Album review : THE FLOWERPOT MEN – Midsummer Dreaming, An Anthology 1967-70

May 19th, 2025 by brianmc

Cherry Red [Release date : 23.05.25]

English musicians/songwriters/singers, John Carter and Ken Lewis achieved limited success in the sixties, scoring two top ten hits as the Ivy League, in 1965 and 66.

Meanwhile, aside from breeding an anti consumerist counterculture, 1967’s Summer Of Love, centred in San Francisco, created an explosion of rock and pop music worldwide.
British musicians saw it as an opportunity to get their records on Rock radio, and their faces on TV.
And so the Flowerpot Men were born.

You could argue it was climbing on a bandwagon, but it meant Carter & Co got a shot in the driver’s seat, working out their own route, choosing their own destinations.

This 3 CD anthology gathers together all the recordings made by the various iterations of Carter’s band. 64 tracks in all, including two full “previously unreleased” albums, Peace(1967) and Past Imperfect (1970).

It takes a deep dive into recordings by Friends, Dawn Chorus and The Haystack, all liberally strewn across the 3 CDs, and all aliases of the Carter/Lewis partnership.

One of those tracks is ‘Mythological Sunday’, with Tony (White Plains/Edison Lighthouse/First Class) Burrows on lead vocals as well as Carter’s original.

It was the flipside to Friends’ anaemic ‘Piccolo Man’ single release, and goes toe to toe with The Beach Boy’s ‘Heroes And Villains’, also released in 1967. It’s a pseudo psychedelic wonder, edging into Moody Blues territory.
Carter’s version, lighter, fluffier, takes more of a Brian Wilson turn.

And, as you would expect, the biggie, ‘Lets Go To San Francisco, parts 1&2’ is here – in two versions. The original mono version and a cleaned up stereo version.

The single made its mark, shooting into the UK’s Top Ten Best sellers. Call it derivative, but few bands record truly original work, and anyway, if you’re going to borrow, borrow from the best.

And talking of Brian Wilson, Carter does a cool cover of The BB’s ‘Don’t Worry Baby’. In some enlightened minds a song that should be mentioned in the same breath as ‘God Only Knows’ and ‘Good Vibrations’.

A note for completists : Later in the anthology, there’s a good handful of studio demos and finished tracks, neither of which have been previously released.

So, yes, 64 tracks, 3 discs, 4 hours. Flowerpot Men bliss.

And, just for context, in 1967 : The Beatles released Sgt Pepper; The Monkees had 4 no.1 albums in the USA, and The Graduate, Cool Hand Luke and Bonnie And Clyde were the year’s top movies. ****

Review by Brian McGowan

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