns anda 1969 appearance at Woodstock, scoring onlu a few chart hits. After the untimely death of Al Wilson in 1970 the band continued on, releasing a string of albuns during the 1970s with various lineups, pleasing their few loyal fans but escaping mainstream attention. In 1981 Bob Hite died of a heart attack, leaving behind a band whose few hit singles included Goin’ up th Country, Let’s work together anda On the road again. Several Canned Heat compilations have been since the group’s breakup in the early 1980s. (Rolling Stone).

This veteran blues outfit has been together for more than thirty years and they continue to make records and tour even though there are only two members left. The band became famous after playing Woodstock and being prominently featured both in the film and soundtrack versions. They have a loose, hypnotic style that puts the rhythm before the soloists, unlike a lot of their '60s brethren. The band hit the charts with Going Up the Country and Let's Work Together and also achieved a certain amount of critical acclaim for their collaboration with John Lee Hooker on the record "Hooker 'N' Heat". Founding members Al Wilson, Bob Hite, and Henry Vestine have all died, but the band carries on with bassist Larry Taylor and drummer Fito De La Parra. (Rolling Stone).

The Charlatans
No relation to the British alternative rock band, the Charlatans, this San Francisco group has been widely credited as starting the Haight/Ashbury psychedelic scene. In retrospect, their contribution was more of a social one, planting seeds of a rock counterculture with their unconventional, at times outrageous dress and attitudes. While they occasionally delved into guitar distortion and fractured, stoned songwriting, the Charlatans' music was rooted in good-time jug-band blues, not psychedelic freakouts. That's not to say their records didn't have a low-key, easygoing charm, although they didn't match the innovations of the Jefferson Airplane and other peers. Cutting demos for a couple labels in 1966, most of the material they recorded at this time was unissued, and the commercial explosion of San Francisco rock passed them by. The band eventually did release a nationally distributed album in the late '60s, by which time personnel changes had diluted some of the crazy energy of the original lineup, although the LP has its engaging moments.
(Biography by Richie Unterberger - All Music Guide).

The Chocolate Watchband
Genre: Psychedelic, Oldies, Rock/Pop, Blues & Boogie Rock, Garage Rock
Although seminal psyche stalwarts The Chocolate Watchband never had a hit like Pushin' Too Hard by the Seeds or Dirty Water by the Standells, their unique brand of Psychedelic blues, Garage Rock and freak beat put them head and shoulders above many obscure 1960s bands who resurfaced on Nuggets and Pebbles compilations. From 1967 to 1984, the bluesy combo recorded four records and contributed songs to (and made a cameo appearance in) the 1967 film Riot On Sunset Strip. Like many good bands, their songwriting began as a Rolling Stones-influenced jaunt that grew into an eclectic hodgepodge of all things tuneful, while retaining the fuzzed out raunch that made many a teenage boy purchase a pair of wooden maracas and beatle-boots. (Rolling Stone).

Count Five
This San Jose quintet scored one of the biggest garage-psychedelic hits of the ‘60s with Psychotic reaction, a derivative but riveting American adaptaion of the Yardbirds’ guitar rave-ups. The single reached number five in late 1966, but the group was unable to come anywhere close to duplicating its success. Their sole album anda collectible follow-up flop singles, like Psychotic reaction, emulate the Yardbirds, Rolling Stones, and Who with less memorable results, although the have their moments.
(Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide - Rolling Stone).

(The) Crazy World of Arthur Brown
Grupo do vocalista Arthur Brown, um dos mais loucos do período progressivo de Londres Incorporavam, além dos procedimentos progressivos de praxe, um raro senso de humor e até de anarquia. Nele começou o baterista Carl Palmer que migrou depois para o Atomic Rooster, liderado por um ex-integrante (como ele) do Crazy World of Arthur Brown.

Daily Flash
More than any other Seattle group of the '60s, the Daily Flash assimilated the folk-rock and psychedelic sounds of the day into a sound that was both forward-looking and commercial. Specializing in electric rearrangements of contemporary folk songs that emphasized their harmonies and 12-string guitar, the Flash were also capable of psychedelic rock, as on "Jack of Diamonds," which featured blistering feedback guitar. They cut a couple of regional singles and appeared with many of the leading psychedelic groups of the day in California, but never managed to launch their own career or even record an album. They broke up in early 1968; guitarist Doug Hastings played briefly with Buffalo Springfield and was a member of Rhinoceros.
(Biography by Richie Unterberger - All Music Guide).

Davey Jones & The Lower Third
Um grupo que tentava ser de rhythm and blues e soava muito como o High Numbers. David Bowie (Davey Jones) foi dos King Bees para o Lower Third, com os Manish Boys em algum lugar no meio. Depois, o Buzz. - Quem tocava no Buzz? Deviam ser os remanescentes do Lower Third. Depois veio o Hype, um dos favoritos de Bowie, que acabou se tornando os Spiders From Mars, só que com Trevor Bolder no lugar de Tony Visconti e Mick Ronson na guitarra que passaram a agir como “fiéis emissários junkies de conspirações intergaláticas”.

Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy
No final de 1993, o grupo se preparava para garavar um disco centrao nos principais trechos de "Almoço Nu", a obra de William Burroughs. Hal Wilner seria o produtor e o próprio William Burroughs também participaria.

Electric Flag
Além de Mike Bloomfield na guitarra, trazia Marcus Doubleday, trompete; Terry Clementes, sax-tenor (ambos do Buddy Miles Express e futuros integrantes da banda de apoio de Janis Joplin), Buddy Miles, bateria, futuro músico de Hendrix. Puseram em música em 1967, o poema "Le Bateau ivre"... ("O barco bêbado" de Rimbaud).

Elvis Costello
Dois de seus melhores LPs, "Imperial Bedroom", com a clássica The Long Honeymoon (82) e "Blood & Chocolate" (86), são geniais recriações da vitalidade psicodélica.

(The) Eyes
In 1965 and 1966, the Eyes released a clutch of singles that stand up to the Who's work from the same era in their blend of extremely innovative guitar feedback/distortion and anthemic mod songwriting. "When the Night Falls," "The Immediate Pleasure," "I'm Rowed Out," "You're Too Much," and the dry "My Generation" satire "My Degeneration" are revered highly by British Invasion collectors. The bursts of electronic mayhem were quite advanced for the time, though like the Who they had hooks and harmonies to counterpoint the madness. They weren't as memorable as the Who and didn't approach commercial success. After a much softer fourth single and an ill-conceived album of Rolling Stones covers (recorded under the name the Pupils), the group disbanded. (Biography by Richie Unterberger - All Music Guide).

(The) Five
"Genialmente psicodélicos, obscuros e sutis".

Forever Amber
Forever Amber must have worn out the grooves on their copy of the Zombies' Odessey and Oracle. Their rare 1969 LP, The Love Cycle, emulated the late-period Zombies rather well with its classically influenced melodies and careful harmonies. Although the material isn't quite as good, and the production and execution not as accomplished, it is a good record. It was reissued on CD in the 1990s, although the re-releases are themselves hard to find in the US.

Forever Amber were originally called the Country Cousins, but changed their name, as did many bands, with the psychedelic music revolution.
The line up consisted of:
Michael Richardson - vocals
Anthony Mumford - bass guitar, vocals
Richard Lane - lead guitar, vocals
Christopher Jones - rhythm guitar, vocals
Christopher Parren - electric organ, piano & harpsichord, vocals
Barry Broad - drums
John M. Hudson - piano, electric harpsichord

"Delirante psicodelismo semi-progressivo".

Fraternity of Man
The Fraternity of Man is an American blues rock and psychedelic rock group from the 1960s. They are most famous for their 1968 song "Don't Bogart Me" which was featured in the 1969 road movie Easy Rider. Its original members included three members from the Lowell George-led group "The Factory" Richie Hayward of Little Feat, Warren Klein and Martin Kibbee, who joined Elliot Ingber from The Mothers of Invention and Larry Wagner. Blues leads were handled by Elliot Ingber, and psychedelic leads were played by Warren Klein including "Oh No I Don't Believe It" (widely attributed to Elliot due to his association with the Mothers). The band broke up after recording two albums.

Fugs
"Há um problema quando você abre sua obra pra sarjeta. Quer dizer, é como flertar com satanismo ou experimentar certos estilos de vida, ou certos tipos de drogas que te abrem - você sabe, não sou uma pessoa religiosa, mas você abre aquela fenda, ela pode te engolir. Então é preciso ter cuidado. O probelma com os hippies foi que se desenvolveu uma hostilidade dentro da contracultura entre aqueles que tinham o equivalente a um fundo de crédito - uma espécie de poupança familiar - e aqueles que tinham que se virar sozinhos. É verdade, por exemplo, que os negros já estavam um pouco ressentidos com os hippies lá pelo Verão do Amor, em 1967, porque, pela ótica deles, aqueles garotos estavam desenhando figuras espirais nos seus blocos, queimando incenso e tomando ácido, mas poderiam cair fora a hora que quisessem. Eles podiam voltar pra casa. Podiam ligar pra mamãe e dizer: 'Me tira daqui'. Ao passo que aguém criado num conjunto habitacional da Rua Columbia e que estava se arrastando em volta de Tompkins Square Park não podia escapar. Aqueles garotos não têm pra onde ir. Não podem voltar para Caipirolândia, não podem voltar pra Connecticut. Não podem voltar pro internato em Baltimore. Estão encurralados. Assim, ali surgiu um outro tipo de hippie lúmpen, que vinha de uma verdadeira infância de maus-tratos - com pais que o odiavam, pais que o haviam rejeitado. A garota talvez viesse de uma família religiosa que a chamava de vagabunda ou dizia: 'Você fez um aborto, vá embora daqui', ou: 'Encontrei pílulas anticoncepcionais na sua bolsa, saia daqui, vá embora'. E esses garotos se transformaram num tipo hostil de gente da rua. Tipos punks". (Ed Sanders).

Arguably the firts “underground” rock group of all time, the Fugs formed at the Peace Eye bookstore in New York’s East Village in late 1964. The nucleus of the band throughout its many personnel changes was Peace Eye owner Ed Sanders, and fellow poet Tuli Kupferberg. Sanders and Kupferberg had strong ties to the beat literary scene, but charged, in the manner of their friend Allen Ginsberg, full steam ahead into the maelstrom of ‘60s political involvement and psychedelia. Surrounded by an assortment of motley refugees from the New York folk and jugband scene (including Steve Weber and Peter Stampfel of the Holy Modal Rounders), some of whom could barely play their instruments, the group nonetheless was determined to play rock & roll their way – which meant rife with political and social satire, as well as explicit profanity and sexual references, that were downright unheard of in 1965. Starting on the legendary avant-guarde ESP label, the Fug’s debut was full of equal amounts of chaos and charm, but their songwriting and instrumental chops improved surprisingly quickly, resulting in a great second album that was undoubtedly the most shocking and satirical recording ever to gracee the Top 100 when it was released. After cutting an unreleased album for Atlantic, they moved on to Frank Sinatra’s Reprise label, unleashing a few more albums of equally satirical material that was more instrumentally polished, but equally satirical lyrically. Breaking up around 1970, Sanders and Kupferberg have continued to write prose and poetry, and sometimes write and perform music, both on their own and as part of Fugs reunions. By breaking lyrical taboos of popular music, they helped pave the way for the even more innovative outrage of the Mothers of Invention, the Velvet Underground, and other. (Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide - Rolling Stone).

"Alguns críticos americanos dos 60’s teorizam que os primeiros passos de Zappa e seus Mothers não passavam de uma reciclagem da obscura banda novaiorquina The Fugs. Eles nunca conheceram o sucesso. O selo Ace digitalizou o primeiro LP do grupo gravado nos idos de 65. Pilotado pela anarco-beat-poesia de Tuli Kupferberg e Ed Sanders, o quinteto extravasa emanações jazzísticas, concretistas, psicodélicas, folksters num borrado céu de rock’n’roll. A reedição traz várias bonus tracks”.
(Fernando Naporano).

Gentlemen's Band

Great Society
Grace casada com o cineasta Jerry Slick (ela tinha 21 anos) que interessava-se muito por música, e após ouvirem o Jefferson Airplane no Matrix, decidiram formar um grupo, o Great Society, naquela época o conjunto mais original da cidade pelas suas composições de orientação hindu e os solos de saxofone, com vinte minutos de duração. O Jefferson Airplane tinha faixas dizendo “Jefferson te ama” então o lema deles era “Great Society tá cagando pra você”.

Hawkwind
Apologistas do ácido.

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Herd 
Com a pouquíssima idade de 17 anos Peter Frampton já era um sucesso entre a garotada pré-adolescente inglesa - os teenyboppers - com seu grupo Herd e a música From the Underworld. Abandonou o Herd, por achar que a direção musical do grupo estava se tornando estática. Os rockeiros “brabos” só voltaram a prestar atenção no rosto mais bonito de 68 quando ele começou a suar no duelo de guitarras com Steve Marriot, ex-Small Faces no grupo-pauleira-sensação do início dos anos 70, Humble Pie. Inesperadamente, Frampton deixou seus companheiros do Humble Pie no auge do sucesso da banda, depois de uma vitoriosa excursão americana, onde foi gravado o antológico Rockin’ at the Fillmore.
Ocasionalmente acompanha Ringo Starr de quem é velho conhecido.

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Hurdy Gurdy
Alucinante heavy-rock lisérgico dinamarquês.

H. P. Lovercraft
Featuring two strong singers (who often sang dual leads), hauntingly hazy arrangements, and imaginative songwriting that drew from pop and folk influences, H.P. Lovecraft was one of the better psychedelic groups of the late '60s. The band was formed by ex-folky George Edwards in Chicago in 1967. Edwards and keyboardist Dave Michaels, a classically trained singer with a four-octave range, handled the vocals, which echoed Jefferson Airplane's in their depth and blend of high and low parts. Their self-titled 1967 LP was an impressive debut, featuring strong originals and covers of early compositions by Randy Newman and Fred Neil, as well as one of the first underground FM radio favorites, "White Ship." The band moved to California the following year; their second and last album, H.P. Lovecraft II, was a much more sprawling and unfocused work, despite some strong moments. A spin-off group, Lovecraft, released a couple LPs in the '70s that bore little relation to the first incarnation of the band.
(Biography by Richie Unterberger - All Music Guide).

Incredible String Band
Seu som é baseado em elementos folk, não só britânicos, mas também das mais diversas regiões do globo, numa salada de inesquecível sabor projetada dentro da esplanada surrealista. Formado em 1965 e dissolvido em 1974, os formadores Mike Heron e Robin Williamson foram acompanhados por músicos diversos aos longos dos 12 LPs registrados.

Indian Puddin’ and Pipe
Psych-rock combo Indian Puddin' and Pipe formed in Seattle in 1966—originally dubbed the West Coast Natural Gas, the group initially comprised singer/guitarist Kep, guitarists Chuck Bates and Kris Larson, bassist Dave Burke and drummer Jeff LaBrache. A latter-day lineup minus Kep and Bates and featuring vocalist Pat Craig and guitarist Steve Mack relocated to San Francisco and in late 1967 issued the lone WCNG single, the Matthew Katz-produced “Go Run and Play." Katz—the manager of Moby Grape, It's a Beautiful Day and other luminaries of the San Francisco psych scene—structured his contracts so that different lineups could appear under a given group's name anytime and anywhere he desired; one lineup of Indian Puddin' and Pipe already existed, but Katz nevertheless rechristened West Coast Natural Gas with the name as well, moving Craig to keyboards and recruiting vocalist Lydia Mareno for what is now considered the definitive version of the group. Indian Puddin' and Pipe never recorded a full-length LP, but did produce four excellent tracks for the compilation Fifth Pipe Dream, issued on Katz's San Francisco Sound label in 1968. This incarnation of the group split soon after, with Mareno later resurfacing in Stoneground and Craig and Mack reuniting in Pipe. (Biography by Jason Ankeny - All Music Guide).

Iron Butterfly
Não se tinha notícia do baixista Phillip Taylor Kramer, do Iron Butterfly. Não o acharam, nem seu carro, um Ford Minivan. Desde 12 de fevereiro de 1995, há mais de quatro anos. Deixou mulher e filhos.

Kramer, 42 anos, já desligado do grupo. Foi estudar física quântica. Nos anos 80, o músico e mais um grupo de cientistas participaram do projeto de um tal de míssel nuclear MX. Mais recentemente, o ex-baixista havia fundado a compahia high-tech Total Multimedia Inc., onde trabalhava.

No distante dia 12, ele tinha ido para o Aeroporto. Chegando lá, alguma coisa o fez mudar de planos. Voltou para dentro do carro, pegou o celular e discou para sua mulher, Jennifer: “Tenho uma surpresa enorme para ti. Sempre vou te amar. Nos encontraremos do lado de lá”.

Ligou também para Ron Bushy, ex-integrante do Butterfly: “Te amo mais que a vida”, deixou gravado na secretaria eletrônica. Por fim, telefonou para o 911, da polícia: “Vou me matar”. Sumiu.

“Simplesmente não sabemos o que aconteceu”, resumiu a polícia de Los Angeles. “Phillip não era do tipo que desaparece...”, suspirou sua irmã, Katty Kramer, que o viu pela última vez um dia antes do ocorrido. “Ele falava de supernovas e terremotos”, ela recordou à revista americana People.

A 29 mai. / 1999 - Os restos de Philip Taylor Kramer, baixista do Iron Butterfly, foram achados, seu carro caiu num rio próximo à cidade de Malibu, na Califórnia.

LEE DORMAN, IRON BUTTERFLY BASSIST, DIES AT 70

Ithaca
Cultuado grupo de folk-psicodélico.

From Ithaca - A Game For All Who Know

First off, don't be deceived by the shitty album cover, because this is a really good album. Ithaca was a British band that played melodic, progressive psych-folk. This is their last album, which was a private-pressed LP that never gained much attention. Most of the album is fairly sparse, sophisticated arrangements of acoustic guitar and electric organ accompanied by male and female vocals that trade off very naturally and pleasantly. There is some use of piano, electric guitar, strings, Mellotron, and recorder, which are all subtle and well integrated. Most of the songs are songs within songs, so there are a number of drastic changes that are very well conceived compositionally and thematically. I've had this album for a while now and it continues to grow on me more and more, especially considering my initial copy's tracks were out of sequence. I find it to be very compelling lyrically, thematically and stylistically. There just seems to be a lot going on that isn't initially apparent.

Peter Howell & John Ferdinando were involved in several recording projects in the late 1960s and early '70s that fused the poppier sides of British folk-rock and British progressive rock. In particular, their very limited-edition (50-100 copies) pressings of albums by Agincourt and Ithaca are valued by some specialist psychedelia collectors. Though a little lo-fi compared to records from the era of a similar nature on bigger labels, the albums to which the pair contributed have a nice light, airy, slightly naive feel, and are considerably above the average for such rarities of the time and style. Before doing the Agincourt and Ithaca albums, Peter Howell and John Ferdinando also put out a limited-edition LP in early 1969 of the soundtrack they did for the Ditchling Players' production of Alice Through the Looking Glass. This project arose out of an outgrowth of the pair's interest in recording material on their own equipment, outside of proper professional studios. The small town in which they resided, Ditchling (in Sussex, near Brighton), became aware of their activities and asked them to provide the music for the local stage production. Using many instruments (including guitars, organ, glockenspiel, piano, autoharp, mandolin, and sound effects), they constructed a musical backdrop that was akin to their future, slightly more celebrated efforts, but a little folkier and more basic. It was nice, low-key, almost wholly instrumental, whimsical period British psychedelia, but understandably more on the level of incidental music than an artistic statement. Unfortunately, the album was interrupted by insertions of jarring lo-fi spoken word extracts from the play, though most of the space was taken up by the music, which was acceptably well recorded. Howell and Ferdinando stopped working together in the '70s, after Howell (who'd been a BBC studio manager since 1970) began working at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, where he worked on background music for radio, television, and film. The Alice Through the Looking Glass album was reissued in 1997 as a limited-edition LP in a press run of 1000 copies by Tenth Planet.
~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide.

A fith Howell/Ferdinando album entitled "Friends" had lust been completed when the partnership came to an abrupt halt. Howell had already been working at the BBC as a studio manager since 1970 (he'd provided a stiff upper lip voiceover for John Peels Top Gear shows), but he was now offered a position with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. His new job combined tape recording with various compositional duties to create primarily background music for film, radio and television use (he was also responsible for updating the Dr Who theme tune, but we wont hold such a sacrilegious act against him). His new job description was indistinguishable from his extracurricular collaborations with John Ferdinando, and the duo's spare-time activities duty telt by the wayside. Without his longstanding partner, John Ferdinando drifted away trom the music scene to concentrate on his day job as a chartered surveyor, although he now plays bass in a local pub band.

Peter Howell - acoustic & classical guitars, mandolin; piano & organ, recorde, percussion; John Ferdinando - vocals & vocalizes, electric, acoustic & bass guitars, auto harp; Lee Menelaus - vocals & backing vocals.

Prologue. In all, there are five albums in the discography of Howell, Ferdinando, & Menelaus. Stylistically and structurally, all these albums are in many ways similar among themselves. Nevertheless, the band's name was changed thrice during its existence. Here is the complete discography of Howell, Ferdinando, & Menelaus: 1969 - "Alice Through the Looking Glass", 1970 - "Tomorrow Comes Sunday" (both as S.N.P.), 1971 - "Fly Away", & 1973 - "A Game For All Who Know" (as Ithaca).

It’s a Beautiful Day
San Francisco psychedelic folk-rock unit It's a Beautiful Day was primarily the vehicle of virtuoso violinist David LaFlamme, born April 5, 1941 in New Britain, CT but raised in Salt Lake City, UT. After beginning his musical education at age five, LaFlamme later served as a soloist with the Utah Symphony, following an army stint by settling in the Bay Area in 1962. There he immersed himself in the local underground music scene, jamming alongside the likes of Jerry Garcia and Janis Joplin; after his short-lived Electric Chamber Orchestra splintered, LaFlamme also co-founded an early incarnation of Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks before assembling It's a Beautiful Day in mid-1967. The group — which originally included LaFlamme's keyboardist wife Linda, vocalist Pattie Santos, guitarist Hal Wagenet, bassist Mitchell Holman, and drummer Val Fuentes — issued its self-titled debut LP on Columbia in 1969, scoring their biggest hit with the haunting FM radio staple "White Bird." Linda LaFlamme left It's a Beautiful Day soon after, going on to form Titus' Mother; keyboardist Fred Webb signed on for the follow-up, 1970's Marrying Maiden, while Holman exited prior to 1971's Choice Quality Stuff, recorded with new guitarist Bill Gregory and bassist Tom Fowler. In 1973, ongoing disputes over royalties forced LaFlamme out of the group he created, and upon installing new violinist Greg Bloch, the remaining members issued It's a Beautiful Day...Today before dissolving in the wake of 1974's 1001 Nights. LaFlamme mounted a solo career in 1977 with White Bird, continuing his protracted legal tussle with ex-manager Matthew Katz for years to follow; sadly, Pattie Santos died in a December 14, 1989 auto accident.
(Biography by Jason Ankeny - All Music Guide).

Jeff Beck Group
— Gabriel O’ Meara — Como foi sua transação no Jeff Beck Group? Você foi o primeiro a sair, e o grupo estava no auge.
Nicky Hopkins — É, o conjunto era sensacional, mas Beck é um tremendo... canalha! Tinha ocasiões em que ele cortava o vocal do Rod Stewart com um altíssimo solo de guitarra porque achava que Rod estava tirando seu lugar como estrela principal.. E estava mesmo, porque Rod cantava pacas!
Gabriel O’ Meara — Quando foi mesmo que você saiu?
Nicky Hopkins — Foi... 4 de junho de 1969. Eu não tinha escolha. Beck tirou Ronnie Wood do conjunto e botou uma bichona australiana no lugar dele...

(...) Ficou um negócio estranho pois eu saí e algumas semanas depois acabou o conjunto, Rod se lançou, Beck teve um tremendo acidente de carro... Só de lembrar desse segundo disco, aquele com a maçã na capa, já fico enjoado. Eu estava num estado de nervos, aliás, todos nós, que acabamos o disco em três dias, basta ouvir o disco para sacar o clima. Eu me lembro que faltavam músicas, então resolvemos gravar Jailhouse Rock em que fiz um solo que uma revista chamou de avant-guarde, na verdade mandei qualquer uma, qualquer coisa, eu estava era louco pra sair do estúdio, já tinha vomitado várias vezes.

O último convite do grupo havia sido para tocar em Woodstock...

Jethro Tull
Em 1968, o LP "This Was" marcava o surgimento de mais um grupo, no agitado cenário musical inglês daquele ano. A partir daí, todos os fãs da música pop passaram a reconhecer de longe a flauta mágica de seu líder, sua voz estranha e irônica, seus riquíssimos arranjos instrumentais e suas letras angustiadas. Em pouco tempo, Ian e seu grupo se firmavam em definitivo no cenário do rock inglês.

Em agosto de 1988, no palco do Projeto SP, a banda comemorou seus 20 anos de estrada, Ian Anderson entrou em cena numa cadeira de roda e, com sua flauta, tocou o clássico, Cross Eyed Marie. Após o último número, Ian Anderson saiu carregado por uma enfermeira, enquanto os outros componentes do grupo saiam de maca ou de muletas. O Jethro Tull seguia a risca o slogan de usa turnê, escrito em uma cartaz no alto do palco: “Oh, no. Not another 20 years of Jethro Tull - Oh. não. Não outros 20 anos de Jethro Tull”.

John Handy Quintet

Do You Know What I Mean," ironically, was a throwaway tune that Michaels wrote hurriedly. Though Lee himself didn't think much of it, the song was a first-rate blast of white boy soul; around this time, the gospel influence that had often informed his sound come to the fore. His albums in the mid-'70s for Columbia, however, were both critical and commercial disappointments. Michaels moved to Hawaii for an extended retirement from the music business; aside from a self-released album in the early '80s, little's been heard from him since. (Biography by Richie Unterberger - All Music Guide).

The Left Banke
Genre: '60s Oldies, Oldies, Alternative/Punk, Psychedelic, Baroque Pop

This New York group pioneered "Baroque'n'Roll" in the '60s with their mix of pop/rock and grand, quasi-classical arrangements and melodies. Featuring teenage prodigy Michael Brown as keyboardist and chief songwriter, the group scored two quick hits with "Walk Away Renee" (number five) and "Pretty Ballerina (number 15). Chamber-like string arrangements, Steve Martin's soaring, near-falsetto lead vocals, and tight harmonies that borrowed from British Invasion bands like the Beatles and the Zombies were also key elements of the Left Banke sound. Though their two hits are their only well-remembered efforts, their debut album (Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina) was a strong, near-classic work that matched the quality of their hit singles in songwriting and production.

The group's internal dynamic wasn't nearly as harmonious as their sound, and their history goes some way towards explaining their short career. Initially, the group made some recordings that were produced by Brown's father, Harry Lookofsky. When these recordings failed to interest companies in signing the band, the Left Banke broke up, Brown moving to California with the group's original drummer. A backing track for "Walk Away Renee" had already been completed, and the other members overdubbed vocals in Brown's absence. The song was released on Smash and became a hit, and the musicians reunited to tour and continue recording.

Unfortunately, the group, which showed such tremendous promise, was quickly torn asunder by dissension. Due to the nature of their music (which often employed session musicians), the Left Banke's sound was difficult to reproduce on the road, and one could sympathize with Brown's wishes to become a Brian Wilson-like figure, concentrating on writing and recording while the rest of the musicians took to the road. A variety of guitarists, as both session musicians and ostensible group members, flitted in and out of the lineup; Rick Brand, credited as the guitarist on the first LP, actually plays on only one of the album's songs. Adding fuel to the fire, Brown's bandmates wanted to oust Brown's father as the act's manager. In early 1967, Brown went as far as to record a Left Banke single without them, using vocalist Bert Sommer.

That single ("And Suddenly") flopped, and for a brief time in September 1967 the original members were recording together again. After just one single ("Desiree"), though, Brown left for good. Most of the group's second and final album, The Left Banke Too, was recorded without him. While it still sported baroque arrangements and contained some fine moments, Brown's presence was sorely missed, and the record pales in comparison to their debut. Brown went on to form a Left Banke-styled group, Montage, which released a fine and underappreciated album in the late '60s. He later teamed up to form Stories with vocalist Ian Lloyd.

There were some confusing son-of-Left Banke recordings over the next few years, although the band really came to a halt in 1969, after the second album. Brown, Martin, and unknown musicians made a few recordings in late 1969; then, oddly, the original group reformed for a fine early 1971 single on Buddah ("Love Songs in the Night"/"Two by Two"), although the record itself was credited to Steve Martin. And the original group, minus its key visionary Michael Brown, made an album's worth of ill-advised reunion recordings in 1978. (Biography by Richie Unterberger - All Music Guide).

According to many aging English men with intimidating record collections, the Left Banke were the very first band ever to be written up under the term "Baroque Rock." Rightly so, as rock 'n' roll's timeline suggests that this 1966-1968 East Coast outfit were possibly the only ones to continuously layer classical instrumentation and song melodies with a post-British Invasion influenced Folk Pop. Although Steve Martin (no relation to King Tut) had the delicate and passionate voice that made dreamers swoon, the Left Banke were actually born of keyboard player and songwriter Michael Brown, son of violinist and producer Hash Brown. The band's first hit, "Walk Away Renee," was easily their biggest (the Four Tops had a hit with it in 1968). The Left Banke broke up in 1969. (Rolling Stone).

Loading Zone
Biography by Jason Ankeny
Cosmic R&B combo the Loading Zone was formed in Oakland, CA, in 1967 by singer/keyboardist Paul Fauerso following the dissolution of his jazz unit, the Tom Paul Trio. After recruiting guitarists Pete Shapiro and Steve Dowler — both late of the Berkeley psych-rock band the Marbles — Fauerso enlisted bassist Bob Kridle and drummer George Newcom to round out the Loading Zone's original lineup; though rooted in R&B, the group also detoured into psychedelia, jazz, and electric blues, fittingly enough opening for both Cream and Big Brother & the Holding Company at San Francisco's legendary Fillmore. In 1968 Fauerso placed an ad in the San Francisco Chronicle seeking a new lead vocalist, with Linda Tillery joining the Loading Zone prior to the band's signing with RCA; their eponymous debut LP failed to capture the excitement of their live sets, however, and was savaged by critics for its excessive production and ham-fisted Motown covers. The Loading Zone then split, although in 1970 Fauerso and Tillery re-formed the group with guitarist Steve Busfield, bassist Mike Eggleston, and drummer George Marsh, recording One for All for the Umbrella label. Fauerso and Tillery disbanded the unit once and for all in 1971; the former later produced the Beach Boys' First Love LP and created a handful of new age records, while the latter resurfaced with the jazz fusion group Cesar 830 and later pursued a solo career.

Love 
Grupo psicodélico californiano de Los Angeles considerado como uma das melhores viagens da era psicodélica, liderado por Arthur Lee, primeiro LP em março de 1966, sucesso Seven and Seven is do segundo álbum, regravada pelos Ramones em "Acid Eaters". 4 LPs e um LP inédito Gethsêmane recusado pela Elektra em 69. “Uma inspiração mais tortuosa, já assombrada pelo espectro da heroína”.

Lovin' Spoonful
Right on the tails of the Beau Brummels and the Byrds, the Lovin' Spoonful were among the first American groups to challenge the domination of the British Invasion bands in the mid-'60s. Between mid-1965 and the end of 1967, the group was astonishingly successful, issuing one classic hit single after another, including "Do You Believe in Magic?," "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice," "Daydream," "Summer in the City," "Rain on the Roof," "Nashville Cats," and "Six O'Clock."

Like most of the folk-rockers, the Lovin' Spoonful were more pop and rock than folk, which didn't detract from their music at all. Much more than the Byrds, and even more than the Mamas & the Papas, the Spoonful exhibited a brand of unabashedly melodic, cheery, and good-time music, though their best single, "Summer in the City," was uncharacteristically riff-driven and hard-driving. More influenced by blues and jug bands than other folk-rock acts, their albums were spotty and their covers at times downright weak. As glorious as their singles were, they lacked the depth and innovation of the Byrds, their chief competitors for the crown of best folk-rock band, and their legacy hasn't been canonized with nearly as much reverence as their West Coast counterparts.

Leader and principal songwriter John Sebastian was a young veteran of the Greenwich Village folk scene when he formed the band in 1965 with Zal Yanovsky, who'd already played primitive folk-rock of a sort with future members of the Mamas & the Papas in the Mugwumps. Sebastian already had some recording experience under his belt, playing harmonica (his father was a virtuoso classical harmonica player) on sessions by folkies like Tom Rush and Fred Neil. The Spoonful were rounded out by Steve Boone on bass and Joe Butler on drums. After some tentative interest from Phil Spector (who considered producing them), they ended up signing with Kama Sutra. Sebastian's autoharp (which would also decorate several subsequent tracks) helped propel "Do You Believe in Magic?" into the Top Ten in late 1965.

The Lovin' Spoonful were torn asunder by a drug bust in 1967. Boone and Yanovsky were arrested in California for marijuana possession, and evidently got out of trouble by turning in their source. This didn't sit well with the burgeoning counterculture, which called for a boycott of Spoonful product, although the effect on their sales may have been overestimated; most of the people who bought Spoonful records were average teenage Americans, not hippies. Yanovsky left the band in mid-1967, to be replaced by Jerry Yester, former producer of the Association.

The band had a few more mild hits, but couldn't survive the loss of John Sebastian, who effectively closed the chapter by leaving in 1968, although the group straggled on briefly under the helm of Butler. Sebastian went on to moderate success as a singer/songwriter in the 1970s. Live at the Hotel Seville, the first new Lovin' Spoonful album in three decades, was released in 1999. (Biography by Richie Unterberger - All Music Guide).

Magic Mixture
Magnifíco clássico do underground psicodélico.

Manfred Mann
Em 1983, nas comemorações dos 25 anos do clube Marquee de Londres, a Manfred Mann Earth Band, do homônimo tecladista sul-africano radicado na Inglaterra e célebre por fazer um som que é uma espécie de blues progressivo com alma, também esteve presente. Revivendo parte da glória do Marquee e o do som querido da Manfred Mann dos anos sessenta com as participações dos velhos colegas de banda: Tom McGuiness, Paul Jones, Jack Bruce, Klaus Voorman, Mike Hugg e Mike D’Abo.

MC5 
John Sinclair era o empresário do bem-sucedido MC5, grupo de vanguarda de Detroit, quando foi mandado para a prisão por dar dois baseados para uma policial disfarçada, em julho de 1969. Três anos mais tarde ele cumpria o terceiro ano de uma sentença de nove anos e meio a dez anos, e sua sexta apelação por uma condicional acabava de ser negada.

A filosofia de Sinclair como empresário era: “tornar a música totalmente real e humana, acabando com a separação entre os músicos e estrelas e a platéia que se senta aos seus pés. Nenhuma oportunidade de tocar para as pessoas era dezprezada - qualquer concerto gratuito, qualquer espetáculo beneficiente, qualquer lugar onde as pessoas quisessem ouvir música e onde fosse possível montar os amplificadores e botá--los para funcionar era um lugar onde iríamos para fazer o melhor que pudéssemos”.
Tudo isso foi contra a política tradicional de um dos esquemas musicais mais grilados, um esquema em que os promotores chamavam as bandas para informar que não haveria mais nenhum trabalho remunerado para os que continuassem a tocar de graça para as pessoas.

Mesmo assim, o MC5 assinou contrato para um disco com a Elektra, e o primeiro LP foi gravado ao vivo, no dia 31 de outubro de 1968, no Grande Ballroon.

— Yoko, o John Sinclair é na verdade apenas um empresário de rock, mas partiu para a política depois de ter tomado ácido lisérgico. John Lennon.

Mystery Trend
The Mystery Trend's name has proved appropriate in defining their fate. They were a band that lots of rock music scholars have heard of — mentioned in lots of essays about San Francisco in the mid-1960's — but never heard. Even the Charlatans, another Bay Area band that barely made it out of the starting gate where records were concerned, are better known, by virtue of their music having bounced in and out of print from various sources over the past 34 years. The Mystery Trend never recorded much professionally, and a lot of what they did was in the realm of works-in-progress, rather than finished pieces of music.

The group's other big problem was that their sound wasn't too much in sync with the music most of us associate with mid-1960's San Francisco. They started out doing r&B-based dance music, then gravitated toward the Beatles, the Kinks, and the Zombies, and Bob Dylan, but they never really sounded like any other band. In contrast to the Charlatans, the Grateful Dead, and the Jefferson Airplane, they preferred tight song structures. For all of their associations with San Francisco in the '60s, the Mystery Trend had their roots in old-style rock 'n roll, r&b, and dance music. Ron Nagle hailed from the city by the bay and was a serious r&b enthusiast, especially where Ray Charles was concerned-he played the piano and was heavily influenced by everything that he heard in Charles' early '60s sound. While studying at San Francisco State College in the early '60s, he hooked up with Larry Bennett, who shared the same interests. Nagle-who'd majored in art-was teaching at the San Francisco Art Institute when the British invasion hit America, and while he was serious enough about r&b to keep the Beatles at arm's length, he did see an opportunity. The British rock 'n roll boom restored rock bands to their rightful place at the center of music, and jump-started some long-held ambitions that he and Bennett shared about forming a band. They hooked up with students Bob Cuff (guitar), Mike Daly (bass) and John Luby (drums), and after jamming a couple of times on songs like "Woolly Bully, " the group became the Terrazzo Brothers (named for an Italian masonry style), with Bennett as lead singer.

After about a year, a line-up change took place, as Mike Daly became their manager, Larry Bennett moved over laterally to take over on bass, and Larry West came aboard on lead guitar while Bob Cuff stayed on rhythm. By the time they were writing their own material together, as a group effort, and coming up with some unusual and very fresh ideas.

And there was the name change. The Terrazzo Brothers didn't seem to be doing anything for them, and then the bandmembers misunderstood the line about the "Mystery Tramp" in Bob Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone" and the result was the Mystery Trend.
They had a special sound and a following, at least locally. The Mystery Trend were the first band to play the Matrix Club after the original Jefferson Airplane, and regularly gigged with the Great Society. They also joined the Airplane in Bill Graham's first effort at rock music promotion, the Mime Troup Benefit. Along with the Airplane, the Great Society, and the Charlatans, the Mystery Trend seemed to be on the cutting edge of what music was about in San Francisco.

Part of their secret was the sheer range of influences within the line-up, and their ability to pull them together. Bennett was an unbelievably good singer for an unsigned band, and had formidible intuitive skill in handling a song. Nagle and Cuff were master rock 'n rollers, and Nagle, in particular, could analyze practically any song on the radio and break down what was happening in it, and why a line, lick or riff worked, or why they didn't. West was a serious beat, and a folk musician with prodigious guitar skills, which meshed perfectly with Cuff's rhythm playing. And Luby was a very solid drummer, holding it all together no matter where their songs took them.

If anything, the Mystery Trend more resembled the small group units that grew out of the big-band era, that Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington, among others, participated in. Those small groups, made up of top soloists and true virtuosi, had lots of room for the members to maneuver and express themselves, but were also highly disciplined. Some of the Mystery Trend's music sounded ripe for jamming, with soaring guitar solos and rippling keyboard parts, and folk-like melodies that lent themselves to experimentation-but they limited their experimentation to clean, precise three-minute-plus structures, without ever leaving the listener feeling cheated. Listening to the Mystery Trend's best work, amid the odd beats and time-signatures, strange key changes and modulations, and harmonies filled with the unexpected, was, indeed, like listening to the very best of the big-bands, playing the guts out of a piece in three and a half minutes. It was too good to last, and it didn't last long. West exited in early 1966 in grand style, smashing his guitar on stage in the midst of a duel with the Great Society's Darby Slick on stage at a show in Sausalito. He nearly joined the Great Society, while the Mystery Trend continued with Bob Cuff playing what lead guitar was required on record. Eventually he left, and was succeeded by John Gregory, a very talented lead player-by that time, however, the Mystery Trend's days were numbered. 

The San Francisco music scene was exploding-the Beau Brummels had already scored hits on the Autumn label, a ton of other acts were getting recorded on one-off singles and, in some instances, getting local airplay; the Jefferson Airplane and the Great Society had done album-length releases, and the Grateful Dead and even the Charlatans were getting scouted by high-powered recording outfits; and late in 1966 the best thing that the Great Society had going for it, Grace Slick, had linked up with the Airplane.

It was happening for every act of any note except, that is, the Mystery Trend. They'd gotten one barely representative single, "Johnny Was A Good Boy" b/w "House On The Hill" out on Verve Records through Frank Werber, the manager of the Kingston Trio, and Trident Productions, who were riding high at around that time with the work of the We Five. Werber did try hard with the group, but their sound, spellbinding as it was on stage, seemed impossible to capture adequately on record-they covered songs by the Who and did r&b standards, and worked on a ton of originals, all to no avail. The group stuck to its own way of making music, which wasn't much like the We Five, but also avoided the kind of long, aimless jams that were becoming the rule among their Bay Area colleagues. The Mystery Trend didn't sound like anyone else, and somehow they never nailed down a second single, much less an album.

By 1968, it was over. Nagle returned to studio art-which he'd never stopped entirely-and became a successful ceramic artist, and later wrote some songs for the Tubes and Barbra Streisand, among others. Apart from Larry Bennett, who passed on in the 1990's, the others (including Larry West) remained in music. The Mystery Trend passed into history and the true depths of tantalizing obscurity-their name was alluring when coupled with their obscurity, and the fact that they seemed to rate mentions in any serious books or articles about San Francisco's music roots. Nothing apart from the rare copies of that old Verve single, which told us virtually nothing about the band, was around to hear, however. In 1999, a comprehensive collection of the best surviving tracks by the Mystery Trend were released by Ace Records on its Big Beat imprint. (Biography by Bruce Eder - All Music Guide).

Moby Grape

O Moby Grape viveu numa espécie de comunidade.
Frank Kofsky - Moby Grape é uma comunidade?
Skip — Sim, com certeza!
Peter — Creio que, entre nós, definimos isso com uma comunidade de amigos. Tudo acaba em música, pois afinal somos músicos.
Kofsky — Tenho razão, portanto, quando afirmo que a amizade nasce coma música...
Jerry — Tem razão, sim senhor...
Kofsky — A sério?
Jerry — Claro que sim!
Bob — É como todas as coisas que vão nascendo, transforma-se. Desta forma, um de nós ganha um pouco de qualquer coisa, perde-o em seguida, talvez o crie, mas no fundo tudo segue o caminho que tem de seguir.
Peter — O seu processo é muito sutil. É uma espécie de aprendizagem, mais do que a solução do “faz isto” ou “faz aquilo”, que em definitivo, não ajuda ninguém.
Skip - Tudo quanto temos, pertence a outro. Devera! Esta é a nossa base, um tanto ou quanto estranha. O resto, é um ir e vir. É tudo quanto temos. A chave de tudo.

Monkees
"Era uma plateia estranha pra gente" - Lembra Noel Redding - "garotada entre os sete e os doze anos de idade. Os Monkees eram horríveis - não como pessoas, mas não pude acreditar quando vi que precisavam ter músicos tocando por eles atrás da cortina".

Pressionado pelos empresários dos Monkees para manerar seu comportamento no palco, Jimi passou a barbarizar cada vez mais, sendo expulso da excursão depois de alguns shows. Segundo Noel Redding, o pessoal de publicidade do Jimi Hendrix Experience conseguiu plantar belas matérias nos jornais dizendo que haviam sido excluídos por exigência das Filhas da Revolução Americana.

"Nós sabemos tocar, mas não tocamos nos nossos discos. Até o momento, nossa gravadora não permitiu". Michael Nesmith, em 1967. Os Monkees esperaram 30 anos para gravarem "Justus" um álbum integralmente sobre suas batutas.

Moody Blues
Foi o primeiro conjunto a usar o mellotron (instrumento que consiste em um teclado que aciona um sistema de fitas, onde estão registrados os sons de instrumentos acústicos naturais, tais como violino, flauta, ou outros reproduzindo respectivamente seus sons idênticos. Pouco depois que John Lennon o tocou em Baby You´re a Rich Man se tornaria muito usado, os Stones também o utilizaram em 2.000 Light Years.

Mountain 
Certa feita no Aeroporto Santos Dumont, o gordo e aloprado Leslie West com o cabelo arrepiado, gritou: — Tem que chover guitarras!!! Esses garotos só tocam com sintentizadores!!! Mas o que eu quero não é guitarra: eu quero sexo!!!

Mother Earth
The late-'60s/early-'70s blues-rock outfit Mother Earth was led by singer Tracy Nelson and issued several somewhat underappreciated releases during their time span. Nelson was originally from Madison, WI, and it was while attending the University of Wisconsin that the singer was discovered by producer Sam Charters and was eventually signed to a recording contract with the Prestige label. 1965 saw the release of Nelson's solo debut, the folk-based Deep Are the Roots, and when it didn't exactly burn up the charts, Nelson decided to relocate to San Francisco, with the hopes of forming a more conventional rock outfit. Shortly after arriving on the West Coast, Mother Earth was formed, which led to performances at the famed Fillmore West, opening for the likes of Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Burdon. After an appearance on the soundtrack to the 1968 motion picture Revolution (which also featured the Quicksilver Messenger Service and the Steve Miller Band), Mother Earth signed with Mercury Records and issued a steady stream of releases until the early '70s.

These albums included 1968's Living with the Animals 1969's Tracy Nelson Country and Make a Joyful Noise, 1970's Satisfied, 1971's Bring Me Home, 1972's Tracy Nelson/Mother Earth, and 1973's Poor Man's Paradise, before Nelson pursued a solo career. Subsequently, Nelson earned a Grammy nomination in 1974 for the track "After the Fire Is Gone" (a duet with Willie Nelson) and continued to issue solo albums until the early '80s, when she became disillusioned with the direction that popular music was going in (although she did sing backup for Neil Young for a spell in the mid-'80s, including appearing with Young at the mammoth Live Aid concert in 1985). Nelson returned to music in the '90s, beginning with 1993's In the Here and Now, continuing to issue solo recordings (and in 1998, earned another Grammy nomination for the release Sing It!, a collaboration with Marcia Ball and Irma Thomas). ( Biography by Greg Prato - - All Music Guide).

(The) Move
O selo alemão Repertoire relançou o primeiro álbum The Move (1967) com uma assustadora qualidade de remasterização, “esse álbum semeou uma perfeita conjugação do pop com soft psicodélia e sombras de hard rock, reaparece com 7 extra-tracks. O aclamado Shazam (1970), o mais eclético do grupo, vem com o EP Something Else de bônus. Para completar, o insólito tratado de classical-prog-popsterpsychedelia Looking On (1971), o qual esboçava o que viria a ser a Eletric Light Orchestra, surge com 5 additional faixas”. (Fernando Naporano).

Carl Wayne, que ficou famoso como frontman do grupo The Move, morreu a 31 ago. / 2004, aos 61 anos. O cantor tinha câncer. O The Move surgido em Birmingham, fez muito sucesso no período 1966-70, misturando pop, psicodelismo e hard rock. Seus principais hits foram "Night of Fear", "Flower In The Rain", "I Can Hear The Grass Grow", "Cherry Blossom Clinic" e "Wild Tiger Woman". Depois que o grupo acabou, Carl Wayne prosseguiu cantando na tevê e no circuito de cabarés da Inglaterra. Em 2000, ele entrou para o The Hollies, substituindo o vocalista Allan Clarke. (Shopping & DVD Music, ano 8 nº 92 out. / 2004)

(Os) Mutantes
Os Beatles brasileiros.

Neil Young

Processado pela gravadora Geffen, por fazer, segundo os executivos, “discos anticormeciais propositalmente” e vinte e cinco anos depois em 1992, os viciados em Neil Young, o homenagearam com o disco-tributo "The Bridge" onde participam Sonic Youth, Pixies, Dinosaur Jr., Nick Cave e Loop, Bongwater e Kenny Kaiser.

Ao final desse ano o próprio Neil Young autohomenageou-se com Haverst Moon, uma pequena obra-prima do folk com uma dose de lirismo e honestidade que nem mesmo o honesto Neil Young tinha experimentado. Neil Young ainda prefere falar de seus próprios caminhos - em "From Hank to Hendrix", ele cita duas balizas de sua música, desde o autor-interprete-instrumentista folk Hank Williams ao também Jimi Hendrix dono das qualidades de Hank e só que guitarrista e visionário, qualquer adjetivo depois é ingenuidade. Na letra de "Hank a Hendrix", Neil Young, não absteve-se da sua e de outras personagens atormentadas.

(The) Nice 
A primeira vez em que Keith Emerson apareceu no cenário musical inglês foi em 1966, com o legendário grupo Nice. Naquela época, o rock eletrônico, que utilizava os recursos do sintetizador, ainda ensaiava seus primeiros acordes, e o Nice explodia como uma das grandes revelações do novo gênero musical. Abandonando a timidez que seus biógrafos constantemente observam, Keith Emerson utilizava todos os recursos cênicos possíveis, desde as roupas espalhafatosa até a completa destruição da aparelhagem de palco ao final de cada concerto.

De maneira surpreendente, no auge do sucesso do Nice, Keith Emerson dissolveu o grupo, e a imprensa chegou a supor que ele não estivesse muito bem da cabeça. No entanto, Keith já havia preparado o pulo do Emerson, Lake & Palmer. O guitarrista David ‘O List do Nice, foi convidado a tocar junto com o Pink Floyd, mesmo sem tirar Syd Barrett, para tornar a transição mais branda, o que não deu certo. Brian Davidson e Lee Jackson, que tocavam no Nice ao lado do tecladista Patrick Moraz formaram o Refugee. Durou pouco mas aconteceu.

Orpheus
Boston's Orpheus made four albums in the late '60s and early '70s that were something of an antecedent to soft rock. Although some of the members had roots in the folk scene, and although they were lumped in with the heavier and more psychedelic bands that comprised the short-lived "Bosstown Sound," Orpheus was in fact much closer to the "sunshine pop" of the late '60s heard on AM radio. Producer Alan Lorber (the key generator of the Bosstown Sound hype, who also produced Ultimate Spinach and other local bands) gave their light harmony pop tunes elaborate orchestrated arrangements that, even as they hinted at baroque classical music, also betrayed his extensive experience working on television commercials.

Jack McKenes and Eric Gulliksen of Orpheus had played together in a pop-folk group, the Minutemen, and McKenes and Bruce Arnold formed the pop-folk duo the Villagers, before the three of them plus drummer Harry Sandler linked up to form Orpheus. Relying largely on original material, mostly written by Arnold and Gulliksen, Orpheus cut three LPs for MGM (the primary home of Bosstown sound bands) in the late 1960s. Despite the marketing of the Bosstown sound as a hip and album-oriented phenomenon, the group's harmonies and songwriting were in fact more similar to singles groups such as the Fifth Dimension and the Association, even with echoes of the Lettermen in places. There might have been some traces of folk and psychedelic music on some tracks, but the light, sometimes precious, love songs were forerunners of adult contemporary music. Sometimes, for instance, the albums sound rather like the songs (although not the arrangements) played by Chicago at their most unabashedly pop. Orpheus, however, were ordinary if ambitious songwriters, lacking the grand melodies to either get them national popularity in their lifetime, or retroactive cult status.

When Orpheus made their fourth and final album for Bell in 1971, only Arnold was left from the original band, although the LP had songwriting and vocals from Steve Martin (not the same as the Steve Martin who sang lead for the Left Banke), who had written some material on Orpheus' MGM recording. The double-CD Big Beat compilation The Best of Orpheus has almost everything from the MGM LPs, as well as a couple of songs from the Bell LP and some previously unreleased material.
(Biography by Richie Unterberger - All Music Guide).

Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Paul Butterfield was the first white harmonica player to develop a style original and powerful enough to place him in the pantheon of true blues greats. It's impossible to overestimate the importance of the doors Butterfield opened: before he came to prominence, white American musicians treated the blues with cautious respect, afraid of coming off as inauthentic. Not only did Butterfield clear the way for white musicians to build upon blues tradition (instead of merely replicating it), but his storming sound was a major catalyst in bringing electric Chicago blues to white audiences who'd previously considered acoustic Delta blues the only really genuine article. His initial recordings from the mid-'60s — featuring the legendary, racially integrated first edition of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band — were eclectic, groundbreaking offerings that fused electric blues with rock & roll, psychedelia, jazz, and even (on the classic East-West) Indian classical music. As members of that band — which included Michael Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop — drifted away, the overall impact of Butterfield's music lessened, even if his amplified harp playing was still beyond reproach. He had largely faded from the scene by the mid-'70s, and fell prey to health problems and drug addiction that sadly claimed his life prematurely. Even so, the enormity of Butterfield's initial impact ensured that his legacy was already secure.

Butterfield was born December 17, 1942, in Chicago and grew up in Hyde Park, a liberal, integrated area on the city's South Side. His father, a lawyer, and mother, a painter, encouraged Butterfield's musical studies from a young age, and he took flute lessons up through high school, with the first-chair flutist in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra serving as his private tutor for a time. By this time, however, Butterfield was growing interested in the blues music that permeated the South Side; he and college-age friend Nick Gravenites (a future singer, guitarist, and songwriter in his own right) began hitting the area blues clubs in 1957. Butterfield was inspired to take up guitar and harmonica, and he and Gravenites began playing together on college campuses around the Midwest. After being forced to turn down a track scholarship to Brown University because of a knee injury, Butterfield entered the University of Illinois-Chicago, where he met a fellow white blues fan in guitarist Elvin Bishop. Butterfield was evolving into a decent singer, and not long after meeting Bishop, he focused all his musical energy on the harmonica, developing his technique (mostly on diatonic harp, not chromatic) and tone; he soon dropped out of college to pursue music full-time.

After some intense woodshedding, Butterfield and Bishop began making the rounds of the South Side's blues clubs, sitting in whenever they could. They were often the only whites present, but were quickly accepted because of their enthusiasm and skill. In 1963, the North Side club Big John's offered Butterfield's band a residency; he'd already recruited Howlin' Wolf's rhythm section — bassist Jerome Arnold and drummer Sam Lay — by offering more money, and replaced original guitarist Smokey Smothers with his friend Bishop. The new quartet made an instant splash with their hard-driving versions of Chicago blues standards. In late 1964, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band was discovered by producer Paul Rothchild, and after adding lead guitarist Michael Bloomfield, they signed to Elektra and recorded several sessions for a debut album, the results of which were later scrapped.

At first, there was friction between Butterfield and Bloomfield, since the harmonica man patterned his bandleading style after taskmasters like Howlin' Wolf and Little Walter; after a few months, though, their respect for each other's musical skills won out, and they began sitting in together at blues clubs around the city. A song from their aborted first session, the Nick Gravenites-penned "Born in Chicago," was included on the Elektra sampler Folksong '65 and created a strong buzz about the band. In the summer of 1965, they re-entered the studio for a second crack at their debut album, adding organist Mark Naftalin as a permanent sixth member during the sessions. In the meantime, they were booked to play that year's Newport Folk Festival. When Bob Dylan witnessed their well-received performance at an urban blues workshop during the festival, he recruited Butterfield's band to back him for part of his own set later that evening. Roundly booed by acoustic purists, Dylan's plugged-in performance with the Butterfield Band ultimately shook the folk world to its foundations, kickstarting an electric folk-rock movement that effectively spelled the end of the traditionalist folk revival.

On the heels of their historic performance at Newport, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band released their self-titled debut album later in 1965. Now regarded as a classic, the LP caused quite a stir among white blues fans who had never heard electric Chicago-style blues performed by anyone besides British blues-rock groups. Not only did it sow the seeds of a thousand bar bands, but it also helped introduce more white listeners to the band's influences, especially Muddy Waters and B.B. King. Toward the end of 1965, drummer Sam Lay fell ill and was replaced by the jazz-trained Billy Davenport, whose rhythmic agility and sophistication soon made him a permanent member. He was particularly useful since Butterfield was pushing to expand the band's sound, aided by Bloomfield's growing interest in Eastern music, especially Ravi Shankar. Their growing eclecticism manifested itself on their second album, 1966's East-West, which remains their greatest achievement. The title cut was a lengthy instrumental suite incorporating blues, jazz, rock, psychedelia, and raga; although it became their signature statement, the rest of the album was equally inspired, perhaps due in part to Butterfield's more relaxed, democratic approach to bandleading.

Unfortunately, Mike Bloomfield left the band at the height of its success in 1967, and formed a new group called the Electric Flag with Nick Gravenites, which aspired to take East-West's eclecticism even further. Bishop moved into the lead guitar slot for the band's third album, 1967's The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw (a reference to Bishop's nickname). Displaying a greater soul influence, the album also featured a new rhythm section in bassist Bugsy Maugh and drummer Phil Wilson, plus a horn section that included a young David Sanborn. Pigboy Crabshaw proved to be the closing point of the Butterfield Band's glory days; the 1968 follow-up, In My Own Dream, was uneven in its songwriting and focus, and both Elvin Bishop and Mark Naftalin left the band before year's end. Still hoping for a breakout commercial hit, Elektra brought in producer/songwriter Jerry Ragovoy, a longtime R&B professional, which marked the first time they'd asserted control over a Butterfield recording. That didn't sit well with Butterfield, who wanted to move in a jazzier direction than Ragovoy's radio-friendly style allowed; the result, 1969's Keep on Moving, was another inconsistent outing, despite the return of Billy Davenport and an injection of energy from the band's new guitarist, 19-year-old Buzzy Feiten. 1969 wasn't a washout for Butterfield, though; his band was still popular enough to make the bill at Woodstock, and he also took part in an all-star Muddy Waters session dubbed Fathers and Sons, which showcased the Chicago giant's influence on the new generation of bluesmen and greatly broadened his audience.

After 1970's Live and the following year's studio effort Sometimes I Just Feel Like Smilin', Butterfield broke up his band and parted ways with Elektra. Tired of all the touring and personnel turnover, he retreated to the communal atmosphere of Woodstock, still a musicians' haven in the early '70s, and in 1971 formed a new group eventually dubbed Better Days. Guitarist Amos Garrett and drummer Chris Parker were the first to join, and with folk duo Geoff and Maria Muldaur in tow, the band was initially fleshed out by organist Merl Saunders and bassist John Kahn, both from San Francisco. Sans Geoff Muldaur, this aggregation worked on the soundtrack of the film Steelyard Blues, but Saunders and Kahn soon returned to the Bay Area, and were replaced by New Orleans pianist Ronnie Barron and Taj Mahal bassist Billy Rich. This lineup — with Geoff Muldaur back, plus contributions from singer/songwriter Bobby Charles — released the group's first album, Better Days, in 1972 on Butterfield manager Albert Grossman's new Bearsville label. While it didn't quite match up to Butterfield's earliest efforts, it did return him to critical favor. A follow-up, It All Comes Back, was released in 1973 to positive response, and in 1975 he backed Muddy Waters once again on The Woodstock Album, the last LP release ever on Chess.

Butterfield subsequently pursued a solo career, with diminishing returns. His Henry Glover-produced solo debut, Put It in Your Ear, appeared in 1976, but failed to impress many: his harmonica playing was pushed away from the spotlight, and the material was erratic at best. The same year, he appeared in the Band's farewell concert film, The Last Waltz. Over the next few years, Butterfield mostly confined himself to session work; he attempted a comeback in 1981 with legendary Memphis soul producer Willie Mitchell, but the sessions — released as North-South — were burdened by synthesizers and weak material. By this time, Butterfield's health was in decline; years of heavy drinking were beginning to catch up to him, and he also contracted peritonitis, a painful intestinal condition. At some point — none of his friends knew quite when — Butterfield also developed an addiction to heroin; he'd been stridently opposed to it as a bandleader, leading to speculation that he was trying to ease his peritonitis symptoms. He began to play more gigs in Los Angeles during the early '80s, and eventually relocated there permanently; he also toured on a limited basis during the mid-'80s, and in 1986 released his final album, The Legendary Paul Butterfield Rides Again. However, his addiction was bankrupting him, and in the past half-decade he'd seen Mike Bloomfield, Muddy Waters, and manager Albert Grossman pass away, each loss leaving him shaken. On May 4, 1987, Butterfield himself died of a drug overdose; he was not quite 45 years old. (Biography by Steve Huey - All Music Guide)

Peanut Butter Conspiracy
Los Angeles psychedelic band the Peanut Butter Conspiracy emerged in 1966 from the remains of the Ashes, formed the previous year by singer Pat Taylor, guitarist John Merrill, bassist Alan Brackett and drummer Spencer Dryden (who soon left the group to replace Skip Spence in the Jefferson Airplane). Adding drummer Jim Voigt as Dryden's replacement, the Ashes recorded a self-titled LP for the Vault label before disbanding, with Merrill, Brackett and Voight recruiting singer Sandi Robison and harpist/guitarist Lance Fent to form the Peanut Butter Conspiracy; after debuting on Vault with the single "Time Is After You," the band signed to major label Columbia, where 1967's "It's a Happening Thing" heralded the spring release of their debut LP, the Gary Usher-produced The Peanut Butter Conspiracy Is Speading. Ex-Sound Machine guitarist Bill Woolf replaced Fent for the follow-up, The Great Conspiracy, which like its predecessor failed to make much of a commercial impact; only Robison, Merrill and Brackett remained for 1969's For Children of All Ages, which featured new keyboardist Ralph Shuckett and drummer Michael Stevens. The Peanut Butter Conspiracy disbanded soon after, with Brackett pursuing studio work, Fent later collaborating with Randy Meisner, and Woolf joining Fusion. (Biography by Jason Ankeny - All Music Guide).

Plasticland's first full-length, Color Appreciation, was issued on the French Lolita label in 1984; a year later, it was re-released in America by Pink Dust with two different tracks, titled simply Plasticland. The follow-up, Wonder Wonderful Wonderland, was released before the end of 1985, and featured Mellotron and bouzouki, among other vintage psychedelic accoutrements. By the time of 1987's Salon, Demechei had returned to the fold. Plasticland subsequently resurfaced on the Midnight label with a pair of live albums: 1989's You Need a Fairy Godmother featured onetime Pink Fairies/Pretty Things drummer Twink, and 1990's Confetti proved to be the band's swan song. The German label Repulsion later issued a best-of compilation, Dapper Snappings, and some of the band's early recordings were collected on Mink Dress and Other Cats. ( Biography by Steve Huey - All Music Guide)

Pretty Things
Fundado em 1963, por Dick Taylor (o primeiro guitarrista dos Rolling Stones), Phil May (vocal), John Stax (baixo), e Viv Prince (bateria). Tocava até 1967 um blues-rock agressivo, inspirado em Howlin’ Wolf, Bo Diddley e Jimmy Reed. Nesse mesmo ano, depois que Skip Alan, substituiu o baterista Viv Prince apresentaram S. Francisco Sorrow uma ópera-rock, que teria servido de inspiração para Tommy (Pete Townshend nunca negou essa influência). Evoluiu a partir de então para um pop sofisticado. Gravou clássicos do rock psicodélico inglês, como Defecting Grey e o tema da série Electric Banana.

Procol Harum
Grupo inglês, formado por Gary Brooker e Robin Trower (guitarra), ambos ex-The Paramounts, cujo maior sucesso foi a nova versão de Poison Ivy. Os outros membros eram o letrista Keith Reid, Bobby Harrison (bateria), Matthew Fisher (órgão), David Knights (baixo). Em 1967, lançaram o primeiro compacto, White Shade of Pale, que fez um sucesso inesperado, tornando-se recordista de venda. Daí em diante, porém, começaram as alterações na formação do grupo e, embora continuassem a carreira, muitos acham que não fizeram mais nada no nível do primeiro trabalho, que teria uma certa semelhança com os vocais de Ray Charles e a guitarra de Eric Clapton. Os álbuns Shine on Brightly, de 1968, e Salty Dog, de 1969, fizeram sucesso, assim como a gravação ao vivo do que foi um fracasso como espetáculo, mas muito vendido em disco: uma apresentação com a Orquestra Sinfônica de Edmonton, no Canadá, em 1971. Voltaram com o LP Prodigal Stranger, mas com a sentida ausência do falecido baterista B. J. Wilson.

Revolting Cocks
"Linger Ficken’ Good" (com participação de Timothy Leary).

Roy Wood

Ex-guitarrista e líder do Move, partiu para a louquíssima Eletric Light Orchestra, composta por dez instrumentistas, entre os quais estava o conhecido Danny Holloway. Tudo era feito dentro da maior zorra com efeitos de luz de uma envolvência de deixar todo mundo maluco. Aliás, em matéria de maluquice, Roy Wood ganha fácil de todos os músicos britânicos: já esteve internado 15 vezes em clínicas de repouso.

Sky “Sunlight” Saxon & The Seeds

Uma das top bandas de garagem de todos os tempos

Many think the 60s psychedelic phenom was limited to San Francisco and the UK, but hometown hero and garage/psychedelic legend Sky Saxon emerged out of one of the thousands of hot garages in Los Angeles, to burst into the blazing So. Cal. sun with The Seeds, a pre-Iggy, pre-MC5 proto-grunge band that delivered a kaleidoscope of raw vocals and frenzied guitars. Their hit Pushin’ Too Hard, laid the sonic framework and provided an infectious riff that’s influenced everything from metal to arena and punk rock, much in the same way that Bo Diddley’s eponymous riff did for rhythm & blues and early rock n’ roll. (Simon Stokes at The Knitting Factory, 2/8)

Sir Douglas Quintet

Arguably the greatest and most influential Tex-Mex group ever, the Sir Douglas Quintet epitomized Texas' reputation as a fertile roots music melting pot and established the career of Tex-Mex cult legend Doug Sahm. The Quintet mixed country, blues, jazz, R&B, Mexican conjunto/norteño music, Cajun dances, British Invasion rock & roll, garage rock, and even psychedelia into a heady stew that could only have come from Texas. Although they went largely underappreciated during their existence (mostly in the '60s), their influence was far-reaching and continues to be felt in Texas (particularly the similarly eclectic Austin scene) and beyond; afterward, Sahm embarked on a frequently fascinating solo career and reunited with the Quintet or its individual members several times over the years.

According to legend, the Sir Douglas Quintet was the brainchild of Houston producer Huey P. Meaux, who at the height of the British Invasion took a stack of Beatles records into a hotel room and studied them while getting drunk on wine. He found that the beats often resembled those of Cajun dance songs and hit upon the idea of a group that could blend the two sounds well enough to fool Beatles fans into giving a local band a chance. Doug Sahm, meanwhile, had been something of a childhood prodigy as a country artist — he turned down a spot on the Grand Ole Opry in order to finish junior high and performed on-stage with Hank Williams. Sahm had made Meaux's acquaintance while leading a series of bands around San Antonio in high school and wanted to work with him. Meaux told Sahm his idea and Sahm quickly formed a band featuring childhood friend Augie Meyers on organ, bassist Jack Barber, drummer Johnny Perez, and percussionist Leon Beatty (who didn't stick around for too long); saxophonist Frank Morin was added after a short time. Meaux gave them the deceptively British-sounding name the Sir Douglas Quintet and released their debut single, "Sugar Bee," on his Pacemaker label in 1964; it flopped. However, their next single, the British Invasion/garage-flavored "She's About a Mover" (on a different Meaux label, Tribe), became a classic of Tex-Mex rock and an international hit, climbing into the U.S. Top 20 in 1965. Later that year, "The Rains Came" hit the Top 40 and Meaux assembled an LP from their singles sessions with the misleading title The Best of the Sir Douglas Quintet. The group toured the United States and Europe, but upon returning, they were arrested at the Corpus Christi airport for possessing a tiny amount of marijuana. Feeling targeted for his long hair and hippie image, Sahm decided to break up the band upon his release from jail, and moved to San Francisco in early 1966; Morin tagged along.

Once in San Francisco, Sahm formed a new version of the Sir Douglas Quintet featuring Morin, keyboardist Peter Ferst (who was quickly replaced by Wayne Talbert), bassist John York (later of the Byrds, soon replaced by Whitney Freeman), and drummer George Rains; most of them were Texas expatriates as well. The new Sir Douglas Quintet gigged regularly around the Bay Area and signed with the Mercury subsidiary Smash. Their first album, Sir Douglas Quintet + 2 Honkey Blues, was recorded with several extra horn players as the Sir Douglas Quintet + 2 and released in 1968; however, it lacked Augie Meyers' signature organ sound. Rains and Talbert soon left to concentrate on other projects and Sahm convinced Meyers and Johnny Perez to move up from Texas; they brought Meyers' old bandmate Harvey Kagan with to be the bassist. With almost all of their original members, the Sir Douglas Quintet recorded one of their finest albums, 1969's Mendocino; the title track became a Top 40 hit and a Tex-Mex rock staple and the whole record fit in very well with the emerging country-rock hybrid. Moreover, it made the group extremely popular in Europe, where they would retain a fan base for many years to come. Together After Five followed in 1970, after which the group switched to a different Mercury affiliate, Philips. Also released in 1970, 1+1+14 featured members of both the Texas and California lineups of the Quintet, plus new bassist Jim Stallings. It was perhaps a sign that much of the group was beginning to drift into other projects again. Without Sahm, the remainder of the Quintet recorded an album for United Artists called Future Tense; several members also backed Gene Vincent as the Amigos de Musica. A homesick Sahm finally returned to Texas in 1971 and the Sir Douglas Quintet officially disbanded in late 1972, though some of its members — Meyers in particular — would continue to work with Sahm frequently during his solo career.

After being ignored by Mercury, Sahm signed with Atlantic as a solo artist; in the wake of Atlantic's promotional push, Mercury issued an album of unreleased Sir Douglas Quintet tracks, called Rough Edges, in 1973. This was the last new Quintet album for some time, until Sahm, Meyers, and Perez re-formed the group at the dawn of the '80s, along with new guitarist Alvin Crow and new bassist Speedy Sparks. They signed with the Chrysalis subsidiary Takoma and released the album Border Wave in 1981, which fused their eclectic Tex-Mex rock & roll with the concise pop sound of new wave (as Joe "King" Carrasco had been doing). Crow left prior to the supporting tour to work with his own band and was replaced by Louie Ortega; once again, the Quintet proved more popular in Europe, especially Scandinavia, than in their own country. They recorded for the European Sonet label during the '80s and Takoma occasionally released Quintet material as well. They scored an enormous Swedish hit with "Meet Me in Stockholm," though the accompanying album wasn't released in the U.S.; by 1985, the group had broken up again. Sahm and Meyers formed the Tex-Mex supergroup the Texas Tornados with Freddy Fender and Flaco Jimenez at the end of the decade and in 1994 presided over a one-off version of the Sir Douglas Quintet that featured Sahm's sons Shandon (drums) and Shawn (guitar). In November 1999, Sahm died of a heart attack. (Biography by Steve Huey - All Music Guide)

No brasil, The Sir Douglas Quintet grupo texano que a princípio se divulgou como sendo inglês.

Soft Machine
Soft Machine originated from another band Wilde Flowers which was based in Canterbury, Kent and included Robert Wyatt (a student at Canterbury College of Art) and Kevin Ayers in its line-up. It was while travelling around Europe tha Wyatt had become friendly with David Allen, a young Australian, and discovered mutual musical interests. On their return to the UK, Soft Machine was formed, taking its name from a William Burroughs novel. Wyatt, Ayers and Allen were also joined by Mike Ratledge anda Larry Nolan in the new musical venture.

During their early days, Soft Machine played various gigs, appearing several times with Pink Floyd at the UFO Club in London’s Chalk Farm (which later became know as The Roundhouse). Nolan quit the line-up however to return to his native California. Although they were to become primarily an albuns bans, Soft Machine did release an early single ‘Love makes sweet music’ which was produced by Chas Chandler, formely of The Animals and who was instruemntal in the success of Jimi Hendrix in the UK.
In fact the B-side ‘Feelin’ Reelin’ Squeelin’ features Hendrix on guitar was produced by Kim Fowley.

Soon after the single’s release Soft Machine played several gigs in France, and then toured in the US supporting Hendrix. By now Andy Summers who was later to find worldwide success with Police was also in the Soft Machine ranks. In late 1968 the band1s first album, called The Soft Machine, was released but he band had by this time decide to go their own separate ways.

The album proved to be a success however prompting the band to reform, albeit with a slightly different line-up. Kevin Ayers had moved to Ibiza and so Wyatt recrited Hug Hopper who had been a member of Wilde Flowers in his place. The second album, Soft Machine Volume II, followed in early 1969 and features many of Wyatt’s own songs.

For live gigs, Wyatt recruited more ban members including Elton Dean on saxophone, Marc Charig on trumpet, trombone player Nick Evans and Lynn Dobson who played flute, saxophone anda sitar. In factt frequent changes in personnel marked the story of Soft Machine, and no two of their albums seemed to feature the line-up.

After the fourth album released in 1971, Robert Wyatt himself left the band to form another outfit Matching Mole. Phil Howard replaced him as drummer but was himself replaced by John Marshall, previously with Nucleus, during recording sessions for the band’s fifth album.

Soft Machine were becoming more and more jazz oriented, and by the time of the release of their 1975 album Bundles were now in their 13th different line-up. That line-up saw the departure of original member Mike Ratledge however. Despite all these changes in personnel, and the fact that Soft Machine were virtually a faceless band, the group continued to have a hard core of loyal fans and there were further albums throughout the Seventies.

The tracks featured here date form Soft Machine’s recording association with CBS when the ban was at its most prolific anda innovative. Almost two decades on, they still sound as fresh as ever. (Chris White no texto interno da coletânea “as if...”).

“Eram mais calmos, tocando igualmente trechos muito longos, iluminados pelo light-show orgânico das luzes estroboscópicas. A formação original incluía Mike Ratledge (órgão), David Allen (guitarra), Kevin Ayers (baixo) e Robert Wyatt (bateria). Com eles e com o Pink Floyd, a pop music anglo-saxônica acabava de encontrar uma nova linguagem, já muito distante da dos Beatles”. A formação responsável pelo clássico álbum duplo Third - Mike Ratledge (teclados), Hugh Hooper (baixo) e Robert Wyatt (bateria) - tocou em duas faixas do primeiro álbum de Syd Barrett: It’s Not Good Trying e Love You. Em 1976 o Pink Floyd realizou um concerto em benefício de Wyatt, paralisado da cintura para baixo após cair de uma janela. Na cadeira de rodas o baterista gravou uma série de ótimos álbuns se revelando um exímio vocalista. Rock Bottom, o primeiro deles foi produzido por Nick Manson, baterista do Pink Floyd.

Spice 
1967-68, desse grupo sairiam dois dos mais importantes músicos do Uriah Heep (personagem de Charles Dickens), David Byron e Mick Box. E completando a formação, Ken Hensley, teclados e Lee Kerslake, bateria, oriundos do renomado Gods, de Greg Lake.

Spirit
Genre: Psychedelic, Oldies, Rock/Pop, Art & Progressive Rock, Folk-Rock
Spirit was a highly regarded rock band that achieved modest commercial success, charting 11 albums in the U.S. between 1968 and 1977. Founded in Los Angeles in 1967 by musicians who had a mixture of rock, pop, folk, blues, classical, and jazz backgrounds, and who ranged in age from 16 to 44, the group had an eclectic musical style in keeping with the early days of progressive rock; they were as likely to play a folk ballad featuring fingerpicked acoustic guitar, a jazz instrumental full of imaginative improvisation, or a driving rhythm tune dominated by acid rock electric guitar playing. The diverse tastes of the original quintet produced a hybrid style that delighted a core audience of fans but proved too wide-ranging to attract a mass following, and at the same time the musicians' acknowledged talents brought them other opportunities that led to the breakup of the original lineup after four years and four albums, then kept them from committing fully to regroupings as their music began to be recognized in later years. While two band members, singer/guitarist Randy California and drummer Ed Cassidy, maintained the Spirit name, the others came and went as their schedules allowed, such that the group never fulfilled its early promise, although, as a vehicle for California's songwriting and guitar playing, it continued to produce worthwhile music until his death.

Randy California was born Randolph Craig Wolfe on February 20, 1951, in Los Angeles, CA. His mother, Bernice Pearl, was the sister of Ed Pearl, who owned the Ash Grove, a nightclub in Hollywood, and California, who began playing guitar as a child, grew up listening carefully to the folk, blues, and jazz musicians who performed there. In early 1965, the Rising Sons, a folk-blues group featuring Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder, played the Ash Grove; the band's drummer was Ed Cassidy (born May 4, 1923, in Chicago, IL), who met and married California's recently divorced mother, becoming his stepfather. Cassidy had been drumming professionally since his teens in almost every conceivable style, though lately largely in jazz groups before he joined the Rising Sons. He left the band after injuring his wrist during a solo.

Meanwhile, California had met two aspiring musicians from the San Fernando Valley, singer/percussionist Jay Ferguson (born John Arden Ferguson, February 5, 1947, in Burbank, CA) and bassist Mark Andes (born February 19, 1948, in Philadelphia, PA) at a folk music camp, and in September 1965, along with Cassidy, and a second guitarist, they formed a band called the Red Roosters that played the Ash Grove.

The Red Roosters broke up when Cassidy moved his family to New York in search of work in the spring of 1966. There California had a fateful encounter with another guitarist at a music store in Manhattan; he met the still-unknown Jimi Hendrix, then going by the name Jimmy James, who invited him to join his band, Jimmy James & the Blue Flames, which was appearing at the Café Wha? in Greenwich Village. Since there was already a musician named Randy in the band, bass player Randy Palmer, Hendrix distinguished the two by their home states, calling Palmer "Randy Texas" and Randy Wolfe "Randy California," which he subsequently retained as a stage name. California played with Hendrix that summer, which was when Hendrix was spotted by Animals bassist Chas Chandler, who became his manager and took him to England to form the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Hendrix asked California to come to England with him, but at 15 he was too young. Instead, California moved back to his home state with his mother and stepfather.

After returning west, California and Cassidy formed a band called Spirits Rebellious, after a book by the religious mystic Kahlil Gibran, also featuring pianist John Locke (born September 23, 1943, in Los Angeles, CA), who had played with Cassidy previously in the New Jazz Trio. In the spring of 1967, California and Cassidy ran into Ferguson and Andes, who had continued to work as musicians while attending UCLA. After the demise of the Red Roosters, they had a band called Western Union, also including Andes' guitar-playing brother, Matt Andes, then Ferguson had tried to launch a solo career while Mark Andes served brief tenures with Yellow Balloon and Canned Heat. Now, they joined Spirits Rebellious, a name soon shortened to Spirit. By June, they were playing gigs and looking for a record contract. With Barry Hansen (later known as Dr. Demento, the novelty song radio host) producing, they cut a demo tape that finally found commercial release 24 years later on the anthology Chronicles (1967-1992). They also auditioned for record executive and producer Lou Adler. Adler, best known for his work with the Mamas & the Papas and his company Dunhill Records, had sold Dunhill to ABC Records and formed a new label, Ode Records, which had a distribution deal with Epic Records, an imprint of the major label CBS Records. Adler signed Spirit to Ode in August 1967.

Adler produced Spirit's self-titled debut album, which was released in January 1968. (Most of the songs were written by Ferguson, though California contributed a delicate instrumental called "Taurus" that would prove inspirational to Led Zeppelin, which based the introduction to the 1971 standard "Stairway to Heaven" on it.) Spurred by the single "Mechanical World," which had some regional success, the LP entered the Billboard chart in April and spent more than six months there, peaking in the Top 40 in September. Spirit toured extensively while working on their second album and preparing a score for French director Jacques Demy's film Model Shop (January 1969), in which they also appeared. (Sundazed Records belatedly released a soundtrack album from the film in 2005.) In October 1968, they issued a single, "I Got a Line on You," a driving rocker written by California. Peaking at number 25 in the Hot 100 in March 1969, it was the group's only Top 40 single. The second album, The Family That Plays Together, followed in December 1968. With the hit single spurring sales, it peaked at number 22 in March 1969. (Ferguson again dominated the songwriting, penning six of the 11 tracks, although California wrote or co-wrote the other five.)
With the accelerated schedules typical of record releases in the 1960s, Spirit had to have another album ready quickly, and Clear appeared in July 1969. The album led off with the California/Ferguson composition "Dark Eyed Woman," another rocker in the "I Got a Line on You" mold that was released as a single but did not hit; the LP also contained material written for the Model Shop score that, not surprisingly, sounded like background music. Clear was a disappointment after the success of The Family That Plays Together, peaking at number 55 in October. In December, the band released a one-off single, California's "1984," and it gave early indications of becoming a hit, rising to number 69 by March 1970 before radio became resistant to its ominous lyrics, which referred to the dystopian novel of the same name by George Orwell. Produced by the band itself, it was their last release on Ode. Adler had negotiated a split from CBS in order to move his label to A&M Records, and in so doing he agreed to leave Spirit with Epic. The band then hired David Briggs, who had worked on Neil Young's albums, to produce its fourth LP. Sessions for that album commenced in April 1970, but they were interrupted when California suffered a fractured skull due to a fall from a horse and spent a month in the hospital. A single, Ferguson's "Animal Zoo," emerged in July and grazed the bottom of the charts, but ultimately, it took six months to complete the LP, released as Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus in November.
Spirit toured in support of the album during the winter and spring of 1971, but Epic failed to break a successful single from the LP, and it peaked at number 63 in February. Ferguson and Andes, frustrated at the band's lack of broad commercial success, quit Spirit to form a new band, Jo Jo Gunne, with Matt Andes and drummer Curly Smith. Initially, Spirit hired bassist John Arliss and played as a quartet. Then, California quit to launch a solo career. Remaining members Cassidy and Locke brought in two new musicians, brothers Al Staehely (bass) and Chris Staehely (guitar), and in November they began recording a new Spirit album. It appeared in February 1972 under the title Feedback. Like Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus, it peaked at number 63 in the charts. When Cassidy left the band, followed by Locke, the Staehely brothers brought in a drummer and briefly toured as Spirit. They didn't get away with that for long, but it was easy to see why promoters were interested in having a Spirit band on the road, no matter who was in it. Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus, though off the charts, had become an FM radio favorite and a perennial seller (it would be certified as a gold record in 1976), and Epic re-released The Family That Plays Together, which reentered the charts in July 1972.

Meanwhile, Randy California had signed a solo contract with Epic and in the fall of 1972 he released his debut album, Kapt. Kopter & the (Fabulous) Twirly Birds. He reconnected with Cassidy, and the two hired a bass player, Larry "Fuzzy" Knight to tour Europe as Spirit during the spring of 1973. They also worked on a concept album called Potatoland, but Epic rejected it, and California temporarily dropped out of the music business and moved to Hawaii. Epic released a compilation album, The Best of Spirit, in the summer of 1973 and saw it reach the charts along with a single release of "Mr. Skin," a song from Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus that was a sly allusion to Cassidy's shaved head. Epic also released a two-fer LP combination of Spirit and Clear, and it too got into the charts. Responding to the resulting demands for a live act, Cassidy now hired some side musicians and hit the road as Spirit.

In 1974, Randy California returned from Hawaii and got back in touch with Cassidy. Briefly joined by Mark Andes, who had left Jo Jo Gunne, they began playing dates; John Locke also performed with them for a time, but neither he nor Andes stayed permanently. Instead, California and Cassidy hired another bass player, Barry Keene, and carried on. They recorded an album that they shopped, signing to Mercury Records, which released the double-LP Spirit of '76 in May 1975. It made the lower reaches of the charts. They quickly followed in October with Son of Spirit, another modest seller. For Farther Along, released in June 1976, they were again joined by Andes and Locke, as well as Matt Andes. The album spent several weeks in the charts, and in August Ferguson, who had folded Jo Jo Gunne and was preparing a solo career, rejoined for a few shows, marking the first reunion of the original quintet in five years. He did not stay, however, and Mark Andes, who had already launched his new band Firefall, also departed, as did Locke. Once again California and Cassidy engaged a bassist, John Turlep, to continue as a trio.

Future Games (A Magical Kahauna Dream), the fourth Spirit album on Mercury, released in January 1977, found California standing alone and bare-chested on the front and back covers, and he played all the instruments on the record. Sales again were modest, and the Mercury contract expired. The band toured as a quartet including Locke and Knight, then carried on as a trio when Locke dropped out again. In March 1978, the group toured Europe, and their show at the Rainbow Theatre in London on March 11 was recorded for a live album. The LP appeared that fall on different record labels and in different configurations in different countries. The U.K. version of Live Spirit, released by Illegal Records, contained the Rainbow show; the American version, issued by Spirit's own Potato imprint, substituted some tracks recorded in Florida, and the German version, titled Made in Germany, included a single track recorded in Germany.

Spirit became inactive in 1979, as California formed the Randy California Band and Cassidy began playing in a group called the Urge, then joined Rainbow Red Oxidizer. But by the fall of 1980, however, they were back together, adding bassist Steve "Liberty" Loria and later keyboardist George Valuck to perform again as Spirit. Spurred by a fan petition sponsored by the British music magazine Dark Star, they found a label, Beggars Banquet, interested in issuing the early '70s Potatoland project, and they reworked it for release in April 1981, when it appeared under the title The Adventures of Kapt. Kopter and Commander Cassidy in Potatoland and briefly made the U.K. charts. Rhino Records brought the disc out in the U.S. In 1982, California again began performing under his own name, as he released his second solo album, Euro-American, in Europe. The album featured guest performances by the other four original members of Spirit, though all five were never together on one track.

By the end of 1982, however, the quintet did re-form. In the interim since 1976, Ferguson had enjoyed a successful solo career including the Top Ten hit "Thunder Island" and was moving into film soundtrack work; Andes had joined Heart; and Locke had joined Nazareth. Nevertheless, they reunited with California and Cassidy to make a live-in-the-studio recording at the A&M Soundstage in Hollywood that included re-recordings of old Spirit favorites and a few new songs. The album was shopped around and eventually sold to Mercury, which released it in March 1984 in the U.K. under the title The Thirteenth Dream. It appeared that summer in the U.S. renamed Spirit of '84, and the band played a few dates on the West Coast to promote it, but their various commitments made the reunion short-lived. California and Cassidy then recruited keyboard player Scott Monahan and bass player Dave Waterbury and continued to tour into 1985. That spring, California released his third solo album, Restless, again only in Europe, and toured the continent under his own name to promote it. But by late summer, Spirit was again on the road as part of a package tour of '60s acts raising money for the restoration of the Statue of Liberty in a lineup that included California, Cassidy, and Ferguson, along with bassist Freeman James and keyboardist Michael Lewis.

California and Cassidy continued to lead configurations of Spirit over the next few years. After California participated in I.R.S. Records' "Night of the Guitar" tour, the label signed Spirit for a new album, and Rapture in the Chambers appeared in April 1989 with California, Cassidy, and Locke listed as the bandmembers and Mark Andes, who played bass on two cuts, credited as a guest artist. A year later, Spirit released another new album, Tent of Miracles, on its own Dolphin label with a lineup consisting of California, Cassidy, and Mike Nile. By now, the band had become an established U.S. club act that also undertook yearly tours of Europe. In July 1991, Epic/Legacy released the two-disc retrospective Time Circle (1968-1972), and two months later, Spirit issued its own complementary collection, Chronicles (1967-1992), consisting of previously unreleased recordings, on its own W.E.R.C. C.R.E.W. Records label. In October, the original lineup of California, Cassidy, Ferguson, Andes, and Locke played two concerts opening for the Doobie Brothers, their first appearances together in seven years and the last time that the group was reunited. But California and Cassidy continued to lead other configurations as Spirit for the next five years, releasing Live at La Paloma in 1995 and completing California Blues in 1996. On January 2, 1997, California was swimming with his family off the coast of Molokai, HI, when he and his 12-year-old son Quinn were caught in a riptide. California succeeded in pushing his son to shore, but he was swept out to sea, and his body was never recovered.

Randy California's death meant the end of Spirit, of course, although the indefatigable Cassidy, by now in his seventies, toured with a band called Spirit Revisited. Music journalist Mick Skidmore, while working on a Spirit biography, began to assemble collections of unreleased recordings from California's extensive archives, which were issued in the early years of the 21st century. These included Cosmic Smile (2000), Sea Dream (2002), Blues from the Soul (2003), and Live from the Time Coast (2004), the last three put out by the British Acadia label. Meanwhile, Sundazed Records released LPs containing outtakes from Spirit's Ode/Epic discs, Now or Anywhere and Eventide, in 2000, before issuing Model Shop in 2005. Ode/Epic/Legacy had reissued Spirit, The Family That Plays Together, Clear, and Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus, each with bonus tracks, in 1996, and Mercury had had California compile the two-disc The Mercury Years just before his death. All of this assured that Spirit's music would continue to be heard for years to come.
(Biography by William Ruhlmann - All Music Guide).

Randy California and his stepfather Ed Cassidy formed Spirit in 1967. Cassidy cut his teeth performing with legendary jazz musicians Art Pepper and Thelonius Monk; California's heritage was equally rich, having played with Jimi Hendrix in Jimmy James and the Blue Flames. These diverse backgrounds helped forge Spirit's sound -- a heady mix of Hard Rock and jazz, with some elements of blues and country thrown in. The band released a series of critically acclaimed albums in the late-1960s and early-'70s, though "I Got a Line On You" (1968) was their only chart hit. By 1971 various members had drifted in and out of the band; within a year Spirit had broken up. Sporadic reunions and live performances dotted the 1970s. California drowned in Hawaii in 1997.

Steppenwolf
Formado no final dos anos 60, na Califórnia, por ex-integrantes da banda de blues canadense Sparrow, liderada pelo cantor alemão John Kay. A formação original incluía Goldy McJohn (órgão), Jerry Edmonton (bateria), Michael Monarch (guitarra) e John Russel Morgan (baixo), além de John Kay nos vocais e guitarra. Foi por sugestão de seu produtor que batizaram o grupo com o nome de um dos livros de Herman Hesse (Lobo da Estepe).

Abandonaram as raízes do blues e transformaram-se numa banda de hard-rock criando as clássicas Born to be Wild e The Pusher dois vínculos importantíssimos com a história do hard-rock e do heavy-metal: canções temas de Easy Rider que ajudaram a levantar a banda entre 1969 e 1972, tempo de sua primeira formação. Como ninguém foi feliz na carreira solo voltaram em 1974.

Em outubro de 1990 o legendário John Kay voltou à cena do blues-rock puxando o uivo original da primeira fase do Steppenwolf. O nome de John Kay ganhava destaque e evidência e banda lançada por ele no final dos anos 60 ficou com a segunda parte do empreendimento. Com uma agenda que contava 85 datas - algumas reservadas para o Brasil - John Kay & Steppenwolf voltaram a estrada em maio de 1996 para divulgar o álbum Rise and Shine.

Steve Miller Band
Steve Miller's career has encompassed two distinct stages: one of the top San Francisco blues-rockers during the late '60s and early '70s, and one of the top-selling pop/rock acts of the mid- to late '70s and early '80s with hits like "The Joker," "Fly Like an Eagle," "Rock'n Me," and "Abracadabra."

Miller was turned on to music by his father, who worked as a pathologist but knew stars like Charles Mingus and Les Paul, whom he brought home as guests; Paul taught the young Miller some guitar chords and let him sit in on a session. Miller formed a blues band, the Marksmen Combo, at age 12 with friend Boz Scaggs; the two teamed up again at the University of Wisconsin in a group called the Ardells, later the Fabulous Night Trains. Miller moved to Chicago in 1964 to get involved in the local blues scene, teaming with Barry Goldberg for two years. He then moved to San Francisco and formed the first incarnation of the Steve Miller Blues Band, featuring guitarist James "Curly" Cooke, bassist Lonnie Turner, and drummer Tim Davis. The band built a local following through a series of free concerts and backed Chuck Berry in 1967 at a Fillmore date later released as a live album. Scaggs moved to San Francisco later that year and replaced Cooke in time to play the Monterey Pop Festival; it was the first of many personnel changes. Capitol signed the group as the Steve Miller Band following the festival.

The band flew to London to record Children of the Future, which was praised by critics and received some airplay on FM radio. It established Miller's early style as a blues-rocker influenced but not overpowered by psychedelia. The follow-up, Sailor, has been hailed as perhaps Miller's best early effort; it reached number 24 on the Billboard album charts and consolidated Miller's fan base. A series of high-quality albums with similar chart placements followed; while Miller remained a popular artist, pop radio failed to pick up on any of his material at this time, even though tracks like "Space Cowboy" and "Brave New World" had become FM rock staples. 1971's Rock Love broke Miller's streak with a weak band lineup and poor material, and Miller followed it with the spotty Recall the Beginning...A Journey From Eden. Things began to look even worse for Miller when he broke his neck in a car accident and subsequently developed hepatitis, which put him out of commission for most of 1972 and early 1973.
Miller spent his recuperation time reinventing himself as a blues-influenced pop-rocker, writing compact, melodic, catchy songs. This approach was introduced on his 1973 LP The Joker and was an instant success, with the album going platinum and the title track hitting number one on the pop charts. Now an established star, Miller elected to take three years off. He purchased a farm and built his own recording studio, at which he crafted the wildly successful albums Fly Like an Eagle and Book of Dreams at approximately the same time. Fly Like an Eagle was released in 1976 and eclipsed its predecessor in terms of quality and sales (over four million copies) in spite of the long downtime in between. It also gave Miller his second number one hit with "Rock'n Me," plus several other singles. Book of Dreams was almost as successful, selling over three million copies and producing several hits as well. All of the hits from Miller's first three pop-oriented albums were collected on Greatest Hits 1974-1978, which to date has sold over six million copies and remains a popular catalog item.

Miller again took some time off, not returning again until late 1981 with the disappointing Circle of Love. Just six months later, Miller rebounded with Abracadabra; the title track gave him his third number one single and proved to be his last major commercial success. None of his remaining '80s albums were consistent enough to be critically or commercially successful. A box set covering most of Miller's career was compiled by the artist himself in 1994. (Biography by Steve Huey - All Music Guide)

Strawberry Alarm Clock
Strawberry Alarm Clock were a psychedelic bubblegum band of the mid-‘60s, reaching the top of the charts with “Incense and pepermints” at the height of the flower power era. Originally called the Sixpence, the Californian group conisted of Ed King (lead guitar), Lee Freeman (rhythm guitar), Gary Lovetro (bass), Mark Weitz (organ), and Randy Seol (drums). On the band’s debut single, Incense and peppermints, lead vocals were sung by Greg Munford, a 16-year-old friend of the band. Before recording their full-length debut album, the band added George Bunnell, who also played bass; more importantly, Bunnell became the group’s main songwriter. In the summer of 1967, The Strawberry Alarm Clock contributed muisc to the filme “Psych-out”, as well as appearing in it. Gary Lovetro left the band before they recorded their second album, “Wake up it’s tomorrow”, wich also appeared in 1967. Between 1968’s “The world in a seashell” and 1969’s “Good morning starshine” the band featured King on bass, Weitz, guitarist Jimmy Pitman, and drummer Gene Gunnels. By this time, The Strawberry Alarm Clock had lost much of its audience. They managed to keep performing until 1971, when the band finally broke up. Ed King went on to join Lynyrd Skynyrd; several of the former members of Strawberry Alarm Clock reunited in the 180s to perform on oldiers tours. (Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide - Rolling Stone).

Taste
Power-trio irlandês fundia sua origem aos blues do delta do Mississipi, Rory Gallagher, o guitarrista do povo, galopava lado a lado nos diálogos do contrabaixo de Richard McCraken e o contratempo da bateria de John Wilson. O Taste consevava o odor das planícies arídas deixando os ouvidos da plateia colados ao chão.

Teardrop Explodes
Formado em Liverpool, em 1977, são considerados um dos responsáveis pelo renascimento do psicodelismo britânico ocorrido no final da década e fizeram muito sucesso com as canções Sleeping Gas, Bouncing Babies, Treason e When I Dream, clássico do neopsicodelismo.

Ten Years After
Um dos conjuntos mais populares do hippismo, trinta anos depois mantém a sua formação original. Grupo inglês, formado em 1966, por Alvin Lee (guitarra, vocais), Leo Lyons (baixo) e Ric Lee (bateria), como o nome de Jaybirds. Posteriormente em 1967, Chick Churchill (teclados) entrou para o grupo que passou a usar o novo nome. Tocando blues, com algumas incursões no campo do jazz, evoluindo depois, no decorrer da carreira fonográfica, para um blues-rock sofisticado, repleto de pesquisas sonoras. Ten Years After apresentava-se no Marquee Club e foram aplaudidos de pé no Festival de Blues de Windsor. Nesse mesmo ano lançaram o primeiro álbum e fizeram a primeira turnê norte-americana. Alvin Lee se destacava do grupo por seu virtuosismo, famoso pela rapidez com que conseguia tocar, além de compor o repertório do grupo. Depois de sua apresentação no Festival de Woodstock, registrada em dez minutos de filme, passou a ser considerado um superstar A partir de 1971, o conjunto voltou a fazer um rock mais primário, mas excepcionalmente bem executado, em que finalmente se destacou o pianista-organista Chick Churchill. Em 1974, fizeram novas turnês juntos, embora os rumores sobre a dissolução do grupo fossem muitos. Mas ela só foi oficializada em 1975. Em 1983 estiveram juntos nas comemorações dos 25 anos do Marquee Club, gravando um disco e um vídeo memoráveis. Seis anos depois em 1989, o Ten Years After voltou a ativa com a formação original para um festival de rock na Alemanha, e acabaram gravando o álbum About Time, ficando na estrada até 1991, quando se separaram novamente Em maio de 1997, a formação original do Ten Years After, esteve no Brasil, fazendo shows no Rio, São Paulo, Porto Alegre e Belo Horizonte, para depois apresentarem-sem em festivais na Suécia, Dinamarca e Finlândia. Um dos últimos trabalhos solos de Alvin Lee foi o CDPure Blues, onde ele contava com as participações de George Harrison e Jon Lord.

Thirteen Floor Elevators
Grupo texano que ficou na história do rock de garagem com a faixa You’re Gonna Miss Me e incluía o lendário cantor e compositor Rory Erickson. Também convidaram Janis Joplin para ser a vocalista da banda.

Tomorrow
In the early days of British psychedelia, three bands were consistently cited as first-generation figureheads of the London-based underground sound: Pink Floyd, the Soft Machine, and Tomorrow. Pink Floyd became superstars and the Soft Machine influential cult legends, but Tomorrow is mostly remembered (if at all) for featuring Steve Howe as their lead guitarist in his pre-Yes days. Actually, Tomorrow was nearly the equal of the two more celebrated outfits. Along with the early Floyd and Soft Machine, they shared a propensity for flower-power whimsy. Though they were less recklessly innovative and imaginative, their songwriting was accomplished, with adroit harmonies, psychedelic guitar work, and adventurous structures and tempo changes. They never succumbed to mindless indulgence or jamming; indeed, their tracks were rather short and tightly woven in comparison with most psychedelic bands. A couple singles (especially "My White Bicycle") were underground favorites, but the group only managed to record one album before breaking up in 1968. Lead singer Keith West, even before the breakup, had a number two British hit with "Excerpt From a Teenage Opera," which helped inspire Pete Townshend's Tommy. Drummer Twink joined the Pretty Things and, later, the Pink Fairies. (Biography by Richie Unterberger - All Music Guide).

Trees
In 1970, this British quintet released a couple of albums that made no bones about aping the approach of Fairport Convention (then at their peak). A mixture of traditional folk songs and originals, extended electric-guitar heavy arrangements, and a female singer who took many of the lead vocals — it worked for Fairport. It didn't work as well for the Trees, for several reasons. First of all, Celia Humphris was no Sandy Denny, nor a Jacqui McShee (Pentangle), Maddy Prior (Steeleye Span), or even Judy Dyble (who sang with Fairport before being replaced by Denny). The Trees' original material (usually penned by Tobias Boshell) was more often than not pedestrian. And their arrangements, prone to plodding lengthy instrumental passages, were often way, way too long. The group broke up after two similar albums for British CBS, although they continued to play for a while in the early '70s with some personnel changes. Boshell, in an unlikely turn of events, joined Kiki Dee's Band, and wrote her biggest hit, "I've Got the Music in Me." (Biography by Richie Unterberger - All Music Guide).

Turtles 
Em 1968 lançaram o álbum "Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands", que foi considerado pela revista Rolling Stone, na época, como um dos melhores acontecimentos do ano - atualmente, é uma raridade. Em 1970, o grupo terminou e seus fundadores passaram a trabalhar em dupla, assinando The Pholrescent Leeech and Eddi, ou Flo & Eddie. Fizeram parte do Mother of Invention e depois gravaram apenas em dupla.

Ultimate Spinach [USA]
Ultimate Spinach was one of the most well known, and perhaps the most notorious, of the groups to be hyped as part of the "Bosstown Sound" in 1968. The name itself guaranteed attention, as one of the most ludicrous and heavy-handed "far out" monikers of the psychedelic era, even outdoing formidable competition such as the Peanut Butter Conspiracy. Although the group were competent musicians with streaks of imagination, their albums were generally poor third cousins to the West Coast psychedelic group s that served as their obvious inspirations.

Ultimate Spinach was produced by veteran arranger Alan Lorber, a main architect of the "Bosstown Sound." In September 1967, he announced a marketing plan in the top music-trade papers to make Boston, in his own words (from his liner notes to Big Beat's reissue of Ultimate Spinach's first album), "a target city for the development of new artists from one geographical location." This automatically insured that Lorber and his groups would be the subject of some derision from the hip underground, since vital regional music scenes such as San Francisco psychedelia (which the Bosstown sound often seemed to be mimicking) have to happen on their own, rather than be manufactured. MGM was the label that released most of the Bosstown Sound groups, and it was through MGM that Lorber arranged to distribute two of the bands he produced, Orpheus and Ultimate Spinach.

On the first two of their three albums, Ultimate Spinach was utterly dominated by leader Ian Bruce-Douglas, who wrote all of the material, sang the majority of the lead vocals, and played a wide variety of instruments, most frequently electric keyboards. Their self-titled debut, released in 1967, was a seriously intended psychedelic stew, with inadvertent comically awkward results. Bruce-Douglas' songs tended to be either dippily, humorlessly cosmic, or colored by equally too-serious finger-pointing at mainstream society. The music aped the songwriting forms and guitar/keyboard textures of West Coast psychedelic stars the Doors, the Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe & the Fish, but sounded like ham-handed pastiches. Bruce-Douglas created some sleek, weedy electric keyboard lines on tracks like "Sacrifice of the Moon," but was sometimes so imitative of Country Joe & the Fish's first album that he crossed the line into plagiarism, as on "Baroque #1," with its close similarities to Country Joe's "The Masked Marauder." There were more graceful touches in the occasional vocals by guitarist Barbara Hudson and a baroque-classical tinge to some of the arrangements, and the album did actually sell fairly well.

Behold and See, also released in 1968, was similar to the debut album but a little more even-keeled. That wasn't all good news: there weren't any keyboard-dominated instrumentals to rival "Sacrifice of the Moon," Barbara Hudson didn't have any lead vocals (although guest vocalist Carol Lee Britt took some), and Bruce-Douglas' songwriting was still embarrassingly high-minded and pretentious. The mysterious Bruce-Douglas disbanded Ultimate Spinach after the second LP was recorded, leaving Lorber holding the bag, as a third Ultimate Spinach album had already been scheduled for release. An entirely different lineup was assembled for their third and last album, with only Barbara Hudson remaining from the one heard on the first LP. Also including Ted Myers (ex-Lost and Chamaeleon Church) and guitarist Jeff Baxter (later to play with Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers), this version of Ultimate Spinach recorded III. The record was an undistinguished jumble of psychedelic, hard rock, and pop styles that sounded like the work of several different bands.

Ultimate Spinach (68), Behold and See (68), Ultimate Spinach (69). All three Ultimate Spinach albums were reissued on CD in the mid-1990s by Big Beat in the UK.
(Biography by Richie Unterberger - All Music Guide).

Late sixties flower-power hippie group from Boston, with a fairly non-commercial sound and some definite proto-progressive leanings (incorporating some classical, jazz and baroque elements, unusual instrumentation, long instrumentally oriented tracks in multiple parts). Mostly of historical interest, the lyrics, and some of the more mainstream tracks, tend to be very dated sounding.

Van Der Graaf Generator
Em 1932, o americano Robert van de Graaff constrói a primeira máquina eletrostática com um acelerador eletroestático de partículas para fins de física nuclear. Ele faleceu em 1967. Nesse mesmo ano sua invenção deu luz a uma dark sound band, entorpecida de acordes sinistros. O visionário art-rock do Van Der Graaf Generator, ousou amar simultaneamente o free jazz, a música clássica, as dramáticas baladas e o heavy-rock, de 1968 a 1978, deixou um legado de nove álbuns originais, isso sem contar antologias e inéditos póstumos.

Velvet Underground 
Sterling Morrison, guitarrista do Velvet Underground, morreu em 30 de agosto de 1995, aos 53 anos, na mesma época em que saía a caixa de 5 CDs do grupo, Peel Slowly and See. Ao lado de Lou Reed, Moe Tucker e John Cale, Morrison participou da rápida reunião do Velvet Underground em 1993.

A vida da cantora e compositora Christa Paffgen (Nico, Budapeste/Hungria, 15/03/43) conhecida por seu trabalho com o Velvet Underground, virou filme. Nico/Icon é o primeiro filme da alemã Suzanne Oftenringer e levou vários prêmios Europa afora.
O multiinstrumentista John Cale, lançou nos Estados Unidos o seu primeiro disco pop em uma década. Walking On Loaists, com as presenças de David Byrne na faixa Crazy Egypt e da ex-baterista do Velvet, Moe Tucker. Cale também compôs as trilhas sonoras dos filmes Basquiat e I Shot Andy Warhol.

We All Together
"Excepcional Badfinger-Beatleano peruano".

Este excelente grupo, formado en 1971, es considerado la tercera parte de una trilogía que empezó con New Juggler Sound, continúo con Laghonia y culminó con We All Together. Sus integrantes, los hermanos Manuel y Saúl Cornejo, Ernesto Samamé y Carlos Salom provenían de Laghonia y Carlos Guerrero fue el único nuevo. Posteriormente el tecladista Carlos Salom fue reemplazado por Félix Varvarande. Sus dos LP más importantes fueron lanzados en 1972 y 1973; el primero con temas propios y covers y el segundo sólo con temas compuestos por ellos. También grabaron un mini LP antes de su disolución en 1974. En 1989 se reagruparon como trio al no participar los hermanos Cornejo. Al igual que muchos grupos en el mundo, tuvieron una fuerte influencia de Los Beatles. Algunos le reprochan a Carlos Guerrero su predilección por McCartney. Estos melindres son absurdos porque en esos tiempos casi nadie escapaba de la magia de los genios de Liverpool. Otra de las creencias erroneas es que We All Together sólo hacía covers, por eso he subido 11 temas suyos y sólo un cover. Lo que nadie puede negar es la gran calidad de We All Together.

The Peruvian band We All Together, though unknown beyond a core cluster of cultists, was among the prime exponents of Beatlesque pop/rock in the early '70s. Led by singer and frequent composer Carlos Guerrero, who (along with some other members) had been in the Peruvian rock band Laghonia, they released two albums (singing in English) in the first half of the '70s. These were fashioned after the lighter side of the late-'60s Beatles, particularly in the vocal harmonies, melodic tunes and sophisticated arrangements blending keyboards, acoustic guitars and electric guitars in a graceful manner. Although Lennon, McCartney, and for that matter, Harrison's influence, show up in We All Together's work, they had more of an affinity for McCartney's engaging melodicism than for the other members of the Fab Four, to the point of covering some obscure, early McCartney solo tunes. On their second album, they also reached into some British progressive rock riffs, although the Beatle vibe remained dominant. With the exception of Badfinger, they may have been the best band of their time to play in an avowedly Beatlesque style. Their albums, once all but impossible to find in the Northern Hemisphere, were reissued in the U.S. in the late '90s.

Yes 
Formado por Chris Squire, baixo, e Jon Anderson, vocais, no final de 1967, para interpretar as músicas que faziam em parceria. Jon Anderson havia deixado o grupo The Gun e Chris, o Syn, de onde veio também o guitarrista Peter Banks, depois substituído por Steve Howe. Os teclados foram entregues a Tony Kaye, algum tempo mais tarde substituído por Rick Wakeman. E o baterista Bill Bruford foi convencido a largar a Universidade de Leeds para se juntar ao grupo.
A primeira vez em que o Yes chamou a atenção do público inglês foi no concerto de despedida do Cream, no Royal Albert Hall de Londres, no finalzinho de 1968, quando eles abriram o espetáculo. Naquela época, eles já se apresentavam com freqüência no circuito de colégios e clubes, principalmente no Marquee, onde começaram diversos outros grupos londrinos. Voltaram em 1991, com o álbum The Union.

The Youngbloods
The Youngbloods could not be considered a major '60s band, but they were capable of offering some mighty pleasurable folk-rock in the late '60s, and produced a few great tunes along the way. One of the better groups to emerge from the East Coast in the mid-'60s, they would temper their blues and jug band influences with gentle California psychedelia, particularly after they moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. For most listeners, they're identified almost exclusively with their Top Ten hit "Get Together," but they managed several respectable albums as well, all under the leadership of singer/songwriter Jesse Colin Young.

Young got his start on the folk circuits of Boston and New York, and had already cut a couple of solo albums before forming the Youngbloods. John Sebastian was one of the supporting musicians on Young's second LP, and comparisons between the two — and between the Youngbloods and the Lovin' Spoonful — are inevitable. Both groups offered good-timey folk-rock with much stronger jug band influences than West Coast rivals like the Byrds, though the Youngbloods made greater use of electric keyboards than the Spoonful, courtesy of the enigmatically named Lowell "Banana" Levinger. The Youngbloods didn't craft nearly as many brilliant singles as the Lovin' Spoonful, but (unlike the Spoonful) endured well into the hippie/psychedelic era.

While Young was always the focal point of the band, their first two albums also had songwriting contributions from guitarist Jerry Corbitt. Produced by Felix Pappalardi (who also worked with Cream), these records (The Youngbloods and Earth Music) were engaging and mature, if inconsistent, folk-rock. Corbitt's "Grizzly Bear" was a small hit, as was "Get Together," a Dino Valenti song that had previously been recorded by Jefferson Airplane. The Youngbloods' slow, soulful interpretation of "Get Together" was definitive, but it wouldn't reach the Top Ten until it was re-released in 1969, after the song had been used in a television public service ad.

By that time, Corbitt had left, and the Youngbloods, reduced to a trio, were living in Marin County, CA. 1969's Elephant Mountain was produced by, of all people, Charlie Daniels. Reflecting the mellowing influence of San Francisco psychedelia, it was their best effort, featuring some of Young's best songs. They released a few more albums in the early '70s (some live), but on these the mellow California rock sound that had served them well on Elephant Mountain had begun to turn limpid and wimpy. The group broke up in 1972, and Jesse Colin Young had a long and moderately successful career as a solo singer/songwriter. (Biography by Richie Unterberger - All Music Guide).

The Zombies
Genre: British Invasion, Oldies
Aside from the Beatles and perhaps the Beach Boys, no mid-'60s rock group wrote melodies as gorgeous as those of the Zombies. Dominated by Colin Blunstone's breathy vocals, choral backup harmonies, and Rod Argent's shining jazz- and classical-influenced organ and piano, the band sounded utterly unique for their era. Indeed, their material — penned by either Argent or guitarist Chris White, with unexpected shifts from major to minor keys — was perhaps too adventurous for the singles market. To this day, they're known primarily for their three big hit singles, "She's Not There" (1964), "Tell Her No" (1965), and "Time of the Season" (1969). Most listeners remain unaware that the group maintained a remarkably high quality of work for several years.

The Zombies formed in the London suburb of St. Albans in the early '60s, and actually didn't entertain serious professional ambitions until they won a local contest, the prize being an opportunity to record a demo for consideration at major labels. Argent's composition "She's Not There" got them a deal with Decca, and the song ended up being their debut release. It was a remarkably confident and original first-time effort, with a great minor melody and the organ, harmonies, and urgent, almost neurotic vocals that would typify much of their work. It did well enough in Britain (making the Top 20), but did even better in the States, where it went to number two.

In fact the group would experience a lot more success across the waters than they did at home throughout their career. In early 1965, another piece of classic British Invasion pop, "Tell Her No," went into the Top Ten. Yet that was as much Top 40 success as the group would have for several years.

The tragedy was that throughout 1965 and 1966, the Zombies released a string of equally fine, intricately arranged singles that flopped commercially, at a time in which chart success on 45s was a lot more important to sustain a band's livelihood than it would be a few years down the road. "Remember When I Loved Her," "I Want You Back Again," "Indication," "She's Coming Home," "Whenever You're Ready," "Gotta Get a Hold of Myself," "I Must Move," "Remember You," "Just out of Reach," "How We Were Before" — all are lost classics, some relegated to B-sides, that went virtually unheard, all showing the group eager to try new ideas and expand their approaches. What's worse, the lack of a big single denied the group opportunities to record albums — only one LP, rushed out to capitalize on the success of "She's Not There," would appear before 1968.

Their failure to achieve more widespread success is a bit mystifying, perhaps explained by a few factors. While undeniably pop-based, their original compositions and arrangements were in some senses too adventurous for the radio. "Indication," for instance, winds down with a lengthy, torturous swirl of bitter organ solos and wordless, windblown vocals; "Remember When I Loved Her," despite its beautiful melody, has downbeat lyrics that are almost morbid; "I Want You Back Again" is arranged like a jazz waltz, with the sorts of sudden stops, tempo shifts, and lengthy minor organ solos found in a lot of their tunes. The group were also, perhaps unfairly, saddled with a somewhat square image; much was made of their formidable scholastic record, and they most definitely did not align themselves with the R&B-based school of British bands, preferring more subtle and tuneful territory.

By 1967, the group hadn't had a hit for quite some time, and reckoned it was time to pack it in. Their Decca contract expired early in the year, and the Zombies signed with CBS for one last album, knowing before the sessions that it was to be their last. A limited budget precluded the use of many session musicians, which actually worked to the band's advantage, as they became among the first to utilize the then-novel Mellotron to emulate strings and horns.

"Odessey and Oracle" was their only cohesive full-length platter (the first album was largely pasted together from singles and covers). A near-masterpiece of pop/psychedelia, it showed the group reaching new levels of sophistication in composition and performance, finally branching out beyond strictly romantic themes into more varied lyrical territory. The album passed virtually unnoticed in Britain, and was only released in the States after some lobbying from Al Kooper. By this time it was 1968, and the group had split for good.

The Zombies had been defunct for some time when one of the tracks from Odessey, "Time of the Season," was released as a single, almost as an afterthought. It took off in early 1969 to become their biggest hit, but the members resisted temptations to re-form, leading to a couple of bizarre tours in the late '60s by bogus "Zombies" with no relation to the original group. By this time, Rod Argent was already recording as the leader of Argent, which went in a harder rock direction than the Zombies. After a spell as an insurance clerk, Blunstone had some success (more in Britain than America) in the early '70s as a solo vocalist, with material that often amounted to soft rock variations on the Zombies sound.

Much more influential than their commercial success would indicate, echoes of the Zombies' innovations can be heard in the Doors, the Byrds, the Left Banke, the Kinks, and many others. After a long period during which most of their work was out of print, virtually all of their recordings have been restored to availability on CD. (Biography by Richie Unterberger - All Music Guide).

The Zombies' influence on popular music corresponds neither to their commercial success nor to their recorded output. With only two albums and just a handful of vaguely successful singles, among them Tell Her No, She's Not There and Time Of The Season," the group's unmistakable melodies and classically derived arrangements have nevertheless turned the Zombies into a touchstone for anyone interested in harmonious pop music. Colin Blunstone's breathy, soulful, swooning voice still remains unrivalled in its otherworldliness, and the group makes some of the most complex, ornate and stunning psychedelic pop around. Anyone who has ever spent time listening to "Odessey & Oracle" can attest to it. (Rolling Stone).

Morreu guitarrista do Zombies...
Paul Atkinson, guitarrista da lendária banda inglesa The Zombies, morreu na última quinta-feira [1º abr. / 2004] em Santa Monica, Califórnia. Atkinson, de 58 anos, foi vítima de problemas no rim e no fígado.

Formada em 1962 e desfeita em 1967, a banda The Zombies foi uma das bandas da "invasão britânica", que teve como os Beatles como o expoente.

Depois do fim do Zombies, Paul Atkinson se tornou um executivo da industria da música.

Em janeiro de 2004, o The Zombies tinha se reunido para receber uma homenagem de vários músicos amigos.