| # | Artist | Song (click to play) | Album | Year | CD label |
| 1 | Jeff Beck | Beck's Bolero | Truth | 1967 | Epic/Legacy |
| After leaving (or being kicked out) of the Yardbirds, Jeff Beck started recording some solo singles, including Hi Ho Silver Lining, of which this song is the B-side of. This song was recorded in late 1966 or early 1967 with a line-up of Jimmy Page on 12 string acoustic guitar, Keith Moon on drums, and John-Paul Jones on bass. Jeff's band would later in the year would consist of Rod Stewart, Mick Waller on drums, Ron Wood on bass, Nicky Hopkins on keys. This band set the stage for the Led Zeppelin's brand of hard-rock. Robert Plant's vocal style on the early Zep albums are clearly modeled after Rod Stewart's vocal style. (I'm sure Steven Sullivan will contest this :-) This album has a lot of tremendous material, but, lacks cohesiveness. It comes highly recommended. | |||||
| 2 | Procol Harum | Repent Walpurgis | Procol Harum | 1967 | Deram? |
| Having not heard the entire first album of Procol Harum, I cannot comment much on it's overall sound. I recorded this song from one of their many compilation albums. On the few tracks that I have heard, including A Whiter Shade of Pale, they borrow heavily from JS Bach. This album also has an early version of Conquistador, which became a large hit for the band several years later when they re-did the song in a live setting with a symphony orchestra. There are several songs by the band that I like a lot, but, overall I find their music pretty bland. | |||||
| 3 | Small Faces | Ogden's Nut Gone Flake | Ogden's Nut Gone Flake | 1968 | Immediate Records |
| A wildly original album that is perhaps Steve Marriott's best album. When Steve left the band in 1968, he formed Humble Pie with Peter Frampton, ex-The Herd. The drummer, Kenny Jones would later replace Keith Moon in the Who. After Marriott's departure, the band added Ron Wood and Rod Stewart, both from Jeff Beck's band, and later changed their name to The Faces. The entire second side of the album has a spoken word story of some sort in a strong Cockney accent. It reminds me of Peter Gabriel's stories that he was wont to tell in betweem songs during his 1970's concerts with Genesis. Anyone who wants to get a taste of the best 1960's psychedelic/pop scene must give this album a listen. | |||||
| 4 | Deep Purple | Mandrake Root | Shades of Deep Purple | 1968 | EMI? |
| Deep Purple's first album has them doing about 50% cover tunes, including "Hush", "Hey Joe", and "Help". The album has them looking for an original sound with heavy keyboards and wiry fuzz guitar solo-ing. Even their original songs borrow heavily from other bands at the time, such as "And the Address" where parts of the guitar lines are lifted directly from the Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love". The vocalist on the first 3 Deep Purple albums is Rod Evans who would later form Captain Beyond. I find these early DP albums somewhat enjoyable, but, I am not compelled to listen to them much for some reason. | |||||
| 5 | The Gods | Sticking Wings on Flies | To Samuel a Son | 1968 | Repertoire |
| The Gods is one of those bands that had all kinds of future greats pass through, but never recorded anything that impressive. The band was originally formed with Mick Taylor, who quit before they recorded anything to join John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, and then the Rolling Stones. The band also included John Glasscock ("a kinky bastard who likes being severely thrashed across the bum" - Ian Anderson on JT's _Live-Bursting Out_ album), who would later join Jethro Tull. But, the core of the band consisted of future Uriah Heep founders Ken Hensley, Lee Kerslake, and Paul Newton. You can hear much of the vocal style already developed in this band that would later appear in Uriah Heep. The album consists of a dozen+ short psychedelic pop songs that do little to break out of the usual sound of the time. Greg Lake also passed through the band, but never recorded with them. I find the band to be little more than a novelty. | |||||
| 6 | Moody Blues | Beyond & Out and In | To Our Children's Children's Children | 1969 | Decca/Threshold |
| It's actually kind of difficult describing one of my all-time favorite albums (and groups). The Moody Blues in the 60's and early 70's made some very sophisticated albums with equisite vocal harmonies. One of the great things about this band, is that none of them really take center stage at any time. If Justin Hayward is doing a guitar solo, there is an equal mix of layered vocals, mellotron, or other instrumentation balancing out the sound. On this, their 5th album, they reached a peak in the development of their studio sound. It was at this point that the band found it impossible to carry these songs into live performance because of the complex layers of over-dubbed instruments. Well, to some up, this is one of the few albums that I own that I can say is absolute perfection, and moves me as much now as it did almost 30 years ago. It's also one of the very first rock albums I ever heard - _On the Threshold of a Dream_ was the first. | |||||
| 7 | Van Der Graaf Generator | Octopus | The Aerosol Grey Machine | 1968 | Repertoire |
| On VDGG's first album, the band is basically an accompaniment for Peter Hammill's tortured emotional vocals. For most of the album, the instrumentation is acoustic guitar, piano and drums. But, on the last 3 songs, the band gets heavier and starts to hint at the future sound of the band. | |||||