Album review : CAN’T SEEM TO COME DOWN – The American Sounds of 1968

July 10th, 2024 by brianmc

Cherry Red [Release date : 19.07.24]

In 1968, the comedown from 1967’s “Summer Of Love” quickly dissipated, leading directly into a year of inventive, eclectic rock music, often groundbreaking, frequently influential.

That’s reflected in the 3 CDs of Cherry Red/Grapefruit’s American Sounds anthology.

Many artists looked inwards, and many treated their music as an alternative to the “gloomy self seriousness” of anti-war sentiments, prevalent at the time.

So we’re looking at 74 tracks and 4 hours of music here. And you could not imagine a more disparate collection of artists and songs.

We’ll go to the headliners first. Dylan (All Along The Watchtower), Spirit (Fresh Garbage), Zappa (Who Needs The Peace Corps), Buffalo Springfield (Questions), The Band (This Wheels On Fire), and more.
All classy rock songs, with a lasting presence.

But the most interesting headliner might well be the Byrds’ ‘Draft Morning’. Written by Crosby, Hillman and McGuinn, it gave voice to the thoughts of a generation of young Americans.
Nixon would go on to campaign for the cessation of conscription in the Presidential Election that year.

Amazingly quickly, the psychedelia of 1967 evolved into the Progressive Art Rock of bands like Ars Nova (Fields Of People), and The United States of America (‘The Garden Of Earthly Delights’).
The latter, an avant garde, politically motivated outfit, were genuine pathfinders, employing electronic techniques that would go onto become the norm in Progressive and Electronic Rock.

Equally influential, The Grateful Dead’s ‘Dark Star’ is here. Not the 49 minute version, or even the 23 minute version, but the single edit. Not much room in that for a song “designed to incorporate improvisational exploration”, but a blast just the same.

Few bands plying their trade in popular music ignored the zeitgist.
Pop music adopted a more adult stance. Even your Bubblegum bands like the 1910 Fruitgum Company challenged social norms. (Mr.Jensen).

Beyond that, The Electric Prunes created the menacing rock music of ‘Shadows’, written for the controversial movie “The Name Of The Game Is Kill” (the following year, the “Manson Family” murdered Sharon Tate and 3 friends at her home in the Hollywood hills).

Who else?
Well, Heavy Metal trailblazers Blue Cheer, with ‘In A Gadda Da Vida’.
The Seeds too are here, with the fabulous psychedelic garage pop of ‘Satisfy You’, variously claimed to be a template for punk a decade later.

The Left Banke and the Beau Brummels had climbed on board the British Invasion earlier in the sixties. And here they are, re-inventing themselves, respectively, with the musical and lyrical obscurities of ‘Dark Is The Bark’ and the baroque and roll of ‘Turn Around’.

Even pop supremos Tommy James and The Shondells put their teen hits to oneside, coming up with the classy psychedelic pop of ‘Crimson And Clover’. And it’s right here. *****

Review by Brian McGowan

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Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024

In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections

Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)