Wednesday 31 July 2019

Various Artists ‎– "Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls - OST" (Stateside ‎– SSL 10311) 1970


Russ Meyer's classic Sexploitation Psychsploitation cult masterpiece that is 'Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls', with a soundtrack by a fictional band, The Carrie Nations, that puts most rock music flicks to the sword. The Carrie Nations also make The Strawberry Alarm Clocks contributions pale into insignificance, with such Classics as the lovely ballad 'In The Long Run' and the slightly naive summer of love anthem, "Come With The Gentle People".......surely, this being a Russ Meyer film, that should read as 'Cum in the Gentle People';which i'm sure most of the staff did,or at least tried to.
One has to ask oneself why a long out of print sexploitation soundtrack from 1970 by a band that never existed sounds better than anything played on the radio today?....but,who actually owns a radio these days anyway?
Stu Phillips and lyricist Bob Stone cooked up some of the finest Power Pop of the Psychedelic era,backed up by the off-screen session players and vocalists, notably Lyn Carey,who wrote a couple of the tunes as well as sung them.
Then Russ did his bit by recruiting only young ladies with Large Breasts to mime(very well I may add,even though i rarely looked at their mouths) to the musical nirvana of the Carrie Nations.Lovely Lovely Lovely.
Malcolm MacLaren hired Russ Meyer to make the Sex PIstols movie "Who Killed Bambi?",but little twat Rotten ruined it by being an arsehole. That movie could have been as good as "A Hard Days Night" but with lots of Big Tits (The biggest tit being Lydon). Instead of the interminably awful "Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle".Another in the long line of terrible attempts to transcribe the magic of Rock'n'Roll onto the silver screen.One of which,"Beyond the Valley Of The Dolls", most certainly isn't!

Tracklist:

A1 –The Sandpipers - Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls (Main Theme)
A2 –Carrie Nations - Come With The Gentle People
A3 –Carrie Nations - Look On Up At The Bottom
A4 –Strawberry Alarm Clock - Girl From The City
A5 –Carrie Nations - In The Long Run
A6 –Stu Phillips - Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls (Instrumental)
B1 –Carrie Nations - Sweet Talkin' Candy Man
B2 –Carrie Nations - Find It
B3 –Stu Phillips - Ampersand (Instrumental)
B4 –Carrie Nations - Once I Had A Love
B5 –Strawberry Alarm Clock - I'm Comin' Home
B6 –The Sandpipers - Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls


DOWNLOAD your pants HERE!

Various ‎Artists – "Psych-Out (OST)" (Sidewalk ‎– ST-5913) 1968


The Psychedelic Brat Pack, Jack Nicholson,Bruce Dern,Peter Fonda, and Dennis Hopper, were never out of work between 1966 and 1970.There was seldom a biker movie or a Psychsploitation flick that at least one of them wasn't in.
This one had Nicholson and Dern in it, fleshing out the bits in between the party scenes and the largely faked Psych groups. One of them, Boenzee Cryque was responsible for the greatest ever inverted and backwards version of 'Purple Haze' ever made(no royalties for James from this album methinks?).....if there was a second one I need to hear it before I die,or tye-dye!?
Amazingly, The Strawberry Alarm Clock were an actual group!? Which I find quite amazing!?....I just love their watered down sunshine Psych-pop immensley.
The Seeds were slightly past their sell-by date by 1968....very 1965 garage punk.But Sky Saxon ,singer of the Seeds) did manage to go and join the Father Yod Family in Hawaii a few years after this,and helped make some genuinely Crazed music.
By 1968,the kids were tiring of songs about colours,flowers and love,so started going back to the boring basics and dressed like 'The Band'.
By the time this movie came out it was becoming 'soooo yesterday maaaaan',but fuck that, I love it.

Tracklist:

A1 –The Storybook - The Pretty Song From Psych-out 3:16
A2 –Strawberry Alarm Clock - Rainy Day Mushroom Pillow 3:05
A3 –The Seeds - Two Fingers Pointing On You 3:12
A4 –Boenzee Cryque - Ashbury Wednesday 2:54
A5 –Strawberry Alarm Clock - The World's On Fire 3:31
B1 –The Storybook - Psych-out Sanctorum 3:25
B2 –The Storybook - Beads Of Innocence 3:10
B3 –The Storybook - The Love Children 2:24
B4 –The Storybook - Psych-out 2:17
B5 –Strawberry Alarm Clock - The World's On Fire (Long Version) 8:22


DOWNLOAD and get yer psychs out HERE!

Tuesday 30 July 2019

Kim Fowley ‎– "Love Is Alive And Well" (Tower ‎– DT 5080) 1967


Looking like a Flower Power version of Malcolm McDowell as 'Alex' from 'The Clockwork Orange',you just know something's wrong here. The Self-appointed 'Lord of Garbage', Kim Fowley had a wide and varied career in Pop Music, chiefly as a producer and writer of novelty hits,exploiter of trends and of gleefully cultivating the 'shock factor'.
If a new trend was evident, he would be there with a semi-relevent single ,album, or group.Like a child molester offering access to some puppies
In his late twenties by 1967, with a rapists stare, as well as a rapists witt,he surrounded himself with Flower Children and likely deflowered the ones he could;all this while doing his best impression of Sky Saxon and The Seeds.
His tongue firmly in cheek, as well as in other places, it isn't entirely clear if he's semi-serious,or just a piss-taking predator.
The track "Super Flower", has no music, no singing,only Fowley interviewing a group of Sunset Strip teenyboppers with questions like: ‘Why do you love Kim Fowley?’ or ‘You, flower child; what’s your opinion?’ It would be magnanimous if it wasn’t such an obvious set up, with ‘...he’s beautiful, kind, considerate…generous…’ or ‘wonderful, marvelous’ being the only answers!
He ticks all the boxes for 'Cult Leader',of which there was too much competition in 1967, so he stuck with Pop music,and released this Psychsploitation classic.
He went onto Glamsploitation,Punxsplotation Metalsploitation,in fact anysploitation.Culminationing in his greatest creation, The Runaways.Unfortunately the heavily ticked 'Rapist' box on his cult-leader application form ,was proved to be far too accurate when he,'allegedly'(I had to put that in for legal reasons) Raped Jackie Fox, of the Runaways, in front of scores of witnesses,and the rest of the Band (Joan Jett????There are witnesses that you witnessed this) in 1975.
This is the man and the ego who had the audacity to record a song called “Me” with a co-written songwriting credit, no less! But, again, like Gary Glitter, don't let the man get in the way of the art.He is,after all, Dead.
The nonsense lyrics to 'reincarnation' describe in detail what the afterlife has in store for him,and probably us too?:


“I’ll be back
As a brown paper sack,
A wretched guitar
Or a Chinese car...”

Or perhaps

“I’ll reappear
As a reindeer
Or a tin can full of
Ice cold beer...”


I don't think I could drink a cold can of beer ever again!?

Tracklist:

1 Love Is Alive And Well 1:34
2 Flower City 2:07
3 Flower Drum Drum 2:58
4 This Planet Love 2:10
5 War Game 3:07
6 Reincarnation 2:08
7 See How The Other Half Love 2:00
8 Flowers 1:45
9 Super Flower 1:59
10 Me 1:45


BONUS TRACK:

11. The Trip 2:03

Monday 29 July 2019

The Banana Splits ‎– "We're The Banana Splits" (Decca ‎– DL 75075) 1968


Yeah, I used to think that The Banana Splits were The Residents before they became The Residents.
I now suspect that isn't true, but film of the Splits driving around the sandy beaches of California in Dune Buggies, and the cult-like nature of the Banana Splits House suggests they had a lot in common with everyone's least favourite Cult leader, Charlie Manson?
Is this the answer to the greatest mystery ever to baffle mankind?Who were the persons unknown inside the Banana Splits costumes?....Charles Manson was Fleegle,Tex Watson was Bingo,Squeaky Fromme was Snork,and Steve 'Scramblehead' Grogan as Drooper...with Van Houten, Atkins, and Krenwinkel as the Three Musketeers....its all so clear to me now.

Of course The Banana Splits show was one of the great Psychsploitation masterpieces of the small screen's golden era.
Al Kooper, Barry White, Gene Pitney and many other C-list composers were lining up to palm off one of their weaker songs for our furry chums to psychedlize for the kids high on the bountiful E-numbers of sixties and Seventies confectionary.
I, was one of these poor kids,chomping down day-glo coloured bon-bons as I absorbed 'The Arabian Knights'along with various chemical preservatives and flavourings.I even had the nickname 'Zaazoom', after the violent donkey in that very segment.One had a terrible temper that if triggered would transform me into a mini whirlwind of flailing fists and kicks.I put it down to unresolved feelings of rejection by my parents,as I was one of those unwanted late life children......i'm ok now, but don't call me Crazy or i'll smash yer face in!!
The music is classic fuzzed-up Psychedelic Pop with the Lysergic element well and truly wrung out.
However, when i first watched this stuff in the early seventies,the music seemed terminally unhip and naff.I wanted Glam Rock like Bolan Bowie and The Sweet, not this dated rubbish.TV executives have a lot in common with Christians in never getting it right when it comes to on the cusp music.Nearly always at least five years behind what the kids were listening to.We were still listening to easy Psych in 1977,via shows like this,Josie and the Pussycats and Scooby Doo......what was Fred wearing?
I never really noticed that Shaggy was a Hippie until i was an adult.The best Hippie on TV, however, was ,by far, Dylan the (apparently always stoned!?) Rabbit in The Magic Roundabout;which was, in turn the greatest piece of Psychedelic television of the whole seventies.
Anyway, i always wanted to be in the Splits rival gang, "The Sour Grapes Bunch"(which fits my personality perfectly?) rather than have Fleegal tell me what to do.That hippy Drooper can fuck off too!

Tracklist:

01 We're The Banana Splits 2:22
02 I'm Gonna Find A Cave 2:25
03 This Spot 2:20
04 Doin' The Banana Split 2:27
05 Toy Piano Melody (Instrumental) 2:30
06 Soul 2:19
07 The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana) 1:24
08 Wait Til Tomorrow 2:21
09 You're The Lovin' End 2:20
10 In New Orleans 3:30
11 Two Ton Tessie 2:30
12 Don't Go Away - Go-Go Girl 2:14


Bonus Tracks:

13 It's A Good Day For A Parade 2:23
14 Pretty Painted Carousel 2:30
15 I Enjoy Being A Boy 2:27
16 The Tra La La Song (Alternative Version) 2:25
17 Looking For The Beagles 1:56

18 Sharing Wishes 1:56
19 I'd Join The Foreign Legion 2:26
20 What More Can I Do? 2:00
21 Be The Captain 2:11
22 Humpty Dumpty 2:00
23 Thanks To The Man On The Moon 2:25
24 I Wanna Capture You 2:04
25 Indian Love Dance 1:56
26 You Satisfy 2:24
27 That's The Pretty Part Of You 2:24
28 The Very First Kid On My Block 2:20
29 The Beautiful Calliopa 2:38
30 Let Me Remember You Smiling 2:21
31 Soul 2:21

Bob Summers / Mike Curb ‎– "Teenage Rebellion(OST)" (Sidewalk ‎– T 5903) 1967




I can't resist any exploitation records, be it Blaxsplotation, Punxsploitation,Bikersploitation,or,my personal favourite...Psychsploitation.
Invariably made by some very unhip and terminally square daddio's dropping hip talk wherever and whenever they could into the clueless and unresearched scripts,these records and films were a cynical exploitation, not of the teenagers, who wouldn't be seen dead with a copy of "Psych-Out" in their record collections;but of the parents and librarians who read about girls jumping out of windows thinking they could fly,and drug fuelled sexy orgies in the National Enquierer.
Mike Curb was a future Republican Party politician,who made a bit of spare cash exploting youth cults, mainly Biker movies,but he did dabble in Psychedelia,and this fuzz-soaked but hilariously Naffola soundtrack and movie was the result.
King of the Fuzz guitar, Davie Allan, provides the great guitar work, in between Mike Curb's sensationalist warnings about what the 'Now Generation' were getting up to in 1967....mainly, Prostitution, Homosexuality,Godless Sex Orgies, and loadsa loadsa drugs.
I especially like how being Gay is dismissed as some kind of Teenage Revolt that has been chosen.They'll be ok again when they're 21.
I guess all this titilating nonsense was designed to send dad running to the bathroom with some Kleenex,or Mum to retire early to bed with uncomfortable fantasises of lost youth,and a Harold Robbins novel.
One thing's for sure,the Now Generation of yesterday would either have ran as fast as possible to the nearest 'Pot Party', or laughed.
"Hey Pops,i'm Gay,and a prostitute and i'm going to a drug feulled sex orgy...and you ain't invited".......oh lordy, the modern generation huh?

Tracklist:
A1 Teenage Rebellion 1:42
A2 Orgy Around The World 2:11
A3 The Geisha Girl 2:10
A4 The French Kiss 1:36
A5 The Young World 1:30
B1 Pot Party 2:15
B2 A Young Girl's Mistake 2:18
B3 The Call Girl 1:04
B4 The Gay Teenager 1:58
B5 Make Love Not War 1:37


Sunday 28 July 2019

"LSD - promotional version" (Capitol Records) 1966



This is the companion release to the other LSD documentary album (LSD - A Documentary Report- 1966 Capitol Lp). 
It was released to radio stations to promote the lp and contains an "open-end" interview with Doctor Sidney Cohen, M.D.. 
This "interview" is similar to the open-end interview album released by the Byrds to promote the "5D" album where DJs would play this record and have a list of questions that would be "answered" by playing back the record,or even better ,you could conduct the interview yourself and make believe that you were there? An ingenious way to promote both the album and the drug, saving the artist a lot of time and travel;even though the artist,if on LSD would have had all the time in the world slowed down and should be able to travel around without leaving the room. It also contains several excerpts from the released album.

Tracklist:

Side A:


An Exclusive Open-End Interview With Dr. Sidney Cohen
Interviewee – Dr. Sidney Cohen 12:13
Excerpts From Capitol Records' Documentary Album, "LSD" 15:48
Side B:
1. A Reading By Poet Allen Ginsberg, Accompanied By Psychedelic Music
Voice – Allen Ginsberg 2:47
2. The "Lost Generation" Expresses Its Excuses For Experimenting With LSD 2:36
3. The Source For The Market Of Users, Their Dosage, And Some Over-dose Results 4:05
4. The "Trip" As Experienced By Two Teen-age Users Of LSD 3:38
5. Dr. Timothy Leary Expresses His Opinion That LSD Is Religion
Voice – Dr. Timothy Leary 2:17


Saturday 27 July 2019

"LSD - A Documentary Report" (Capitol Records ‎– TAO-2574) 1966





'A documentary report on the current psychedelic drug controversy!'....it says on the cover.I dunno whether this docu-album was conceived,to spread fear about LSD or promote it? Certainly to cash in a little at least.It was recorded and assembled by Capitol Records to,allegedly, strive to achieve a balanced, creditable report on LSD use. The descriptions,and recordings of,so-called, 'Bum Trips', and the photographs that include a young lady looking longingly out of a window while 'tripping' suggests this is a subtle attempt to counter the counter-culture claims of the benefits of acid.
Despite the images undeniably chosen to portray the fad as a kind of 'Madness', the reality is that the narrator is as square as the kids themselves.With certain exceptions, drugs in general open the down escalators of perception for the naturally unenlightened,people without a clue how to do anything off the straight and narrow.The extent of their trips were more or less akin to a chemical fairground ride.......'Groovy, look at the colours in that painting,its like its melting....like...I mean wow!'......wow indeed.Now you can be as square as you were before, but with added chances of paranoid schizophrenia to impress your friends with.
Its all quite quaint and dated of course.And the wide-eyed enthusiasm of some of the 'teenagers' interviewed is charming.
Awwwwww she's on LSD bless her little cotten socks.
Naturally, there are the obligatory appearances of Dr Timothy Leary, and Alan Ginsberg,with merry prankster Neal Cassady and the Greatful Dead(as spelt in the handy glossary on the sleeve)providing the music,backed up with their victims, some tripping teenagers. What a bum trip daddio.

Tracklist:

A The Scene
B The Trip

Wavy Gravy ‎– "Old Feathers - New Bird (The 80's Are The 60's Twenty Years Later)" ( Relix Records ‎– RRCD 2032) 1988


Like a hippie version of Steven Kings 'It', Hugh Romney, better know as Wavy Gravy from the Merry Pranksters bus, has been spreading the same kind of redundant Hippie humour since this affront to taste began.
One thing I found more creepy more frightening and not at all funny than Hippies when i was a boy, were Clowns! And Wavy Gravy would have been my ultimate choice for the movie role of 'Pennywise', the evil clown from the aforementioned schlock horror novel,'It'.
Just the tiresome Psychedelic humour is enough to send me screaming into the street begging the nearest policeman to take me into protective custody.
Yeah, there are some obvious anti-social aspects to his routine that one can't disagree with,but who cares what 'I' agree with, I don't!
The title of the album is nonetheless quite accurate,the last thirty years of the 20th century in fact were exactly like the sixties.Full of right on rhetoric about a non-existent rebellion,of the mind if not with direct action.But, the enlightened new breed still carried on feeding the consumer machine,and pushed priorites like the enironment back behind job prospects,'partying' and nice stuff for the house.
Someone else can do it, and that is never gonna change.
He may be a creepy clown, but Wavy Davy has kept some kind of faith in what he says,even if he is stuck in an eternal childhood,even in his eighties.
And why not?

Tracklist:

1 The Green Acid At Woodstock 2:32
2 The United States Of Chicago 1:24
3 Nobody For President (A Casual Conversation With The Audience While Putting On My Clown Makeup) 4:20
4 Livermore Or Less / The Mutant Bunny For Peace 3:46
5 Bubbles For Buddah 2:45
6 Harpo's Ladder 5:39
7 How Hugh Romney Became Wavy Gravy And A Tiny Tip Of Texas Went To Heaven 7:38
8 Basic Human Needs 6:47
9 The Perfect High 10:35


Friday 26 July 2019

The Merry Pranksters - "The Acid Test Reels" (Bootleg) 1966



Hey cats,Dig Those Crazy Beatniks getting off their tits dude. A psychedelically painted school bus full of middle class drop outs ,pseudo intellectuals,and proto-psych muso's try to outdo each other  for 'crazy' weirdness maaaan,on a trip,both chemically and physically,around the posher parts of the US of A.
The music ,mainly by the nascent Grateful Dead, is mostly dreadful.....The Dreadful Dead.
Sounding like a really bad version of The Banana Splits,but with less depth.
Lots of crap white boy blues riffs and rock'n'rooooolllllll maaaaaan. They sound like a right bunch of hipiddy-doody twats on a trustfund cop out mission to make everyone they meet as pointless as they were. Personal freedom maaaan.......i notice they were free enough to do a drug fuelled trip around the USA.Maybe if they'd have done it in East Germany,or through Africa handing out food rather than LSD there would have been a worthwhile point to all this spoilt brat Counter Culture posing.
The Merry Pranksters, like a 1950's university fraternity reunion, are less annoying than Gerry Garcia's psychedelic cheerleaders.
They tend to use the word 'Rap' a lot,which was 'hip' talk for talking for the Beat generation. The spoken word sections and the tape collages are a better recreation of what it was like to be out of your skull on the Acid Tests of 1966.It is also an accurate portrayal of what a pain in the arse it is to around some idiot off his tits on drugs.There is no more boring a person than a person on any class A,or class B for that matter, drug.Alcohol is also included in this observation.
Just imagine being stuck on a bus with thirty or so of them quaffing jug loads of LSD.You'd be well advised to join them or be bored shitless.
Anyway, here's 6cd's worth of the recordings made during the Acid Tests of 1966.If you like bad blues riffs, 'poets' talking through echoplex tape effects,oscillator twiddling, and interviews with some trustafarian psychedelic narcisists,then this is for you.You can almost feel that you were there,even if you're glad you weren't.
Artists huh?

Tracklisting:

Disc 1:
The Fillmore Acid Test,
Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA
January 8, 1966
1. Stage Chaos/More Power Rap
2. King Bee
3. I'm A Hog For You Baby
4. Caution: Do Not Step On Tracks >
5. Death Don't Have No Mercy
6. Star Spangled Banner / closing remarks

Disc 2:
The Pico Acid Test,
Danish Center, Los Angeles, CA
March 12, 1966
1. Viola Lee Blues
2. You See A Broken Heart
3. In The Midnight Hour
[mis-dated, according to David Lemieux, and not corresponding to the vault copy's setlist; these are probably from 3/19/1966]

The San Francisco State Acid Test,
Whatever It Is Festival
San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA
Stereo Control Room Master (rec. 4:00AM - 6:00AM)
October 2, 1966
4. The Head Has Become Fat Rap
5. A Mexican Story: 25 Bennies
6. A Tarnished Galahad
7. Get It Off The Ground Rap >
8. It's Good To Be God Rap >
9. Nirvana Army Rap >
10. The Butcher Is Back
11. Acid Test Graduation Announcement
12. Send Me To The Moon >Closing Rap
Credits on 10/2/66:
Voices: Ken Kesey and Hugh Romney
Guitar: Ken Kesey
Violin: Dale Kesey
Organ: Jerry Garcia
Engineering: Steve Newman, Ken Kesey, Mountain Girl


Disc 3:
The San Francisco State Acid Test
Whatever It Is Festival
San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA
October 2, 1966
1. Ken Kesey's dialogue (isolated remix)

Merry Prankster Sound Collage Sequences
October 2, 1966
2. Prankster Music/Sound Collage #1(sequence 1)
3. Kesey Rap > Prankster Music/Sound Collage #2 (sequence 2)
4. Prankster Sound Collage #3 > Prankster Raga(sequence 3)
Prankster Recordings broadcast over the P.A.

End of Whatever It Is Festival,
October 2, 1966
5. Closing Jam
6. Prankster Electronics

Acid Test Graduation Jam,
Winterland, San Francisco, CA
October 31, 1966
7. Jam Session (musicians unknown)
from The World Of Acid film soundtrack

Disc 4:
Related Recordings,
Neal Cassady & The Warlocks 1965
1. Speed Limit
studio recording/Prankster production tape circa late 1965
Straight Theater, Haight Street, San Francisco, CA July 23, 1967
2. Neal Cassady Raps (backed by The Dead)
recording released as a flexi-disc in the 1st printing of The Dead Book
Acid Tests Production Reel
3. Jerry Garcia commentary with Acid Test audio
710 Haight Street House, San Francisco, CA summer 1967
4. - 6. Jerry Garcia
one hour interview about music, drugs, politics and social changes circa 1967


Disc 5:
1. Who Cares Rap (Pigpen, Weir, etc.)
2. Viola Lee Blues
3. One Kind Favor
4. I Know you Rider
5. You See a Broken Heart
6. It's a Sin
7. Beat It on Down the Line
8. Heads up
9. Next Time You See Me
10. Unknown Blues Instrumental
11. Death Don't Have no Mercy
12. Midnight Hour


Disc 6:
San Francisco State Acid Test (alternate version)
1. Jerry Garcia Intro
2. A Mexican Story: 25 Bennies
3. Get it off the Ground Rap
4. It's Good to be God Rap
5. Nirvana Army Rap
6. The Butcher Is Back
7. Acid Test Graduation Announcement
8. Send me to the Moon
9. Jerry Garcia interview
10. Sound Collage
11. Ken Kesey Interview
12. Sound Collage #2
13. Jerry Garcia Interview

14. Music / Sound Collage #1
15. Ken Kesey Interview
16. Sound Collage


DOWNLOAD and fail the acid test vol 1 - 3 HERE!

DOWNLOAD a fourth,a fifth,and a sixth HERE!

Thursday 25 July 2019

Ken Kesey/The Merry Pranksters ‎– "The Acid Test" (Sound City) 1966


If a bridge from the Beatniks to the Hippie Era existed, it was Ken Kesey and his band of 'Merry Pranksters', who travelled the west coast in a psychedelic school bus called 'Further' dishing out LSD to those they encountered. This was called the Acid Test.
Kesey was better known as the author of "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest",among other,lesser, works.
The nascent Grateful Dead,or the Warlocks as they were first known,or The Dreadful Dead as I prefer to call them, were frequently seen at the various venues for the Acid Tests, and contribute some extra drugged up nonsense to this recording of Ken's Gibberish, with BFF, Ken Babbs, adding more unhinged lunacy as resident 'Non-Artist'.
Kesey,like all self-promoting Artist types, wanted to see what would happen when hallucinogenic-inspired spontaneity confronted what he saw as the banality and conformity of American society.Predictably, lots of arrests and middle class outrage was the result,  which, contrarily, led to LSD being banned in late 1966.Little did Kesey realise,or maybe this was the underlying metaphor that most artists seem to strive for, that he was creating another form of conformity and banality in the rich kids playground called the counter culture of the mid-1960's.There really is nothing more banal than a drugged up idiot who thinks he's pushing the boundaries,but in reality is just another drugged up idiot who,apparently, doesn't need to work to feed himself,or pay for the drugs needed to extend his realm of idiocy further.
Yeah, they obviously had 'fun', but don't read too much more into it than that.The adolescent challenge to conformist society was already happening,it just didn't have a name,or a semi-celebrity benefactor,all done in the name of 'art'.Most of the sub-culture elite 'artists only please', passengers on the bus either died early, or became part of the post-woodstock society that they were allegedly against.There's no escape.
Alternatively, I suppose they could have done nothing? Now that's a real challenge to the status quo.....do nothing.Buy nothing,say nothing,create nothing,just enough to eat,drink,.... exist.End.

Tracklist:

A1 Ken Kesey
A2 Ken Babbs And Harmonica
A3 Take Two
A4 Bull
A5 Peggy The Pistol
B1 One Way Ticket
B2 Bells & Fairies
B3 Levitation
B4 Trip X
B5 The End


Wednesday 24 July 2019

Dr. Timothy Leary ‎– "The Final Taboo" (Trance Port Tapes ‎– trance 7) 1984



Ha Ha Haaaa, drugs eh?

Breaking the Final Taboo,I can think of a few more final taboo's that still cannot be broken,is a lecture given by Timothy Leary at a club in Huntington Beach, California, in June, 1980.The speech is a great compilation of his ideas and his personal story. He touches upon his usual topics of authorities, evolution, turning-on, and migration. While he does,as usual, talk about drugs quite a bit, he doesn't go into too much detail about LSD or a typical LSD experience(Yawn). He does however talk a bit about a new drug (at the time), ecstasy, or as he calls it "XTC",or as I call it the destroyer of modern music and counter culture.Timothy Leary,however, is as witty and eloquent  as ever in this recording. He rolls-off the puns as well as any professional stand-up comedian,and has a very willing and 'loyal contingent of dopers' rolling around in the aisles.He missed his real vocation I reckon.

Tracklist:

A1 Richard Pryor
A2 A Risky Profession
A3 Washington B.C.
A4 The San Andreas Opportunity
A5 Short Term Memory Loss
A6 Life Is Not An Accident
A7 The Bible Version Of Creation
A8 Conception Of My Conception
B1 Botanical Wisdom
B2 Victimless Crimes In The 60's
B3 Drugs Of The 80's
B4 Space Migration
B5 Prison Life
B6 The Final Taboo


Tuesday 23 July 2019

Dr. Timothy Leary & Ash Ra Tempel ‎– "Seven Up" (Die Kosmischen Kuriere ‎– KK 58.001) 1973


On the run from prison after he got busted out by The Weathermen, Leary ran into English counter-culture figure Brian Barritt, who introduced him to the still existing Psychedelic scene in West Germany that came to be labelled 'Krautrock'.
A suitably confused abstract rock'n'roll record was assembled for Timothy's vocal talents,and is without doubt a Psychedelic classic.
Likely made while under the influence of a certain psychoactive chemical, the result is quite wonderful,with Manuel Gottsching's lysergic guitaring surrounding Tim and Brians unhinged lyrics and singing.
Brian and Timothy's relationship deteriorated somewhat by the early 1980s with Leary describing Barritt as a 'lying junky' in his autobiography, Flashbacks;But at least they made one of the better freak-out albums of all time for us to remember them by.

Tracklist:

1.Space (16:03)
a Downtown
b Power Drive
c Right Hand Lover
d Velvet Genes


2.Time (21:15)
a Timeship
b Neuron
c SHe

Dr. Timothy Leary ‎– "You Can Be Anyone This Time Around" (Douglas ‎– 1) 1970


Astro-biologists, philosophers, priests, healers, observers of the fleshly heavens and cosmic dancers dig this recording Pressed to wax in the Age of Aquarius, Dr. Leary's psychedelic monologue "What Do You Turn On When You Turn On?" identifies our brains as "the galactic headquarters of the nervous system" and the locus of all social transformation.
Yes, you can be anything this time around.....mostly a drugged up arsehole or sectioned in a secure mental institution.Grim reality sounds real fun doesn't it kids?
This features the one and only Jimi Hendrix on track one side one,and its probably the fourth best album that he appeared on.
Douglas Records has a valid argument for being the first 'Rap' label,with The Last Poets,Lenny Bruce and the psychedelic white Rap miester that is Dr. Timothy Leary Ph.D.....(a great Rap alias or what?)....all on the label in 1970. 
A record that doubled as the coffin lid closing on the sixties.

Tracklist:

A Live And Let Live
B1 You Can Be Anyone This Time Around
B2 What Do You Turn On When You Turn On


Monday 22 July 2019

Dr. Timothy Leary Ph.D. ‎– "L.S.D." (Label: Pixie Records Inc. ‎– CA 1069) 1966



Dr Timothy Leary on the subject of ....surprise surprise!...LSD!
I wonder if Timbo ever had a conversation about anything else?
I doubt it.
However, his creepy whispery voice has a catatonic quality,and this record ,thankfully without the usual Psychsploitation backing track of Sitar twanging and Tabla spanking, leave Leary's Peter Lorre impression of  a speaking voice clear for sampling for your Trance side-project.

On rear cover: A short review of LSD-25: 
Here are some of the more freqently asked questions. 

How should psychedelic drugs be used? 
What are the 5 levels of consciousness-expansion? What are the sexual visions of LSD? 
Are set and settings important? 
What are the psychedelic drugs? 
Should anyone be allowed to take LSD? 
How long does the drug last? 
Does LSD cause hallucinations? 
Is LSD habit-forming? 
What effects does the drug have? 
Do psychedelic drugs pose a danger? 
Does LSD cause insanity? 
Are there substitutes being sold as LSD? 

The questions are not assigned to one of both sides.


DOWNLOAD without the use of pounds shillings and pence HERE!

Sunday 21 July 2019

Dr. Timothy Leary ‎– "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out (The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)" (Mercury ‎– SR 61131) 1967


You've heard the record,read the book,seen the lecture? Well now we have the Movie of your journey into personal disaster and irreparable mental breakdown.
Drop some pharmaceutical grade LSD and listen to this soundtrack of the movie version of a 'Trip',with your guide Dr. Timothy Leary, and you may never come back.A chance to escape the prison of 'self', and live out the rest of your mortal tenure in cloud cuckoo land.
Your Brain is a delicate organ,and evidentially speaking,its nothing more than that.Not the slightest hint has there been of eternal portals into the kingdom of God,travels in space time, or Intelligence increase? Alternatively Plenty of evidence exists of irreparable damage to ones mental faculties.There's a long list of sixties psychedelic pioneers,or victims, who became nothing more than Human craters ,not because their souls have left to a celestial paradise,but because their synapses have been irreversably fried.
Don't do it kids,the scouting party of the sixties did it,and the reports that came back were not encouraging.
Great super weird records were the result, of which this masterpiece of Psychsploitation, is one of the weirdest.

Tracklist:

A1 The Turn On 2:23
A2 The Tune In 3:34
A3 The Beginning Of The Voyage (Heart Chakra) 4:01
A4 Root Chakra 2:05
A5 All Girls Are Yours 4:37
A6 Freak-Out 0:29
B1 Freak-Out (Continued) 3:53
B2 Genetic Memory 6:43
B3 Re-Entry (Nirvana) 3:10
B4 Epilogue (Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out) 2:52


Saturday 20 July 2019

Dr. Timothy Leary, Ph.D. ‎– "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out" (ESP Disk ‎– 1027) 1966


As the weapon of choice for Charles Manson and his control experiments with his hareem of young girlies invariably involved large doses of LSD, while he preached his nonsense to their vulnerable minds,then renacted the Crucifixtion of Christ, staring none other than...himself.
It only makes sense to use the Guru of LSD,Dr. Timmy Leary,Ph.D, to explain,rather more lucidly than Charlie Manson, his philosophy,in a creepy whispery voice,used as a tactic likely to avoid the FBI recording his debut album before he did,then use it in evidence against him.
Ironically, Richard Nixon once described Leary as 'The Most Dangerous Man In America',and managed to be arrested enough to see the inside of 36 prisons worldwide.Allegedly,while in Folsom in California, he was placed in a cell right next to Charles Manson, and though they could not see each other, they could talk together. In their discussions, Manson was surprised and found it difficult to understand why Leary had given people LSD without trying to control them. At one point, Manson said to Leary, "They took you off the streets so that I could continue with your work.".....Hmmmm, Professor Charles Manson?
Not exactly a cult leader,but The Brotherhood of Eternal Love aka, The Hippie Mafia,subsequently considered Leary their spiritual leader.And Timbo actually encouraged the new wave of DIY religions based on Psychedelic drugs,publishing a pamphlet called "Start Your Own Religion" in 1967.
I'm sure part of Tim's raison d'être was to indulge his middle-aged self in the male dominated world of the 'Free Love' sexual revolution,so maybe he had more in common with Charles Manson than is at first apparent?.....but he is,along with W.S.Burroughs, a sampling gold mine.

Tracklist:

A Timothy Leary, Ph.D. Speaks On L.S.D.
B Timothy Leary, Ph.D. Speaks On L.S.D.


The Orkustra ‎– "Adventures In Experimental Electric Orchestra From The San Francisco Psychedelic Underground (Mexican Summer ‎– MEX 019) 2009/1967



Bobby Beausoleil actually was involved in a rather interesting group before he murdered someone under Charles Manson and LSD-25's influence.An abstract Free rock psychedelic folk mix up that reminds one of the New York minimalist rock avant garde,such as Angus Maclise or ,from the twenty-first century, The Dirty Three.
It's really rather good for California in 1966/7.Although they played extensively around the Bay Area and at many festivals, they never released anything during their lifetime.
It included David LaFlamme of 'It's a Beautiful Day' Fame whose violin playing gives it that crucial melancholic edge.
This collects everything they had ever commited to tape in their short existence, before fame and infamy befell at least two of its members.A moment in time showcasing a juxtapostion between realised and unrealised potential, fate and fatality.Like 'The Convergence of the Twain',Beausoleil was heading for the Iceberg, while LaFlamme missed the boat and boarded another ship.

Tracklist:
A1 Flash Gordon 4:57
A2 Bombay Calling 5:48
A3 Punjab's Barber 6:46
B Gypsy Odyssey (Performed Live At St. John's Church Christmas Eve, 1966) 25:45
C1 Bouzouki Blues Experiment 3:33
C2 Hungarian Stomp 3:32
C3 Flash Gordon (A Practice Session) 7:38
C4 Freeform Improvisation (While Watching An Experimental Underground Film) 3:35
D1 Flute Player Audition (Practice Jam Session) 5:14
D2 Dancing In The Park 3:16
D3 Gypsy Odyssey (Practice Session) 12:13


Friday 19 July 2019

Bobby Beausoleil ‎– "Dancing Hearts Afire" (Sagittarius A-Star ‎– SAS #33) 2013


Another Bobby Beausoleil new age space rock epic in the style of a low budget Dave Gilmore on Mogadon.
One can't help but have images in ones mind of Bob, shut away in his prison cell surrounded by mail order electronics,gurning as he makes the strings on his lovingly polished electric guitar singalong to the impecably programmed digital backing track.
It does have all the hallmarks of a retired geezers anti-alzheimers hobby to keep his mind active in old age.A sort of a musical Sudoku.
The difference between this and the retired hippy spunking his pension on music tech, is that Bob knew Chuck Manson,and murdered someone, so people have enough passing interest to buy it,and maybe even listen to half of side A.....but, as mentioned previously, it breaks the ice at parties!?
The music does have a certain artificial sadness,like a soundtrack to a wasted life that had so much potential.Played as he waits to end his existence in Jail.
However, he seems to have led quite a full life as an inmate.Creating Film soundtracks, marrying at least twice, and fathering four children!???.....this ain't like no Jail I've ever heard of!? Only Manson himself has released more albums,although his official children have either commited suicide or are in hiding;and Manson's music is clearly an inferior beast altogether.

Tracklist:

A Dancing Hearts Afire part 1
B Dancing Hearts Afire part 2


Thursday 18 July 2019

Bobby Beausoleil ‎– "Dreamways Of The Mystic" (White Dog Music ) 2005



Bobby Beausoleil's New Age Ambient Prog concept album seems to last as long as he's been in Jail.Like one of those post-Roger Waters Pink Floyd albums,but without the tunes.
If you're an old Hippie dabbling in the pseudo-spiritual with a readily available darkened room at hand, then this will take you on a trip into the wasted life of Bobby B.
Thanks, or otherwise, to progressive prison governors, Robert spends all his spare time....of which I assume there is plenty in the Big House.....making masses of this New Age space rock on his GM synth modules and computers. It's very programmed,rather like the kids in The Manson Family, and the factory synth sounds have a familiar late nineties ring to them.
Remember when you got your first GM synth module,and got excited by the multitude of sound possibilities,only to find out everyone had the same noises,then binned it off for proper synthesisers with knobs on?...well this is before Bobby realised every ex-hippie and his granny were making the same New Age nonsense.
The difference is that this was made by ,if not a member, an associate of The Manson Family,and he's been in the Slammer for nigh on fifty years. So there's a misplaced ingredient of tragic romance in there that make this double CD something more than a couple of coasters for your coffee table. This one may even be left out alongside your John Coltrane CD's as a conversation starter for your wine tasting evening.

Tracklist:

1-1 Dreamways Of The Mystic, Part 1 Overture
1-2 In The Temple Of The Moon - Interlude 1
1-3 Punjab
1-4 In The Temple Of The Moon - Interlude 2
1-5 Return To Punjab
1-6 In The Temple Of The Moon - Interlude 3
1-7 Songs Of The Forest People
1-8 In The Temple Of The Moon - Interlude 4
1-9 Dreamways Of The Mystic, Part II
1-10 Dreamways Of The Mystic, Part III: Alchemical Reactions - (With Robert Ferbrache)
1-11 Dreamways Of The Mystic, Part IV - Finale
1-12 Untitled
2-1 Mantra - Prelude
2-2 Miles And Miles
2-3 Mantra - Interlude 1
2-4 Island Girl
2-5 Medicine Man - (With Jeffrey Cree)
2-6 Exiled King, The
2-7 Mantra - Interlude 2
2-8 Alien Dialogue
2-9 Mantra - Interlude 3
2-10 Tar Pit
2-11 Mantra - Interlude 4
2-12 Distant Thunder
2-13 Mantra - Interlude 5
2-14 Third World Industry
2-15 Mantra - Finale


Wednesday 17 July 2019

Bobby Beausoleil & The Freedom Orchestra ‎– "Lucifer Rising" (Magick Theatre Productions ‎– ACR 8031) 1980




Currently serving a life sentence for the murder of Gary Hinman during his involvement with the Manson family.Bobby Beausoleil received permission to compose and record the soundtrack for Kenneth Anger's movie Lucifer Rising.A project he began in 1967 with his group, The Magick Powerhouse Of Oz.
Then finished off with 'The Freedom Orchestra',A group of inmates at Tracy Prison assembled by Bobby to record the rest of his composition for the movie.
The Freedom Orchestra, bizarrely also included another Manson associate also serving life for murder, Steve Grogan on Guitar,after Beausoleil had convinced Grogan to begin playing again and even made him a guitar!?
To this date, Grogan is the only Manson Murders convictee to have been released on parole,as early as 1985. Apparently the judge said that he was so off his tits ,permanently,and far too dumb that he doubted he could have decided to do anything. Apparently during the murder of Donald Shea,Manson gave him a knife and told him to stab the victim. He just kinda stood there holding the knife and did nothing,completely off his face on drugs.For proof,look at his police mugshot:
Non-Lucid (fer) Rising guitarist Steve Grogan  at time of arrest for murder.
Beausoleil,was actually a very competent musician, and was in various Psychedelic groups around California, including an early incarnation of Arthur Lee's Love, and David LaFlamme of Hippie godz 'It's a Beautiful Day' was in 'Orkustra' with Bobby, before hitting the 'big' time.
The music he made for the Anger movie, would not have been out of place among the minimalist avant garde scene in New York at the time he began it around 1967.A Californian Angus MacLise who went very wrong,or maybe just fell in with the wrong crowd.Instead of making music in his prison cell, he could have been doing that under the Beau Soleil for real.I'm almost sad for him?

Tracklist:

Disc 1:
1 Part I
2 Part II
3 Part III
4 Part IV
5 Part V
6 Part VI

Disc 2:
7 Punjabs Barber (extract)
8 Flash Gordon (extract)
9 Lucifer Rising Session 1967 (*)
10 Lucifer Rising Sessions 1977-78 (#) 

* recorded with The Magick Powerhouse Of Oz 1967 at the Straight Theater, San Francisco.)
 # recorded with The Freedom Orchestra late '70s at Tracy State Prison.


Tuesday 16 July 2019

Bobby Beausoleil ‎– "Voodoo Shivaya" (The Ajna Offensive ‎– flame101) 2018


Another recording artist resident in a California State Correctional Facility, is former Manson Family member and Murderer, Bobby Beausoleil. Who is the third artist to be featured on this blog who was sentenced to death. This was commuted to life imprisonment,which it seems Bobby is doomed to see out a full term and die in prison. He was accepted for Parole earlier this year, but the State Governor denied this recommendation.....probably due to his Manson connections.
Manson told Beausoleil to kill, friend and fellow Manson associate Gary Hinman, and to make it look as if the crime had been committed by Black revolutionaries, as part of his ideology that a race war was imminent and part of what he called "Helter Skelter".It got weirder,as Beausoleil stabbed Hinman to death while Hinman was repeating a Buddhist chant.After Hinman, was dead Bob wrote the words "Political piggy" on a wall in Hinman's blood.
As the parole board said:
"On January 3, 2019, a panel of commissioners of the California Board of Parole recommended that Beausoleil be freed on parole.In recommending parole, the panel cited Beausoleil's youthful offender status as being in mitigation to the severity of the crime and stated that during his nearly half-century of incarceration he had devoted himself to creativity and pro-social growth, gradually maturing into a person exhibiting compassion and empathy."

The Tate family cited the fact that Beausoleil had been illegally profiting from selling his music while in prison.
So to help Bobby's defence,as I'm sure some of you Manson worshippers would like to, you can download his works here for nothing.
This is Bobby's latest work,a kind of a new age version of The Blues.The kind of music that David Lynch would love to have in his TV Series or Movies,if he hasn't used any of Beausoleil's work already. Our Bobby has a history working on soundtracks for dodgy directors in his past, notably Kenneth Anger's 'Lucifer Rising' before and after he was banged up for life.
Here's Bobby in his harsh prison conditions.It must be Hell!?

Tracklist:

1-1 Hard Road 4:40
1-2 The Subterranean Path 5:05
1-3 The Bones Of My Mind 3:42
1-4 Nature Boy 9:18
1-5 Ghost Highway 8:52
1-6 I Put a Spell on You 13:23
1-7 Jai Kala! 4:04
2-1 Voodoo Shivaya 18:46
2-2 Saundaria Lahari 22:23


Monday 15 July 2019

Charles Manson ‎– "A Taste Of Freedom" (Copperhead Music CD-r) 2001


This is a bunch of recorded phone conversations between Charles Manson and a useful idiot friend. Hear our favourite illiterate lunatic speak on Christian and Muslim interactions, the Holy Spirit, world peace and more. Recorded in late 1990 and early 2000, it is a window into the timeless,pointless world of Charles Manson.
If there was one thing that Charles Manson was good at, it was talking complete nonsense to any willing victim who was stupid enough to listen.He couldn't read or write but he certainly could speak.He could even be credited with inventing white Rap?
Ironically it seems he believed in God almost as much as his own luminescence.
This is my personal favourite Manson record,mainly because I like the ramblings of bored deluded lunatics, and automated messages,like the ones that keep interrupting the conversations,such as: "This call comes from an inmate in a California State Correctional Facility"
As it says in the liner notes:
"At times startling in the lucidity of their depth, but still warm and casual these conversations touch on many subjects including the American Civil War, raising children, surviving on the land, world peace, ecology and Charlie's own personal history. These dialogues open an unbridged window into the thoughts and feelings of perhaps the most important figure of the post modern era. Charles Manson, unfiltered and unfettered by media interpretation or presentation speak to the humanity within us all.".....er....yeah!?

Tracklist:

1 Look Within' 1:04
2 I'll Shoot 2:08
3 I'm A Raper, A.T.W.A. 3:04
4 Horses 1:11
5 You Have A Beautiful Mind 2:11
6 God Loved The World 1:42
7 The Mind Expanded 2:09
8 Mason Jar And A Hog 1:36
9 We All Love Jesus 2:31
10 Graves 0:50
11 Boxing 1:12
12 Here There And Around The World 1:41
13 Will Of God, Lincon As The Devil 1:32
14 TV Generation 1:20
15 Potato Sack Man 1:42


Sunday 14 July 2019

Charles Manson ‎– "All The Way Alive" (People's Temple Records ‎– PT133) 2003


Studio recordings recorded on 9/11 1967 by the,then recently released rather than recently deceased jailbird and instant Hippie that became known as Charles Manson.This is his Black album,or at least,and more accurately, his 'Smell The Glove'.
Manson seemed to come out of prison aged 33 as a fully formed Hippie,talking the talk and walking the walk,like he was playing a role of a 'Hippie' in a Dirty Harry movie. This is how he had spent his former existence, taking on roles to manipulate situations to his own advantage. No-one seemed to notice he was over a decade older than any other Hippie at Haight-Ashbury, and silly middle class fools enthusiastically fell at his feet, basically because the Beatles were otherwise engaged.
"Hey, I write songs man", said the hip looking sexual predator at the party. "Wanna Listen?".....er no, but he whips out his Acoustic and plays the fuckers anyway.
Thats the kind of fool Chuck Manson was in 1967,and as always happens, young lost girlies swooned.
These recordings were made when Charlie was slightly less demented,and less of a Gobshite,and hadn't consumed enough LSD to believe he was Jesus yet,or as he so eloquently put it the 'Son of Man'.
He also hadn't yet inspired his drugged up followers to slaughter innocent persons to start the race war that would lead to himself taking power after the blacks fuck it up......this was actually his genius plan!? Helter Skelter maaaaaaan!......what a deranged tit, maaaaaaaaan!
The interview from these sessions reveal the nascent Gobshite that we all know and,if you're smart,dispise.
He does actually speak the kind of jumbled bullshit that a modern Jesus would say;so maybe he was the second coming after all.Thank fuck we didn't execute him after all, or we'd all be walking round with a mini gas chamber hanging on a chain round our necks,worshipping the 'Son of Man'........some of these fuckers do actually exist now as we speak.

Tracklist:

1 Devil Man
2 The More You Love
3 Two Pair Of Shoes
4 Maiden With Green Eyes (Remember Me)
5 Swamp Girl
6 Bet You Think I Care
7 Look At Your Game, Girl
8 Interview
9 Who To Blame
10 True Love You Will Find
11 My World
12 Invisible Tears
13 The Night Life