The Summer of Love may be 50 years over, but Craft Recordings is getting into the spirit of the season next month with a deluxe vinyl box set of every album released that year by psych-rock outfit Country Joe and The Fish.
The Wave of Electrical Sound is a 4LP/1DVD box that features remastered mono and stereo versions of the group's two 1967 albums, Electric Music for the Mind and Body and I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die, both released by Vanguard Records. All records will be pressed on 180-gram vinyl and housed in replicas of the original tip-on album sleeves (the mono mix of Electric Music features an alternate cover). The box, limited to 2,000 units, includes a wealth of extras, including replicas of original band ephemera (including a fan club booklet, calendar and even a board game); a DVD of How We Stopped The War, a vintage short documentary from 1967 directed by David Webb Peoples (writer or co-writer of the films Blade Runner, Unforgiven and 12 Monkeys); and a new 24-page book of rare photos and new liner notes by box set producer Alec Palao. A digital version of the box is available now, with two mono bonus tracks featured on a reissue of I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die from Ace Records in 2013.
These albums, filled with rock, folk and blues-inspired compositions indicative of the California counterculture from which the group came. Led by singer/guitarists Country Joe McDonald and Barry "The Fish" Melton, this Berkeley-born group was key to the nascent cultural shift, with lyrics in praise of extreme sociopolitical freedom and pointed, satirical criticisms of The Establishment. Songs like "Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine," "Love" and "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag" from these two albums became key early recordings for the group and set them up for even greater success culminating with a performance at Woodstock in 1969.
The set's available on January 26 and can be pre-ordered below!
The Wave of Electrical Sound (Craft Recordings, 2018)
Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
LPs 1-2: Electric Music for the Mind and Body (stereo and mono mixes - Vanguard VSD-79244/VRS-9244, 1967)
- Flying High
- Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine
- Death Sound
- Porpoise Mouth
- Section 43
- Superbird
- Sad and Lonely Times
- Love
- Bass Strings
- The Masked Marauder
- Grace
LPs 3-4: I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die (stereo and mono mixes - Vanguard VDS-79266/VRS-9266, 1967)
- The "Fish" Cheer & I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag
- Who Am I
- Pat's Song
- Rock Coast Blues
- Magoo
- Janis
- Thought Dream
- Thursday
- Eastern Jam
- Colors For Susan
Mono album digital bonus tracks (from Vanguard/Ace CD VMD2 79266 (U.K.), 2013)
- Janis (Instrumental)
- I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag (Alternate Take)
revroth says
Why no CD version? Grrr....