Frank Zappa - Burnt Weeny Sandwich

Genere: Rock/Pop.
Style: Experimental Rock, Progressive Rock, Progressive Jazz.
Similar artists: Soul Gigants, Adrian, Belew.
Recording year: Rykodisc, 1970.

Burnt Weeny Sandwich is the first of two albums by the Mothers of Invention that Frank Zappa released in 1970, after he had disbanded the original lineup. While Weasels Ripped My Flesh focuses on complex material and improvised stage madness, this collection of studio and live recordings summarizes the leader's various interests and influences at the time. It opens and closes on '50s pop covers, "WPLJ" and "Valarie." "Aybe Sea" is a Zappafied sea shanty, while "Igor's Boogie" is named after composer Igor Stravinsky, the closest thing to a hero Zappa ever worshipped. But the best material is represented by "Holiday in Berlin," a theme that would become central to the music of 200 Motels, and "The Little House I Used to Live In," including a virtuoso piano solo by Ian Underwood. Presented as an extended set of theme and variations, the latter does not reach the same heights as "King Kong." In many places, and with the two aforementioned exceptions in mind, Burnt Weeny Sandwich sounds like a set of outtakes from Uncle Meat, which already summarized to an extent the adventures of the early Mothers. It lacks some direction, but those allergic to the group's grunts and free-form playing will prefer it to the wacky Weasels Ripped My Flesh.

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Rolling Stone - The Early Years

Genere: 60's and 70's R&R

Recording Year: Rhino, 2002.

1. Summer in the City - The Lovin' Spoonful

2. Time of the Season - The Zombies

3. Coming into Los Angeles - Arlo Guthrie

4. Oh Well, Pt. 1 - Fleetwood Mac

5. Get Together - The Youngbloods

6. White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane

7. Never Ending Song of Love - Delaney & Bonnie & Friends

8. Dixie Chicken - Little Feat

9. Casey Jones - Grateful Dead

10. Night They Drove Old Dixie Down - The Band

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Syd Barret - The Madcap Laughs

Genere: Psychedelic, Art Rock

Similar Artists: Brian Eno, Moby Grape, John Cale

Recording Year: Capitol Records, 1970

Syd Barrett (6 January 1946 – 7 July 2006), born Roger Keith Barrett, was an English singer, songwriter, guitarist and artist. He is most remembered as a founding member of psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd, providing major musical and stylistic direction in their early work, although he left the group in 1968 amidst speculations of mental illness as a consequence of, or exacerbated by, heavy drug use.

He was active as a rock musician for about seven years, recording two albums with Pink Floyd and two solo albums before going into self-imposed seclusion lasting more than thirty years. His post-rock band life was as an artist and a keen gardener, ending with his death in 2006. During his withdrawal from public life there were numerous works about him, most notably his former band Pink Floyd's 1975 album Wish You Were Here. A number of biographies have been written about him since the 1980s.

Barrett was born in the English city of Cambridge to a middle-class family. His father, Arthur Max Barrett, was a prominent pathologist, and both he and his wife, Winifred, encouraged the young Roger (as he was known then) in his music. When Barrett was three years old, his family moved to 183 Hills Road. After his brothers and sisters left home, his mother rented out rooms to lodgers, including a future Prime Minister of Japan. Barrett acquired the nickname "Syd" at the age of 14, a reference to an old local Cambridge jazz Double Bassist, Sid Barrett. Syd Barrett changed the spelling in order to differentiate himself from his namesake. His father died of cancer on 11 December 1961, less than a month before Barrett's 16th birthday. He attended Cambridgeshire High School for Boys and Cambridge College of Arts and Technology.

Wisely, The Madcap Laughs doesn't even try to sound like a consistent record. Half the album was recorded by Barrett's former bandmates Roger Waters and Dave Gilmour, and the other half by Harvest Records head Malcolm Jones. Surprisingly, Jones' tracks are song for song much stronger than the more-lauded Floyd entries. The opening "Terrapin" seems to go on three times as long as its five-minute length, creating a hypnotic effect through Barrett's simple, repetitive guitar figure and stream of consciousness lyrics. The much bouncier "Love You" sounds like a sunny little Carnaby Street pop song along the lines of an early Move single, complete with music hall piano, until the listener tries to parse the lyrics and realizes that they make no sense at all.

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