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Friday, December 15, 2023

The Ghost - When You´re Dead For One Second (Superb Acid-Folkrock UK 1970) not to be missed



Size: 91.5 MB
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Ghost formed in Birmingham in the late sixties. They started out playing a heavish sort of blues-rock before they met up with singer Shirley Kent who'd already recorded two tracks on a charity EP, The Master Singers And Shirley Kent Sing For Charec 67 (Keele University 103) in 1966. Paul Eastment had earlier played in Velvet Fog. 

They recorded their album at the end of 1969, spawning their first 45 at the end of the year. When You're Dead was a strong song with a clear US West Coast influence. It was hardly Chart material, though, so predictably sales were poor. The album came out in January 1970. There's a clear contrast between the folk pieces that Shirley Kent sings on like Hearts And Flowers and Time Is My Enemy, which in style recall Sandy Denny's heyday in Fairport Convention, and the blues-rock numbers contributed by the rest of the band, of which For One Second sounds the strongest. Also worth checking out is the powerful Too Late To Cry. The album has now become a major collector's item, partly on account of its rarity but also on account of the breadth of its appeal to fans of both blues-rock and folk. 


The band returned to the studio in Spring 1970 to record I've Got To Get To Know You. Another track from their album, For One Second, was put on the flip, but when the 45 failed to sell the band slowly began to fall apart. Shirley Kent left to pursue a solo career and eventually released an album in 1975, Fresh Out, under the pseudonym Virginia Tree. I haven't heard it but it's reputedly folkier than Ghost's output and featured former band members Paul Eastment and Terry Guy on three of the tracks. After Kent's departure, the remaining band members soldiered on for a while using the name Resurrection but this later incarnation of the band didn't make it onto vinyl. 

In 1987, Bam-Caruso reissued Ghost's album under the title For One Second with the addition of the non-LP 45 track, I've Got To Get To Know You. More recently the album has been reissued on vinyl and CD.

01. When You’re Dead (4:25)
02. Hearts And Flowers (2:54)
03. In Heaven (3:21)
04. Time Is My Enemy (4:06)
05. Too Late To Cry (5:04)
06. For One Second (5:25)
07. Night Of The Warlock (4:22)
08. Indian Maid (4:21)
09. My Castle Has Fallen (2:57)
10. The Storm (3:36)
11. Me And My Loved Ones (4:09)
12. I’ve Got To Get To Know You (4:02) 

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Transatlantic Railroad - Express to Oblivion (West-Coast Rock US 1967-68)



Size: 73.1 MB
Bitrate: 256
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Ripped By: ChrisGoesRock
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Though it did not lead the band to stardom, where they were bound to go, Transatlantic Railroad did offer an unforgettable West Coast ride on a "meta-journeys to unimagined places". 

The good thing is that now the ride will go on forever, thanks to this release.

Coming from the sixties' "fruity" Frisco bay area, they were often referred to as "the next great San Francisco music scene band" which is what they had remained too, supposedly because of "one band member's inflexibility". The seven songs on this album are more than enough a proof of their potential, so an explanation like this is the only reasonable one. 


Transatlantic Railroad were some kind of an amalgamation of all the good, heard in the music of the local scene ... and wider. The set opens with the musical omnibus Camp Towanga, sounding like Moby Grape fronted by Greg Allman, along with his Hammond organ, with Peter Green steppin' in for a guitar solo during the '50s ballad-like middle eight, and it's followed with another Southern-jam, Fred Chicken Blues reminding of the Statesboro one.

Tahoma Street Song, recalls Quicksilver's best moments, Elephant is a quirky, Door-opening psych, with a 10 minute-looooong jam, Old English 800 is a very un-English "spoonful" of blues, their single's b-side Irahs explores the C&W segment of the American tradition (think Moby Grape's It's No Use) and, along these '67/'68 recordings, as a bonus, you get one of the 1966 efforts from their early 'Brummels-like phase, called Good Times, that could've easily pass as an unreleased studio track by the mentioned fellow S.F.folk rockers.(cdbaby.com)


Transatlantic Railroad was one of many late-'60s San Francisco psychedelic bands that did their share of live work in the region but barely recorded, remaining known almost exclusively to those who saw them play. Based on the material that showed up in the early 2000s on the archival release Express to Oblivion, their talent was such that it didn't absolutely demand a record release. 


Still, their bluesy psychedelia, heavy on guitar soloing and organ as well as unpredictable multi-sectioned original compositions, was representative of the second or third division of northern California psychedelic bands of the era. 

The group formed at San Rafael High School in Marin County in 1965, and on its first show opened for the Grateful Dead, the night the Dead changed their name from the Warlocks. A couple of unreleased 1966 tracks in a garage-folk-rock style showed up about 30 years later on the '60s Bay Area rarities compilation What a Way to Come Down. Like many other groups from the area, Transatlantic Railroad moved into a harder psychedelic style shortly afterward, and released just one single, "Why Me"/"Irahs," on the Sire subsidiary Phoenix in 1968. 


They also started work on an album, but it was abandoned after five demos. It's been reported (in the psychedelic rock reference book Fuzz Acid & Flowers) that this came about when Geoff Mayer's large Hammond RT-3 organ wouldn't fit through the doors of the studio, and Mayer was unwilling to use other equipment. 

Also according to the volume, the five completed demos can be heard on Express to Oblivion, which also has a couple of other lighter, less psychedelia-inclined tracks. After the group broke up in the early '70s, guitarist and lead singer Kent Housman recorded or performed with Blue Cheer, the Ducks, and SFO. (AMG)

01 - Camp Towanga - 3.17
02 - Fred Chicken Blues - 3.29
03 - Tehama Steet Song - 7.33
04 - Elephant - 12.16
05 - Old English 800 - 5.54
06 - Irahs - 2.36
07 - Good Times - 2.46 

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Wednesday, December 13, 2023

Blue Cheer - Vincebus Eruptum (1st Album US 1968)



Size: 61.5 MB
Bitrate: 256
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Ripped by: ChrisGoesRock
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Japan 24-Bit Remaster

Vincebus Eruptum is the debut album of proto-metal/psychedelic band Blue Cheer, released in January 1968. The album is widely considered to be the best Blue Cheer album, although this title sometimes goes to their second album, Outsideinside.

Vincebus Eruptum peaked at #11 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart in North America, while the single, a cover of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues," peaked at #14 on the Pop Singles chart.

Blue Cheer is a San Francisco-based rock group of the late 1960s and early 1970s, who helped to pioneer heavy metal music. According to Tim Hills in his book, The Many Lives of the Crystal Ballroom, "Blue Cheer was the epitome of San Francisco psychedelia. The band was rumored to have been named for a brand of LSD and promoted by renowned LSD chemist and former Grateful Dead patron, Owsley Stanley. Another rumor is that the Blue Cheer was a blend of heroin and methamphetamine with just a pinch of arsenic "for an extra glowly feeling", taken intravenously. A "blue cheer" is also obscure and somewhat archaic British slang for a fart.

The band's sound, however, was something of a departure from the music that had been coming out of the Bay Area: Blue Cheer's three musicians played heavy blues-rock, and played it very loud.


Original personnel were singer/bassist Dickie Peterson, guitarist Leigh Stephens, and drummer Paul Whaley. Their first hit was a cover version of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" from their debut album Vincebus Eruptum (1968). The single peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, their only such hit, and the album peaked at #11 on the Billboard 200 chart.

The group's sound was hard to categorise, but was definitely blues-based, psychedelic, and loud. The group underwent several personnel changes after the 1968 release of Outsideinside, and then yet more changes during and after 1969's New! Improved! Blue Cheer (different guitarists on side 1 and 2). After Leigh Stephens was replaced by Randy Holden, formerly of Los Angeles garage rock band The Other Half, in 1968, Blue Cheer's style changed to a more commercial hard rock sound à la Steppenwolf or Iron Butterfly. For the fourth album Blue Cheer, Holden, who had left during the third album, was subsequently replaced by Bruce Stephens. Stephens later quit and was replaced by Gary Lee Yoder, who helped complete the album.

The new line up of Peterson, Ralph Burn Kellogg, Norman Mayell, and Yoder in 1970 saw the release of The Original Human Being and then 1971's Oh! Pleasant Hope. When Oh! Pleasant Hope failed to dent the sales charts, Blue Cheer temporarily split up.

01. "Summertime Blues" (Capehart/Cochran) – 3:47 
02. "Rock Me Baby" (Josea/King) – 4:22 
03. "Doctor Please" (Peterson) – 7:53 
04. "Out of Focus" (Peterson) – 3:58 
05. "Parchment Farm" (Allison) – 5:49 
06. "Second Time Around" (Peterson) – 6:17 

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Bobby Charles - Bobby (Superb Rock US 1972)



Size: 113 MB
Bitrate: 256
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Ripped by: ChrisGoesRock
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Source: Japan 24-Bit Remaster

Co-produced by Rick Danko and John Simon, Bobby Charles was the perfect marriage between the good-time Danko side of the Band and Bobby Charles Guidry's own swampy cajun roots. On the opening "Street People", Bobby sounded like a Bowery version of Randy Newman; on "Long Face", he was a bayou Lee Dorsey. Behind him Rick put together a wonderfully loose sound somewhere between the Muscle Shoals Swampers and the band Allen Toussaint had used for his great Minit productions in the '60s. With guest appearances by Garth, Levon, and Richard, as well as Mac Rebennack and Woodstock guitar maestro Amos Garret, it was certainly a far more enjoyable record than Cahoots.

Bobby Charles (February 21, 1938 – January 14, 2010) was an American singer-songwriter.

An ethnic Cajun, Charles was born as Robert Charles Guidry in Abbeville, Louisiana and grew up listening to Cajun music and the country and western music of Hank Williams. At the age of 15, he heard a performance by Fats Domino, an event that "changed my life forever," he recalled.

Charles helped to pioneer the south Louisiana musical genre known as swamp pop. His compositions include the hits "See You Later, Alligator", which he initially recorded himself as "Later Alligator", but which is best known from the cover version by Bill Haley & His Comets; and "Walking to New Orleans", written for Fats Domino. His songwriting record in the UK charts reads 7 hits, 3 top tens with 75 weeks spent on the chart.

"(I Don't Know Why) But I Do" was a 1950s classic that Charles composed which Clarence "Frogman" Henry had a major hit with and which was on the soundtrack to the 1994 film Forrest Gump. His composition "Why Are People Like That?" was on the soundtrack to the 1998 film Home Fries.

Because of his south Louisiana-influenced rhythm and blues vocal style, Charles has often been thought to be black, when in fact he is white.


On November 26, 1976, Charles was invited to play with The Band at their farewell concert, The Last Waltz. Charles played "Down South in New Orleans", with the help of Dr. John and The Band. The performance was recorded and released as part of the triple-LP The Last Waltz boxed set. The performance was not captured on film however, and did not appear in the film based on the concert with Charles only appearing briefly in the concert's final song, "I Shall Be Released" (he is largely blocked from view during the song). That song, sung by Bob Dylan and pianist Richard Manuel, featured backup vocals from the entire ensemble, including Charles.

He co-wrote the song "Small Town Talk" with Rick Danko of The Band. "Promises, Promises (The Truth Will Set You Free)" was co-written with Willie Nelson.

Charles continued to compose and record (he was based out of Woodstock, New York for a time) and in the 1990s he recorded a duet of "Walking to New Orleans" with Domino.

In September 2007, The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame honored Charles for his contributions to Louisiana music with an induction.

Charles collapsed in his home near Abbeville and died January 14, 2010.

01.Street People (B.Charles) 
02.Long Face (B.Charles) 
03.I Must Be in a Good Place Now (B.Charles) 
04.Save Me Jesus (B.Charles) 
05.He's Got All the Whisky (B.Charles) 
06.Small Town Talk (B.Charles/R.Danko) 
07.Let Yourself Go (B.Charles) 
08.Before I Grow Too Old (B.Charles/A.Domino/D.Bartholomew) 
09.I'm That Way (B.Charles) 
10.Tennessee Blues (B.Charles)

Bonus: 
11.Homemade Songs (Charles) 
12.New Mexico (Charles) 
13.Rosie (Charles) 
14.Small Town Talk (Charles/Danko) [single mix] 

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The Fort Mudge Memorial DUMP - Selftitled (WestCoast Rock US 1970)


Size: 79.7 MB
Bitrate: 256
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Ripped By: ChrisGoesRock
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The above album by this Boston band contains some good tracks. All the material was written by the band. Mr. Man and Crystal Forms both portray Stratton's vocals favourably and include some good guitar work. Others, such as Actions Of A Man and What Good Is Spring? find Caroline and the band in a mellower mood.

Fort Mudge Memorial Dump was a band from Walpole, Massachusetts, that started playing by 1969, gathering a good number of fans. They got filed into the “Boston Sound”, among the Ultimate Spinach, the Beacon Street Union, Orpheus, Tangerine Zoo, ecc.


With good technique and better ideas, they recorded a very sought-after LP for Mercury in which the voice of Caroline Stratton stands out to some Jefferson Airplane affinity.
Guitarist Dean Keady, with his jazzy effects, leads the band.

Despite its east coast origins, the band is firmly rooted in San Francisco acid-soaked psychedelia. The revelation here is Stratton, whose powerhouse vocals are reminiscent of the Jefferson Airplane’s Grace Slick.


All the material was written by the band. Mr. Man and Crystal Forms both portray Stratton's vocals favourably and include some good guitar work. Others, such as Actions Of A Man and What Good Is Spring? find Caroline and the band in a mellower mood...

01. Mr. Man 
02. Crystal Forms 
03. Actions Of A Man 
04. Blue's Tune 
05. The Seventh Is Death  
06. What Good Is Spring? 
07. Tomorrow 
08. Know Today 
09. Questionable Answer
10. The Singer

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