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August 2002
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 THE WHO |
 CRABBY APPLETON |
 BO HANSSON |
 THE YOUNGBLOODS |
 QUICKSILVER |
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BYRDS The Byrds Play Dylan (Columbia/Legacy)
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THE WHO Ultimate Collection (MCA)
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CRABBY
APPLETON
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BO
HANSSON Lord Of The Rings (Virgin / Silence)
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THE
YOUNGBLOODS Get Together: The Essential Youngbloods (BMG Heritage)
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QUICKSILVER
MESSENGER SERVICE Classic Masters (Capitol) Lost Silver And Gold (Collector’s Choice)
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Pop
disciples will remember that The Byrds hit number one during
the Summer of ‘65 with their cover of Bob Dylan’s “Mr.
Tambourine Man”. In fact, the first Byrds album contained a number
of Dylan covers. That fortuitous association of The Byrds doing Dylan
carried on with a number of subsequent Byrds albums including all time
classics like Turn! Turn! Turn! (early ‘66), Younger
Than Yesterday (1967) and Sweetheart Of The Rodeo (1968).
The successful pop merger of Dylan’s recondite folk music with
The Byrds pop-based folk-rock sound was nothing short of a miracle and—assisted
by legendary producers Gary Usher, Bob Johnston and Terry
Melcher—The Byrds are often credited with starting the folk-rock
boom of the mid ‘60s. A superb, 20 track compilation on Columbia
Legacy, The Byrds Play Dylan reexamines the group’s
early ‘60s fascination with Dylan’s poetic and melodic folk
songs all the way through to their version of “Paths Of Victory”,
recorded for the 1990 Byrds box set. Legacy has done a great
job, packing their 2002, 20 track Byrds Play Dylan CD with cool
period piece photos and liner notes galore. 
As
The Who gear up for their 2002 U.S. stadium tour, the group’s original
label MCA/Decca recently released a singles-heavy, 2002 double
disc Who retrospective that’s worth hearing for a couple reasons.
With the expected 2002 release of a double disc reissue of The Who’s
fabled 1965 Shel Talmy-produced My Generation album,
the new Ultimate set starts things off with a taster from that
album and, soundwise, it’s obviously worth the wait. Also of note
is a fine sounding 4 track bonus ep CD tagged onto the first CD run
featuring American release 45 versions of “Substitute” and
“Magic Bus” and intriguing alternate takes of “Happy
Jack” and “I’m A Boy” (French horn and all). There’s
also a rare single version of the Tommy classic “See Me,
Feel Me” and a 28 page booklet—abundant with rarely seen photos—that
recasts the meteoric rise of the band. The Ultimate Collection is
a good bet for long time fans and a real treat for anyone hearing them
for the first time. http://www.umusic.com 
Crabby Appleton, that group’s self-titled debut, has
long been considered an American power pop masterpiece. A former bandmate
of the late great 
Bo Hansson’s debut solo
album helped put Sweden on the map big time back in 1969. Released worldwide
in ‘69 by the progressive rock trendsetters at Charisma Records—with
that incredible cover art faithfully reproduced on this new reissue
by Virgin / EMI—the album remains a masterpiece album from
the heyday of European progressive instrumental rock. The concept of
Bo and Swedish engineer wizard Anders Lind (of Silence Records
in Sweden), Lord paired Hansson’s unique keyboards and
compositional skill—as well as his effective electric guitar passages—with
drums by Rune Carlsson. Hansson’s remaining three fantastic
instrumental solo albums—he hasn’t made a new instrumental
album since the late ‘70s—featured the gifted electric guitarist
Kenny Håkhansson and took the Hansson instrumental sound
to even greater heights. Even so, 1969’s Lord Of The Rings remains
a magical, music classic worth reinvestigation. 
Led
by singer-songwriter Jesse Colin Young, The Youngbloods were
one of the great hippie rock bands of the late ‘60s. They gained
fame with their tasty ‘67 cover of the Dino Valenti classic
“Get Together” and their albums were also quite intriguing.
Discovered by producer Felix Pappalardi during their early gigs
in NYC, The Youngbloods soon moved to Northern California. Young shared
the group spotlight with singer-songwriter Jerry Corbitt, and
in fact, it was Corbitt’s song “Grizzly Bear”, that first
brought the group national attention. After Corbitt split they carried
on as a three piece and continued their unique blend of folk-rock, ragtime,
bossa nova, raga rock and jazz blends. The group’s recent 21 track
compilation on BMG Heritage Records compiles tracks from their
three RCA albums including “Get Together”, “Grizzly Bear”,
the Young classic “Darkness, Darkness”, as well as songs co-written
by Pappalardi. The Essential Youngbloods fills in quite a few
gaps concerning one of the most impressive ‘60s rock legends. 
Featuring
the dueling guitars of Gary Duncan and John Cippolina,
Quicksilver were high among the best of all the SF Bay Area bands, although
their fortunes were partly eclipsed early on with the arrest of group
mentor Dino Valenti on pot charges. Valenti—whose real name
was Chester A. Powers—is often credited with classics like
“Get Together” and “Hey Joe”. Early Quicksilver
albums were nearly incomplete without Valenti, and upon his return they
recorded their biggest hits to date, the hippie anthems “Fresh
Air” and “What About Me”. Despite having top musicians
like Nicky Hopkins and David Freiberg in the band during
various incarnations, Quicksilver was a great band mired in misfortune
and bad timing. Nevertheless, they recorded some fascinating music,
some of which is featured on their Classic Masters compilation
on Capitol Records. Cippolina, Valenti and Hopkins have long
since passed away, but the psychedelic jams and peace and protest songs
they recorded during the heyday of the ‘60s and ‘70s will
long endure.