Category a) Sixties and earlier [0 – 1969]
VERTICAL PURPLE
The quest to unearth further 60s vertical gatefold album covers produced many nominations of 70s covers that do indeed open up in ‘portrait’ format, but only one addition from Sixties-land. The LP was the third Deep Purple release, their self-titled record from 1969. Many thanks to Arterrorist for the reminder. I say that because the CD […]
VERTICAL HOLD
There are plenty of books on album cover art on the Vinyl Connection bookshelves, but none of them could tell me which record had the glory of being the first gatefold pop/rock album. Everyone knows Sgt Pepper was the first LP to have the song lyrics on the cover—the back, incidentally, not inside in the […]
A MENTAL FOIBLE
It’s an album that looks both forward and backwards yet is entirely of its time. Infused with a spirit of exploration, it manages to sound uncertain and confused. A new player is feeling his way while the ghost of a departed leader haunts every groove. Flashback… Pink Floyd manager Peter Jenner was convinced Syd Barrett […]
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIR REG!
It’s odd to think of Elton John as a Sixties artist. But Reginald Dwight first played and recorded in that decade of innocence and transformation, most notably with Long John Baldry in Bluesology. A solo career and an enduring song-writing partnership with fellow Englishman Bernie Taupin beckoned, as did one of the most famous name-changes […]
BOLD AS LOVE
This is the final instalment in the thoroughly incomplete ‘1967’ series. The other two dozen albums can be found here. Seems fitting to end with the incendiary, psychedelic music of Jimi Hendrix and his second release from that storied year. Steven Newstead returns to take us on a tour of Jimi’s cosmos… There was a lot […]
VARIOUS ARTISTS GO DECADE DIVING
1957 Folk, Pops ‘n Jazz Sampler [Elektra SMP-3] Country tunes rub shoulders with calypso jazz in this time capsule from the early days of long-playing records, when tracks were known as ‘Bands’ and the previous volume was available for $2 from your dealer. At $17.50 in today’s money, that seems quite expensive. Love the album […]
HOT DOG!
My first job in tertiary Student Services was at an Institute of Technology in the industrial inner-west of Melbourne. The institution was, in all truth, more interesting than my job. But the team was diverse and lively, and it was here I first entertained the notion of becoming a counsellor. It would mean more study, […]
I LOVE MILES
(BUT NOT ALL HIS BOOTS) I love Miles Davis. Whether as a contributing midwife to the Birth of the Cool, the ultra-hip trumpeter of the late 50s, the restless innovator of the 60s, or inspiring bandleader and outta-space musician of the 70s, his is an endlessly varied—and indeed endless—catalogue. If you are browsing a shop […]
DOWN IN MONTEREY
Considered to be the Big Bang of the Summer of Love, Monterey International Pop Music Festival (to present its full and rather ambitious name) was conceived and planned by a small group led by John Phillips of The Mamas and The Papas. Their hope was to give pop music the status awarded to jazz and […]
THE SACRED GARAGE
Where do you file your ‘Various Artists’ albums? By title in the A-Z? In their own section? Luckily that’s not what we are here to discuss and anyway it was extensively canvassed not long ago. Today we’re here to pay respect to one of the best compilations of all time, Nuggets. Curated by guitarist Lenny […]
HE’S GETTING RATHER OLD BUT HE’S A GOOD MOUSE
Syd Barrett and The Pink Floyd invented salted caramel in 1967 [Hieronymus Botch, Paisley Curtains website] While Roger Waters, Rick Wright and Nick Mason studied architecture at Regent Street Polytechnic in London, Syd Barrett enrolled in Art and Design at the Cambridge School of Art. Contemporaries of young Syd, interviewed later on the strength of […]
CURRANT BUNS FOR TEA
I’ve got a bike. You can ride it if you like It’s got a basket, a bell that rings and Things to make it look good. I’d give it to you if I could, but I borrowed it.* Despite painful learning as to the aptness of the name ‘stinging nettles’, it was one of the […]
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