Mantra Rock Dance 1967

Wish I'd been there.

the Hollies

Little slice of history. The Hollies on Top of the Pops 1966
Just happens to be one of my favorite Hollies tunes.

The Fireballs

Here's a little sugar shack for you.
1963, the Fireballs.

Todd Rundgren- a Brief History

I've been accused of being the only Todd head in my generation, although I seriously doubt that, in all honesty I'm fine with it. I think he's a technical wizard (a true star if you will, hyuck!), a great song writer, and all around fascinating musician.

He started his career in Philadelphia forming Nazz, a psych pop outfit that took a lot of inspiration from British rock at the time. The Nazz took off with their hit "Open my Eyes". Moving out to Los Angeles they completed a second album, and a portion of the third before Todd left the group with plans of becoming a producer.





While signed as a Bearsville record producer he recorded some solo stuff under the name of Runt, which lo and behold had another hit single with "We Gotta Get You a Woman". So while he kept producing, it got put to the back burner and his song writing became the emphasis again, which I can't say I'm sorry for.



The two all encompassing Todd Rundgren albums are "Something/Anything" (1972), which features his songwriting chops, and "A Wizard, A True Star" (1973) which shows off his producer side.

Hopefully this will entice you to explore more of the Todd.

Skip Spence

Skip Spence, from the great Moby Grape, has had a pretty big hand in psychedelic music. Not only was he one of the founding members of Moby Grape, he was in one of the early lineups of Quicksilver Messenger Service, and he played drums on the first Jefferson Airplane record. Along with those he released a wonderful psych folk record, "Oar" 1969.

This album is a pretty good companion to "the Madcap Laughs". Spence recorded it after a long stint in the Bellevue Hospital for chopping down a hotel room door with an axe. Like Syd Barrett, Spence's work is primarily singer- song writer stuff with a strange spin. At times he uses unusual chord progressions, the production is dreamy, and he's lyrics seem to have a lot of double meaning.

Anyway, I really dig it. Hope you cats do to.

Syd Barrett- The Madcap Laughs

The Madcap Laughs 1970

I just recently got this album and have kind of fallen in love with it. A lot of it is kinda disjointed and strange, but thats what makes it great, otherwise it would be really simple. It's a reflection of what made Syd Barrett great, a mind for pop song writing that has fallen a bit off the normal axis. It's not dark and terrifying as it's reputation might imply.

It was recorded after Syd had left Pink Floyd, but was still in collaboration with Roger Waters and David Gillmore acting as part time producers. The album has a lot of great stuff on it, so I figured I'd share.

Bubble Puppy

Bubble Puppy in my opinion got kind of overshadowed by other texas psych groups at the time, i.e. 13th floor elevators or Fever Tree. They started in 1966, released "a Gathering of Promises", which had a top 20 hit with "Hot Smoke and Sassafrass" yet they never made it big. The album is really awesome psych pop and I wish more people were familiar with it. The band eventually moved to LA under the management of Nick St. Nicholas from Steppenwolf and changed their name to Demian, which may have contributed to the underwhelming success.