Lightning 1968 1971

Like fellow Aussies the Sherbs, Zoot never escaped teen-star status. But as Zoot Locker proves, they were certainly adapt at churning out clever pop tracks. Because of their time period, Zoot used every trick in the psychedelic book; but most songs maintain the three-minute mark, resulting in shrewd and skewered singles much like the Move delivered. Innocent innocuousness such as "Monty & Me" about walking the dog or "One Times Two Times Three Times Four" seems unfairly buried in the past. Of course, Beatles nods abound, such as the Lennon-isms of "Hey Pinky." With this smoking version of "Eleanor Rigby" the quartet attempted to jettison their early "pink" image, jumping aboard the bizarre "heavy covers" bandwagon with Vanilla Fudge and Rare Earth. The Hollies are another pervasive influence ("Flying" shares rhyme schemes with "Dear Eloise" over a "Helter Skelter" riff) while "Mr Songwriter" echoes the Byrds by way of Dylan. "Freak" foreshadows "Highway Star" and many Sweet moments.

Jimmy Hughes - Something Extra Special: The Complete Volt Recordings 1968-1971 (2010) {Kent Records CDKEND341}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 415 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 188 Mb
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© 1968-71, 2010 Stax/Volt / Kent / Concord Music / Ace | CDKEND 341
Soul / Southern Soul / Rhythm and Blues

In the early and mid-'60s, Jimmy Hughes made a substantial, if rather subtle and underrated, contribution to the evolution of Southern soul with bluesy soul recordings for several labels. In 1968, he signed with Stax, then eagerly looking to bolster its roster after the death of Otis Redding and the loss of Sam & Dave. Something Extra Special has all 11 tracks from his sole Stax LP, 1969's Something Special (most of which also appeared on singles), augmented by no less than 16 bonus tracks, including both tracks from a 1971 non-LP single and 14 previously unreleased cuts from the late '60s and early '70s.

If the final installment of ABKCO's series of box sets containing CD replicas of the Rolling Stones' original singles for Decca and London during the '60s seems not quite as impressive as the first two, there's a reason for it: it's not. But that has little to do with either the music – some of the Stones' very best is here, including "Street Fighting Man," "Honky Tonk Women," and "Jumpin' Jack Flash," all viable contenders for the greatest rock & roll single ever – or the packaging, which is every bit as lavish and loving as the first two installments. Instead, the problem is that the nine singles collected here are a bit of a hodgepodge…

In Search of The Lost Chord (1968). "In Search of the Lost Chord" is the album on which the Moody Blues discovered drugs and mysticism as a basis for songwriting and came up with a compelling psychedelic creation, filled with songs about Timothy Leary and the astral plane and other psychedelic-era concerns. They dumped the orchestra this time out in favor of Mike Pinder's Mellotron, which was a more than adequate substitute, and the rest of the band joined in with flutes, sitar, tablas, and cellos, the playing of which was mostly learned on the spot. The whole album was one big experiment to see how far the group could go with any instruments they could find, thus making this album a rather close cousin to the Beatles' records of the same era…

The Blackbirds were originally formed in south-west Germany and they released their first album "No Destination" on UK-Label Saga in 1968. The Blackbirds consists of psychedelic beat/pop music with a touch of the Mothers of Invention type satire (Something Different) and some progressive touches. Strong vocals by singer and guitar player Werner Breinig and some interesting Hammond organ work by Hubert Koop are characteristic of the group's music which proves a great talent of specific song writing. The German label OPP released 5 tracks of this first album on the "Snake in the Grass" album later on…

Crosby, Stills & Nash - Demos (2009) {Rhino R2 519624 rec 1968-1971}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 211 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 100 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 52 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2009 Rhino / Atlantic | R2 519624
Rock / Folk Rock / Soft Rock / Psychedelic / Singer/Songwriter

As part of their ongoing reissue of the Crosby, Stills & Nash catalog, Rhino put out Demos, a collection of early home recordings of staples from the CSN catalog, demos recorded both alone and together between the years of 1968 and 1971. Unlike some similar collections, not much here is especially revelatory; apart from "Love the One You're With," here almost droning at the beginning, there are no great differences in lyrics or approach, with such solo recordings as "Almost Cut My Hair" pointing clearly to their latter full-blown incarnations.