13th Floor Elevators - Easter Everywhere (1967) [Original Stereo Mix]

13th Floor Elevators - Easter Everywhere

Original 1967 Stereo Mix

International Artists IA-LP-5 (Discogs)

~ThePoodleBites rip in 96kHz / 24bit FLAC + full high-res scans!~

It is no controversial fact that Easter Everywhere is regarded by many as the finest psychedelic album ever produced. A recent poll from a broad Sandoz-enthused Facebook group found it placed comfortably ahead at #1, with its opener "Slip Inside This House" also earning the title of #1 psych track ever recorded in a separate poll. For such an influential and beloved album, it is an absolute crime that its original stereo mix has still never appeared officially. That's right; contrary to Charly Records' blatantly false claims, only a vastly inferior reprocessed mix has appeared on all reissues dating back to the 1970s. Today I set the record straight once and for all.

This is a bit longer post, but this is necessary so that you can fully appreciate one of the finest records on Earth when listening in the best sound quality available anywhere ever. 

Thanks to my friends C.F. and @PsychTrailMix for their contributions and
encouragement with this massively important project!

Original front cover artwork for Easter Everywhere, as scanned from a 'Posturos' sleeve that had

been kept inside the original shrink wrapping since 1967

Tommy Hall during the Easter Everywhere
sessions, probably discussing the philosophical
tenets of the acid experience

The 13th Floor Elevators have one of the most interesting and amazing stories of '60s rock allure. The first band to call their music "psychedelic rock" was actually a bit of an assembled group, hand-picked from the growing underground Texas scene by acid-driven visionary and electric jug player Tommy Hall. The fundamental philosophy was that by taking LSD, one becomes totally aware of themselves and their many faults, and that by channeling the emotions generated by the drug one could continually refine themselves into a more perfect being.

Tommy and the band believed in this so fully that the conglomerate resolved, from their conception, that the purpose of the Elevators' music would be to spread this message of continual rebirth through psychedelic drugs to the world. By partaking at every performance and "playing the acid," the band would attempt to trip out their audience in the same way and spread the message that they thought would change the world. While short-lived and nothing more than kids at the time, the band certainly left their mark. Some of their shows are of great lore, but it is the perfect achievement embodied by their studio album Easter Everywhere for which the band is most well-remembered.  

Below I give details on some history of this fantastic piece of American music history.

The original rear cover artwork for Easter Everywhere, displaying the chakras of a meditating yogi
and Tommy's infamous "shh" photo 

The story of Easter Everywhere starts in the winter months of 1967, as the band had just been yanked back to Texas from a successful venture with the growing hippie scene in San Francisco, California. Their record label, International Artists, demanded that it was time to start working on the second album. Contractually bound to oblige, the band, still mostly in their original line-up, went into the studio and recorded "She Lives" and "Levitation," which had already made their appearance as regular parts of the band's live set. These recordings are stunning; John Ike Walton's drumming on the former track is enough to make any early prog enthusiast drool; Stacy floats off into inner space during the chorus, while Roky forges ahead, double-tracked and unhindered, when suddenly the band are back on the verse, perfectly tight and rocking so hard that you almost think they were sober (spoiler: they weren't).

But, this lineup just wasn't to be. In February 1967, John Ike Walton and Ronnie Leatherman decided to leave the band, disgusted by the obvious label mismanagement and overwhelmed by Tommy Hall's fundamental message of acid deliverance. They were replaced by Danny Thomas and Dan Galindo, respectively, who would return with the band to the studio in September 1967 to finish creating the album which would seal their infamy and mystique forever.

Danny Thomas smokin' the drum kit

Dan Galindo high on bass

The sessions could be summarized as a creative but precisely-composed ordeal. Tommy, for instance, demanded every aspect of Roky's voice be sung exactly as he imagined it for the poetic masterwork "Slip Inside This House." With its long verses in trochaic meter featuring difficult-to-pronounce words, Roky was constantly frustrated, with tensions eventually erupting into a fist fight between the musicians. Onlookers watched fearfully, with engineer Frank Davis remarking that "The fight wasn't anything compared to the irony; it was like the pope and some goddamn saint just knocking it out over which path to glory they should take... to see these people I'd come to consider saints coming to blows over something so tedious..."

The results, though, are spectacular: as Davis perfectly stated, "Roky could have read the dictionary and just given you chills." The voice and the band formed a perfect vessel for Tommy's message, elevating the listener from this corporeal realm to the spiritual one; this was exactly the effect Tommy had intended.

Producer Lelan Rogers (far left) & the band goofing off in the studio. Lelan was known to partake
in the band's green cigarettes during the Easter Everywhere sessions.

The "dark angel," psychedelic guitar
genius Stacy Sutherland

When experiencing the album, one is struck by how astoundingly coherent and intricate it is, so much so that it's hard to believe that it was written and recorded entirely under the use of LSD. Tommy was known to spike drinks with his never-ending supply of acid, while Galindo admits to using speed to improve his playing. To combat the difficulties of ever-evolving songs, Davis recorded the album by doing a basic first dub and then re-recording individual parts one-by-one, achieving a perfectly-synchronized final take. Roky was reportedly so heavily dosed during the sessions that his guitar parts, defiantly played out-of-tune while standing on top of a speaker cab, were almost entirely re-recorded by the very serious and immensely talented Stacy Sutherland in the process.

In some sense it's amazing that the vibrations erupting from that little-known Texas studio reached the highs that they did. But one should remember that Walt Andrus' studio was, at the time, state of the art -- it featured an Ampeg AG-300 8-track recording console, whereas little-known pop groups such as The Beatles were still bouncing around with 4-track. The fact that the album was mastered and pressed cheaply has led many to believe that it is a poor sounding recording, which it was not. Studio owner Walt Andrus speaks of the sound reverently:

"Easter Everywhere is something that no one will ever know how good that really was -- because of the mix! The clarity of the original recording was immaculate... I brought in some little itty-bitty speakers to see what it'd sound like on a car radio, and so the initial mix was real bottom-heavy, compensating for the small speakers. I offered to mix it for free, but there was too much wrangling going on over at IA. The original eight-track masters to it don't exist anymore, so you can never go and fix that. That thing was just beautiful, and all the pressings I've heard were..."

Frank Davis and Lelan Rogers in the recording booth

Walt Andrus in his studio

Paul Drummond, the band's biographer, stated that the album was mixed at Columbia Studios in San Francisco, but this is incorrect because that studio did not exist until 1971. The likely story is that some form of mix was completed at Walt Andrus Studios and hastily sent off to Tanner 'N Texas for manufacturing and pressing, with initial copies shipping out at the end of October 1967. The band had actually played a substantial role in the mixes, as engineer Frank Davis recalls three people had to "play the board" as the sound rolled out of the speakers. 

The album's artwork was elegantly crafted, as one would expect considering the diverse and elaborately recorded sounds within. Prominently displayed on the front cover, drawn by friend George Banks, is the blazing Eastern sun, an image discovered by Tommy Hall within a book of Tantric art by Ajit Mookerjee. This aureate star represented the open flaming third eye, above which is the seventh chakra, or realm of Nirvana. With 47 rays, the sun alludes to the 47th Problem Of Euclid (a.k.a. the Pythagorean Theorem, with Masonry overtones), which in turn connects to the square cover, itself representing the temporal world. The sun, as well as the disc inside, were circular, symbolizing the spiritual world. Below the sun is the band's name formatted into the eyes of Buddah. By placing the cover to one's forehead, the flames burn above their new disciple, and it is thus suggested that all could consciously reach the state of immortality by studying the contents within. The gold ink used for the cover, which rubs off easily on the fingers, was chosen as being symbolic of the divine. Still today the original album covers are artifacts which absolutely must be seen to be believed; no reproduction has ever done the artwork justice, and no digital scan could ever capture its breathtaking beauty.

The album is certainly one of the earliest concept pieces to emerge in popular music. The obvious motifs of light and of the sun appear frequently in the album's lyrical content. For example, in Stacy's heartbreaking, auto-biographical song "Nobody To Love," the chorus refrains:

Danny Thomas with sun motif above his head.

The number 5 was also symbolic for the band

She knew the sun would come

And it would shine for us all day

And burning bright its morning light

Would flood us with the day

Another obvious reference is in the closing track "Postures," which functions as Tommy's conclusive song about the never-ending quest:

The higher you're living now the purer it burns

So keep climbing, move your energies higher

So keep climbing, your sun catches on fire

So keep climbing and bathe in the sun

That dawns in the darkness once the journey's begun

Similarly the opening track seems to contrast this "high baptismal glow" with the ever-present darkness of creation, both metaphorical and literal:

In this dark we call creation

We can be and feel and know

From an effort - comfort station

That's surviving on the go

There's infinite survival in

The high baptismal glow

Slip inside this house as you pass by

Hence, implying that by actively improving oneself through use of psychedelics, mere man is able to reach the ultimate state of consciousness, heaven, reincarnation -- the level of God. Tommy combined the ideas of Eastern and Western philosophy into one unified ideal, as he explains openly in the band's sole interview, given to Houston fanzine Mother on 20 November 1967:

"Well, [the title] comes from the idea of Christ Consciousness. And realizing that you can be born again; that you can constantly change and be reformed into a better and better person. It's like a progressive perfection, and Easter Everywhere is sort of the combination or culmination of this idea as echoed in the public. It's like everyone is snapping to this; that there is a middle ground between the Eastern trip and the Western trip, and that is by learning to use your emotion and realizing what emotion is and why it is there and how to control it from a pleasure point of view so that you don't get hung up in a down place. It's just the idea of rising from the dead all over, everywhere."

Tommy & Clementine Hall taking a break during the recording sessions

After the album had been released, the band found themselves quite disappointed with the outcome. The quiet pressing (necessitated by the length), mastering errors (detailed below), and cheap vinyl led the band to feel unduly ashamed of their masterwork and basically dismiss it. In that same interview, Danny Galindo even goes as far as to state:

"Danny Thomas and myself, this is our first album. We had never played a job together. We had to do it the hard way, as hard as anyone could have done it. All this album is really, is an indication of the potential we have in this group. Our following albums will be much, much better and as the group tightens and the quality improves, so will our recordings."

Initial Billboard appearance,
from 2 December 1967

Easter Everywhere appeared on the market in October or November 1967 and was met lukewarmly with initial acclaim, even appearing for three consecutive weeks in Billboard, but disappeared from the pop scene without a trace by January of 1968. It seemed just as well, since Tommy, with his musical vision fully realized, decided that the music format no longer functioned as a proper vehicle for his ideas, and soon left the band indefinitely for San Francisco. Roky would soon find himself subjected to forced Thorazine treatments and electroshock therapy before being institutionalized for five years inside Rusk State Mental Hospital for the Criminally Insane due to possession of a single marijuana joint. Stacy Sutherland would continue on to persevere with the band's final album, Bull Of The Woods, before calling it quits and forming the band Ice, which recorded material for International Artists that was never released, as the label declared bankruptcy and disappeared. 

Advertisement for the late-'70s UK
Easter Everywhere reissue

It wasn't until the late 1970s that interest (or nostalgia) in the band began to resurface. Inspired by this, the International Artists label was rebirthed, and new reissues were created for all of the label's twelve albums. However, the haphazard storage of the tapes or straight disregard for their whereabouts meant that something had to be done for the new masters, at least for the first few albums. What happened next has been the subject of much debate, but here is my best estimation of the story after considering all the details.

The original tapes for the Elevators albums had begun to separate due to sticky-shed, and the multi-track masters had been overwritten long ago. To combat this problem, the engineers re-processed the mixes using fake stereo imaging, phase processing, and extra reverb. The result was a horrible, messy, phased sound, but apparently this was preferred to transparency on whatever damage had accumulated. In this process, it's likely that the original tapes were totally destroyed, with the magnetic layer peeling completely off the tape, and were disposed of quietly, with these new "remixes" taking their place. These tapes were used for all of the '70s reissues, and every single reissue on Earth after that. Patrick Lundborg claims in The Acid Archives and in his online Lyrsegia blog that the '70s pressings sound better than the originals; and indeed, I've even heard some well-known record dealers claim the same. This is very, very incorrect, and horribly misleading. Only the original 1967 pressings present the album as intended. While the later reissues are definitely from tape, they do not feature the far superior original stereo mix, and do not even somewhat reasonably compare to the first pressings.

The band during the Easter Everywhere sessions. (L to R, top row first): Danny Galindo, Stacy Sutherland,
Danny Thomas, Tommy Hall, Roky Erickson.

This album has been transferred to digital and shared online many times by various well-meaning fans. The earliest is probably from the Texas Psych Group's bootleg Roky Erickson CD Club, which, if the criminal fraudster leader doesn't dissuade you from, the sound quality will: it was transferred on a turntable going noticeably too slow, with the bass cranked up, and put through some noise reduction for good measure. Yikes.

Online ripper jpstooges has tried his hand at this one, and while escalating at least thirteen floors above the Roky CD Club version, it's basically raw and fails to correct for a few things: obvious vinyl noise, three mono-to-stereo mixes, and the treble boost from his cartridge. Probably the most well-known fan version of this album floating around is from the "Essential" compilation created by JWB, which made many valid corrections but used a large volume of EQ, destroying the natural sound of the original that many (including myself) prefer. That same transfer was most recently used by Prof Stoned for his post, which revealed that there were some problems with the transfer itself, including boomy bass, compressed dynamics, slightly off speed, and vinyl noise that an auto de-clicker didn't clean up. There have also been some other transfers that I won't discuss because they're really not worth mentioning.

So, for the first time ever, I present the original stereo mix of Easter Everywhere, fully manually restored to full fidelity as it was intended to be heard in 1967. It goes without saying that this project is rather special: for me, this is the greatest record ever made -- and I've treated it as such, making absolutely no shortcuts at any part of the restoration process. I have been waiting for many years to do this album justice with a definitive digital edition, and at last it's complete. I hope that you will enjoy it. Download this and forget that any other version of this album exists.

Included in this post is the digital debut of the band's interview in Mother magazine, along with an enormous archive of photos from the original sessions, scanned from the best sources possible.

Proceed with caution...

Lineup:
• Roky Erickson -- vocals, guitar
• Stacy Sutherland -- vocal (tr. 4), guitars
• Tommy Hall -- backing vocals, electric jug
• Clementine Hall -- backing vocals (tr. 9)

• Dan Galindo -- electric bass
• Danny Thomas -- drum set
• Ronnie Leatherman -- electric bass (tr. 3 & 8)
• John Ike Walton -- drums & percussion (tr. 3 & 8)

Track listing:
1) "Slip Inside This House" (Hall/Erickson) - 8:02
2) "Slide Machine" (Powell St. John) - 3:43
3) "She Lives (In A Time Of Her Own)" (Hall/Erickson) - 2:59
4) "Nobody To Love" (Stacy Sutherland) - 3:01
5) "Baby Blue" (Bob Dylan) - 5:17
6) "Earthquake" (Hall/Erickson) - 4:50
7) "Dust" (Hall/Erickson) - 4:01
8) "(I've Got) Levitation" (Hall/Sutherland) - 2:40
9) "I Had To Tell You" (Clementine Hall/Erickson) - 2:29
10) "Postures (Leave Your Body Behind)" (Hall/Erickson) - 6:30

Equipment Lineage:

– Audio-Technica VMN40ML stylus on AT150MLx dual moving-magnet cartridge

– Audio-Technica AT-LP1240-USB direct drive professional turntable (internal stock preamp/ADC removed)

– TCC TC-754 RIAA phono preamp (new regulated power supply, added LM7812 regulator)

– Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 MkII (96kHz / 24bit)

– Adobe Audition CC 2020 (recording)

– iZotope RX 7 audio editor (manual declicking, EQ subtraction, additional adjustments)

– Audacity 2.3.3 (fades between tracks, split tracks)

– Foobar2000 v1.5.1 (tagging, dynamic range analysis)

YouTube playlist available here: shorturl.at/ilAV4

Thanks for taking the time to read my posts and check out my blog. I'd greatly appreciate it if you leave a small comment below. Notes from my readers are what inspire me to keep going. Thanks!
Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1URmecaMNURQsi1HkNyLoxibzHc7jcADw?usp=sharing

Enjoy... and keep on climbing! :)

Danny Galindo & crew overdubbing the Sounds Of The Earthquake; Tommy gives his "ok" ...

Modality Stew - s/t (1978) [Private Press]

Modality Stew - self-titled (1978)

Original USA private pressing LP

Umbrella Media Productions UMP 1  (Discogs)

~ThePoodleBites rip in 96kHz / 24bit FLAC + full high-res scans!~

Here is a rarity which seems to have remained relatively unknown to most. Modality Stew is a quite diverse collection of folk / psych compositions recorded by the same-named conglomerate, notably featuring Sid Brown from the Detroit, Michigan garage group The Spike-Drivers as well as Peace, Bread & Land Band, of which this is perhaps more similar. Only unhindered musical expression sets rules in each modal performance; I can draw several connections to possible influences, but they've been so intertwined with each other, that I probably cannot give the full impression of what a unique piece this is through comparisons alone.

Many tracks are instrumentals, with diverse instrumentation including vibraphone (reminding me of Tim Buckley: Blue Afternoon), flute, Indian tabla drums and the stringed tamboura (not a sitar, you silly Lama!), and even banjo (in the style of Kaleidoscope -- yes, it works!)... The acoustic guitar playing is particularly impressive: there are some noticeably intricate improvisations which are executed masterfully, without sounding like they were done over-and-over through a million takes in the studio. Indeed, Siddhi's liner notes state that Modality Stew is "a spontaneous and purposely under-produced album free of technologic overkill and defied gadgetry"; this sense of freedom resonates, though like everything, its greatness will doubtlessly be debated by some. I will say this, anyways: if every track on this album were as astounding as the closer "Sutra Blues," this would be without a doubt one of the finest private pressings on Earth, though as it stands, it's honestly not too many paces away from deserving that status. 

Many thanks to C.F. for making me aware of this cool album!

I'll just mention a few things that struck me about this album, and let you hear the rest. There are male/female vocals on three tracks, the first of which ("Karmic Strip") was mastered or recorded so top-end-heavy that it's difficult to listen to; which is a bummer, because it's otherwise a nice track. "Shady Grove" is of course the old Appalachian folk tune (complete with harp & washboard), but with new pro-environmental lyrics. The vocal track that closes the album, "Sutra Blues, Or This Pain Is Bliss" is a stunning piece which makes listening to everything beforehand worth the price of admission. The lyrics may be existential, or they may just be about sex, I'm not sure. The other tracks, which are all instrumentals, are very pleasant, with some giving me the same reflective mood as from the closing track on the second Country Joe & The Fish LP. 

There are various clicks and clacks which are part of the recording, all of which have been left intact. What little vinyl noise there was on this previously-sealed copy was delicately and manually removed, like always. That loud click in the middle of "Sutra Blues" is the sound of a fuzz pedal being kicked on, and it still sends shivers down my spine after dozens of listens. 

 

Track listing:

1) "Karmic Strip" -- 4:16

2) "D-Sense/Descents" -- 3:23

3) "Banjo-Strange-O" -- 3:46

4) "Ragu Improvisation" -- 6:14

5) "Shady Grove" -- 3:25

6) "Immahj" -- 6:06

7) "I-Nis-Kim (Medicine Music)" -- 5:40

8) "Sutra Blues (Or, This Pain Is Bliss)" -- 3:08

Vinyl condition: Mint (was sealed)

Dynamic range: DR13

Equipment Lineage:

– Audio-Technica VMN40ML stylus on AT150MLx dual moving-magnet cartridge

– Audio-Technica AT-LP1240-USB direct drive professional turntable (internal stock preamp/ADC removed)

– TCC TC-754 RIAA phono preamp (new regulated power supply, added LM7812 regulator)

– Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 MkII (96kHz / 24bit)

– Adobe Audition CC 2020 (recording)

– iZotope RX 7 audio editor (manual declicking, EQ subtraction, additional adjustments)

– Audacity 2.3.3 (fades between tracks, split tracks)

– Foobar2000 v1.5.1 (tagging, dynamic range analysis)

full album on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc6VYO_kpgQ

I blow ashes into the hearth

hoarsely, with a long breath

as if the curls were your hair.

the old rhythm of wanting you

teases me into dancing

alone on this gray fall day

dancing to some slow smoulder blues;

coming on with the taste of this ache

it tempts me out of detachment

behind the backs of the angels

and we both moan with a smile,

the rhythm and me,

we both know yes suffering comes

from holding on, from wanting,

it comes from desire

and we both know release from pain

comes from

letting

go.

Thanks for taking the time to read my posts and check out my blog. I'd greatly appreciate it if you leave a small comment below. Notes from my readers are what inspire me to keep going. Thanks!
Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1rAYtx9TH1kwcGxT4TeAO_bg8tfpXzsAO?usp=sharing

Enjoy! :)

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Safe As Milk (1967) [Stereo]

 Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Safe As Milk

Original 1967 USA stereo pressing

Buddah Records BDS 5001  (Discogs) 

~ThePoodleBites rip in 96kHz / 24bit FLAC + full high-res scans~

"MAY THE BABY JESUS SHUT YOUR MOUTH AND OPEN YOUR MIND"  ~original inner sleeve

It's a subjective statement, but I'll make it anyways: never before or since Safe As Milk has there ever been an experimental-blues-psych-rock LP with so much grit, so much bite, so much hair, that still kicks and grooves so hard. Undoubtedly most followers of this blog will be familiar with this masterpiece, a word I don't toss around so lightly. I was surprised to find, though, after communicating with several fans, that there are guys who have never heard the stereo mix of this album at all. For this record, stereo is the one I grew up on! 

There are at least two existing rips of this album from the mono pressing, which is often touted as the superior version of this LP; however, after several comparisons between original pressings, I am not so convinced that is the case. The mono version was mixed to sound good on old-school AM radio -- meaning good relative instrument balance, but also meaning added dynamic compression, and loss of definition on an already lo-fi-sounding recording. I will not be surprised if there are sounds that many listeners will be noticing for the first time here; the bongos in "Zig Zag Wanderer," the cowbell in "Call On Me," the vocal tremolo on those first bars in "Electricity," ... For me, this is indeed one of those albums where both mixes are necessary, with the crazy channel effects here being quite playful, and the wide soundstage adding to the peculiarity; in fact, I may even claim that the stereo mix is, for many tracks, more psychedelic than the mono! 

The original stereo Safe As Milk cover artwork, with fisheye photo of the band inside a wooden chicken coop

As a precursor, I'll state that this overview of the events surrounding this album can be read in more detail (and also probably with a higher degree with accuracy) in John French's book, Beefheart: Through the Eyes of Magic. 

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band originally signed to A&M Records, where two terrific and unique R&B 45s appeared in 1966 (link). After these releases, though, the canonical story tells that demos of new songs, which would later appear on Safe As Milk, were presented to A&M but deemed too experimental (literally "too negative," according to Beefheart himself), whence the band was dropped. The more likely story is that since the A&M singles failed to chart nationally, though becoming local hits, the band was simply discarded. At any rate, they were subsequently picked up by producer Bob Krasnow of Kama Sutra Records for a debut album on a new subsidiary he called Buddah Records. For '60s heads, Safe As Milk would be the pinnacle of the new label, which came to preoccupy itself with bubblegum pop and, even later, soft-rock/vocal records; a total let-down from the raw avant-blues of early Beef. 

An early band performance, ca. 1967
L to R: Van Vliet, Cooder & Handley
Supposedly the only gig to feature Ry Cooder.

Band leader Don Van Vliet (a.k.a. Captain Beefheart, by self-imposition) stole this opportunity to switch some personnel during the label move, with Doug Moon being fired by Bob Krasnow the day of the album photo shoot. It would become a trend for Magic Band members to leave, but usually out of their own discretion, due to the difficulty of working with the leader. In any case, notable is the addition of a bubbling young guitar superstar in Ry Cooder, freshly poached from Taj Mahal's blues band The Rising Sons. Van Vliet, a childhood friend of Frank Zappa, undoubtedly felt some pressure to assemble his version of The Mothers, who had released Freak Out! on Verve the previous summer, with Absolutely Free following that spring: so Van Vliet understandably worked to assemble the best musicians possible for his baby-project. At any rate, this incarnation of the band would be sadly short-lived, with Ry Cooder leaving after only one gig with the group. 

The picture that Safe As Milk paints of the Summer of Love is quite different than that depicted by the usual L.A. groups. Van Vliet's vocals, with obvious draws from the raw delta wails of Howlin' Wolf, portray surrealistic Daliesque scenes upon a tapestry of stop-and-go drums, staggering dual slide guitars of Ry Cooder and Alex St. Clair, and intricate bass lines, woven together in a dynamic, ever-changing landscape of blues, pop, and heavy fuzzed-out psych. The constantly-changing song structures are smoothly integrated and still give the façade of conventionality while simultaneously drawing upon obscure folk- and African-inspired rhythms, somehow keeping every song interesting from beginning to end. 

Photography by Guy Webster: (L to R) John French, Jerry Handley, Alex St. Clair, & Don Van Vliet, all cleaned-up with fresh haircuts

It is curious to me why Ry Cooder wasn't pictured on the LP cover, but little information seems to exist on the subject; he apparently was never very keen on being in the band, so it probably was by his own discretion. Tom Wilkes' cover design, which encases those photos, clearly portray the influence (worship?) of the Abba-Zaba candy bar, as of course does the track itself, whose title is featured prominently at the top of the rear design. Perhaps Don Van Vliet just liked the sound of the name, or maybe he was actually an avid consumer of the peanut-butter-filled taffy, which can still be found at some old-school candy shops -- but it honestly isn't anything to write home about, in my opinion. Nonetheless, the song would remain a staple of Beefheart's career, making a regular appearance at shows throughout the '70s. 

An Abba-Zaba candy bar

I wonder how this song was chosen to perpetuate, as it's a great tune, but probably not my favorite on the album. It is one of three songs credited solely to Van Vliet, though the cowriter Herb Bermann who appears on the other tracks is so reclusive that in the 1999 CD reissue it is claimed that he may have never existed at all (apparently he has now been found). Anyways, I'd think that the opening blues rocker "Sure 'Nuff 'N Yes I Do" is conventional enough to fit in any classic/blues rock playlist yet also unique enough to catch the ear of a discerning critic. The psychedelic spaces explored in "Zig Zag Wanderer" (a reference of course to the rolling papers) and "Autumn's Child," and the brutal fuzz of "Dropout Boogie," will likely appeal to '60s purists, while "Electricity" adds the tag of mind-boggling experimental-electronic-blues composition which still sounds fresh even today.

A theremin appears both in the aforementioned "Electricity" and "Autumn's Child," which close either album side. There aren't that many '60s albums (to my knowledge) that use the wavering electronic tones produced by that oscillator-driven spook machine. Curiously, this one was played by Sam Hoffman, supposedly a friend of the instrument's inventor, Leon Theremin. [To those who don't know, Mr. Theremin (who was ex-KGB) intended it to become a serious orchestral instrument, but it unfortunately seemed to only make the circuit in cheap 1950s monster flicks.]

Especially amazing is Van Vliet's performance on "I'm Glad," a ballad which if performed by anyone else would be unironically boring, but with the swooning Beefheart vocals, it's surprisingly entrancing; much like the lifelike street-cut voice of Lou Reed singing "Some Kinda Love" on the third VU record, it's an unexpected respite from the growl and grime which shows off the incredible pipes that the great Captain had.

Another favorite here is "Plastic Factory," with one of the absolute best blues guitar riffs I've ever heard. The Captain's blues harp accompaniment with added distortion & tremolo is such a perfect addition to that heavy chart, but what makes that song atypical and aligned in the style of Beefheart is the jump to 6/8 feel part-way through, which is done tactfully and smoothly, giving only a brief glance into the heavily complexified compositions that were yet to come...  

Rear album cover slick with the yellow-and-black checkerboard pattern

The recording of this album has a distressing history, as can be read elsewhere. The tl;dr of it is that the band switched from a state-of-the-art 8-track to a lesser 4-track studio mid-recording, primarily due to the inexperience of producer & engineer Richard Perry. This necessitated track bouncing which resulted in a lower fidelity (generational loss) along with roughly-tuned mixes as typical of late-1960s recordings. Apparently Perry's original mixes were deemed so substandard that Bob Krasnow had to take over and remix the album. 

Ad for the 1970 reissue in the
Buddah Group inner sleeve

After the original 1967 release, there have been several commercial reappearances of this album, however even the earliest 1970 reissue has audio issues (channel dropouts, weird splices at the beginning/end of tracks, some songs running at a slower speed, ...) that are not present on the original pressings, pointing to probable damage of the original master tapes due to poor storage conditions, even in that short period of time.

Several strange restoration attempts exist on CD, the best being from 1999 on Buddah, which also included some cool bonus tracks. In fact this was probably the best reissue ever, fixing many of the major issues noted above, but unfortunately simultaneously adding other problems. The disc appears to be sourced from a safety dub (worse high-end response, extra tape noise) and has been highly limited and compressed with pumped-up bass, which makes it barely comparable to the extremely dynamic sound of the original LP and even the early reissues. The recording also runs about 1.2% slower than the original pressing, which is enough to be annoying but not quite enough to be tonally audible. I don't know firsthand which is correct, but I'll stick to the speed of the originals (plural; the mono is also faster) over whatever was used on the 1999 thing.

The audio for this project has been manually restored from an original white-label promotional (stereo) copy of the album in near-perfect condition. It is much more challenging to polish a stereo restoration as compared to a mono one, since low-level vinyl noise cannot simply be ignored and folded away; it needs to be dealt with manually in each channel, piece by piece. I left intact the occasional noise (e.g. potentiometer scratch) which apparently exists on the master tape, and thus every CD and LP. There is also some inner groove distortion from the pressing, but it is not too bad. After lots of invested work and time, I am fairly confident that the final product here is a massive improvement over any reissue or existing transfer of this stereo variant, and you can confidently toss any other digital stereo version directly into the recycle bin. 

Since the original promo copies apparently did not include the bumper sticker or printed inner sleeve, I will include these scans plus the labels from a regular stereo stock copy as well. 

An original Safe As Milk bumper sticker, with the creepy doll face image

Performers:
- Don Van Vliet: lead vocals, harmonica, bass marimba

- Alex St. Clair Snouffer: guitar

- Jerry Handley: bass guitar

- Ry Cooder: guitar; bass on 8 & 11

- John French: drums, percussion

 

July 1967 ad featuring lyrics from the LP

- Russ Titelman(?): guitar on 10 & 12

- Milt Holland: log drum on 2 & 4; additional percussion on 8

- Taj Mahal: additional percussion on 7 (washboard?)

- Sam Hoffman: theremin on 6 & 12

- Richard Perry: "reference tone" on 7

- unknown session musician(s): organ on 11, piano(?) on 12

Join the official John "Drumbo" French fan group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/110161780727

Track listing:

1) "Sure 'Nuff 'N Yes, I Do" (Don Van Vliet & Herb Bermann) -- 2:16

2) "Zig Zag Wanderer" (Van Vliet & Bermann) -- 2:38

3) "Call On Me" (Van Vliet) -- 2:37

4) "Dropout Boogie" (Van Vliet & Bermann) -- 2:31

5) "I'm Glad" (Van Vliet) -- 3:29

6) "Electricity" (Van Vliet & Bermann) -- 3:08

7) "Yellow Brick Road" (Van Vliet & Bermann) -- 2:25

8) "Abba Zaba" (Van Vliet) -- 2:43

9) "Plastic Factory" (Van Vliet, Bermann & Jerry Handley) -- 3:06

10) "Where There's Woman" (Van Vliet & Bermann) -- 2:09

11) "Grown So Ugly" (Robert Pete Williams) -- 2:27

12) "Autumn's Child" (Van Vliet & Bermann) -- 4:02

Vinyl condition: M- 

Dynamic range: DR12

Equipment Lineage:

– Audio-Technica VMN40ML stylus on AT150MLx dual moving-magnet cartridge

– Audio-Technica AT-LP1240-USB direct drive professional turntable (internal stock preamp/ADC removed)

– Pro-Ject Phono Box S2 Ultra preamp with dedicated Zero Zone linear power supply

– Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 MkII (96kHz / 24bit)

– Adobe Audition CC 2020 (recording)

– iZotope RX 7 audio editor (manual declicking, EQ subtraction, additional adjustments)

– Audacity 2.3.3 (fades between tracks, split tracks)

– Foobar2000 v1.5.1 (tagging, dynamic range analysis)

YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhEBA51qbhIqX1r5511VbuQNvRpB_XHu8

Thanks for taking the time to read my posts and check out my blog. I'd greatly appreciate it if you leave a small comment below. Notes from my readers are what inspire me to keep going. Thanks!
Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16TAjmsBPlQtB713sRltu6_-dq-0DdnGq?usp=sharing

Enjoy! :)

For a digital version of the mono mix, you may wander thusly... 

Sunlights' Seven - "David" / "Judy In Disguise" (1969) [Original Single]

Sunlights' Seven - "David" b/w "Judy In Disguise"

Original 1969 stereo 45 RPM single

Entra Records EN1082 / EN1083  (Discogs)

~ThePoodleBites rip in 96kHz / 24bit FLAC + full high-res scans!~

Here are a couple bonus tracks for those of you who have yet to burn your Creation Of Sunlight CDs. This rare 45 is a necessity for pop-sike / Sunlight fans, since it boasts the non-LP B-side "Judy In Disguise," to my knowledge the only cover that the band ever recorded. Sunlight's version is by far and large an improvement over the cheap bubblegum-pop original version (by John Fred & His Playboy Band), with added fuzz guitar, backwards tape, flute, etc. "David" is the same recording / mix as on Creation Of Sunlight, but it's a substantially different (darker) mastering, with much louder bass guitar, and I actually maybe prefer it to the sibilant album version. 

Major thanks to C.F. for loaning out this 45 for a proper digital transfer & restoration!

Appearance as entry #3 on Billboard's
"Brite Star's Pick Hits," 6 Dec 1969

These tracks, like the rest of the songs on Creation Of Sunlight, were recorded at Independent Recorders in north Hollywood, California. The recording was overseen by Bobby Engemann of the Lettermen, who handled the finances for recording, and actually forced the band to record "Judy In Disguise," much to the dismay of some group members. The arrangements were handled by Jerry Griffin, who also assisted Gary Young and engineer Howard Gayle in production. 

Both of these songs in particular were recorded sometime early in 1969 and were selected for release on the private Entra Records label later that year, with the single's debut advertisement appearing in Billboard's "Brite Star's Hit Picks" corner on 6 Dec 1969, persisting there weekly through 24 Jan 1970, whence afterwards it disappeared without a trace. The ad annoyingly didn't even get the band's name right, which initially appeared as "Sunlight Singers" and was then 'corrected' in later weeks to "Sunlight Seven," neither of which were actually the band's true moniker. Perhaps this mishap was a harbinger of the name confusion yet to come with the mistaken Creation Of Sunlight naming ordeal. Despite (or perhaps due to the weakness of) the advertisement, the single failed to sell enough copies to chart. However, make no mistake; the musical quality here is on par with the group's sole LP, an album good enough to have made major labels drool but was pushed back a bit too late by label politics to have made as big of a popular impact as it should have. 

The band holding engineer Howard Gayle

"Judy" has been reissued as a bonus track on the 2005 Lion CD with absolutely horrendous sound quality. As a friend of mine observed, "then again, they did successfully use their noise reduction program to get rid of those annoying cymbals, the lead guitar, the snare springs, and the clarity of the vocals." It goes without saying that this rip is a drastic improvement upon the sound quality as available anywhere else.  

Sunlights' Seven lineup:
Gary Young – Lead Vocals
Jerry Griffin – Keyboards & Vocals
Carl Estrella – Lead Guitar
Don Sain – Rhythm Guitar
Steve Montague – Bass Guitar
Bob Morgan – Drums
Ron Clark – Woodwinds & Percussion

Official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CreationOfSunlight (all band photos taken from this page)
Official YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/user/sunlight7band

Track listing:

1) "David" (Prophet, Daugherty) -- 4:18

2) "Judy In Disguise" (A. Bernard, J. Fred) -- 2:35

Vinyl condition: M-

Dynamic range: DR10

Equipment Lineage:

– Audio-Technica VMN40ML stylus on AT150MLx dual moving-magnet cartridge

– Audio-Technica AT-LP1240-USB direct drive professional turntable (internal stock preamp/ADC removed)

– Pro-Ject Phono Box S2 Ultra preamp with dedicated Zero Zone linear power supply

– Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 MkII (96kHz / 24bit)

– Adobe Audition CC 2020 (recording)

– iZotope RX 7 audio editor (manual declicking, EQ subtraction, additional adjustments)

– Audacity 2.3.3 (fades between tracks, split tracks)

– Foobar2000 v1.5.1 (tagging, dynamic range analysis)

Thanks for taking the time to read my posts and check out my blog. I'd greatly appreciate it if you leave a small comment below. Notes from my readers are what inspire me to keep going. Thanks!
Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17amZXq4hQS9GlPXPP_Jmn01MeAdrBk09?usp=sharing

Enjoy, and have a happy New Year! :) 

Sunlight - Creation Of Sunlight (1970) [Original Pressing]

 Sunlight - Creation Of Sunlight

Original 1970 USA (private?) pressing

Windi Records WS 1001  (Discogs)
~ThePoodleBites rip in 96kHz / 24bit FLAC + full high-res scans!~

"It's a brand new thing never thought before

It takes a strange state of mind to even open the door..."

I've had this album sitting on my hard drive for a number of months, and I finally had some time to clean it up for a proper blog post here. Most '60s enthusiasts will be quite familiar with this pop-psych extravaganza, but in fact it was totally unknown to collectors until around 1984-5, when a quantity of sealed copies were found at a SoCal flea market (along with Merkin, the Cardinali Brothers, ...). [Thanks CF for this tidbit!]

Some probably will find its obscurity surprising, because several numbers on this LP definitely could've ruled the airwaves as nationwide hits in the late '60s... But they just never made it: contrary to popular belief, and much to my amazement, I discovered today by digging through old issues of Billboard that the commonly-stated release date of 1968 for this LP is totally false, and in fact this album wasn't released until November of 1970! So no wonder it didn't sell, these sounds were expired in the dawn of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, etc. Regardless, this album is certainly one of the rare legends of music lore which is strong enough to compete with any popular album on the major labels, but seemingly never got the chance. 

But that means this month is the perfect time to post this rip. Happy 50th birthday, Creation Of Sunlight!

Front cover for Creation Of Sunlight, with Are You Experienced?-styled fisheye band photo placed on a blazing orange sun

The band originally formed in 1968 under the name Sunlights' Seven, in typical mid-'60s style, enumerating the number of group members in the band name. Based in Long Beach, California (though vocalist Gary Young was originally from Oklahoma City), all were obviously a part of the burgeoning L.A. music scene, which one can easily hear as heavily influencing their sound. After releasing a debut 45 on the private Entra Records label, the band updated its name to just 'Sunlight,' which was perceived as more hip to the late-'60s scene. While the album's front cover design and labels only state 'Creation Of Sunlight,' the band never went by this title. In fact, the back cover references the band name 'Sunlight' twice, but it's so sneakily done that apparently most people have missed it, wrongly referring to the band as 'Creation Of Sunlight' for years; even the Wikipedia page does it! (Indeed, the label tried to capitalize off this mistake; see Klemen Breznikar's interview with Steve Montague here.) 

Original back cover slick for the Creation Of Sunlight LP

While we now know that the album wasn't released until nearly 1971(!), many of the tracks were recorded earlier, over the course of four main tracking sessions and a couple of sweetening and mixing sessions, from December 1968 through the summer of 1969, at Independent Recorders in north Hollywood, and cut to acetate by the famous DCT Recorders studio in Hollywood. [Thanks Steve Montague for this correction!] The two extant acetate variants are credited to Sunlights' Seven, which feature several of the tracks (and likely the exact same stereo mixes) that would appear on the Creation Of Sunlight LP after the band secured a contract with (or, rather, formed?) the Windi Records label.

Dates aside, fans of sunshine pop will find tons of stuff to love here. The opening track, "David," is a favorite for many (and I don't mind it, either). It's a song about a child who can take himself wherever he pleases with his imagination, totally in line with typical '60s teenaged escapism themes. There are lots of pop-oriented tunes, e.g. "Sometimes A Woman" with thoroughly cringe-worthy lyrics (think "Onie" by the Electric Prunes), which undoubtedly pleased their audiences of several hundred patrons per night back in 1968-69. Some tracks have prominent use of horns, which may turn some people off, but it's pretty tastefully done. There's also lots of flute playing, which is spacious and extraordinary. 

The original California 'sunlight'

What makes this album so memorable, though, are the terrific, unique psychedelic moments, especially on "Light Without Heat" (white light without... white heat?) and "The Fun Machine." The former gives me a rush like those first waves of good ole pure Orange Sunshine; close your eyes after the chorus and you can feel the world before you warping, as the hot California sun warms your skin and waves gently crash against the sandy shore. Wow. The first musical comparisons that come to mind are perhaps the best moments from the first Strawberry Alarm Clock LP or side one of Love's Da Capo, both of which totally make sense given the physical proximity. Something must've been in the L.A. water supply back in those days, because no music before or since can even touch that '67-'69 southern California vibe, with the seemingly endless bright sunny summers finding their way into nearly every pop song... "Hammond Eggs" is another great one that transports you into the wide open spaces of the desert (though the title is simply a play on 'ham and eggs,' a traditional American breakfast). The thing about Creation Of Sunlight, and indeed, other albums from this particular place and time, is that you can almost taste the sea-salty air from the ocean drifting from your speakers as you listen, perhaps some of the last evidence that the '60s actually happened as they tell it. 

Another fisheye-lens photo by cover photographer Jeff Mulick

This album has (deservedly) seen several reissues, one of the most notable being on Lion Productions from 2005. While that CD claims that it uses master tapes, it actually is a vinyl rip that has suffered automatic de-clicking and some choice noise reduction. Much like the other Windi LPs, the tapes are presumably lost or destroyed. I'd assumed for years that the sibilance on that CD was from a mediocre rip, but I was surprised to find, when I finally procured an original LP, that those distortions are on the record itself (even in the outer grooves!), which was a bit disappointing. Yes, those harsh "S" sounds throughout, and the random noises (like at the beginning of "Second Thoughts") are actually on the LP. Alas, since that is perhaps part of the sound for this recording, I've left it all intact. With this in consideration, the commercially available CD isn't actually that unpleasant, but I can say with some certainty that I've improved upon it drastically here. 

Sunlight lineup:
Gary Young – Lead Vocals
Jerry Griffin – Keyboards & Vocals
Carl Estrella – Lead Guitar
Don Sain – Rhythm Guitar
Steve Montague – Bass Guitar
Bob Morgan – Drums
Ron Clark – Woodwinds & Percussion

Official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CreationOfSunlight
Official YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/user/sunlight7band

Track listing:

1) "David" -- 4:20

2) "Rush Hour Blues" -- 3:33

3) "Light Without Heat" -- 3:49
4) "In The Middle Of Happy" -- 4:36
5) "Hammond Eggs" -- 4:59
6) "Sometimes A Woman" -- 3:24
7) "Second Thoughts" -- 3:20
8) "Seven Times Infinity" -- 3:44
9) "Colors Of Love" -- 6:05
10) "The Fun Machine" -- 2:36

Vinyl condition: M-

Dynamic Range: DR11

Equipment Lineage:

– Audio-Technica VMN40ML stylus on AT150MLx dual moving-magnet cartridge

– Audio-Technica AT-LP1240-USB direct drive professional turntable (internal stock preamp/ADC removed)

– TCC TC-754 RIAA phono preamp (new regulated power supply, added LM7812 regulator)

– Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 MkII (96kHz / 24bit)

– Adobe Audition CC 2020 (recording)

– iZotope RX 7 audio editor (manual declicking, EQ subtraction, additional adjustments)

– Audacity 2.3.3 (fades between tracks, split tracks)

– Foobar2000 v1.5.1 (tagging, dynamic range analysis)

YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhEBA51qbhIq61Yl-ZjgV6Lfpk-wHqMJK

Thanks for taking the time to read my posts and check out my blog. I'd greatly appreciate it if you leave a small comment below. Notes from my readers are what inspire me to keep going. Thanks!
Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1qPaZ8p49zwXpzdHTIBCoAMTfeJ9nIFbn?usp=sharing

Enjoy, and merry Christmas! :)