In 2016, Rolling Stone
writer Jon Savage began curating double-CD compilations for Ace Records in
the UK. Each set was a sort of fantasy mid-sixties pirate radio playlist. His
1965 set mainly featured A-list rock and soul artists such as The Kinks (“See
My Friends”), The Who (“Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere”), and The Supremes (“My World
Is Empty Without You”), but there was also a sprinkling of more obscure luminaries such
as Thee Midniters (“Land of 1,000 Dances Pt. 1”), The Spades (“We Sell Soul”),
and Alvin Cash & the Crawlers (“Twine Time”). Each comp devoted to 1966
through 1968 followed a similar format.
To put all of these ace CDs onto vinyl would have required
about twelve vinyl discs. Instead, Savage and Ace have opted to boil 192 tracks
down to a sampling of 32 for a single, double-LP set. Although some of the big,
big artists remain—Donovan with “Hey Gyp”, The Association with “Along Comes
Mary”, James Brown with “Tell Me That You Love Me”, Gladys Knight and the Pips
with “Take Me in Your Arms and Love Me”, Buffalo Springfield with “Mr. Soul”—Jon Savage’s 1965-1968: The High Sixties on
45 mostly spotlights the artists whose sides are less easy to find on
vinyl. So while tracks by The Kinks (“Wonderboy”) and Aretha Franklin (“I Say a
Little Prayer”) keep listeners oriented with familiar sounds, we can mostly
concentrate on making some new discoveries, such as The Anglos’ infectious soul
raver “Incense”, Norma Tanega’s quirky folk popper “Walkin’ My Cat Named Dog”,
Ray Sharpe and the King Curtis Orchestra’s dance hall anthem “Help Me (Get the
Feeling) Pt. 1”, Freaks of Nature’s garage burner “People! Let’s Freak Out”,
and Kak’s psychedelic shaker “Rain”. There are also some relatively obscure numbers by well-known artists, such as The Chiffon’s “Nobody Knows What's Going On (In My Mind but Me)”, The Everly Brothers’ “Lord of the Manor”, and Sly and the Family Stone’s (as “The French Fries”) “Danse a La Musique” (aka: “Dance to the Music” in French).
Yes, some obscurities remain in CD limbo
(alas, there wasn’t room for The Birds’ “Leaving Here”, The Blue Things’ “One
Hour Cleaners”, Blossom Toes’ “Look at Me I’m You”, Tintern Abbey’s “Vacuum
Cleaner”, or Dave Davies’ “Lincoln County”), but if this groovy distillation
sells well enough, maybe Ace will some day pull the trigger on that twelve-LP
box set we’re really craving.
