Acid Drops, Space Dust, & Flying Saucers

This box set of UK psych-pop was released by the folks at Mojo Magazine in 2001.....it has it's
moments, including some VERY mainstream acts (with, in some cases, some of their very lesser available work) and also some inclusions that are HIGHLY questionable.....not the greatest set I've ever heard, but again, trying to keep the overlap to a minimum.....Disc 1 (GOTTA include these goofball subtitles) "Down to Middle Earth (wait they get MUCH sillier) brings us widely known Procol Harum, The Nice, and even The Who (!), but to the credit of the programmers these are some VERY rare tracks by each of them, what possible good, say, would it do any of us to include, say "Whiter Shade of Pale"? The Who track ("Armenia City In the Sky") is, let us say, " not great", but like yesterday's Doors inclusion, at least it is something

of a "rarity".....I'll carpet bomb a few lesser-known names from the disc as typlifies my rather dull writing style: Aquarian Age, World of Oz, The Tickle, and Grapefruit......

Disc Two ("Gandalf's Garden", geez) again, gives
us a few rare tracks by some well knowns, Donovan's "Celeste" is a better choice for a comp than something more obvious like "Atlantis" or "Sunshine Superman", The Incredible String Band (who, in all honesty I am not all THAT familar with) give us "Witches Hat", July's "The Way" is interesting, but the oddball highlight is without a doubt "Magician" by Amazing Friendly Apple, out there to be sure. The track by Caleb ("Baby Your Phrasing is Bad") is almost criminally over-comped, but it's a forgiveable sin to get, also, The Moles "We Are the Moles" and "Screams in My Ears" by Bill Fay, among others.

The third disc ("Mushroom Soup") kicks off with an awful track from Purple Gang called "Granny Takes a Trip", there are also really lame stuff from Peter Cook & Dudley Moore and Denny Laine. It also includes a version of The Smoke's often comped "My Friend Jack" which, in this version, has the beginning hacked off which renders it useless...another bitch I have about this c is petty, as it is the inclusion of the very common "Hurdy Gurdy Man" from Donovan and "I Can Hear the Grass Grow" by the Move, which while common as dirt are both (in my opinion) awesome tracks, and "Sky Pilot" from the Animals, which is one of my very fave

psych tracks from ANYONE (blues belter Eric Burdon's psych was TOTALLY legit for my money, "Sky Pilot" is an absolute mindbender which for whatever reason misses most of the comps, glad it's here).....also present are big timers such as Traffic, the Kinks, The Spencer Davis Group, Pretty Things, The Hollies, The Yardbirds, and Small Faces, each checking in with tracks of varying availablty and quality....the disc is a mess, as much as I love "Sky Pilot", and is only partially rescued by at least ONE fine rarity, David McWilliams' "Days of Pearly Spencer".

Disc 4 ("Roundhouse Ghosts") is MUCH better, again, I love Fire's "Father's Name Was Dad", and I guess this version will come in handy of my 75 OTHER versions of it somehow all get scratched, but it's really the only layup here.....Allen Pound's Get Rich give us a fab "Searchin In the Wilderness", "Colours of My Mind" the attack, a track from the pre-Groundhogs (a favorite of mine) Herbal Mixture, a Status Quo rarity.....MUCH better than Volume 3.

One problem.....when I started loading the CD's, I
foundout that both Discs 3 AND 4 were all dicked up, Disc 3 stopping at Track 15, which omits the tracks from The Animals ("Sky Pilot!"), Traffic, and Simon Dupree & The Big Sound........Disc 4 was WORSE, with only 13 of the 18 tracks available (God knows how this shit happens sometimes).....so THAT left out Herbal Mixture, Tomorrow, The Sorrows, Koobas, and Sam Gopal Dream.......now, to demonstrate that this stuff, for the most part, isn't THAT super-rare (some is, bear with me a minute, I think I'm trying to make a point), I was able to extract each and every one of those tracks from OTHER CD sources, The Animals, Traffic, imon Dupree, Herbal Mixture, and Koobas from their original albums, and The Sorrows and Tomorrow from other comps......BUT I cannot locate "Escalator" by Sam Gopal Dream.....I cannot even find the Sam Gopal disc that I KNOW I have (somewhere), but even if I could find it I don't know if "Escalator" is on it (it does not really ring a bell)......BUT I did go the extra mile and HAND PROGRAM 7 of 8 tracks, I am such the goddamn man it amazed even me, but I have a request, just ONE track, if any friends out their have "Escalator" by Sam Gopal, PLEEEEEEZE upload and share it......again, so that anyone who WANTS this whole set can get it and blah blah blah.......

If I have known these discs were fucked up I wouldn't have even bothered with this one, but I was halfway or more into it when I figured it out, and I thought it was kind of funny that I could actually hand compile 7 of the 8 missing "rare" tracks.....anyways, Sam Gopal......and I recall I really did like the Sam Gopal album that I have/had, so anyone with ANY Sam Gopal, let's drag em out, but at the very least "Escalator" if anyone can dig it up.......

Sometimes this blog is a pain in my ass, but I really DO like doing it (I STRIVE for something each day, at least, with varying rates of success), and the reasons I've bored ya with before.....I want

EVERYONE, everyone on EARTH, to have "their" ideal music collection......I pretty have mine, at least everything that is fairly essential TO ME (not that I'm not always on teh lookout for more cool stuff), and I love that the friends and lurkers out there really do show their appreciation with kind comments and excellent high download/visit numbers......I'll keep it up until they shut me down, which who the hell knows, may be tonight, but I'm in it for the duration!

DISC 1-01MCGOUGH & MCGEAR-So Much In Love/02 AQUARIAN AGE-10000 Words in a Cardboard Box/03 THE NICE-Flower King of Flies/04 RUPERTS PEOPLE-Dream On My Mind/05 SHY LIMBS-Reputation/06 TINTERN ABBEY-Vacuum Cleaner/07 THE DAVID-Light of Your Mind/08 THE MISUNDERSTOOD-I Can Take You To The Sun/09 GRAPEFRUIT-Dear Delilah/10 PROCOL HARUM-Shine on Brightly/11 BAMBOO SHOOT-Fox Has Gone to Ground/12 THE WHO-Armenia City in the Sky/13 FOCUS THREE-1000 Years Behind My Mind/14 TIMEBOX-Gone is the Sad Man/15 WORLD OF OZ-Peter's Birthday (Black and White Rainbows)/16 THE TICKLE-Subway (Smokey Pokey World)/17 FELIUS ANDROMEDA-Meditations/18 WARM SOUNDS-Nite is a Comin'

DISC 02-01 KALEIDOSCOPE-Flight From Ashiya/02 JULY-The Way/03 INCREDIBLE STRING
BAND-Witches Hat/04 DONOVAN-Celeste/05 RAMASES & SELKET-Mind's Eye/06 END-Shades of Orange/07 VIRGIN SLEEP-Love/08 BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST-Pools of Blue/09 TALES OF JUSTINE-Monday Morning/10 BILLY NICHOLLS-Girl From New York/11 THE ACCENT-Red Sky at Night/12 MICK SOFTLEY-Am I the Red One/13 ORANGE BICYCLE-Laura's Garden/14 CALEB-Baby Your Phrasing Is Bad/15 AMAZINGLY FRIENDLY APPLE-Magician/16 MOLES-We Are the Moles/17 MICHAELANGELO-23rd Turnoff/18 BILL DAY-Screams In My Ears

DISC 03-01 PURPLE GANG-Granny Takes a Trip/02 THE SMOKE-My Friend Jack/03 IDLE RACE-Imposter's In Life's Magazine/04 PRETTY THINGS-Talkin About the Good Times/05 DONOVAN-Hurdy Gurdy Man/06 SPENCER DAVIS GROUP-Time Seller/07 DENNY LAINE-Say You Don't Mind/08 THE MOVE-I Can Hear the Grass Grow/09 THE KINKS-See My Friends/10 PETER COOK & DUDLEY MOORE-LS Bumble Bee/11 THE YARDBIRDS-Happenings Ten Years Time Ago/12 SMALL FACES-Green Circles/13 THE HOLLIES-King Midas In Reverse/14 DAVID MCWILLIAMS-Days of Pearly Spencer/15 THE HERD-From the Underworld/16 ERIC BURDON & THE ANIMALS-Sky Pilot (different source used)/17 TRAFFIC-Paper Sun (different source used)/18 SIMON DUPREE & THE BIG SOUND-Kites (different source used)

DISC 04-01 THE ATTACK-Colours of My Mind/02 ALLEN POUND'S GET RICH-Searchin In the
Wilderness/03 FIRE-Father's Name Was Dad/04 ORANGE MACHINE-Dr Crippin's Waiting Room/05 PENNY PEEPS-Model Villiage/06 FAIRYTALE-Run and Hide/07 MANDRAKE PADDLE STEAMER-Strange Walking Man/08 STATUS QUO-When My Mind Is Not In Love/09 POETS-In Your Tower/10 SANDS-Listen to the Sky/11 SYD BARRETT-Octopus/12 APPLE-The Other Side/13 FLIES-I'm Not Your Steppin Stone/14 HERBAL MIXTURE-Machines (different source used)/15 TOMORROW-Revolution (different source used)/16 THE SORROWS-You've Got What I Want (different source used)/17 KOOBAS-Royston Rose (different source used)/18 SAM GOPAL DREAM-Escalator (so, help a brother out?)

Interesting set, not the greatest, but interesting....probably could pare the highlights down to about a disc and a half easilly and not miss a beat, but that is often the case is it not?