The WELL: inkwell.vue.196: Richie Unterberger: "Eight Miles High"

#254: Cynthia Dyer-Bennet (cdb) Fri 21 May 04 11:55

Fri, 21 May 2004 11:55:00 PDT

You mean republishing them as some kind of collection? I dunno, Robin. These days he's keeping busy editing/publishing Hightower News with Jim Hightower. I suspect that keeps him fairly well occupied... [Read entire topic]

#253: Robin Russell (rrussell8) Mon 17 May 04 06:48

Mon, 17 May 2004 06:48:00 PDT

Cynthia, it is great to have confirmation that at least some aspects of the faculties are still functioning in reasonable order. I hope that Phillip has an archive of Revolution and High Times, I suspect that not too many libraries do. Any plans for publication? [Read entire topic]

#252: Cynthia Dyer-Bennet (cdb) Fri 14 May 04 15:07

Fri, 14 May 2004 15:07:00 PDT

For the record: <rrussell8> -- you're pretty close with your memory about Revolution. It was published by my then-sweetie Phillip Frazer. I just phoned him to check on the details and he agrees about those dates. He notes, however, that High Times (which he published later) wasn't a modeled after the better known US publication of the same name. The Aussie version of High Times came out before the US version, and they weren't related (other than in tone).

Phillip was pleased to hear that his work from back then is still remembered, by the way. [Read entire topic]

#251: Berliner (captward) Thu 13 May 04 14:13

Thu, 13 May 2004 14:13:00 PDT

I knew these guys in college and Larry...errr, *Lawrence*... always sounded like that. [Read entire topic]

#250: David Gans (tnf) Thu 13 May 04 10:33

Thu, 13 May 2004 10:33:00 PDT

> perhaps one of my future books should be "Urban Legends of Rock'n'Roll," > devoted to nagging myths like this that refuse to go away over the years

That's a terrific idea, Richie. [Read entire topic]

#249: Robin Russell (rrussell8) Thu 13 May 04 10:31

Thu, 13 May 2004 10:31:00 PDT

One of the Mad River legends circulating in Oz was that the tents were folded because, after "Paradise Bar and Grill", there was nothing left to be said. [Read entire topic]

#248: Robin Russell (rrussell8) Thu 13 May 04 10:15

Thu, 13 May 2004 10:15:00 PDT

In response to your penultimate, Richie, this may not be totally accurate, but to the best of my recollection:

Revolution magazine was an Australian underground publication that was around in the late sixties through to about 1970 or 1971. It featured a sex, drugs and rock'n'roll aesthetic, with political flavourings. There was an insert of Rolling Stone magazine record reviews, an invaluable service for those of us in Queensland, where Rolling Stone was banned (because of the political content, those were the days, eh?). It started out as a broadsheet but mutated into an A4 sized newsprint (with colour) magazine. That version only lasted a few issues and then it seemed to mutate again into High Times (or maybe Revolution disappeared the same time High Times appeared, but the formats were very similar). I think it was an Oz version of High Times but with a lot of the articles copped from the US.

Now you've got me wishing I'd kept my 1972 Sociology paper on underground magazines. My favourite of all the Australian "undergrounds" was The Living Daylights, which featured illustrated Bruce Lee Kung Fu lesson centrefolds. [Read entire topic]

#247: Richie Unterberger (folkrocks) Thu 13 May 04 10:08

Thu, 13 May 2004 10:08:00 PDT

It's long been speculated, in the circles of psychedelic collectors whose seriousness borders on unhealthy obsession, that the first album was mastered too fast. This would explain why, as I wrote in my liner notes, Lawrence Hammond often sounds like someone's just given him the hot foot.

But was it mastered too fast? Reports have conflicted over the years, some accounts asserting it was, others denying that anything of the sort happened -- enough so that I didn't even refer to the controversy in my liner notes. Anyone ever heard the scoop on that? (The producer, Nik Venet, is no longer around for comment.)

In discussing this with a fellow aficionado, it was mooted that perhaps one of my future books should be "Urban Legends of Rock'n'Roll," devoted to nagging myths like this that refuse to go away over the years, like the controversy over whether Jimmy Page played the solos on the early Kinks hits "All Day and All of the Night" and "You Really Got Me" (though producer Shel Talmy confirmed to me and many other writers that these were indeed played by Dave Davies). [Read entire topic]

#246: Berliner (captward) Thu 13 May 04 09:39

Thu, 13 May 2004 09:39:00 PDT

The first album didn't chart because Capitol made the brilliant move of releasing, as its first single, a song called "Amphetamine Gazelle." [Read entire topic]

#245: Richie Unterberger (folkrocks) Thu 13 May 04 09:31

Thu, 13 May 2004 09:31:00 PDT

I like Mad River; in fact, I wrote the liner notes to a two-fer-one CD reissue of both of their albums (on Collectors' Choice Music). The liner notes are posted on my website at www.richieunterberger.com/madriver.html.

I only gave them one paragraph in "Eight Miles High" because they were a relatively minor band and because they crossed the line from folk-rock into pretty weird, creepy psychedelic music for most of their first (self-titled) album. The second album, "Paradise Bar and Grill," was much more in the laidback country-rock style. They did fit into the folk/folk-rock/psychedelic evolutionary path of numerous San Francisco Bay Area bands, as their leader, Lawrence Hammond (who had an indefinably strange quavering voice), was a transplanted midwestern folkie. They preceded their album with a self-released EP that contains one of the great overlooked war protest/folk-rock-psychedelic songs, "Orange Fire." That track is now easily available on the Big Beat CD compilation "The Berkeley EPs," which has rare early Bay Area psychedelic EPs by Mad River, Country Joe & the Fish, Frumious Bandersnatch, and Notes from the Underground. Mad River never did become too influential, even in a "cult" fashion, as far as I know. They certainly weren't very commercially successful: the first album didn't make the charts and the second one only got to #192.

Robin, what was Revolution magazine? I'm not familiar with that title (and wouldn't have been able to check it out when it was around, as I was too young). [Read entire topic]