| # | Artist | Song (click to play) | Album | Year | CD label |
| 1 | Colosseum | The Kettle | Valentyne Suite | 1969 | Sequel Records |
| Upbeat boogie woogie blues rock but often venturing into complex arrangements. I found their first album _Those Who Are About to Die Salute You_ pretty much a bore, because of the predictable 12 bar blues progressions, but, this album has some great progressive moves especially on the 17 minute title track. I could go on for pages about where some of the artists in this band ended up, but, I'll just mention a few quickies. Keyboardist Dave Greenslade and bassist Tony Reeves formed Greenslade shortly after the demise of Colosseum in 1971. Drummer Jon Hiseman created a new incarnation of the band in the late 70's called Colosseum II that was more jazz-rock fusion oriented. This is a good piece of early British progressive music. | |||||
| 2 | Moody Blues | Things Go Better With Coke | Things Go Better With Coke | 1967 | ? |
| This CD is a collection of 1 minute songs by pop groups in the 1960's for Coca-Cola commercials. It is interesting to hear the early Moody Blues formula used in this context. On the two clips here, it sounds as if these were recorded during the _Days of Future Passed_ sessions. All of the songs on the CD were done between 1965 and 1969. None of it is progressive, but, it's fun to hear some of them. | |||||
| 3 | Procol Harum | A Salty Dog | A Salty Dog | 1969 | Castle Communications |
| IMO the album is worth having for the title track alone, which is a favorite of mine. Much of the rest of the album contains glorified blues rock, nice rock ballads, and classical tinged rock music that is perhaps comparable to things like early Humble Pie and Steeler's Wheel. It's good rock music, but, does not sound particularly progressive to me. | |||||
| 4 | High Tide | Futilist's Lament | Sea Shanties | 1969 | Repertoire |
| Frenetic massively distorted guitar jamming. Really great high energy hard-prog with violin. The violinist, Simon House, later joined Hawkwind. Guitarist Tony Hill reformed the band in 1989 and recorded a couple of albums under the name of High Tide as well as Hazchem. This is great heavy rock that is complex and adventurous with guitar and violin sharing the lead instrument role. The vocals often remind me of Jim Morrison. | |||||
| 5 | Tea & Symphony | Terror In My Soul | An asylum for the musically insane | 1969 | Si-Wan |
| A very unusual mostly acoustic folky prog album. It's quite adventurous, and often dark and moody. Clem Clemson plays guitar on the album, but, apparently just as a guest musician. The vocals are sometimes in a wavering throaty voice not unlike Roger Chapman of Family. This is a nice album that sounds better every time I play it. | |||||
| 6 | Traffic | Medicated Goo | Traffic | 1969 | Island |
| Traffic's 2nd album with classic psychedelic pop songs like "Feelin' Alright", "Pearly Queen", and "Forty Thousand Headmen". It's not bad, but, I much prefer _John Barleycord Must Die_ and _Low Spark of High Heeled Boys_. | |||||
| 7 | Moody Blues | Things Go Better With Coke | Things Go Better With Coke | 1967 | ? |
| Here is another track from the same Coke commercial CD. | |||||
| 8 | Jeff Beck | Rice Pudding | Beck-Ola | 1969 | Epic |
| This is Jeff's second solo album with most of the same musicians from the first. The first side is not too interesting to me, with covers of "All Shook Up" and "Jailhouse Rock" (what's up with that?!?). But, the second side more than makes up for it with Plynth and the adventurous "Rice Pudding". Trust me - I did not cut the song off abruptly at the end - it's really like that on the album! The slide guitar and piano interplay in the middle of the song is remarkable, and reminds me of parts of Joe Walsh's _The Smoker You Drink..._ album. | |||||