“This is the sound of speed-shooting hillbillies discovering the secrets of life in the sewers below the Peace Eye bookstore. Loose, psych-out, folkish stumble...”
ESP reissue reviews by either JIMMY JOHNSON or BYRON COLEY
FORCED EXPOSURE MAIL ORDER LIST #8
June/July 1993
page 17
JIMMY JOHNSON, Proprietor
PATTY WATERS from ESP-Disk’: “In the Spring of 1966, ESP was given a grant by the New York State Council on the Arts, to tour the five colleges in the state with music departments. Artists for this tour included the Sun Ra Arkestra, Burton Greene, Patty Waters, Giuseppi Logan and Ran Blake. Accompanied by an all star backup group from among the participants, Patty's performances resulted in the album, "College Tour", her second recording for ESP-Disk'. The album expands upon the vocal acrobatics that were heard on her first recording, "Sings". "College Tour" won second place for Vocal Recording in Jazz and Pop Magazine in 1970.Patty Waters is internationally recognized as one of the first major avant-garde vocalists. Her ESP-Disk' recordings cemented her reputation as a vocal innovator, and according to liner notes and public opinion, one whose influence extended beyond jazz to Yoko Ono and Diamanda Galas.”
HOLY MODAL ROUNDERS: “The year 1967 proved to be a strong point of the ’60s generation culture and the ever growing New York underground music scene.With the likes of David Peel & the Lower East Side, The Velvet Underground, The Godz, The Fugs, and the Holy Modal Rounders. The music is reflective of the time, and would prove to be the setting of a musical foundation for the group.Steve Weber and Peter Stampfel provided a blithe sendup of musical Americana as they mined this tradition, while introducing outrageous and zany virtuoso turns on acoustic guitar, banjo and violin. Their lyrics and vocals are uniquely their own. Their personalities were profoundly incompatible, like those of Gilbert and Sullivan. They provided the Fugs with their musical underpinnings, and they repeatedly broke up, only to reunite temporarily to record and perform for their loyal following across America. When ESP invited them to record, it was understood that they would take it as far out as they could. Peter Stampfel is outspoken in his dismay over the result, but this view is not shared by Steve Weber.” - Bernard Stollman, owner of ESP-Disk'
R.I.P. TOM RAPP (Pearls Before Swine)
SEVENTH SONS’ 4 AM at Frank's T-Shirt via Buzzy Linhart’s bandcamp (really!)
Buzzy Linhart sez about the Raga/4 AM at Frank’s recording (from his bandcamp): “Buzzy Linhart - acoustic guitar (Gibson harp guitar), Serge Katzen - two-side hand drum, James Rock - acoustic guitar , Frank Eventoff - flute (and live sound engineer): “These are the correct credits. This historically significant work has been illegally reissued on CD by small european labels such as ESP Disk, Fallout Records and get back, none have been authorized by any of the Seventh Sons nor their estates and all prior reissues were interrupted mid-jam by the side break. Some reissues called the work "4 AM at Franks", because it is not truly a raga, and all prior version have errors in the credits. Please let this correct the record. Buzzy Linhart has referred to this as "ragoid" and he wants us to keep in mind that all Seventh Sons performances were improvised with no set list and rare breaks. This early recording is a glimpse into what became "Sing Joy" first released on his album "buzzy" (1969, Phillips). The original vinyl "RAGA" and CD reissues include liner notes written by Steve Denaut who was the original bass player for the Seventh Sons when they backed Fred Neil at many gigs in Greenwich Village. Steve went on to be an actor, writer, director educator for stage making immense contributions to the West Coast Rep Theatre.”
...regarding catalogs (which I consistently mispell as “catalogues”): “We never said record catalogues were the equivalent of zines, but we didn’t say they weren’t either. By the mid to late 90’s, when the good zine writ fab was drying up, catalogues served a useful function by stoking consumer desire, which was what the worthy zines did all along. Long before the Aquarius Records, Forced Exposure, Volcanic Tongue, Permanent Records, Goner, Mississippi and similar weekly email lists filled our electronic mail inboxes, we shut ins had the postage paid print catalogue. They were real - and occasionally spectacular.”
