Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow (1967)

Surrealistic Pillow is the second album from the Psychedelic-Folk rock band Jefferson Airplane, the first with singer Grace Slick, replacing Signe Anderson, and Spencer Dryden, replacing Skip Spence.

This was the first album by a San Francisco rock band to reach the top three, on the billboard chart. It is probably one, if not THE, best album of the West-Coast psychedelic movement and the spark to the summer of love. Grateful Dead's singer/guitarist Jerry Garcia is credited on the album, but it is impossible to know if he really participated. Producer Rick Jarrard says he didnt but he is credited in every edition of this album, so who knows...
"Somebody To Love" (Somebody to Love was created by The Great Society, the band where Grace played before entering JA) and "White Rabbit" are easily the most known songs from this album. "Embryonic Journey" is a fantastic guitar instrumental created by Kaukonen in a guitar workshop back in 1962. "Today" a love ballad written by Balin is frequently used in weddings and "She Has Funny Cars", the album opener with some very nice back vocals by Grace.
Your not a real music fan if you havent listened to Jefferson Airplane!

Jefferson Airplane:
- Marty Balin – vocals, guitar
- Grace Slick – vocals, piano, organ, recorder
- Paul Kantner – rhythm guitar, vocals
- Jorma Kaukonen – lead guitar, rhythm guitar, vocals
- Jack Casady – bass, fuzz bass, rhythm guitar
- Spencer Dryden – drums, percussion

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Brigada Victor Jara - Ceia Louca (2006)

Ceia Louca is the Ninth Album by the Portuguese traditional folk band, Brigada Victor Jara (Victor Jara Brigade in English). The band was formed in 1975, a year after the Carnation Revolution, when a group of university students met while participating in an alphabetization campaign of the population, by the leftist regime. The name is a tribute to the Chilean protest singer Victor Jara who was brutally killed in 1973.
All of the members where deeply interested in traditional music and so decided to start a project, to re-discover all the traditional music from Portugal.
The vocals in the album were all made by musical guests, most of them very known to the portuguese public. Jorge Palma, Manuela Azevedo, Carlos Do Carmo, Janita Salomé and many others lent their voices to the project. the sound is very good. Full of piano, guitars and an uilleann pipe. A great start to eveyone who wants to listen to portuguese music.

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Planxty - Planxty (1973)

Planxty is the debut album by Planxty, an Irish folk band formed in 1972. The name Planxty comes from the Irish word Slainte that means good health.
Most of the songs are covers from traditional songs and celtic musicians. Uilleann piper, Liam O’Flynn, is an amazing player, the first time i heard this album i remember thinking "Wow this guy is Fucking Fantastic!", definitively my favourite player in this band. Christy Moore and Andy Irvine are both very popular irish musicians too, and very good also.
One of the songs is a really nice anti-militar recruitment, "Arthur McBride", soldiers in world war I used to sing it without the violent end of the song, when arthur and his cousin kick the hell out of the recruiters... "RaggleTaggle Gypsy|Tabhair Dom Do Lãmh" has an amazing guitar/vocal/uilleann pipe work, being one of the best songs in the album. "The West Coast of Claire" is one of the most loved songs from this album, a ballad written by Irvine. "The Blacksmith" ends the album with an old traditional song, full of eastern-europe sounds.

Planxty:
- Andy Irvine - Bouzouki, Mandolin, Harmonica, Vocals
- Dónal Lunny - Synthesizer, Bouzouki, Vocals
- Christy Moore - Vocals, Guitar, Bodhrán
- Liam O'Flynn - Uilleann pipes, Whistle

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Point Blank - Second Season (1977)

Point Blank were a Southern-Rock band, formed in 1974. Second Season is their second album.
With a sound much resembling Lynyrd Skynyrd (and in some musics, Crosby, Stills and Nash), riffs pop out in every music from the guitars of Rusty Burns and Kim Davis with incredible jams. John O'Daniel's voice made me think of Bon Scott from AC|DC, for some reason. Still he is a bloody fantastic singer.
A fantastic southern-rock, Hard-rock album.

Point Blank:
- Rusty Burns - Guitar
- Kim Davis - Guitar
- John O'Daniel - Vocals
- Buzzy Gruen - Drums
- Phillip Petty - Bass

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Kaleidoscope - A Beacon From Mars (1968)

A Beacon From Mars is the second album by the San Francisco band Kaleidoscope (not to be confused with british band Kaleidoscope who made the marveillous album "Tangerine Dream").
Every song in the album is different from the others, the psychadelic oppener "I Found Out", the Irish traditional folk song ,"Greenwood Sidee", (a tale of a mother who kills her children) the bluesy "You Don't Love Me", the counterculture anthem "Life Will Pass You By" and the 11 min mid-eastern instrumental jam "Taxim" is one of the most loved songs by Kaleidoscope fans.
The two weakest songs in the album, "Baldheaded End Of A Broom" and "Louisiana Man", have a country-rock|happy sonority which fail to present anything new. The last song "A Beacon From Mars" (same name as the album) is a 'long' blues-rock song full of feedback. Not as good as "Taxim" (both were recorded live at the studio, with no work at all).
The cover-art is very interesting, featuring two ancient greeks looking to a round earth with the help of a telescope. The image attracts me, maybe because of the colours. Red and blue contrast very well :)

Kaleidoscope:
- David Lindley - guitar
- Solomon Feldthouse - vocals
- Maxwell Buda - keyboards
- Chris Darrow - bass
- John Vidican - drums

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Richie Havens - Mixed Bag (1967)

Richie Havens is probably more famous as being the musician who opened the great Woodstock 69 than by his records.Mixed Bag is by many considered as Haven's best album, featuring the fantastic bass-like voice and the thumb-chorded, played in open D tuning, acoustic guitar, both are Haven's trademarks.
"Handsome Johnny", "High Flyin' Bird", "I Can't Make It Anymore", "Morning, Morning" and "Eleanor Rigby" (from The Beatles). Only "Handsome Johnny" was written by Havens, has he was more an interpreter than a writter, From Tuli Kupferberg (Pacifist-Anarchist poet) to Gordon Lightfoot (Famous folk musician) Havens covered them all.
A major record in the folk scene, Mixed Bag is seen in these days as one of the best albums from the late sixties, showing all the greatness of Richie Havens singing and playing.

Richie Havens (Mixed Bag personnel):
- Richie Havens - Vocals, guitar, sitar
- Paul "Dino" Williams - Guitar, acoustic guitar
- Howard Collins - Guitar
- Paul Harris - Piano, electric piano, organ, keyboards
- Joe Price - Drums, percussion
- Bill Lavorgna - Drums

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Hot Tuna - Hot Tuna (1970)

Hot Tuna is the self-titled debut album from Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady's (Both, were members of Jefferson Airplane) blues project. It was recorded live at the New Orleans House in Berkeley, California. In the future albums they will move more into Blues influenced Hard-Rock, in this album though the sound is very traditional Country Blues.
Only two songs were original, "Mann's Fate" and "New Song (for the Morning)" both by Kaukonen, the others were arranged from traditional songs and old blues songs. Casady plays the bass, Kaukonen acoustic guitar and Will Scarlett on harmonica.

Hot Tuna:
- Jorma Kaukonen – Acoustic guitar, vocals
- Jack Casady – Bass
- Will Scarlett – Harmonica

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Canned Heat - Canned Heat (1967)

Canned Heat is the debut album from the blues band Canned Heat., recorded after an appearence on Monterey Pop Festival. The album is composed by covers of several blues musicians, "Rollin' and Tumblin" by Muddy Waters and "Evil Is Going On" by Howlin' Wolf and many others, all of them with a boogie sound. The Lead Guitarrist Henry Vestine (he was kicked from Zappa's Mothers Of Invention for drug abuse) was vey acclaimed at the time for his work in this album.

Canned Heat:
Bob Hite – vocals
Alan Wilson – Slide Guitar, vocals, Harmonica
Henry Vestine– Lead guitar
Larry Taylor – Electric Bass
Frank Cook – drums

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Jethro Tull - Stand Up (1969)

Stand Up is the second album from the British band Jethro Tull. In Stand Up, Ian Anderson takes full control of the music and lyrics. Abrahams left the band before the album was recorded as he wanted to keep with the bluesy sound of "This Was" (first album of Jethro Tull) and Anderson was keen to dive into other sounds. Guitarist Martin Lancelot Barre replaces Abrahams, and still plays with the band in this days, being the oldest member after Anderson.
Blues is replaced with a sound, with influences from Celtic Rock, Folk and Classical Rock.
"A New Day Yesterday" has still got a blues sound, but the rest of the album sounds alot different. "Bourée" is a re-working of "Bourrée in E minor" by J.S.Bach that features a fantastic flute and bass line. "Nothing Is Easy" and "Fat Man" Are together with "Bourée" the most know songs on the album. It reached Nº1 on the British Charts.
The cover of the album (designed by artist James Grashow) would stood-up (like in a kids book) showing the personnel of the Stand Up.
The best album in Jethro Tull's discography, and one of the best albums in rock history.

Jethro Tull:
- Glenn Cornick - bass guitar
- Clive Bunker - drums, percussion
- Martin Lancelot Barre - electric guitar, flute
- Ian Anderson - flute, acoustic guitar, Hammond organ, piano, balalaika, mouth organ, vocals

Quicksilver Messenger Service - Happy Trails (1969)

Happy Trails is the second album by Quicksilver Messenger Service. The first part of the album is a stretched cover of Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love" split into 6 tracks ("Who Do You Love?", "When You Love", "Where You Love", "How You Love", "Which Do You Love" and "Who Do You Love - Part 2"). All recorded in both Fillmore East and Fillmore West.
After this extraordinarilly good 28 min part, comes another cover by Bo Diddley, "Mona", followed by the two only original songs written by guitarrist Gary Duncan, "Maiden of the Cancer Moon" and "Calvary", both with a very big psychadelic influence. The album ends with "Happy Trails" from the cowboy singer and actor Roy Rogers.
Very good west coast psychadelic music. All of them were great musicians.

Quicksilver Messenger Service:
- John Cipollina - Guitar and vocals
- Gary Duncan - Guitar and vocals
- Greg Elmore - Drums
- David Freiberg - Bass and vocals

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Syd Barrett - The Madcap Laughs (1970)

The Madcap Laughs was the first solo album by Syd Barrett, who started recording shortly after being replaced by David Gilmour (recordings started in may 1968 and ended in august 1969). Roger Waters,David Gilmour, members of Soft Machine and Jerry Shirley from Humble Pie Participated in the creation of the album.
Recordings were intermittent and Barrett seemed to change his mind, when playing the song. Sometimes playing the same chord through much the music and suddenly changing to the planned song, other times simply playing random beats and bars to much frustration to the musicians. Robert Wyatt in an interview said that musicians would ask Barrett, "What key is that in, Syd?" and Barrett would only reply "Yeah", or "That's funny". If you listen closely to "She Took A Long Cold Look" you will hear the sound of Barret turning pages to read the rest of the lyrics.
But still this is a great Psychedelic album, the lyrics are very interesting and the music is just fantastic. Soft Machine did a really good job and probably saved the album.

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The Peanut Butter Conspiracy - The Great Conspiracy (1967)

The Peanut Butter Conspiracy formed in 1966 from the remais of the band The Ashes ( In wich Spencer Dryden played. He left to go and play with the Jefferson Airplane ). The Great Conspiracy is their second album.
The sound is very West-coast psychadelic. The opener "Turn On A Friend (To The Good Life)", "Too Many Do" and "Ectasy" will instantly remind you of Jefferson Airplane.

The voice of Barbara "Sandi" Ronbinson is atonishing and the guitars kick ass. A great album of the west-coast psychedelic movement.

The Peanut Butter Conspiracy:
- Barbara "Sandi" Ronbinson - vocals
- Lance Fent - guitar
- Jim Voigt - drums
- John Merrill - vocals, guitar
- Alan Brackett - bass, vocals

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Pearls Before Swine - Balaklava (1968)

Balaklava is the second album from the Psychadelic-Folk band Pearls Before Swine released in 1968. The album was written with an anti-war theme, the name appeared as a reminder of the futility of the war, in this case the charge of the light brigade in Balaklava, Ukraine. It was dedicated in memory of Private Edward Slovik, the only soldier killed for desertion.
"Trumpeter Landfrey" starts the album, with only 0:35, from an original recording of Martin Lanfried one of the buglers from the battle in balaklava. "Florence Nightingale" with 0:17 is also taken from the recording of the nurse Florence Nightingale.
The most important song in the whole album "Translucent Carriages" is one of the songs that every Tom Rapp's fan. with only the voice and whispers of Tom and a melodic guitar. It includes the quote from the ancient Greek historian Herodotus "In peace, sons bury their fathers / in war, fathers bury their sons". "Images Of April" is an evocation of nature with bird sounds. " There Was A Man" is the normal folk story song. "I Saw The World" has the most beautiful lyrics "I saw the world spinning like a toy / Hate seems so small compared to it all, so why don’t you do joy ?" overdubed with sounds of waves. "Guardian Angels" is recorded to sound in a scratchy old 78rpm record. it also features the cover of the song "Suzanne" by Leonard Cohen and an evocation to "The Lord Of The Rings" from Tolkien called "Ring Thing".
The covert is a part of a drawning by Pieter Bruegel the Elder called "The Triumph Of Death". The Backcover features a picture of a small girl in anti-war protest with ”Only the dead have seen the end of war” by George Santayana written below.
One of my favourite albums EVER. Listen to it.


Pearls Before Swine:
- Tom Rapp - guitar, vocals, breathing
- Jim Bohannon - organ, piano, clavinette, marimba
- Wayne Harley - banjo, harmony
- Lane Lederer - bass, guitar, swinehorn

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Gandalf - Gandalf (1969)

The album was released in 1969 ( recorded in 1967 ) .
At first hearing, the album sounded wrong but after more careful listening i realised how stupid i was. gandalf is probably one of my favourite 60's albums, with a sound much resembling The Zombies, with an echoing voice and a trippy hammond organ. The band used the name RAHGOOS ( bad name ) when playing in clubs until the drummer Davey Bauer who was reading Tolkien's "The Hobbit" ( a very influential book at the time, from the band The Hobbits to Led Zeppelin) gave the idea of GANDALF AND THE WIZARDS, which Capitol Records later named only GANDALF. "You Upset the Grace of Living", "Hang on to a Dream", "I Watch the Moon" and "Can You Travel in the Dark Alone" are some really good songs highly recommended.
The cover art is really amazing, really nice. probably one of the reasons for me to read the album. a very good piece of pop-art.
2008 saw the release of Gandalf II , a collection of demos and live recordings.

Gandalf:
- Peter Sando - Guitar.
- Bob Muller - Bass.
- Frank Hubach - Keyboards.
- Dave Bauer - Drums.

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The Common People - Of The People, By The People, For The People (1968)

This is the only album The Common People released, in 1968.
The Album is a blend between folk-pop and light psychedelia. the highlights are probably the opener "Soon There Will Be Thunder", "Take From You"and "Why Must I Be".
The album features soft vocals and a very nice guitar and bass work, even though the drums are pretty monochordic.

The Common People:
- Denny Robinett - Vocal, Guitar.
- John Bartley III - Guitar.
- Michael McCarthy - Bass.
- Jerrald Robinett - Drums.
- William Fausto - Piano, Organ.

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