Revolution
Original Soundtrack
United Artists UAS 5185
1968
This is the soundtrack to a documentary about the Summer of Love in San Francisco in 1967. The film follows the flower child depicted on the back cover of the album as she wanders through hippie San Francisco taking in the various scenes. The film covers all the usual stuff: communes, free love, psychedelic ballroom concerts, outdoor festivals, drug trips, the Diggers, runaways, panhandlers etc. It is a curious mixture of a true believer manifesto and an exploitation film. It features earnest statements of purpose along with extended simulations of drug trips and lots of female hippie nudity. I find it fascinating as I've been obsessed with the subject matter since I was a teen growing up in the Bay Area in the aftermath of the hippie era. The film also boasts a killer soundtrack although not all of the music from the film makes it onto the record. It omits live performances by Country Joe and the Fish and Dan Hicks of the Charlatans. Most regrettably it also does not include a wonderful and all too brief clip of the pioneering female rock group Ace Of Cups performing their song "Stones" at an outdoor concert. I originally bought the record because I wanted the two cuts by Quicksilver Messenger Service, neither of which appeared on their debut album. Both cuts were part of the early Quicksilver repertoire and can be heard on several of their archival live releases. I'm a big fan of their cover of Buffy St. Marie's classic anti-drug song "Codine." I find it amusing that my favorite version of this song was performed by arguably the druggiest band in San Francisco. The group pounds out the song's riff with great vigor and David Freiberg delivers the words with gut wrenching anguish. Extraordinary. Nearly as good is the band's cover of Anne Bredon's "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You." There are lots of covers of this song, but this is easily my favorite. It is hard driving with slashing guitar chords and a passionate joint vocal by Freiberg and Gary Duncan. The band is seen performing the song in a ballroom in the film. The record is worth owning for these two songs alone, but the rest of the album has much to offer as well. The Steve Miller Band has three songs none of which appeared on their albums for Capitol. The best is a frenzied cover of the Isley Brothers' "Your Old Lady" that features smoking hot guitar work from Miller and James Cooke supported ably by Jim Peterman on organ. It is one of the most exciting tracks that Miller has ever recorded. The band is seen performing the song in a ballroom in one of my favorite scenes in the film. The Miller Band also perform a cover of K. C. Douglas' "Mercury Blues" which is another jumping track with blistering blues guitar licks. Their third song is the instrumental "Superbyrd" which is pleasant, but forgettable, by far the weakest track on the record. The remaining three songs are by Mother Earth. "Revolution" was co-written by the film's director Jack O'Connell. It is a didactic song that stresses the themes of the film. It doesn't sound much like a typical Mother Earth song, but the band gamely gives it a jazzy interpretation that I find engaging and Tracy Nelson sings the awkward words very convincingly. The band fares better with Danny Small's "Without Love" which was a hit for Clyde McPhatter in 1957. The song's gospel style plays to Tracy Nelson's strengths and she knocks it out of the park. Percy Mayfield's bluesy "Stranger in My Own Home Town" is well suited for the band but suffers from an inadequate vocal by Powell St. John. With only 8 tracks this album is a bit skimpy even by 1960s standards but with five must-have tracks on it, it is well worth seeking out, particularly for fans of the San Francisco Sound. Recommended to fans of "Monterey Pop."
Children of the Future
Steve Miller Band
Capitol SKAO 2920
1968
Congratulations to Steve Miller for making it to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. As I've mentioned in past posts, I despise that institution but I'm glad Miller received the recognition anyway. No doubt he is in there for his work in the mid-1970s when he had a bunch of hits. That is when I first encountered him. I liked him because he sounded better than most of the other acts that were popular around that time, but I didn't become a fan until I discovered his work from the 1960s. The first two albums by the Steve Miller Band, "Children of the Future" and "Sailor" impressed me when I was in college and obsessed with the San Francisco Sound. I did buy some of his later albums, but these two are the only ones I still play very much. His debut album opens with the title song which like most of the record was written by Miller. It begins with a frenzy of psychedelic noise before settling into a propulsive folk rock groove driving the flower child lyrics about the new generation, getting high and loving one another. The song segues seamlessly into the rocking fragment "Pushed Me to It" which is about a break-up. It leads directly into another up tempo fragment "You've Got the Power" which is about the power of love. Without a break the album abruptly shifts speed and feeling with the slow majestic organ line that introduces "In My First Mind" which Miller wrote with the band's organist Jim Peterman. The song is driven by swelling organ and mellotron runs that remind me of Pink Floyd. The song is a trippy love song that is one of my favorite tracks on the album. There is a segue of seagulls and wave sounds that lead into the concluding song on side one, "The Beauty of Time is That It's Snowing (Psychedelic B. B.)" which is as surreal as its title. There is a blues boogie at the beginning mixed low with sound effects on top. It fades away for more ocean noises and then Peterman's organ returns playing the slow riff from "In My First Mind" over which the group repeatedly sings "We are children of the future" until the song fades out. Side one is a remarkable piece of music, totally unlike any of the other San Francisco bands of the time that I've heard. Side two is more conventional. It opens with Boz Scaggs' "Baby's Callin' Me Home" which features a subdued lead vocal from Scaggs and harpsichord lines from Ben Sidran. It is a simple love song but the melody is hypnotic and haunting giving the banal words a lot more feeling than they deserve. It is my favorite track on the record. It segues into another song by Scaggs, "Steppin' Stone." In total contrast to the previous song this is a riff-driven blues rocker about a guy whose woman has done him wrong. "Roll With It" is also a riff-driven rocker of the so-long-babe-I-gotta-ramble variety. Miller at last unleashes his guitar for a stinging solo. The album continues in a similar vein with Jim Pulte's "Junior Saw It Happen" which is about a guy whose woman has run off with another guy. It is a fast paced boogie driven by Peterman's organ with another highly charged guitar solo from Miller. The band's drummer Tim Davis sings the lead vocal. It is followed by a cover of Buster Brown's 1959 blues classic "Fannie Mae" (listed as "Fanny Mae" on the album cover.) Davis again sings lead and Miller plays harmonica on this jumping track that testifies to Miller's beginnings as a blues musician in Chicago. The album concludes with a slow cover of Charles Segar and Big Bill Broonzy's blues standard, "The Key to the Highway." I don't think Miller was a good enough singer to put the song over properly but I still enjoy the track thanks to the band's instrumental strength. Stylistically this record jumps all over the place with one side of highly original psychedelic progressive rock and another of mostly derivative blues and rock. I like both but side one is definitely my favorite. It is records like this that make albums so appealing to me. Not only do I like the programming and the way the songs flow together, but I also admire how it takes the listener on such an adventurous musical trip while sustaining a groove and a consistent mood. I can't think of another album quite like it aside from the band's wonderful follow-up record, "Sailor." Recommended to people who think it would be cool if Canned Heat jammed with King Crimson.
