"...the Red's for the blood we lose; the White's for the gauze they use to cover burned-out blackened men; the rest is for the bodies numb and Blue."
Contemporary Neo-Folksters such as Espers and Charalambides owe much to Pearls Before Swine, whose leader, Tom Rapp, played a major role in inventing the template for psychedelia married to a folk aesthetic. As such, Rapp's definition of the term "folk music" was far more wide-ranging and far less in love with tradition than that of the typical protest singers of the early sixties. On One Nation Underground, he weaves together an eclectic array of elements including farfisa, acid-rock, and singer-songwriter melancholia to create something that still sounds original 44 years later. "Another Time," reportedly his very first song, is an achingly beautiful acoustic ballad about the aftermath of an escape from death, and one wonders if The Doors might have been familiar with "Morning Songs," with its electric organ, martial percussion, and sitar-miming banjo picking. Sadly under-appreciated, this debut, like all the Pearls Before Swine albums that followed it, certainly deserves the stature of a lost classic.
One Nation Underground (1999 Limited "Get Back Records" Edition)
1. Another Time (3:03)
2. Playmate (2:19)
3. Ballad to an Amber Lady (5:14)
4. (Oh Dear) Miss Morse (1:54)
5. Drop Out! (4:04)
6. Morning Song (4:06)
7. Regions of May (3:27)
8. Uncle John (2:54)
9. I Shall Not Care (5:20)
10. The Surrealist Waltz (3:29)
Aww yea as soon as this Hendrix box set completes eye will checka this one out. Love that folk stuff with Nick Drake being my favorite mother folker.
ReplyDeleteBooteny, Drake is my main mother folker too, along with Bert Jansch. Which Hendrix box are you listening to?
ReplyDeleteNot sure of the title. It is from a blog that is supposed to be down. I have a 4cd box called the Hendrix Sessions which are probably some of the best sounding flacs eye have ever heard. This one is not the Hendrix Sessions. You have to copy paste the links and it says h!!p instead of http. Here is the link check it yourself. http://rockanthology69.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html
ReplyDeletemany thanks Farnsy!
ReplyDeleteThat is a neat blog. Some of the links still work. Sometimes forget to replace the !! with tt and it goes back to the page. Gettin the Byrds box from there now then it's Cocteau Twins and Chainsaw Blog filled one of my requests w00t! {:-)
ReplyDeleteBarnsy, you don't like it better than my blog do you? ;)
ReplyDeletepearls before swine! great diversity at the moon. Love Tom Rapp! good stuff!
ReplyDeleteI'm a big Tom Rapp fan too. I'll have to post some more soon, thanks Richard
ReplyDelete