Woodstock's 50th Anniversary

Today was the final day of the 50th anniversary of Woodstock's 3 day (Actually 4) groundbreaking festival of peace, love and music. Supposed to only be 3 days, rain pushed it to an extra day. It wasn't the first of it's kind, but at the time, it was the largest collection of people in one place. It had the biggest stars in rock and roll and set the precedent for rock concerts moving forward. On August 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th, the hippie movement coalesced into a beautiful, idyllic moment that was often imitated in the months preceding, but never duplicated.

As a teenager, I dove head first into anything "hippie", so Woodstock was always this mythical beast, the ultimate hippie happening that was the perfect coming together where the only thing on people's minds was peace and music. And...it's almost that way. It's less idealism and more capitalistic. The only reason the concert was free was because the festival runners couldn't handle the sheer amount of people who showed up. Hell, Jimi Hendrix made 18 thousand bucks for his performance (125 thousand in today dollars) but honestly, learning the backstage stuff later on wasn't the reality shattering gut punch to a young wannabe hippie's mind as I'm making it out to be but there is a period of naivete where you may think it was put on for completely unselfish reasons.

Woodstock really was the peak of the hippie movement, as never again would there be such a big gathering of like minded people, showing that the younger generation could really get it together and live peacefully for a few days. Later that year there was Altamont and we all know the tragedy that occurred and the year after there was the Isle of Wight Festival (1970's was the 3rd edition of the festival but most notorious) which was supposed to be England's Woodstock but the English had a much more hostile reaction to the large hippie crowds that demanded to be let in for free. Seriously, watching the Isle of Wight doc, it's pretty amazing how angry and disgusted the promoters are at the audience, contrasted with the people running Woodstock just shrugging it off and letting it happen.

One of the many pieces of trivia I find more interesting about the artist that appeared at the festival are the number of artists/groups that either didn't make it or declined. Jeff Beck Group broke up before being able to appear and Iron Butterfly got stuck at an airport and demanded a helicopter fly them in. They were then sent a telegram where the first letter of each sentence read "FUCK YOU" so...obviously they weren't getting a helicopter. Both Frank Zappa and Jethro Tull were invited but both declined for similar reasons as Zappa said he didn't want to play in mud and Ian Anderson said he, "Did not like hippies and had other concerns including inappropriate nudity, heavy drinking and drug use." Other groups either had previous engagements and thought Woodstock wouldn't be that big of a deal like The Doors and The Byrds where some, like Chicago, were advised against it by their manager. Most of the groups that declined later regretted it, not realizing how big of a deal it was going to be.

Where Monterey Pop two years prior made stars of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, Woodstock had similar effects on groups/artists like Sly And The Family Stone, Ten Years After, Santana and Joe Cocker. These groups put everything they had to make sure they made a mark, whether it was Sly And The Family Stone's rave up during "I Want To Take You Higher", Ten Years After's Alvin Lee's face-melting guitar fireworks on their "I'm Going Home" or Joe Cocker's unmatched belting of The Beatles' "With A Little Help From My Friends".

But it wasn't all great for the groups. Some bands have said Woodstock ranks amongst their worst performances. The Grateful Dead were notorious for bombing the big shows and this was no exception, though technical difficulties may have been more the reason than anything else. Apparently they kept getting small shocks from their microphones and even from their instruments so they probably played a lot less feverishly than they would, especially in this period of the group. Another group that weren't high on their own performance was CCR who, ironically, played right after the Dead. John Fogerty later said that because the Dead played so long, that by the time CCR went on, a huge chunk of the audience went to bed. Both groups were not in the subsequent film, probably due to each group not being very proud of their performances. Other not so hot performances, in my opinion anyways, was Sha-Na-Na who, by all accounts played well and they were always a huge hit with the hippie crowd but I've always disliked them. I thought their schtick was hokey and cringey and though it was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, I still think they were dumb. Another group which I admit my opinion is biased negatively is Jefferson Airplane. Out of all the big bands that came to "define" the 60's, the Airplane has always been my least favourite, but unlike Sha-Na-Na who performed well but just didn't vibe with me, objectively, the Airplane bombed (pun absolutely intended). They look and sound drag-ass tired and they're sloppy (they usually were), their harmonies are off (they usually were). Also, the less that's to be said about The Incredible String Band on any platform the better.

Most of the more famous performances have been well documented. From Jimi Hendrix's Star-Spangled Banner to Country Joe MacDonald getting the entire crowd to spell out fuck, I don't need to go into the details as those performances have been talked about at length. 

Some more great performances that don't get mentioned I feel are Arlo Guthrie's funny, rambling folk set, John Sebastian's stoned-as-hell comments between songs (he mentions that he was told that someone just gave birth as he was playing, to which he said, "Whew, your kid’s gonna be far out."), or Mountain's amazing "Beside The Sea" which unfortunately never made the film.

Overall, Woodstock deserves it's praise as the monumental event that it was. Though the world never became the blissful, peaceful utopia that was promised at Woodstock, it seemed like it could exist, even if just for a few short days. I can't watch the film without leaving feeling a sense of hippie pride and it really makes you hopeful even if you know what comes next.

Rhino released a 50th anniversary 10 CD/3 LP edition of the festival called Back To The Garden which you can purchase on their website or you can check out the 1970 documentary. I personally have the 40th anniversary Director's Cut which has some super cool extra stuff like some groups that didn't appear in the original film and also some awesome memorabilia like replicas of the original ticket stubs and info of Woodstock by the numbers. I implore everyone to at the very least, watch the film as it is a perfect encapsulation of the 60's counterculture movement. Even if you're not a fan of the music, it's still an amazing time capsule that should be viewed by everyone.

Tyrannosaurus Rex - Unicorn (1969)

Lots of people know T. Rex. One of the biggest groups of the early 70's, Marc Bolan was able to capture the imaginations of young kids from a period of roughly 3 years to become almost as big as The Beatles. Lots of people point to Led Zeppelin as The Beatles of the 70's, but from 1970-1973, the group scored four no.1 hit songs in England. Led Zeppelin were massive, but they were never successful on the singles charts. In fact, not a single one of their singles charted at all in England. T. Rex were also arguably the group responsible for the glam rock boom. David Bowie kicked the doors wide open with Ziggy Stardust in 1972, but he might not have without seeing his friend Bolan appear on Top of The Pops a year earlier in a glittery, make up glory. You could be forgiven to think Bolan and T. Rex were a brand new group breaking out of nowhere, but Marc had been around for a few years before, just under a longer name and vastly, vastly different sound.

Now while the first, self-titled T.Rex album from 1970 bridged the gap pretty well between their earlier work as Tyrannosaurus Rex and the simple glam rock that would make them worldwide sensations, I don't think anyone familiar with songs like Get It On or Metal Guru expect the utter difference that Tyrannosaurus Rex is. There's no chunky electric riffs, no 12 bar blues. This is psychedelic folk at it's most fantastical. Sure, Bolan's lyrics were more poetic than the next glammer, with even the most simple song like Get It On having lines like, "Well you're an untamed youth/
That's the truth with your cloak full of eagles" but with songs about beasties, unicorns, sentient salamanders and crocodiles to name a few, this is pure English fantasy. The formula was perfected, in my opinion, on their third album, 1969's Unicorn.

Only a duo here, Bolan and original percussionist Steve Peregrine Took up the ante from their previous two records with the inclusion of electric guitar and a full drum set. Nowhere does this become them rocking out, but is a logical progression of their sound and adds a new dimension to the songs. Bolan had a way with creating an extremely tangible atmosphere in these songs. Even though there are times where it's difficult to make out what he's singing (apparently on purpose) but the sound, the vibe and the little bits and pieces you get here and there firmly sits you in a cozy, warm glow where if you close your eyes, you can really believe you're in an English garden where all of these fantastical things are happening all around you.

I have an emotional attachment to this album, as when I first found this album, I was dealing with a lot of anxiety issues and going through the first throes of panic disorder. I didn't quite know it was panic disorder yet, but I knew something was wrong, as every day I would have horrible panic attacks. It was the summer of 2005 and since it was the summer time, I wasn't in school so I didn't really need to be anywhere. This, along with having no idea why I was basically freaking out every day caused me to isolate myself from my friends and family. I'd spend most of my time in my room listening to music. I already knew of T. Rex but had no idea they had music that was any different from the boogie glam that made them famous. I got a copy of Unicorn and listened to it non stop that entire summer. It really relaxed me and put me in a tranquil state of mind which I really needed. I have vivid memories of pulling all nighters (which is not good for panic disorder let me just say that) and having that overtired fuzz in my head combined with the sunrise and Unicorn it just being a very idyllic, almost spiritual thing.

I could almost see the characters Bolan was singing about come to life in front of me as I was listening to it day in and day out. One thing I think Bolan lost a bit with T. Rex was his penchant for writing some extremely amazing melodies. T. Rex's music is catchy as hell, and some of the ballads, especially on Electric Warrior and The Slider like "Life's A Gas" and "Spaceball Ricochet" are gorgeous, but here, it's just an acoustic guitar and percussion and you either make up something that sticks in people's brains or it just becomes simple, by-the-books singer songwriter-y pap. There's absolutely nothing simple or pedestrian about Unicorn. This album is wacky and it's a shame that after this, the original duo of Bolan and Took splintered as Took's drug use became too much to handle and Bolan would finally begin moving towards the sound that made him a megastar. There was one more Tyrannosaurus Rex album after this, but the writing was on the wall. The Tyrannosaurus Rex that once was was no more and Bolan was onto his next image and his next sound. But I'll always have the memories of Unicorn.

Key Tracks: Chariots of Silk, The Seal of Seasons, The Throat of Winter, Cat Black (The Wizard's Hat), She Was Born To Be My Unicorn, Warlord of The Royal Crocodiles, Evenings of Damask, The Sea Beasts, Iscariot, Nijinsky Hind, The Misty Coast of Albany

His chariot legs
Are tree green and autumn brown
His crown of dusk 
Is a glimpse of things to be

Nirvana - The Story of Simon Simopath (1967)

No, not that Nirvana. The original, British Nirvana. There's no way I can really talk about this group without sounding like a major hipster, but I like this Nirvana so, so much more. Were they as influential or notable? Hell no, but I was never a fan of grunge. Psychedelic twee-pop is more my jam.

Lots of things have been said about what the first real "concept" album was. Many people point to The Who's "Tommy" in 1969 but The Pretty Things' "S.F. Sorrow" was a full fledged rock opera released 6 months earlier. The problem was that Sorrow wasn't released in America until after Tommy was, so to Americans, the narrative was that The Pretty Things were just leeching off of the popularity of Tommy. It's interesting that no one points to the actual correct answer, Nirvana's "The Story of Simon Simopath". Perhaps it was because it was released 4 months after The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", and album which everyone and their dog said was a concept album even though John, Paul, George and Ringo said otherwise. It's concept was in the title, cover art and first few songs and that was it. It had a unifying theme and tone to it, but if you're listening to it for a story with a beginning and end, you're out of luck. Or perhaps it's because Nirvana was never setting the charts on fire in the late 60's. Their 1968 single "Rainbow Chaser" went to no. 34 in the UK Singles charts, but that was the extent of their commercial success, though it did go to No. 1 in Denmark. As much as the 1960's were about artistic and creative ambitions, the bottom line was still how many records you sell and since they didn't sell that many, they seem to be forgotten. Also, it's hard to bring up their name without evoking the group that became much more successful and influential with the same name, so people nowadays often forget the original group even existed.

This is a shame, as their music is always melodic, catchy and at times, really interesting and psychedelic. Sure, some of their stuff borders on saccharine, but most twee pop does.  It's all love and sunshine and rainbows and you either like that or you don't. I understand people having an aversion to it if they're used to harder stuff. You're not going to get any acid-rock freakout jams with this record.

According to Wikipedia, the story of this album is, "The story deals with a boy named Simon Simopath who dreams of having wings. He is unpopular at school, and after reaching adulthood (in 1999) goes to work in an office in front of a computer. He suffers a nervous breakdown and is unable to find help in a mental institution, but gets aboard a rocket and meets a centaur who will be his friend and a tiny goddess named Magdalena, who works at Pentecost Hotel. Simon and Magdalena fall in love and get married, followed by a jazzy party". Now, I've listened to this album countless times and never got the full gist of that. The story is told in a sort of haphazard way and it's hard to track down what's really going on, but that's not really important. There are times when a concept album is more story than music and you can tell making a grand cinematic statement is more important than writing a good record. It definitely seems at times like Nirvana wrote the songs and then came up with the story later. I think the story falls apart at times but the songs are well crafted enough that if you forgot you're supposed to be following a story they're still fun enough to enjoy.

I understand why the original Nirvana became basically a trivia answer for more educated fans of Cobain's group but it's a shame since Nirvana's music is nice, mellow and catchy and The Story of Simon Simopath is an important piece of the bridging gap between commercial pop and the artsier more progressive works that were beginning to come out.

Key Tracks: Wings of Love, Lonely Boy, We Can Help You, Satellite Jockey, Pentecost Hotel, 1999

And in the lobby, Magdalena is friendly
To all the people with a passport of insanity
And seven sirens are a-dancing to music
In Pentecost Hotel

Frank Zappa - 200 Motels (1971)

Frank Zappa always had greater ambitions than simply being a rock and roll musician. When you first read or watch any of his opinions on the music scene he was a part of, it's easy to write him off as a complete asshole or horribly negative about everything, but he was just passionate and had a very tunnel-vision like idea of the music he truly wanted to create. The original Mothers of Invention seemed to encapsulate all of the disparate influences that ran through Zappa's brain. Everything from the atonality of classical composer Edgar Varèse to pure doo-wop of groups like The Penguins and The Clovers were mixed into their sound which could be technically stunning or sound like a group of guys who had no idea how to play their instruments, sometimes in the same song. Zappa despised using music as a marketing tool, and to him, the Hippie movement in the late 60's was nothing more than a marketing ploy. He sought to lambast and satirize everything from the phony hippies to the record companies that took advantage of the idealistic young people who would buy anything resembling "hip" music.

After the original Mothers ran their course, Zappa disbanded them and went on his own and ventured into what could be considered early jazz fusion with 1969's "Hot Rats", but with the inclusion of former Turtles members Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, 1970's "Chunga's Revenge", Zappa featured sophomoric lyrics that dealt with the road life of a musician whether that was the monotony of towns blending into each other or having sex with countless, nameless groupies. This controversial subject matter would carry Zappa into the most successful period of his career. But first, he needed to make a movie.

Zappa making a full length film itself isn't really a surprise. He was always one of the most ambitious and prolific of his peers, but I don't think anyone expected a normal movie from him and they certainly didn't get it. But I'm not here to talk about the film itself, which, if you couldn't guess, is a complete and utter mess. It's entertaining and it's cool as a time capsule of that incarnation of the group but it makes no sense and is poorly, poorly acted.

It only took one solo album before Zappa reformed The Mothers but this time, they served less of a full group and more of an ever changing vehicle for Frank's madness. Frank always picked the best musicians for his groups and while I'd say the mid-late 70's were probably the tightest group he assembled (especially the Joe's Garage and Sheik Yerbouti era), he never had more charismatic and entertaining guys than Kaylan and Volman or Flo and Eddie as they were known due to contract reasons. Seriously, both guys were so quick witted and funny that they could turn anything into something that would get a laugh out of even the most sophisticated person. I think the funniest part of that though is the fact that these dirty, hairy perverts were two of the main singers just a year prior of The Turtles, one of the squeakiest of the clean bands of the 60's. I don't think they were ever "cool", with them resembling Spanky And Our Gang more than The Jimi Hendrix Experience in terms of hipness.

200 Motels is the peak of Zappa's crude humour with Flo and Eddie, with some of the songs I straight up have no idea how they got away with back in 1971. Lines like "Half a dozen provocative squats!/Out of the shower she squeezes her spots/Brushes her teeth/Shoots a deodorant spray up her twat" or the entirety of the song Penis Dimension (a song that allegedly even Volman and Kaylan thought went too far). If you're easily offended, you might want to stay far, far away from this album. But just risque lyrics doesn't make an interesting listen. I really liked this period of Zappa because it was before he got really, really technical with his music and there's a raw, pure rock crunch to the arrangements of the band numbers. Elsewhere there's grand orchestral numbers that at times are interesting, but the more musique concrete stuff doesn't really grip me. Also, since the soundtrack is taken straight from the film and the movie was made on a, what I can only imagine was a less than even shoestring budget, the audio quality isn't amazing, but I feel that lends itself again to the rawness of things. The bread and butter of the soundtrack, in my opinion are the more conventional songs. I don't think you're missing anything by skipping the instrumental sections and just sticking with the band stuff. Lots of people sour on 200 Motels but it's always been my favourite of his early 70's material. I was never a fan of his pure jazz Grand Wazoo/Waka Jawaka stuff later on and while I love the original MOI, some of their stuff is a little too weird even for me. 200 Motels scratches that itch of combining some of the most juvenile humour with adventurous, exciting rock and roll.

Key Tracks: Mystery Roach, Lonesome Cowboy Burt, Would You Like A Snack, Centerville, She Painted Up Her Face, Half A Dozen Provocative Squats, Shove It Right In, I'm Stealing The Towels, Dental Hygiene Dilemma, Does This Kind of Life Look Interesting to You?, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, What Will This Evening Bring Me This Morning, Magic Fingers

Open up your pocketbook
Get another quarter out
Drop it in the meter momma
Try me on for size

Harley And The Hummingbirds - Future Superstar (2019)

A thing I love about how accessible music has become in the Internet age is how you can listen to one artist, but then find other similar artists that you like just as much. Spotify Premium is a godsend. I checked out a group called The Lemon Twigs (a group I'd like to talk about on this blog another time) last summer and got into them pretty deep. I then went on the usual search of finding groups like them and was directed to a band called Drugdealer. After listening to their great 2019 album "Raw Honey", which featured guest spots on multiple tracks, I noticed the 3rd song on the album featured Harley And The Hummingbirds. I thought that was a super interesting name so I looked them up too. What I found was that Harley And The Hummingbirds is actually just one man a British born, L.A. based musician who sought to preserve the organic sounds of the 60's and 70's through his own songs. Looking at pictures of Harley, you'd be forgiven for thinking he was a forgotten singer-songwriter from the early 70's.

I listened his first few EPs, which were all released in 2018, and I really dug the stripped down vintage pop Harley was bringing to the table. Lots of bands and artists who are influenced by older music, but not a lot of the time is it conveyed in a way that actually shows the influences. Usually it's retro but done in a modern way, or bands just dress up and have violin basses but not sound anything like the groups they're apparently honouring. Harley's music actually perfectly captures the retro aesthetic due to him not only recording with vintage gear, but also obviously having a true, genuine love of the time period he so lovingly recaptures.

So after 4 EPs of mostly acoustic (with some keyboard embellishments) material, Harley went to the next logical step for an artist, a full length LP with full instrumentation. Not only that, but his first LP is a concept album, according to Harley himself, "about love, fame and time travel". Amazingly enough, it also says that the entire record was recording using only a 2 track tape machine in his bedroom. You would think a bedroom recording, especially using only 2 tracks would sound super lo-fi, but this album's sound is rich, full and warm. The songs are catchy and stick with you. I may not understand the story completely. I gather it's about a guy who travels through time but realizes happiness was where he originally came from, but I could be completely mistaken. The inclusion of drums adds to give this a plentiful sound. There's really not a bad song on this record.

Harley isn't just a great musician and songwriter, but he's also a super nice guy. On a whim I messaged him on Instagram asking if there were any of his songs available online with chords and he told me no but then proceeded to send me the lyrics and chords to the title track. I wasn't expecting it but it was an extremely gracious thing for him to do. You all should go out and support him. He has all of his material for free on Bandcamp and Youtube so if you're interested, go check him out on those sites and get his listen/view count up!

Key Tracks: Future Superstar, ...Of You At Night, Out of Time, My Darling, Emily, Prelude, Goodbye

Oh my god Oh my god
Please don't take him out too far
You know he won't come back if he's this
Future Superstar

King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard - Nonagon Infinity (2016)

Discovering King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard was a mind-blowing revelation for me. I matured enough to finally check out modern bands after high school when I would declare that no good music came out after 1979, but still, the majority of the bands I'd listen to wore their influences from The Beatles or Beach Boys and other 60's bands on their sleeves. So, when it came time that I first heard about King Gizzard, I was pretty hesitant to check them out. I read that they were a metal group with punk roots that started in the early 2010's so I brushed them off as some shitty crust punk, who, judging that they come from Australia, probably sang about getting wasted and cavorting the outback. Not really interesting to me. But after thinking they were simply a punk-metal band, I was checking out Rate Your Music's best of lists for psychedelic pop in the 2010's and curiously, saw a King Gizzard album. I was super confused by this plus the cutesy, colourful cover and the psychedelic title of "Paper Mache Dream Balloon". I checked it out and didn't get it at first but after a few listens, I liked it. Nothing blew me away, but I appreciated the fully acoustic sound and some of the melodies really stuck with me.

Once I realized that to truly "get" King Gizzard, you need to completely throw expectations of what you think they are as a band out the window, then I appreciated them. You only have to look at their body of work. 2013 and 2014 saw psychedelic rock with "Float Along/Fill Your Lungs" and "I'm In Your Mind Fuzz", then they go completely acoustic and poppy with "Paper Mache". Add a experiment in Eastern music and microtonality with 2017's "Flying Microtonal Banana" and soft jazz-pop with 2018's "Sketches of Brunswick East", it's obvious that the band isn't afraid to do anything and usually excel at it. And that's just to name a few. Hell, in roughly 2 weeks from now (of this writing), they're going to be releasing a pure thrash metal album. Another thing that you realize about the group is the sheer insane prolificness of these dudes. Their first album was released in 2012 and they've already released 14 full length studio albums. Add the new album coming out on the 16th of August and that makes 15. And to top that all off, 5 of those albums all came out in 2017. Think about that. 5 whole albums in one year. Insane.

But nothing in their catalog, to me, compares to the sheer majesty that is 2016's Nonagon Infinity. A sprawling mountain of a record that incorporates shredding hard rock, psychedelic jamming and the band's first experiments with the microtonal tuning that they would dive deep into the following year. Wrap all that up into 9 tracks that that bleed and flow into each other, creating one song of 41 minute of uninterrupted wackiness. What's even cooler is that the beginning of the 1st track Robot Stop is actually the ending of the final track Road Train so if you go on YouTube, you can find a 3 and a half hour version where the album constantly loops over and over multiple times, hearing it as it's intended. And the great thing is, it'd easy to do this and have the album become boring or repetitive, but each track, while keeping the momentum of the piece going, has enough variations and changes to keep things interesting throughout. You get the sense that each track can stand on their own but also serve the purpose of the entire piece. A lot of times with albums like this, concept or otherwise, if you take certain tracks alone out of the context of the fuller thing, they tend to not work as standalone songs, but here you could listen to the album on shuffle and still have a good time. I wouldn't recommend that as I suggest listening to it as it was presented, but all 9 tracks have their strong points.

A concept album about seemingly the end of the world, or perhaps the beginning of a new one, the album does one of my favourite musical things in the usage of leitmotifs (musical phrases that are brought back and re-used throughout the album). This creates a grander, cinematic atmosphere, probably due to the usage being extremely common in film scores. The Who's Tommy is probably the best example of the usage in rock music, or the 2nd side of The Beatles' Abbey Road. The band also uses leitmotifs throughout their entire catalogue. This, along with common themes and returning characters (I'm looking at you, Han-Tyumi), caused fans of the band to coin a concept called "The Gizzverse". That's a whole other article for another but the gist of it is that all of their albums are connected within a bigger story. You can see examples of this on the covers of this album, plus Mind Fuzz, and Murder of The Universe with a similar looking castle, but each cover, the album looks more and more broken and destroyed. The Gizzverse is wayyyyy too complicated to get into here and even the band themselves don't really put much stock into as, again, it was a fan theory, but there's definitely something going on there and Nonagon Infinity was the first album that I heard and found out about it. Of course, being the way I am, I had to go down the rabbit hole and it's super interesting.

Overall, the album is a great album to either put and turn of your mind to rock out to, or to study the intricate changes and ebbs and flows. It's easy to see the album as a simple hard rock album which is how I viewed it when I first heard it. I thought "Holy shit, this album is great!" but after multiple listens, I really appreciated how well fleshed out each piece was. You get the sense that band really thought out the composition of the album without losing the fun urgency of the sound.

Key Tracks: Again, the album's songs are meant to be listened to as one full, uninterrupted piece, so I look at it as one long 40+ minute song. It's all good.

NONAGON INFINITY OPENS THE DOOR
NONAGON INFINITY OPENS THE DOOR
WAIT FOR THE ANSWER TO OPEN THE DOOR
NONAGON INFINITY OPENS THE DOOR

The Grateful Dead - Aoxomoxoa (1969)

50 years ago, The Grateful Dead released their 3rd studio album, Aoxomoxoa. Originally released on June 20th, 1969, it bridged the gap between the lysergic, balls to the wall psychedelia of the first two albums and the rustic, country-tinged flavours of their early 70's material. This is also the first album with lyrics by Robert Hunter, who would be the group's principal lyricist starting with Dark Star the previous year all the way up until their final year in 1995.

Aoxomoxoa is probably my all time favourite Dead album. The combination of psychedelic weirdness and country/folk/bluegrass works extremely well in this setting. Though the melding of these disparate influences wasn't uncommon in those days, especially around 1969/1970, sometimes it hits the mark and sometimes it doesn't. I think the Dead are able to make it work because they were unlike any other band of their day. Though they were lumped in with fellow San Francisco bands (Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and The Holding Company, Quicksilver Messenger Service, etc) by the press, I always felt that The Dead were unique amongst their peers. They had all the same attributes as the other groups of their time (ties to the underground movement, penchant for anarchist things like drugs and free love, long winding jams) but they were able to make things their own. I attribute this uniqueness with the joining of Robert Hunter. Musically, before Hunter, The Dead were like their contemporaries, taking old folk and blues and twisting and transmuting them into strange psychedelic beasts, but with Hunter's poetic lyrics, it seemed to cause the rest of the group to streamline their sound to match the heavy poetry. That's not to say there aren't batshit insane moments on the record. I mean, if you can sit through all 8 + minutes of whatever STP trip What's To Become of Baby is supposed to be, then you're a better man than I, but it all seems to fit within a theme. Aoxomoxoa is, for me, the first album by the group that feels like an album. Their self titled debut felt like a covers record that was a watered down version of their live sets and Anthem of The Sun is definitely an experience, but more of an experience than a album. This combination of The Dead really coming in their own as songwriters and performers with Hunter's amazing lyrics finds the group at their peak of what is called "Primal Dead". Interestingly, Jerry Garcia and bassist Phil Lesh went back in 1971 and remixed the album, removing some things and adding new vocal takes on some songs. The 50th anniversary edition that was released in June of this year contained both the original 1969 mix and 1971 remix that appeared on most CD reissues. I'm most familiar with the remix due to the original mix not being widely available until now and while the original mix is certainly interesting, I think the group made the right decision. It's less experimental than the original, but in my opinion, it's to the album's benefit. Some may not agree, but I think making the album a little more easy to digest made the album better. While there are tracks that would take on a life of their own in live settings, which was a common thing with the group, there are tracks here that I believe have their best versions right here on the album. The Dead wouldn't release another studio album like this again, as their next venture was the cowboy Americana of Workingman's Dead so this, plus their first live album, Live/Dead was the last of "Primal Dead" put on vinyl.

Key Tracks: St. Stephen, Dupree's Diamond Blues, Doin' That Rag, Mountains of The Moon, China Cat Sunflower, Cosmic Charlie

Well when I get those jelly roll blues
Why I'd go and get anything in this world for you