They never managed to get a hit like a lot of the other
bands that Shel Talmy produced, but some rock cultists— such as Talmy— insist
that The Creation was every bit as good as The Kinks and The Who. You have to
take a lot of what Talmy says with a Rock of Gibraltar-size grain of salt, but
in this case, there’s some truth to his assertion. With mighty, colorful, crazy
records such as “Making Time”, “Nightmares”, and “How Does It Feel to Feel”,
The Creation easily made records as good as the ’66-era Kinks and Who.
Consequently, The Creation have been anthologized a few
times, though the most thorough collections are kind of a mess. I’m
specifically referring to Retroactive’s 1998 comps Making Time (Volume One) and Biff
Bang Pow! (Volume Two). Both discs are loaded with great music, for sure,
but they’re programmed in a nearly unlistenable manner. Different mixes of the
same songs are sprinkled about in such a way that the listening experience
becomes vexingly repetitive.
Numero Group’s new collection Action Painting solves this problem with more considerate
programming. All of the original mono mixes are gathered on Disc One with only
one repeated song: “How Does It Feel to Feel” appears in both its original UK
version and its superior US remake, which is tacked onto the end of the disc
long after the other version has played. Disc Two begins with four decent cuts by The
Creation’s initial incarnation as The Mark Four before moving on to new,
Talmy-approved stereo mixes of most of the songs on disc one.
This approach is much more listenable than Retroactive’s,
even though I would have given that buzzsaw US version of “How Does It Feel to
Feel” pride of place early in the disc and arranged the tracks according to
when they were recorded rather than when they were released so that “I Am the
Walker” and “Ostrich Man”—two of The Creation’s finest—aren’t buried so far at
the end of the disc. But these are minor quibbles. Really, Disc One of Action Painting is superb and basically
all The Creation you’ll ever need to hear with nice, thick remastering by Talmy
and Reuben Cohen.
The stereo mixes on Disc Two are more of a curiosity, though
they do reveal some interesting, heretofore-buried sounds, such as some keening
backing vocals on “How Does It Feel to Feel” and “Through My Eyes”. The tracks
are allowed to play out completely without fades, which discloses interesting
tidbits too. “Through My Eyes” has certainly never sounded more psychedelically
demented than it does here. Disc
Two is also the only spot where The Creation’s covers of “Like a Rolling Stone”
and “Hey Joe” appear on Action Painting,
but these are fairly inessential tracks and you’ll never miss them if you
decide to only keep Disc One in rotation. I certainly don’t miss having them in
mono.
The hardback book/slipcase packaging is very attractive with
a bevy of color photos, including repros of all The Creation’s picture sleeves ,
as well as some informative biographical and track-by-track essays. The
too-tight pockets for the CDs could have been thought out a lot better, though.
Nevertheless, Action Painting is a
lovely package of some of the sixties’ most brutal music. It may even be
definitive.
