1077 - Mojo 85. The Electric Prunes - Underground (1967)

Track Listing

1. The Great Banana Hoax
2. Children Of Rain
3. Wind-Up Toys
4. Antique Doll
5. It's Not Fair
6. I Happen To Love You
7. Dr. Do-Good
8. I
9. Hideaway
10. Big City
11. Captain Glory
12. Long Day's Flight

Review

So another interesting psych album on the list and even if it is not the best thing to ever have happened to the genre it is a quite competent outing with a couple of truly great tracks.

In comparison to the other album of them I know, which was previously on the list a long, long time ago, Had Too Much To Dream Last Night, this sounds overall like an improvement, while that album did not have much going for it except the title track, this is an overall good album.

Weirder than their previous album it is also more interesting without falling too much on the worse excesses of psych. The great highlight of the album is the first track, with a great guitar solo transmuting from an organ chord.

Track Highlights

1. The Great Banana Hoax
2. Antique Doll
3. Hideaway
4. It's Not Fair

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

This is the second of three albums they had out in 1967!

Still alive! Playing the Great Banana Hoax in 2008:

1076 - Mojo 84. West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band - Part One (1967)

Track Listing

1. Shifting Sands
2. I Won't Hurt You
3. 1906
4. Help, I'm A Rock
5. Will You Walk With Me
6. Transparent Day
7. Leiyla
8. Here's Where You Belong
9. If You Want This Love
10. 'Scuse Me Miss Rose
11. High Goin'

Review

So an eccentric rich man wants in on the groupie-action, so he proceeds to found a band so he can play the tambourine on stage, and to bank on the druggie hippie/freak pussy he decides to make it a psych band.

And the results are interesting despite all of this. Somewhere between Country Joe and the Fish and Zappa it is good music which, nonetheless sounds slightly fake. It would never be a band that would last for a long time, and it didn't, but there are some fun moments to have here.

Interestingly they are at their best not in their strangest moments but actually in their prettiest moments like Transparent Day, their version of Help I'm a Rock falls short of the original and a lot of it is just gratuitously weird, but there are really beautiful moments here which make listening to this a worthwhile experience.

Track Highlights

1. Transparent Day
2. High Goin'
3. I Won't Hurt You
4. Will You Walk With Me

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Their first "proper" album, "Part One", ranged from anthemic pop songs and acoustic ballads to harder-edged psychedelic numbers. It reflected the tensions between the band’s musicians and Markley, who effectively controlled the band’s output but who was regarded by the others as musically untalented. Markley contributed rambling pseudo-psychedelic lyrics and spoken sections, and the album also included ill-assorted inputs from nominal co-producer Jimmy Bowen, songwriters Baker Knight and P.F. Sloan, drummer Hal Blaine and pianist Van Dyke Parks. Disputes between Markley and Michael Lloyd also led to the inclusion of guitarist Ron Morgan (1945–1989), who over time became a fully fledged member of the band.

I Won't Hurt You:

1075 - Mojo 83. Albert King - Born Under a Bad Sign (1967)

Track Listing

1. Born Under A Bad Sign
2. Crosscut Saw
3. Kansas City
4. Oh Pretty Woman
5. Down Don't Bother Me
6. Hunter
7. When I Lost My Baby I Almost Lost My Mind
8. Personal Manager
9. Laundromat Blues
10. As The Years Go Passing By
11. Very Thought Of You

Review

Born Under a Bad Sign is a blues album by eccentric guitarist and singer Albert King, unfortunately it is not all that spectacular. His guitar playing is excellent and even if his voice is often buried by the instruments it does flourish on a couple of tracks. However it is much too clean.

Blues for me has to be slightly less produced than this, the fact that this is on the Stax label might have something to do with it but there is much too much going on in this album for it to sounds like what the blues should sound... at least to me.

From the blues I want some grittiness and King is very much buried by arrangements here, even if his guitar playing comes to the foreground and it is very good indeed I can't help but feel that there is a kind of violence being made to the Blues in the arrangements... oh well.

Track Highlights

1. Crosscut Saw
2. Born Under a Bad Sign
3. Very Though of You
4. Kansas City

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

King played a Gibson Flying V through a solid-state Acoustic amplifier; his tone on the second song, "Crosscut Saw," was hailed in 2004 by Guitar Player as one of the "50 Greatest Tones of All Time."

Crosscut Saw:

1074 - Mojo Special 13. Duke Reid's Treasure Chest: Treasure Isle Rock Steady (1964-1970)

Track Listing

Disc: 1

1. We Are in the Mood [Take 2] - Royals
2. Come on Little Girl [Take Two] - The Melodians
3. Things You Say You Love - The Jamaicans
4. Tide Is High - The Paragons
5. You Don't Need Me - The Melodians
6. Rock Steady - Phyllis Dillon
7. Soul Style - Duke Reid's Group
8. Can't Stand It - Alton Ellis, Lloyd Williams
9. Queen Majesty - The Techniques
10. Heartaches - Vic Taylor
11. Midnight Hour - The Silvertones
12. Midnight Hour - U-Roy
13. My Best Girl - The Paragons
14. Loving Pauper - Dobby Dobson
15. I'll Get Along Without You - The Melodians
16. I'll Never Fall in Love - The Sensations
17. Traveling Man - The Techniques
18. Don't Stay Away - Phyllis Dillon
19. La-La (Means I Love You) - Alton Ellis
20. Hey Leroy, Your Mama's Callin' You - Honey Boy Martin

Disc: 2

1. No Good Rudie [Take Three] - Justin Hinds & Dominoes
2. Everybody Bawling - U-Roy
3. Ba Ba Boom - The Jamaicans
4. Cry Tough [Extended Version] - Alton and the Flames
5. You Have Caught Me - The Melodians
6. Perfidia - Phyllis Dillon
7. Those Guys - The Sensations
8. Ranglin on Bond St. - Ernest and Tommy
9. Girl I've Got a Date [Alternate Version] - Alton Ellis
10. How I Wish It Would Rain - The Techniques
11. It's Raining - The Three Tops
12. Love Is a Treasure - Freddie McKay
13. You Done Me Wrong - Tyrone and the Slickers
14. Right Track - Phyllis Dillon, Hopeton Lewis
15. Everyday Is a Holiday - The Sensations
16. Holiday Version - Winston Wright
17. Come Back My Darling [False Start] - Girl Satchmo
18. Come Back My Darling - Girl Satchmo
19. Mother's Tender Care [Take Two] - The Ethiopians
20. My Girl - The Techniques
21. Moonlight Lover - Joya Landis

Review

Now we've moved away from Ska on the Jamaican Music Mojo Specials and into Rock Steady, the more sultry development of Jamaican music, somewhere between Ska and Reggae. This is a pretty nifty collection of tracks.

The album is named after the producer of all these tracks, Duke Reid, who really gives them his own sonority. In fact you can really divide Jamaican music as much by producers as by musicians, as the music often reflects the producer's ethos as much as the musicians.

I particularly like some versions of well known songs in Rock Steady rhythm here, such as La-La (Love You) or Midnight Hour, but then there are plenty of classic originals such as Tide is High, famously covered by Blondie or We Are in the Mood. This is much more dancy music than ska and while it does not have anywhere near the edge of Prince Buster it is pretty good "pop", or an equivalent of pop, which makes the covers particularly adequate. Great Stuff.

Track Highlights

1. La-La (Love You)
2. Tide is High
3. We Are in the Mood
4. Midnight Hour

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

After serving 10 years as a Jamaican Police Officer, Reid left the force to help his wife Lucille run the family business, The Treasure Isle Grocery and Liquor Store.

He made his way into the music business first as a sound system (outdoor mobile discothèque) owner, promoter and disc jockey. He quickly overtook Tom the Great Sebastian and his sound system as the most popular sound system in Jamaica. Soon he was also sponsor and presenter of a radio show, Treasure Isle Time. A jazz and blues man at heart, Duke chose 'My Mother's Eyes' by Tab Smith as his theme tune. Other favourites of his included Fats Domino, a noticeable influence on the early Duke Reid sound.

Tide is High by the Paragons:

1073 - Mojo 82. Small Faces - Small Faces (1967)

Track Listing

1. (Tell Me) Have You Ever Seen Me
2. Something I Want To Tell You
3. Feeling Lonely
4. Happy Boys Happy
5. Things Are Going to Get Better
6. My Way Of Giving
7. Green Circles
8. Become Like You
9. Get Yourself Together
10. All Our Yesterdays
11. Talk To You
12. Show Me The Way
13. Up the Wooden Hills to Bedfordshire
14. Eddie's Dreaming

Review

First things first, when looking for this album do not mistake it for the other self-titled Small Faces album from 1966, this is the 1967 one and it is a much better one. You will have to look for it by track listing rather than by the title.

You really get the feeling that the Small Faces are quite a bit ahead of the game here, more so than in their more popular albums like Ogden's Nut Gone Flake. At moments throughout this they seem to be prefiguring Glam by a handful of years, listen to the second or third track and you can see Bowie coming a mile away.

Another interesting thing about this album is the way in which songs are surprisingly short, in fact many are below the 2 minute mark and many scarcely go over it. There is an almost Ramones-like impatience to the music, they have a new idea to show you next and so they just move on. All of this together with some great tracks like MY Way of Giving makes this album essential.

Track Highlights

1. My Way of Giving
2. Green Circles
3. Feeling Lonely
4. Something I Want to Tell You

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

At the time of the release of this album, an unofficial second album From the Beginning was released by Decca. Small Faces had transferred to the Immediate label headed by Andrew Loog Oldham.

My Way Of Giving: