Search - The Electric Flag :: The Trip: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

This One's For You, Dad!

T. R. Rak | 04/19/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Peter's Trip," "Green and Gold," "Psyche Soap," "Synesthesia" and "Senior Citizen" in priceless digital recreation! These are outstanding songs in my estimation (however biased by the sirens of nostalgia), and this CD is a welcome "replacement" for my extremely weathered original vinyl LP, which I'll surely never throw away (a gift from my late father, a Communications Professor, in 1968) but have trouble enjoying fully these days from the vantage point of an audiophile. Now I've got the CD! And the sound quality is quite decent! Whoopee!!! My only question is, "What the heck happened to the rest of the original soundtrack?" There were a bunch more tracks (whose titles elude me now in a green and gold haze (I think one of them was called "Peter Flips Out")), yet this CD runs only about 26 minutes! Maybe the other tracks didn't survive the test of time (or acid?) so well. In any event, I love what DID make it from Peter's Trip in psychedelic '67 to present day. There's magic here, and you've conjured the spirit of My Dad better than any other medium might. Thank you from the bottom of my purple, pleased heart."

Needed chapter in a great bands brief recorded legacy ruined

T Berry Shuffle | WVFS 89.7 Tallahassee | 09/28/2004

(1 out of 5 stars)

"The Electric Flag were a firebrand ensemble of top-notch musicians who unfortunately had a very abbreviated recording career in their initial incarnation. Only "The Trip" and their first proper release "A Long Time Comin'" feature the band's original line-up.



Therefore, it is rather sad that CURB, who reissued this release opted to leave six tracks off of this disc that were included on the original LP, what's more upsetting is that Amazon has the track listing incorrect also. This disc features only 12 cuts, not the 18 shown here in the product description. Why haven't they bothered to correct this mistake when buyers who purchased this disc as far back as 2000 have noted their error? The original LP, which clocked in at nearly 50 minutes in length, is now a rather paltry 26 minutes long is this oddly stripped down edition.



The music itself is excellent both in terms of the sound quality and performance, albeit a little dated stylistically. After all, it was intended as freak-out music for a low budget, if well made, period piece on psychedelic drugs and remains a great listen taken for what it is. Fans of The Electric Flag in general and Michael Bloomfield's guitar playing in particular won't have their appetites thoroughly sated by this release as only "Fine Jung Thing" bears much in common with the highly infectious styling of their "A Long Time Comin" release. If this album also included "Peter Gets Off" and "Gettin' Hard", which it inexplicably doesn't, buyers would have been treated to some more excellent music filled with all the benchmarks that made this group the unique and colorful San Francisco powerhouse that it was before it disbanded. The curious buyer interested in a closer look at The Electric Flag should investigate "Old Glory: The Best of Electric Flag" which features live cuts from their performance at The Monterey Pop Festival. Performance footage of "Wine, Wine, Wine" is also included in outtakes from the expanded Criterion Edition Monterey Pop Festival DVD collection.



Sadly however, this version of The Trip which could have been a welcome and much needed addition to the Electric Flag's altogether too brief list of releases turns out to be another botched truncated CURB reissue just barely worth the price of admission.

"

Where are the rest of the songs?

Steve L. Candelari | Houston, Texas United States | 09/24/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I wanted this CD to avoid playing the record because it is collectable and for the better audio quality.I like most of the cuts on the record but my favorite song,Joint Passing,is missing from the CD as well as 6 or so other songs that appear on the record.I'm not sure if the missing songs are for licensing reasons or what but I was disappointed."