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What a Groovy Day: Cherry Red's Grapefruit Records Celebrates "The British Psychedelic Sounds of 1969"

September 26, 2018 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

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Cherry Red's Grapefruit imprint has recently released the latest volume in its year-by-year chronicle of British psychedelia.  Try a Little Sunshine: The British Psychedelic Sounds of 1969 follows Let's Go Down and Blow Our Minds (1967) and Looking at Pictures in the Sky (1968) with 3 CDs and 73 tracks from another fascinating year in music history.

The box explores the various musical strains impacted by psychedelia, such as pop (including bubblegum, baroque, and sunshine/harmony pop), progressive rock, folk, and singer-songwriter.  Tracks have been freed from the vaults of the labels like CBS, Pye, Harvest, Regal Zonophone, RCA, NEMS, Parlophone, Philips, and Ember.  While American artists and American influences do pop up, the sound of these cuts is, more often than not, uniquely British.  As such, they make for a valuable time capsule into a fascinating year of great musical change.

Naturally, there are some still-famous names dotting the track listings of these three discs, including The Spencer Davis Group ("Letters to Edith," the original title track of the album that was released in the U.S. as Funky), Barclay James Harvest ("Barclay Thrush"), Procol Harum ("A Salty Dog"), The Move ("This Time Tomorrow"), Dave Davies of The Kinks ("Creeping Jean"), Ralph McTell (the decidedly pop-oriented "Summer Come Along"), Status Quo ("The Price of Love"), The Pretty Things ("You Might Even Say"),

Typically of these sets, Try a Little Sunshine features some major names in unfamiliar settings.  The aforementioned Dave Davies produced and sang backgrounds on Ewan Stephens' "Mindless Children of Motherhood."  Greg Lake was a member of The Shy Limbs, represented here with the grandiose, organ-driven "Reputation."  The edgy axe of Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister can be heard on Sam Gopal's "It's Only Love," and the pre-fame Gerry Rafferty contributed harmonies to "Saturday Roundabout Sunday" while a member of The Humblebums.  The Jimi Hendrix Experience bassist Noel Redding's band Fat Mattress is heard with the psych-pop-with-harmonies nugget "Petrol Pump Assistant" - a far cry from his blues-rock work in the Experience.

The lesser-known Goffin and King song "Just What I Was Looking for Today" is heard in a fine version by The Spectrum, remembered chiefly as RCA U.K.'s answer to The Monkees.  Another gem from the RCA vaults is The Harmony Grass' catchy slice of sunshine pop, "What a Groovy Day."  The band began their career with Beach Boys-inspired sounds as Tony Rivers and The Castaways before changing their name upon signing to RCA.  The Beach Boys were also major influences on Ireland's The Freshmen, too; the group's Pye recording of "Mr. Beverly's Heavy Days" is in more of a Beatle bag, but the Freshmen harmonies still shine through.  The Montanas were best known for irresistible pop treats like "You've Got to Be Loved," but their producer (and songwriter extraordinaire) Tony Hatch also helmed some off-the-beaten-path tracks like the heavier "Roundabout."

Try a Little Sunshine includes a thick, full-color 44-page booklet with copious images and comprehensive track-by-track liner notes by compiler David Wells.  Simon Murphy has remastered all tracks at Another Planet Music.  Like its predecessors, the three discs are housed in paper sleeves within a compact clamshell case.  The box is available now from Cherry Red's Grapefruit Records at the links below!

Various Artists, Try a Little Sunshine: The British Psychedelic Sounds of 1969 (Cherry Red/Grapefruit, 2018) (Amazon U.S.  / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

CD 1

  1. Try a Little Sunshine - the Factory
  2. Reputation - Shy Limbs
  3. Little Boy - Beatstalkers
  4. Letters from Edith - the Spencer Davis Group
  5. Roundabout - the Montanas
  6. Sister - Cliff Wade
  7. Brother Thrush -Barclay James Harvest
  8. (Vision in a) Plaster Sky -Wild Silk
  9. The Day the Train Never Came - Consortium
  10. Lifetime - the Bliss
  11. This Is to a Girl - Strawberry Jam
  12. River Boat Queen - Audience
  13. Captain Reale - Gentle Influence
  14. A Salty Dog - Procol Harum
  15. Green Mello Hill - Angel Pavement
  16. The Walrus and the Carpenter - Peter Howell & John Ferdinando
  17. This Time Tomorrow - the Move
  18. Shine a Little Light Into My Room - Jason Paul
  19. Stay Indoors - the New Formula
  20. Running Wild - Fresh Air
  21. Dogs and Cats - the Sorrows
  22. We Built the Sun - Pussy
  23. Baby and Me - the Hammers
  24. Being Human Being (Alternative Version) - Paper Bubble

CD 2

  1. Child on a Crossing - Writing on the Wall
  2. Dr Crippen's Waiting Room - the Orange Machine
  3. Liar - Fleur de Lys
  4. Seen Through a Light - the Mooche
  5. It's Only Love - Sam Gopal
  6. Deep Water - Grapefruit
  7. Stop - Pan Pipers
  8. Marrakesh - Fortes Mentum
  9. Flaxen Hair - Marc Brierley
  10. Changes in Our Time - Colin Giffin
  11. Creeping Jean - Dave Davies
  12. Who Wants Happiness - Tapestry
  13. She Said, She Said - Grand Union
  14. Only George - Scrugg
  15. Summer Come Along - Ralph McTell
  16. It Happened Two Sundays Ago - Nirvana
  17. Doubtful Nellie - Tuesday's Children
  18. Mindless Child of Motherhood - Ewan Stephens
  19. Biography - Woody Kern
  20. Alcock and Brown - Balloon Busters
  21. Magic Car - Edwards Hand
  22. How Does It Feel - the Good Ship Lollipop
  23. No Reason - Shere Khan
  24. Morning Way - Trader Horne

CD 3

  1. Black Mass - Jason Crest
  2. Last Cloud Home - the Orange Bicycle
  3. (Who Planted Thorns in) Miss Alice's Garden - the Explosive
  4. Just What I Was Looking for Today - the Spectrum
  5. The Price of Love - Status Quo
  6. This Little Boy - 1984
  7. Death of a Dream Machine - the Deviants
  8. Day of the Change - Andromeda
  9. Mr Rainbow - Homer's Knods
  10. You Might Even Say - Pretty Things
  11. Cry Baby Cry - Freedom
  12. Saturday Roundabout Sunday - the Humblebums
  13. We Want You to Stay (Demo Version) - Bill Fay
  14. What a Groovy Day - Harmony Grass
  15. Mr Beverly's Heavy Days - the Freshmen
  16. Little Bird - Eyes of Blue
  17. Tamaris Khan - the Onyx
  18. The School Boy - Five's Company
  19. Looking Towards the Sky - Davey Payne & the Medium Wave Band
  20. Fairground - Pure Gold
  21. Petrol Pump Assistant - Fat Mattress
  22. Good Old '59 (We Are Slowly Gettin' Older) - Second Hand
  23. Counting Time My Way - Taxi
  24. Burning the Weed - Bobak, Jons, Malone
  25. Armageddon - Cape Kennedy Construction Company

Categories: News Formats: CD Genre: Pop Tags: Barclay James Harvest, Procol Harum, Status Quo, The Move, The Pretty Things, The Spencer Davis Group, Various Artists

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Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with Real Gone Music, has released newly-curated collections produced by Joe from iconic artists such as Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Chet Atkins, and many others. He has contributed liner notes to reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, B.J. Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, and Andy Williams, and has compiled releases for talents including Robert Goulet and Keith Allison of Paul Revere and the Raiders. Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray. Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.

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