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Various Artists - Sucesso de Ouro (1971)


This record was picked up in Santa Cruz at the record/book store known as Logos. I got it for 7 bucks and considering it was printed in 1971 and has tracks by Mutantes and Tim Maia on it, I'd say it was a pretty good deal. The cover is sort of ridiculous with the American-ized woman chilling in her va-va-voom bathing suit, but the record basically rules. Brazil in 1971 was a serious goldmine of great melodies. The track "O Carona" is a nice little fuzzy, funk stomper by Tony e Som Colorido. The Mutantes track is totally out of control once those synths come in half-way and Arnaldo Baptista just starts going bananas into the mic. Pretty sure that this Mutantes track is on this album. But so many great tracks, especially nice one from Marcus Pitter, whose 1970 album, A Voz do Sucesso I am now on the verge of shelling out for.

Tony e Som Colorido - O Carona

Mutantes - Balada de Louco

Flutes, Folk, Magic, and You

Congreso - El Congreso (1971)


Chilean psych-folk with big rock overtones? Sign me the HELL up. Congreso aren't exactly psych-folk - they do indeed have these drifty little moments where you can feel the ancient spirits rise up, but it's brief. They are, more often than not, a folk rock group that seem to like the later period Beatles and Buffalo Springfield. They were signed to EMI and they still exist in some form. This first track is a keeper for me as it leads off with a flute solo and it just takes so much balls (not sure if it should be "much balls" or "many balls" - probably 'much' as having 'many' doesn't really have the same sort of power - seems a little sickening, actually) to do something like that. Granted, it probably didn't at the time, but now from the safe haven of my California home, starting a song off with a flute is like seriously awesome. The second track, "El Errante" is another flute jam, but it has this low-key Crazy Horse thing going on and it sounds sort of dirty and mystical. The third one is the group at their most poppy. The album also has a very nice 11 minute folk-funk jam and a cover of "El Condor Pasa" - I mean, what more do you want?

Vamos Andando Mi Amigo

El Errante

Has Visto Caer Una Lagrima

Put Some Lotion On Your Hand

Layng Martine - "Rub It In" (1971)

This track was a bigger hit for Billy 'Crash' Craddock, who turned it into a greasy little slice of cajun country pop, but this version by the guy who actually wrote the tune - Layng Martine - is more my style. It's an odd, fairly licentious slice of bubblegum that is (at the very least) about applying lotion to your skin. It also repeats the chorus with some sort of bizarre effect that may be nothing more than a comb and a piece of tissue paper. Bubblegum's most enduring quality is that ability to take the most childlike sing-song melody and make it stick in your brain for days. "Rub It In" does this big time. The track has also been remade into a commercial jingle in the form of "Plug It In" - a tune for those weird Glade plug-in deodorizers.

Barnaby Records, the home to Martine's ode to the application of liquid was put together by Andy Williams. Mr. Williams formed Barnaby to re-release the host of masters he ended up with after buying the label Cadence in order to own his own early records. At the time, Andy Williams was trying to balance out his time hanging with murderous fox Claudine Longet by hanging out with Ray Stevens at every opportunity. So the Barnaby roster is a strange mix of solid records from Cadence by Charles Mingus,,,,, new schlock by WIlliams and Stevens, and the oddly beguiling soft pop of Ms. Longet. The other odd bird on the roster is the self-titled record by Sand - who were an incredibly tuneful band of country rockers with a penchant for weird chord changes and non-offensive jam sessions. I really need a copy of that record. Also, the cover of that Sand record features a big-ass sandwich on the cover. And everyone knows how delicious sandwiches are. But at any rate - "Rub It In" - let's do that.


Rub It In

Your Hand-Painted Garden Has Every Color There

Phil Cordell - "Red Lady" (1969)


Phil Cordell was in a band in the mid '60s called The Prophets (different from Thee Prophets), who reputedly had a record recorded with Joe Meek, but that record is still shelved. In between his time with Prophets and his new incarnation in the early 70s as Springwater and the regrettably-named Dan the Banjo Man (a record that features no banjo, by the way), Cordell recorded this incredibly melodic little track called "Red Lady." The plaintive melody on this thing puts it above so much of the mid-paced psych throwaways. Also loving the sitar-esque slide giving it the drift-away flavor. (mmm...drift away flavor). That heavy little drumbeat packed underneath all the hiss makes this even greater. Would love to hear how a pristine version of this track would sound.


Red Lady

Wind City Romance

Happy End - Kazemachi Roman (1971)

This warmth of the production that seeps in the brain on this record is pretty much untouchable. There's a dash of fuzz guitar here and there, but mostly this is in the roots-y folk blues style, heavy on the rhythm. Could probably stack this up against records in '72 by Neil Young, Grateful Dead, the Band, the countrified Stones, the whacked-out Beach Boys and those gentemen that used to be in the Beatles. Organic tones everywhere and the production spaced so that you can hear every instrument. "Kaze wo Atsumete" might be familiar to you if you listened to the Lost in Translation soundtrack. That song is basically a watertight pop song - I could pour this terrible coffee that I'm drinking in it and we'd still be good. On a background note, the bassist Haruomi Hosono played in the psych-blues group Apryl Fool (notable for the track "The Lost Mother Land, Pt. 1" - which is one of the more twisted psych tracks you're going to find). I was just reading that this album was conceived as an ode to a more simple time in Japan's history, and despite the language barrier on my end, the phrasing certainly suggests a more bucolic time. The group continue to be an influential force within Japanese music (despite breaking up in the early '70s). There is an earlier album available, a live album, a tribute album and a box-set. All of which can be yours for a ridiculous price.

Dakishimetai

Haru Ranman

One Day At A Time

John Phillips - Wolfking of L.A. (1970)

I wonder what the consensus on the Mamas and Papas was back in the day. They are very much the epitome of a sunshine pop act, but their does seem to be quite a bit of substance in the songs of John Phillips. Enter then: Wolfking of LA. - an album which gets a little bit better each time I listen to it. I also have to wonder at what point did he christen himself the wolfking of anything and was there perhaps any sort of ceremony involved? The recording for this took place in his big-ass drug mansion in Bel-Air. But he was far from faded at this point. The thing is, these tracks, which chronicle certain aspects of Los Angeles (Topanga Canyon, Malibu) are just fantastic. His lyrics branching out from optimism and reflection and instead verging on slyly cynical, impressionistic snapshots of slices of that deceiving sun-baked life. I used to dig me some sunshine pop (as recently as say...this morning), but I love the sound when people realized that it just wasn't going to pan out like they thought. Disillusioned, yet still slightly out of their minds.

Holland Tunnel

Malibu People

I'm Trying To Get to You

Stories - About Us (1972)

I pretty much ran the Left Banke into the ground, listened to that first album so many times that I had harpsichord coming out
of my eyes (painful). So it took me a few years to jump on to the Stories brigade. Michael Brown was the man behind the harpsichord and the man who did most of the instrumentation with Stories. Basically, he was the best part of the Left Banke (although Steve Martin - not America's used-to-be-funnyman - had a pretty amazing single called "Two by Two" that I have listened to close to 25 times). But I digress -- Ian Lloyd is the vocal here and he comes off sounding like early Rod Stewart or Todd Rundgren. This whole album is a bit of a mix - "Love In Motion" points to a whole new post-Beatles pop scene that could involve Rundgren, Raspberries, Big Star and little bits of Rockin' Chair or Blue Ash. There's a touch of gloss on this, giving it a sparkle that the rest of the album doesn't quite have. Their cover of Hot Chocolate's "Brother Louie" pretty much rules, but it's different breed of animal and frankly, some of the tracks on the album kinda blow. But yeah, this track is great.


Love In Motion

Many Ripertons To Cross

Minnie Riperton - Perfect Angel (1974)

I first heard Minnie Riperton when the Orb used a sample of "Lovin' You" on that track from their first album. Her voice sounds really disembodied on that track, and I had no previous knowledge of "Lovin' You", so those piercing notes might just as well have been field recordings of some strange bird. Fast forward a few years and my friend told me I should hear some Rotary Connection records (as should everybody). I'll have to save that post for another day, but Minnie's voice on those Rotary Connection just kills - alongside the band's own Sly Stone-style funk, folk and some strange Zappa-style abstractions. At any rate, this track from Perfect Angel is pretty nice - a steel-string, country-folk slow-burner (with Sneaky Pete on the steel) where Minnie doesn't really go overboard, she just relaxes and shows everyone just what a serious talent she was. The whole record is pretty much top drawer, Stevie Wonder is all over it and it goes well with other records of the folk-funk variety by Syreeta and Linda Lewis.
It's So Nice