This CD is filled with unexpected joys and delights, even for those familiar with most of the artists involved --
Vanguard Records
never had a top act of the caliber of
the Byrds
or
the Beau Brummels
, and
Country Joe & the Fish
, their one big San Francisco act, were too political and too inventive ever to fit into one genre (much less one as commercial as "
folk-rock
"), but as this CD reveals, the label could rightfully claim a piece of the
sound, and without a
Joan Baez
track in sight.
Patrick Sky
's
"Reason to Believe"
starts the collection off coming out of the
folk
side of the equation well enough, but it's the second cut here,
the Vagrants
' 1966 frustrated youth anthem
"Young Blues,"
that will get most
rock
listeners' ears to prick up in recognition. Forget
; one wonders how this track missed turning up on
Nuggets
. A killer outtake of
Mimi Farina
"Morgan the Pirate,"
arranged by
Peter Schickele
and extended and savage in its references to
Bob Dylan
as a sellout, lights up this set like a match on tinder, and
the Hi Fives
'
"You'll Never Know What's in My Heart"
brings listeners back to the commercial side of
, with its pleasant harmonies in a midtempo setting. But it's
Buffy Sainte-Marie
's bluesy
"Codine"
that is closer to what constituted
at
Vanguard
. The expected
Ian & Sylvia
tracks are here, along with stuff by
Eric Andersen
,
Jonathan & Leigh
Richard & Mimi Farina
, and the pair of
Circus Maximus
tracks will likely gain them some valuable new exposure among those too young to have known of them at the time. The surprises are the improbably named
Serpent Power
, a distant offshoot of
the Thirteenth Floor
(the Bay Area group that tried to make it as
the Grass Roots
but rebelled against the control of their producers) with a surprisingly lyrical and accessible sound, and
Project X
, an abortive attempt to turn the latter-day incarnation of
the Rooftop Singers
into something more relevant to 1965. But the treasure here is
Jackie Washington
's vicious
Dylan
parody/attack,
"Long Black Cadillac"
-- though an attack on
's tendency to co-opt sounds without credit, it's close enough to
's actual sound (courtesy of
the Youngbloods
' contribution as backing band) that it's as though, in another context, one found a
Rutles
track that attacked
the Beatles
(and come to think of it,
"Cheese and Onions"
does, sort of). The sound is excellent, the programming is generous and wide-ranging with lots of surprises, and the annotation by
Alec Paleo
is worth half the cost of the disc. ~ Bruce Eder