Search - Spirit of Joy :: Spirit of Joy: Tales From the Polydor Underground

Interesting, but some artists missing

B. Margolis | Minneapolis, MN United States | 10/26/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"No Hendrix, No Les Fleur Dy Lys, Little of the weird one-off singles issued by Polydor by artists who went to other labels for success. But, all in all, a good selection of what Polydor was releasing in their early UK days.



Disc 1:



1 Prelude: Nightmare Fire Poem Fire - Arthur Brown (3.29)

2 Fire Poem - Arthur Brown (1.51)

3 Fire - Arthur Brown (2.55)

4 How Does It Feel To Feel -The Creation (3.06)

5 Feelin', Reelin', Squealin' - Soft Machine (2.52)

6 Good Times - Eric Burdon & The Animals (3.01)

7 It's Alright Ma, It's Only Witchcraft - Fairport Convention (3.14)

8 We're Going Wrong - Cream (3.27)

9 This Wheel's On Fire - Juile Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity (3.33)

10 Sunshine Day - Jethro Tull (2.25)

11 Born On The Wrong Side Of Time - Taste (3.57)

12 People You Were Going To - Van Der Graaf Generator (2.46)

13 Dogs - The Who (3.04)

14 Grandma's Lawn - Caravan (3.24)

15 Reality - Second Hand (8.42)

16 All Is One - Eric Burdon (7.48)

17 Road To Cairo - Juile Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity (5.16)

18 Magic Mirror - Aphrodite's Child (2.53)

19 Firebrand - Van Der Graaf Generator (4.08)

20 Deserted Cities Of The Heart - Cream (3.38)



Disc 2:



1 Amazing Journey - The Who (4.28)

2 Weird Of Hermiston - Jack Bruce (2.21)

3 Banquet - Audience (3.35)

4 Break-Out - Julie Driscoll (5.16)

5 Something In The Air - Thunderclap Newman (3.56)

6 Extrapolation - John McLaughlin (3.54)

7 She Was Naked - Supersister (3.44)

8 One Word - Tony Williams' Lifetime (3.46)

9 Sinner Boy - Taste (5.29)

10 Gypsy Escape - Arthur Brown's Kingdon Come (7.35)

11 Let Me Ride - Ginger Baker's Air Force (4.24)

12 Can't Believe Its True - Rory Gallagher (7.16)

13 No Tree Will Grow (On Too High A Mountain) - Supersister (7.39)

14 War Girl - The Pink Fairies (4.34)

15 Time Is Passing - Pete Townshend (3.27)

16 Sunrise In The Third System - Tangerine Dream (4.22)

17 Spirit Of Joy - Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come (3.09)



Disc 3:



1 Prologue - The Pink Fairies (1.22)

2 Right On, Fight On - The Pink Fairies (7.59)

3 Naked Eye - The Who (5.28)

4 There's A Forest - Jack Bruce (1.46)

5 Morning Story - Jack Bruce (4.56)

6 A Better Land - Brian Auger's Oblivion Express (5.32)

7 I Spider - The Web (8.38)

8 Meadow Meal - Faust (8.03)

9 Epic Forest - Rare Bird (9.12)

10 Rising Sun - Medicine Head (4.44)

11 Are You Receiving Me - Golden Earring (9.32)

12 The Great 1974 Mining Disaster - Barclay James Harvest (4.40)

13 Hocus Pocus - Focus (6.41)





"

Excellent

William R. Nicholas | Mahwah, NJ USA | 05/18/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Deram and Vertigo were the two major progressive record labels of the late 1960s and early 1970s when rock music was developing into a ship that could hold any musical form . Deram stuck to song oriented prog, while Vertigo artists would use found sound, collage, anything really. I have said it before, but putting it in jazz terms, Deram was Blue Note, Vertigo Impulse. There are three box sets you want to get to truly take prog 101: Strange Pleasures: Further Sounds of the Decca Underground 1966-75 Legend of a Mind: The Underground Anthology, both Deram, and Time Machine: A Vertigo Retrospective. While you're at it, get Andy Votel's Vertigo Mixed. None of this will get you to the outer limits of prog-how would you put a side long found sound collage on a box set but they will get you moving fast in the right direction and keep you busy for years before you want to really go into deep space



Now, unless you were a pop label like Buddha, every major label in the late 1960s wanted a piece of the underground: all underground really meant that you were working with albums and not singles and that you were willing to go beyond the constraints of a three minute pop song. Led Zeppelin were underground in late 1968 and early 1969.



FM radio in America was playing all this music--AM confined itself to

the 45s--and the underground seemed to grow exponentially by the month. EVERYONE wanted a greenback taste. It is not like now where tens of thousands could put their video on you tube. If you had a grand in 1969, you could go out and by a few hundred albums and have the entire scene in your living room



Polydor certainly got there's, and to a degree, this box gives you a good window into the red label's underground. Great listening. But you'll notice Cream, Who, Hendrix, and less names household.



If you are a collector of music, you may have a lot of this stuff. As a primer or a quick pick, this will give you end to end quality and show you a thing or two. Just don't expect quite the revelations here that you would get on the Deram boxes, or even more so, the comp of Vertigo"