Showing posts with label Jefferson Airplane. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jefferson Airplane. Show all posts

Friday, April 5, 2024

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Donovan (2014)

By 1966, Donovan had shed the Dylan/Guthrie influences and become one of the first British pop musicians to adopt flower power, immersing himself in jazz, blues, Eastern music, and the new generation of counterculture-era US West Coast bands such as Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead. He was entering his most creative phase as a songwriter and recording artist, working with Mickie Most and with arranger, musician, and jazz fan John Cameron, and their collaboration on Sunshine Superman was one of the first psychedelic pop records. Donovan's rise stalled in December 1965 when Billboard broke news of the impending production deal between Klein, Most, and Donovan, and then reported that Donovan was to sign with Epic Records in the US. Despite Kozak's denials, Pye Records dropped the single and a contract dispute ensued, because Pye had a US licensing arrangement with Warner Bros. Records. As a result, the UK release of the Sunshine Superman album was delayed for months, robbing it of the impact it would have had off the back of the hit single. Another outcome was that the UK and US versions of this and later albums differed, with three of his Epic LPs not being released in the UK, while 'Sunshine Superman' was issued in a different form in each country. By spring 1966 the American contract problems had been resolved, with Donovan signing a $100,000 deal with Epic Records, and he and Most went to CBS Studios in Los Angeles, where they recorded tracks for an album, much of which was composed during the preceding year. 
Although folk elements were prominent, the songs showed increasing influence of jazz, American west coast psychedelia and folk rock, especially from The Byrds. 'Sunshine Superman' was released in the US as a single in June, and reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart, and later number 2 in the UK. The US version of the album features instruments including acoustic bass, sitar, saxophone, tablas and congas, harpsichord, strings and oboe, and highlights include the swinging 'The Fat Angel', written for Cass Elliot of the Mamas & the Papas, 'Bert's Blues' (a tribute to Bert Jansch), 'Guinevere', and 'Legend Of A Girl Child Linda'. The driving, jazzy 'The Trip' was named after a Los Angeles club, and chronicled an LSD trip during his time in L.A., and is loaded with references to his sojourn on the West Coast. Because of the earlier contractual problems, the UK version of 'Sunshine Superman' was not released for another nine months, and as Donovan had released another record in the US by this time, the UK version was a compilation of tracks from the US 'Sunshine Superman', and its follow-up 'Mellow Yellow'. I think most of the better tracks on the UK version come from the US 'Sunshine Superman' album, so for this post I've used that as a basis, and every track has received a superlative cover version, all of which are included on this reimagining of arguably Donovan's best album. 



Track listing

01 Sunshine Superman (Mike Vickers 1967)
02 Legend Of A Girl Child Linda (Joan Baez, Judy Collins & Mimi Farina 1967)
03 Three King Fishers (Gabor Szabo 1968)
04 Ferris Wheel (Rick Wooley 1980)
05 Bert's Blues (Burnt Branch 2014)
06 Season Of The Witch (Brian Auger, Julie Driscoll & The Trinity 1967)
07 The Trip (Ryan Green 2013)
08 Guinevere (Paul Roland 1992)
09 The Fat Angel (Jefferson Airplane 1969)
10 Celeste (Scott McKenzie 1967)

Friday, January 8, 2021

Jerry Garcia - ...and on guitar (1974)

Jerry Garcia's musical career is inevitably closely intertwined with The Grateful Dead, but he also spent a lot of time in the recording studio helping out fellow musician friends in session work, often adding guitar, vocals, pedal steel, sometimes banjo and piano and even producing. Artists who sought his help included the likes of Jefferson Airplane (most notably 'Surrealistic Pillow', where he was listed as their 'spiritual advisor'), and where he also played uncredited guitar on 'Today', 'Plastic Fantastic Lover' and 'Comin' Back to Me'. He also added guitar to 'The Farm' from their 'Volunteers' album, as well as helping out Tom Fogerty, David Bromberg, Robert Hunter, Paul Pena, Peter Rowan, Warren Zevon, Country Joe McDonald, Pete Sears, Ken Nordine, Ornette Coleman, Bruce Hornsby, Bob Dylan, It's a Beautiful Day, and many more. He played pedal steel guitar for fellow-San Francisco musicians New Riders Of The Purple Sage from their initial dates in 1969 through to October 1971, when increased commitments with the Dead forced him to opt out of the group, but he does appear as a band member on their debut album 'New Riders Of The Purple Sage', and produced 'Home, Home On The Road'. He contributed pedal steel guitar to the enduring hit 'Teach Your Children' by Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young, and also played it on Brewer & Shipley's 1970 album 'Tarkio', and despite considering himself a novice on the pedal steel, he routinely ranked high in player polls. This album is just a snapshot of the many artists that he's appeared with, covering just the years 1969 to 1974, and yet it still had to be a double album. 



Track listing 

Disc One
01 The Farm (from 'Volunteers' by Jefferson Airplane 1969)
02 Oh Mommy (from 'Tarkio' by Brewer & Shipley 1970)
03 Teach Your Children (from 'Déjà vu' by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young 1970)
04 Starship (from 'Blows Against The Empire' by Paul Kantner/Jefferson Starship 1970)
05 Soul Fever (from 'Papa John Creach' by Papa John Creach 1971)
06 What Are Their Names (from 'If I Could Only Remember My Name' by David Crosby 1971)
07 Man In The Mirror (from 'Songs For Beginners' by Graham Nash 1971)
08 Change Partners (from 'Stephen Stills 2' by Stephen Stills 1971)
09 When I Was A Boy I Watched The Wolves (from 'Sunfighter' by Kantner/Slick
 1971)
10 Hickory Day (from 'Rowan Brothers' by Rowan Brothers 1972)
11 Sick And Tired (from 'Excalibur' by Tom Fogerty 1972)
12 Southbound Train (from 'Graham Nash - David Crosby' by Crosby & Nash 1972)

Disc Two
01 Looks Like Rain (from 'Ace' by Bob Weir 1972)
02 Deep, Wide And Frequent (from 'Rolling Thunder' by Mickey Hart 1972)
03 Venutian Lady (from 'New Train' by Paul Pena 1973)
04 Expressway (To Your Heart) (from 'Fire Up' by Merl Saunders 1973)
05 Walkin' (from 'Baron von Tollbooth & The Chrome Nun' by Kantner/Slick/Freiberg 1973)
06 Down In The Willow Garden (from 'Angel Clare' by Art Garfunkel 1973)
07 Tuscon, Arizona (from 'Be What You Want To' by Link Wray 1973)
08 Someone Else's Blues (from 'Wanted Dead Or Alive' by David Bromberg 1974)
09 Standing At Your Door (from 'Tales Of The Great Rum Runners' by Robert Hunter 1974)