Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Latest 'Lost Souls' garage rock comp out
Posted by Robert Bell on Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 4:31 PM
Psych of the South Records recently released "Lost Souls Vol. 3 Arkansas Garage Psychedelic Rock 1963-1971," its latest installment mining the Natural State's psychedelic nuggets. OK, so it's actually been out for a good minute or so, but we just got our grubby mitts on a copy here at the underground Arkansas Times mega-compound, and it's pretty good stuff. And at 29 tracks and 78 minutes, it's one cot-dang full CD, too.
As with previous volumes, this edition was culled from 45s that were released on regional labels such as Clark, Silver-Dollar, Zay-Dee and others, as well as acetates and reel-to-reel tapes of rehearsals and shows. Much of this stuff had been gathering dust in somebody's box of forgotten dreams for the last 40-plus years, until Psych of the South owner Harold Ott came along to help this music see light of day once more.
Most of the bands on this disc will only be familiar to two sets of folks: 1) those who were there, and 2) the sort of obsessive record collectors who still live in their mom's basements and have intense online arguments about whether Love's "Forever Changes" is better in stereo or mono.
Speaking of Love, there are three tracks from the L.A. folk-rock act's first album included on Lost Souls Vol. 3, and all three were cut by Jonesboro bands. Red Light Funnies' take on the Bacharach/David number "Little Red Book" is similar to the punked up version Love had a hit with; Lemon Meat cut a brooding, Animals-esque interpretation of Arthur Lee's anti-drug dirge "Signed D.C."; and Scorpio offer up a mellow, Hammond-laced "Hey Joe," which was also on the first Love album.
If you're a serious garage rock head or if you have an interest in Arkansas music history, this latest Lost Souls collection is definitely one to pick up. Why, I bet you could find a copy at Arkansas Record & CD Exchange.
Comments (3)
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>>...obsessive record collectors who still live in their mom's basements and have intense online arguments about whether Love's "Forever Changes" is better in stereo or mono...<<
Definitely stereo (and I moved out of mom's basement over 33 years ago)!
Seriously, "Forever Changes" is one of those albums that sounds better and better as time goes on-- check out this magnificent performance from Arthur Lee in 2003, just a couple of years before he died:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBidwdGUekc
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Even after years of listening to it, I hear new things in that album all the time. That's a great video, and Arthur still had it. I still kick myself for not going to see him on the "Forever Changes" tour back in '03 when I lived in New York briefly.
Yup, I feel the same way about having missed him live (and I live in New York now and have my entire life-- I actually found this column via an "Arthur Lee" + Love Google news alert, lol, and I could have seen him several times here in the '90s, too). If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend this DVD documentary about the group:
http://www.amazon.com/Love-Story-Bruce-Botnick/dp/B00197KG02/ref=sr_1_cc_3?s=arts-crafts&ie=UTF8&qid=1323949464&sr=1-3-catcorr
...as well as this recent bio of Arthur:
http://www.amazon.com/Forever-Changes-Arthur-Book-Love/dp/1906002312/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=arts-crafts&ie=UTF8&qid=1323949499&sr=1-1-catcorr
Although I'm 50 years old, I was only turned onto this band last year when I saw Jac Holzman (the founder of Elektra records) speak here at the 92nd Y, celebrating Elektra's 50th anniversary. Holzman signed Love to its first record deal and released Arthur's first three albums, which were by far his greatest work. Although Holzman had brought Jackson Brown with him to play a few tunes, he spent a good part of the evening talking about Arthur and what a troubled genius he was before he lost his muse-- perhaps to drugs, or maybe simply because once he finished "Forever Changes" he'd pretty much said what he had to say. (If you think about it, how many great rock songwriters have written anything after the age of 30 that was anywhere near as good as what they did in their teens and 20s? Dylan, the Beatles, Townshend, Jagger & Richards, Springsteen, etc. did plenty of good stuff after they hit 30 but their "genius" stuff was all done younger, and I think that applied to Arthur, too, and I-- and many others-- think that severely frustrated him.)
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