Five decades ago, in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, a social movement was growing. Young people, with heads full of progressive ideas and evolving attitudes toward sex, drugs and rock and roll, were converging on the area to celebrate their personal freedom--an extension of that January's "Human Be-In" in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. The "Summer of Love," as it was called, was the birth of the modern counterculture, and music played an integral role in the shaping, influencing and mainstreaming of these daring new ideas. Rhino Records will celebrate that historic period with 18 catalog titles this July--including new compilations and vinyl reissues of classic albums.
The three-wave release roll-out begins July 11 with the release of a new CD and LP compilation by The Grateful Dead. Smiling On a Cloudy Day collects 10 tracks from the quintessential Haight-Ashbury band, including tracks from their first three LPs and the non-LP single "Dark Star." That same day, five LP reissues will hit shelves: the mono version of Love's self-titled debut, Peter, Paul and Mary's excellent compilation The Best of Peter, Paul and Mary: (Ten) Years Together and color vinyl versions of albums by The Beau Brummels, The Association and The Young Rascals.
A week later on July 18, two new compilations will be released alongside another wave of LPs. Summer of Love is a psychedelic-flavored CD or LP set from one of Rhino's most beloved groups on roster: The Monkees, It's got 12 tracks from the band's classic Colgems albums released between 1966 and 1969, plus the Noel Gallagher/Paul Weller-penned "Birth of An Accidental Hipster" from last year's triumphant Good Times! Elsewhere, Groovin' Together: Groovy Sounds of the Summer of Love is a new 2LP set offering 16 sunshine-soaked pop and rock tunes from that unforgettable era. The second wave is rounded out with a quartet of new vinyl reissues, including Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant in mono and color versions of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, plus self-titled albums by The Electric Prunes and Vanilla Fudge.
The final month's batch on July 25 goes increasingly esoteric with a new 2LP set in the famous Nuggets series: Transparent Days: West Coast Nuggets offers 30 rare gems from the Summer of Love. Color reissues from Judy Collins and The Zodiac will street that same day, as will reissues of Tim Buckley's Goodbye and Hello, Dusty Springfield's seminal Dusty In Memphis and Aretha Franklin's Aretha Arrives, the latter offered in mono.
While none of these titles are currently domestically available, nearly all are up for pre-order at Amazon U.K., as featured below--full links will be available as they are ready!
July 11
The Grateful Dead, Smiling On a Cloudy Day (Grateful Dead/Rhino, 2017)
CD: Amazon U.K.
LP: Amazon U.K.
- The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)
- Cream Puff War
- Morning Dew
- That's It for the Other One
- Born Cross Eyed
- Dark Star
- St. Stephen
- China Cat Sunflower
- Doin' That Rag
- Cosmic Charlie
Tracks 1-3 from The Grateful Dead (Warner Bros. Records, 1967)
Tracks 4-5 from Anthem of the Sun (Warner Bros. Records, 1968)
Track 6 from Warner Bros. Records single, 1968
Tracks 7-10 from Aoxomoxoa (Warner Bros. Records, 1969)
Love, Love (Mono) (originally released as Elektra EKL-4001, 1966) (Amazon U.K.)
The Beau Brummels, Triangle (Color Vinyl) (orginally released as Warner Bros. Records WS 1692, 1967) (Amazon U.K.)
The Association, Insight Out (Color Vinyl) (originally released as Warner Bros. Records WS 1696, 1967) (Amazon U.K.)
The Young Rascals, Groovin' (Color Vinyl) (originally released as Atlantic SD 8148, 1967) (Amazon U.K.)
Peter, Paul and Mary, The Best of Peter, Paul and Mary: (Ten) Years Together (originally released as Warner Bros. Records BS 2552, 1970) (Amazon U.K.)
July 18
Gettin' Together: Groovy Sounds of The Summer of Love (Rhino, 2017) (Amazon U.K.)
LP 1
- Groovin' - The Young Rascals
- Windy - The Association
- The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy) - Harper's Bizarre
- Bowling Green - The Everly Brothers
- The Windows of the World - Dionne Warwick
- Next Plane to London - The Rose Garden
- Carrie-Anne - The Hollies
- It's a Happening World - The Tokens
LP 2
- Pleasant Valley Sunday - The Monkees
- Sit Down, I Think I Love You - The Mojo Men
- Transparent Day - The West Coast Pop Experimental Band
- C'mon Marianne - The 4 Seasons featuring the "sound" of Frankie Valli
- Hip Hug-Her - Booker T. & The M.G.'s
- Gettin' Together - Tommy James & The Shondells
- I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night) - The Electric Prunes
- You Keep Me Hanging On - Vanilla Fudge
The Monkees, Summer of Love (Rhino, 2017)
CD: Amazon U.K.
LP: Amazon U.K.
- Pleasant Valley Sunday
- She
- Porpoise Song (Single Version)
- Words
- Star Collector
- Birth of An Accidental Hipster
- Take a Giant Step
- Love is Only Sleeping
- Randy Scouse Git
- Tapioca Tundra
- Saturday's Child
- For Pete's Sake
Tracks 1, 4-5 and 8 from Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. (Colgems, 1967)
Track 2 from More of The Monkees (Colgems, 1967)
Original version of Track 3 from Head (Colgems, 1968)
Track 6 from Good Times! (Rhino, 2016)
Tracks 7 and 11 from The Monkees (Colgems, 1966)
Tracks 9 and 12 from Headquarters (Colgems, 1967)
Track 10 from The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees (Colgems, 1968)
The Electric Prunes, The Electric Prunes (Purple Vinyl) (originally released as Reprise RS-6248, 1967) (Amazon U.K.)
Arlo Guthrie, Alice's Restaurant (Mono) (originally released as Reprise R-6267, 1967) (Amazon U.K.)
Vanilla Fudge, Vanilla Fudge (White Vinyl) (originally released as ATCO SD 33-224, 1967) (Amazon U.K.)
Van Morrison, Astral Weeks (Clear Vinyl) (originally released as Warner Bros. Records WS-1768, 1968) (Amazon U.K.)
July 25
Transparent Days: West Coast Nuggets (Rhino, 2017) (Amazon U.K.)
LP 1
- Transparent Day - The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
- Time is After You - The Peanut Butter Conspiracy
- Linda's Gone - The West Coast Branch
- I Could Be Happy - The Dovers
- My Race is Run - The Motleys
- The Happiness Song - Gerry Pond
- Here's Today - The Rose Garden
- Bye Bye Bye (Warner Bros. Single Version) - The Tikis
- Make It Easy - The Collectors
- I'll Sell My Soul - The Allies
- Goin' Down - The Waphphle
- Out of Sight Out of Mind - Limey & The Yanks
- Where You Gonna Go - Art Guy
- Got Love - The Front Line
- She's My Baby - The Mojo Men
- Going Home - Butch Engle & The Styx
LP 2
- Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies - The Association
- If You Could Be Him Instead - Wayne Stewart
- Candlestickmaker - Ron Elliott
- Smiling - M.C. 2
- Momentarily Gone - The Truth
- Degeneration Gap - Tandyn Almer
- Baby Please Don't Go - The Ballroom
- Come Alive - Things to Come
- House of Glass - The Glass Family
- The Eagle Never Hurts the Fly - The Bonniwell Music Machine
- Dawn Lights the Way - The Clear Light
- Shadows - The Electric Prunes
- Changes (Tygstl) - The Ceyleib People
- Your Mind & We Belong Together - Love
Tim Buckley, Goodbye and Hello (originally released as Elektra EKS-7318, 1967) (Amazon U.K.)
The Zodiac, Cosmic Sounds (Glow-in-the-Dark Vinyl) (originally released as Elektra EKS-74009, 1967) (Amazon U.K.)
Judy Collins, Wildflowers (Translucent Yellow Vinyl) (originally released as Elektra EKS-74012, 1967) (Amazon U.K.)
Aretha Franklin, Aretha Arrives (Mono) (originally released as Atlantic 8150, 1967) (Amazon U.K.)
Dusty Springfield, Dusty In Memphis (originally released as Atlantic SD-8214, 1969)
Shaun says
First of all, no write-up/memoriam for Gregg Allman?
Second, it's been written elsewhere, but who are these Grateful Dead and Monkees collections for exactly? Hardcore fans of either group (And I am a hardcore fan of BOTH) will already have all, or at least most, of these tracks. Even the "Dark Star" single is available elsewhere. Both collections have great songs, but rare or noteworthy for most fans on either set.
While the idea of a set that features the (Highly underrated) trippy, psychedelic side of The Monkees is a great idea, why include decidedly non-trippy like "Saturday's Child" and "She"? Even the mildly trippy lyrics to "Take a Giant Step" seem out of place.
How "Daily Nightly," possibly the trippiest song in the Monkees catalogue, was left off is inexplicable. More songs from Head, not to mention "Auntie's Municipal Court," "The Door Into Summer," and "Early Morning Blues and Greens" would've been good choices too.
And while I love last year's "Birth of an Accidental Hipster," it too is an odd fit being one new song amongst all the 60s stuff. Maybe stick on "You Bring the Summer" to help balance it a bit? But, again, like the Dead collection, nothing here for hardcore fans who have it all.
Shaun says
Sorry, that should read "but NOTHING rare or noteworthy..."
I will say this about the Monkees collection: COOL album cover!
Then there's the "Gettin Together" collection. Interesting... Some songs I'm really interested in having (such as the tracks from Vanilla Fudge and The Electric Prunes), and others that I wouldn't think would make good fits: Frankie Valli, and Dionne Warwick? Even the Everlys would seem out of place. But then, I don't know the songs included from those artists.
Probably half and half with songs I know vs. songs I do know. The ones I know are are all good choices, but it's odd that "Pleasant Valley Sunday" gets tacked on when it's already on that Monkees comp. Why is it needed yet again?
Joe Marchese says
Hey Shaun,
We did mark Gregg's passing on our Facebook page, and he - and his enormous contribution to popular music - will continue to be recognized here on the site, as well.
Michael Shulman says
Any word if the Grateful Dead comp uses the original Aomomoxoa mixes, or the 1971 remixes?
Scott Charbonneau says
Interesting to see Rhino add another installment to the Nuggets series in Transparent Day. There's a few genuinely obscure tracks included.
I recall when Hallucinations and Come To The Sunshine were first issued on CD via Rhino Handmade, the liners to one of them (most likely Hallucinations) made mention of an upcoming compilation called "SOS" which was to focus on garage band sounds. As this CD never happened, I'd be curious to know if Rhino plans to bring it to fruition on vinyl in the not too distant future.
Larry Hardy says
Do any of these Rhino releases include download cards?
Joe Marchese says
To my knowledge, none of the titles include download cards.