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Sunday, June 29, 2008

Cream - Disraeli Gears

Bruce, Clapton, Baker


Disraeli Gears is the second album by British blues-rock group Cream. It was released in November 1967 and went on to reach #5 on the UK album chart. It was also their American breakthrough, becoming a massive seller there in 1968, reaching #4 on American charts. The album features the two singles "Strange Brew" and "Sunshine of Your Love". By this time, the group was veering quite heavily away from their blues roots to indulge in more psychedelic sounds.
The title of the album, Disraeli Gears, was actually a bit of an inside joke. Eric Clapton had been thinking of getting a racing bicycle, and was discussing it with Ginger Baker, when Mick Turner, one of the roadies, commented on the performance of "those Disraeli Gears" meaning to say "derailleur gears". The band thought this was hilarious—Benjamin Disraeli was a prominent 19th Century British politician—and decided that it should be the title of their next album. Had it not been for Mick, the album would simply have been entitled Cream.


Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker all contributed songs with the help of lyricist Pete Brown and producer Felix Pappalardi. The track "Blue Condition" was unusual in that Baker, although by any account not a singer, took the lead vocal. The album was recorded in New York by their American label, the Atco division of Atlantic Records during the band's stay in the United States.

The psychedelic cover art was created by Australian artist Martin Sharp, who lived in the same building as Clapton at the time of the Chelsea artists colony The Pheasantry. At their first meeting in a London club, Clapton mentioned that he had some music that needed lyrics, so Sharp wrote out a poem he had composed on a napkin and gave it to Clapton, who recorded it as "Tales of Brave Ulysses".
When interviewed on the episode of the VH1 show, Classic Albums, which featured Disraeli Gears, Bruce stated that when writing the song "Take it Back", he had been inspired by the contemporary media images of American students burning their draft cards and wrote the song in that spirit of rejecting militarism.[1]
In 2004, the album was released as a 2-disc Deluxe edition including the complete album in both mono and stereo, demos, alternate takes and tracks taken from the band's live sessions on BBC radio.

TRACKLIST :
1 Strange Brew (2:50)
2 Sunshine of Your Love (4:13)
3 World of Pain (3:05)
4 Dance the Night Away (3:36)
5 Blue Condition (3:32)
6 Tales of Brave Ulysses (2:49)
7 Swlabr (2:34)
8 We're Going Wrong (3:29)
9 Outside Woman Blues (2:27)
10 Take It Back (3:08)
11 Mother's Lament (1:47)

***AMG***
The threesome of Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, and legendary guitarist Eric Clapton forming the band Cream was a monumental effort of jazz, blues, and psychedelic rock during the British rock period of the late 1960s. Cream, with their raw fury of intense sound, was renowned for their rare talent of taking songs of complex arrangements and making them an act of spontaneous beauty during live shows. Disraeli Gears, their second release, was an essential landmark recording that brought listeners to the direction they were soon to take with Wheels of Fire. Taking on a circus-spinning arsenal of sounds and effects, Cream's fashionable art is a blend of highly sustained drenched distortion, rampant percussion, and a kaleidoscope of various musical textures and colors, both in melody and rhythm. Each of Disraeli Gears' list of 11 tunes is original in format, containing it own unique brands of dashing blues-laden guitar riffs by Clapton, as well as thick bass lines and smashing drum leads. Highlights of the record feature Clapton's awe-inspiring and soul-gripping guitar leads, including hits such as "Sunshine of Your Love" and "Tales of Brave Ulysses." The latter is a magical poem laced into a line of mesmerizing chordal changes. Disraeli Gears is a definitive staple of early British rock and a sensational addition to the avid classic rock listener.


DOWNLOAD TORRENT FILE - Disraeli Gears - Cream.
@ LAME 256 kbps / joint stereo

Extra Info:-
There is a story about how this album got it's name;
Eric Clapton had been thinking of getting a racing bike. Whilst he was telling his intentions to Ginger Baker, Mick Turner, (who was one of the regular roadies) commented on the performance of "those Disraeli gears", (he meant to say "derailleur gears"). The band thought this was hilarious and decided that it should be the title of their next album. If it wasn't for the Mick Turner's spoonerism, the album would simply have been entitled Cream.


Thursday, June 19, 2008

Phsychedelic gems & rarities

The Psychedelic music Era was responsible for spawning many irrepeatable and awe inspiring albums during it's existence.
Psychedelia though, is not just a movement and music genre from 50 years in the past; The psychedelic movement has in fact survived right up to the present day, due to an ever-present faction of people within the Psychedelic scene, and numerous Psychedelia bands who have maintained the movement's trajectory through time on a steady route, through constant promotion of the Genre. There have been so many Post-Psychedelic-Era Music albums released, that when you heard them, you were sure the sound was coming straight out of the P.A. of the Fillmore East in San Francisco, or some smoky bar with a band in haight ashbury in 1969, only to discover that it is really music from some new and unheard-of-before band of young musicians who have pulled it off with the sound (in both terms of the nostalgic sound recording production, and in terms of the authenticity of the 60's psychedelic sound inflected) to acheive a raw, authentic '60s trippy feel with a genuine


I personally have so many beloved albums in this category of music. I also have an extreme liking for many other musical styles from the same era (60's to 70's), such as acid rock, progressive rock etc. Below is a small selection of some of my personal favourites in the Psychedelic Genre
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown


The Crazy World of Arthur Brown is One of my all time favourite albums, and one which i find has no likeness to any other band's music, nor is there another album to be found anywhere that can be said to be similar.
1968 debut album
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown is the name of both the album, and the Band.
The album was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic. Produced by Pete Townshend on Track Records,.
The first single off the album, - Fire, was an instant smash hit ."I Put a Spell on You" was a sinister sounding remake of Screamin' Jay hawkins' classic soul/bvlues/r&b masterpiece. The band included Vincent Crane on Hammond organ, Drachen Theaker on drums, and Nick Greenwood on bass. Crane and Greenwood left to start Atomic Rooster, while Drachen Theaker was replaced temporarily by Carl Palmer (Emerson, Lake and Palmer) during Arthur Brown's second tour of tyhe United States.

About Arthur Brown


Claimed by some people to have a four-octave vocal range, Arthur started out on his musical trajectory part time in a R&B Soul & Ska group called The Ramong . This band later went on to become successful as "The Foundations", by which time Arthur had left to form his own lineup.
He was renowned fo outlandish behaviour which went as far as to permeate his performances too.
For example the case where he had a mishap with the famous burning helmet he wore on stage, and set his head on fire! two bystanders extinguished the blaze of his head with their beers (they poured their glasses over Arthur's head)! Arthur Brown was sometimes inclined to disrobe and appear naked on stage by some performances - onje of these, in Italy, ended up with Arthur being arrested for indecent exposure.
Arthur Brown was a fervent follower of the teachings of Gurdjeff

Tracks on the Album;

Prelude-Nightmare, Fanfare-Fire Poem, Come and Buy, Time, Confusion, I Put a Spell on You, Spontaneous Apple Creation, Rest Cure, Money, Child of my Kingdom.
MP3 Download;
Time-Confusion
Links;

All Living Fear Arthur Brown
Austin Chronicle, bardofely.com British Rock Festivals Cosmic
Natch
instantflight.com Curly's Airships


The Crazy World of Arthur Brown - Nightmare - 1968


This song from 1968 is pure psychedelic sound at it's most classic.Don't you just love the way Arthur shakes his head the way people did when dancing to Psychedelia and Beatnik music in the 60's? - Its so Hip and Groovy it is so Far Out :)


Fire - Arthur Brown





Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Groundhogs - 70's progressive rock

Download MP3;
Garden - the Groundhogs
Groundhogs - ShipOnTheOcean
The Groundhogs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Discography".

as The Groundhogs:

* Scratchin' the Surface (November 1968)
* The Groundhogs with John Lee Hooker and John Mayall (1968)
* Blues Obituary (July 1969)
* Thank Christ For The Bomb (May 1970) - UK Albums Chart high - Number 9
* Split (March 1971) - Number 5
* Who Will Save the World? The Mighty Groundhogs (March 1972) - Number 8
* Hogwash (October 1972)
* Solid (June 1974) - Number 31
* Crosscut Saw (February 1976)
* Black Diamond (October 1976)
* Hoggin' The Stage (live) (April 1984)
* Razor's Edge (May 1985)
* Moving Fast, Standing Still (1986)
* Back Against the Wall (May 1987)
* Extremely Live (1988)
* Hogs On The Road (Live) (1988)
* No Surrender (live) (Dec 1990)
* Groundhog Night...Groundhog Live (Jun 1993)
* Who Said Cherry Red (Oct 1996)
* Live at Leeds 71 (Live) (Aug 1998)
* Hogs in Wolf's Clothing (Jan 1998)
* The Muddy Waters Song Book (Apr 1999)
* UK Tour '76 (1999)
* Live At The Astoria (Sep 2001)
* Live at the New York Club, Switzerland 1991 (2007) TECD109





DVDs And Video



* Live At The Astoria (1999) [Video]
* 60/40 Split (2005) [DVD]

as Tony McPhee and the Groundhogs:

* No Surrender (August 1989)
* Bleaching the Blues (April 1997) (Tony McPhee Solo)


Album Art;
Scratching the Surface (1968)
Blues Obituary (1969)

Split (1971)


Links;
groundhogs.co.uk

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