Review: 'Wake Me, Shake Me: New York City, the '60s & the Pop Youthquake'

Everyone who thinks that the world revolves around New York City should... wait, I'm not sure how to finish that sentence. Actually, a quick look at all the movies, TV shows, and books set in Manhattan alone (there are four other boroughs, you know!) kind of supports the idea that NYC is where everything is. And music? How many histories covering New York's punk scene or The Velvet Underground have there been? "A lot" is the answer.

Yet when considering what must be the most fertile period for pop music, the sixties, the New York City scene is often little more than a sidebar. While what was happening in London, Los Angeles, Detroit, and San Fransisco is often portrayed as downright mythic, what was happening on the East Coast islands seems quaint and scattered, at least when you've finished swapping legends about Lou Reed and Nico. And Dylan doesn't quite count as he was actually from Hibbing, Minnesota, and his New York City phase was just one of many. 

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #150 - 126

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's meditating transcendentally from 150 to 126...

150. The Monkees- "P.O.Box 9847" (1968), in which Boyce and Hart finally get to produce a Monkees record again after a long hiatus but The Monkees take all the credit.

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #175 - 151

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's discovering the meaning of life in a blade of grass from 175 to 151...

175. The Incredible String Band- "You Get Brighter" (1968), in which The Incredible String Band create such a light and joyful psych-folk confection that even atheists get wrapped up in their chants of "Krishna!"

Review: Storm Thorgerson's 'Mind over Matter: The Images of Pink Floyd' Fifth Edition

Storm Thorgerson belongs to a very exclusive club of well-known album cover artists. Honestly, the only other one I can think of is Roger Dean, and just as Dean is closely associated with one band (Yes), Thorgerson is renowned as the photographer behind the light-refracting prism, the flaming handshake, and the field of hospital beds. Although he created covers for groups as varied as Def Leppard and The Cranberries, Thorgerson will always be remembered as Pink Floyd's favorite coverman.

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #200 - 176

 Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's 2000 light years from home from 200 to 176...

200. The Beatles- "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" (1967), in which John Lennon takes full advantage of all the grey areas in circus-poster copyright law.

Review: Vinylphyle Edition of The Band's 'Music from Big Pink'

When I last got my hands on a record in Universal Music's new audiophile series, it was the decidedly lo-fi The Velvet Underground and Nico. Despite the dodgy original recording, the Vinylphyle treatment—all-analog mastering from the original master tapes, pressing at the renowned plant RTI by Joe-Nino Hernes, a mastering engineer with an impressive track record—really brought out the the best in The Velvet's noisy, druggy, mesmerizing debut.  

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #225 - 201

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's bogarting that joint from 225 to 201...

225. The Pretty Things- "Private Sorrow" (1968), in which S.F. Sorrow is drafted into the army and kicks off an adulthood of non-stop trauma.

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #250 - 226

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's seeing sounds and smelling colors from 250 to 226...

250. Jefferson Airplane- "She Has Funny Cars" (1967), in which Jefferson Airplane express the belief that owning several cars with pop-up chassis is really what makes a lady attractive. 

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #275 - 251

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's sampling the brown acid from 275 to 251... 

275. The Byrds- "5D (Fifth Dimension)" (1966), in which The Byrds trip so hard that they pass right through the fourth dimension, which is vectors, and into the fifth one, which has freedom, which, honestly, is a much easier concept to grasp than vectors.

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #300 - 276

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's getting hassled by The Man from 300 to 276...

300. The Doors- "Strange Days" (1967), in which The Doors play with some very strange echo effects and make their most legitimately psychedelic song in the proces.

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #325 - 301

 Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's smoking a number from 325 to 301...

325. Os Mutantes- "Adeus Maria Fulô" (1968), in which Os Mutantes give the clearest possible response to the question, "Wait...so what exactly is Tropicália?"

Review: 'The Real Folk Blues' by Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf (Chess Acoustic Sounds Edition)

In the early sixties, Chess kept its crosshairs on the emerging folkie scene, hoping it might be a market for the label's blues artists who boasted the kind of "authenticity" that was grade-A currency to the coffee house set. If Muddy Waters's Folk Singer was a testing of waters, then those waters must have been warm and inviting enough for Chess to launch its Real Folk Blues series. Muddy, always the first name in blues, was to get the series rolling in 1965, with a second installment, devoted to Howlin' Wolf, following that same year.

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #350 - 326

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's being crowned lizard king from 350 to 326...

350. The Beatles- "Magical Mystery Tour" (1967), in which The Beatles introduce a glorified home movie of their recent vacation that has led many a Beatlemaniac to opine, "Well, at least the music is nice."

Review: 'Hey! Ho! Let's Go! The Story of The Ramones'

In 2002, Joey Ramone had died just a year earlier. The rest of The Ramones was still alive and Everett True had just published Hey! Ho! Let's Go! The Story of The Ramones. Dee Dee Ramone would die half way through that year. Johnny Ramone would follow in 2004. A year later, an updated edition of Hey! Ho! Let's Go! acknowledged these two grim milestones. 

Review: 'Freddie Mercury: By the Man Who Knew Him Best' (Omnibus Remastered Edition)

The simplicity of its title implies that Freddie Mercury is a biography. The claim in its subtitle, By the Man Who Knew Him Best, implies intimate access into the life of a superstar who was completely audacious on stage but shy and guarded in his private life.

Freddie Mercury: By the Man Who Knew Him Best is not a biography though it does afford intimate access into the life of the Queen frontman. It's a memoir of a limited period in Mercury's life, as Peter Freestone joins Queen's touring crew as wardrobe master in 1980 and sticks around as his  personal assistant until the singer's death eleven years later. Freddie Mercury largely reads as a diary of that time. Freestone writes of his day-by-day duties in a consistently amiable tone. He discusses Mercury's volatile relationships with no more dramatic emphasis than he discusses music video shoots, Freddie's favorite foods, or procuring dry underwear for his boss after a show. Only when discussing his friend's death does Freestone's amiably neutral tone drop. The author goes into much more intimate detail than he does anywhere else in the book.

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #375 - 351

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's mellowing out from 375 to 351...

375. The Doors- "People Are Strange" (1967), in which Jim Morrison sings a jaunty little number about how you shouldn't be a weirdo, apparently without ever passing a mirror in the process.

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #400 - 376

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's piping at the gates of dawn from 400 to 376...

400. Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band- "Abba Zabba" (1967), in which it's probably best not to think too much about Captain Beefheart's apparent interpretation of traditional Native American music and just enjoy how damn freaky it is. 

Review: 'Classic Blues from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings'

In my recent review of Chess's reissue of Muddy Waters's Folk Singer, I noted how the label consciously intended to appeal to the new movement of young folkies that emerged in the early sixties and how that album was a pure blues document regardless of its title. That was not to say that there is no relationship between the blues and folk music. It's just that Waters helped remake the blues into a thoroughly urban form that didn't plainly connect to the blues' rural roots. 

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #425 - 401

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's attending the love-in from 425 to 401...

425. Os Mutantes- "Bat Macumba" (1968), in which mid-sixties Batman Fever reaches all the way to Brazil.

Review: Smashing Pumpkins' 'Gish' -35th Anniversary Edition

Smashing Pumpkins debuted in the year of grunge, and though they fit in pretty nicely with that scene's predilection for grimy guitars and self-pity, there was something else going on. The scene lauded punk-level skills, but Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin were virtuosos, the latter seeming pretty well versed in jazz technique. Along with the noise typical of grunge, there were dreamy waves of psychedelia and goth. Plus Corgan had an innate sense of melody largely absent from grunge, with the exceptions of Kurt Cobain and Mark Lanegan. The Pumpkins were also capable of debuting with a remarkably consistent album that even Nirvana couldn't match with their own first effort. Though it doesn't swell with alterna-hits the way Smashing Pumpkins' next two albums would, Gish may still be their strongest album. At least it's my personal favorite.