Customer Reviews

Behold & See

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just another unsatisfied customer wondering why Mr.Lorber decided to edit half of the tunes,and intentionaly,omitted "visions of your reality". Why? there is clearly more than enough time (memory) left on the disk. and why edit the songs? I more than agree with russell d. brown's evaluation of this cd release by 'Big Beat'. A shadow of a great LP. In closing, I realised that on ultamate spinach III (Big Beat cd release) although none of the existing tunes are edited, the song "sincere" was omited. Why? I would hope that Mr.Lorber corrects this mystery on future remasters of these 3 groovy albums.

i know nothing about the track visions of your reality . for one thing, i was -2 years old when this album was made! what's left is pretty impressive for the most part. the opening cut, behold and see, features a hendrixian riff all the way through. the second track is one of ultimate spinach's best, the epic and atmospheric mind flowers , which is more doors like. the band was very good at long pieces and the instrumentation was usually quite good - and this is droning downer of a cut is first rate . another stand out track is fragmentary march of green. this number is rather jefferson airplane like. it is somewhat comparable to the airplane's great house at pooneil corners , in that both tracks are excellent pieces with a feeling of doom. the lyrics of both songs are socially conscious and deal with most of the big issues of the time in question. jazz thing is another fine number. this album as a whole might not be quite as good as the debut, but i think that the 2 best songs of the band(mind flowers and fragmentary march of green) are contained on the disc.

losing "visions of your reality" sounds like a stroke of genius. it's really an awful song and, second song in on the vinyl, nearly derails the whole thing. i doubt the edits were worth it, although the spinach did drag it out a bit at times. and those lyrics!

Harken back with me to an idealistic time when the burgeoning West Coast scene was sprouting tripped out music everywhere.MGM Records attempted to cultivate an East Coast counterpart in the Boston/Cambridge area. Ultimate Spinach were born of this fertile ground along with such other hopefuls as Orpheus, Beacon Street Union and the more esoteric Pearls Before Swine. Although not quite up to their maiden effort this was nonetheless a very significant Psychedelic relic. The tittle track was/is the standout cut and the last original band offering. Of note, Jeff Baxter from Steely Dan was to launch his career on the less directed third Albumn.

Behold and See was arguably the single finest example of American Psychedelia when it was originally released on MGM. Alas, this cut-and paste reissue from ex-Spinach producer Alan Lorber. is only a shadow of the original album. Several of the songs have been shortened for reasons known only to Mr. Lorber, and the song "Visions of Your Reality", which in many ways was the centerpiece of the album, is omitted altogether, again for no apparent reason.While it is gratifying to have this album reissued on CD, the artistic vision of group leader and songwriter Ian Bruce-Douglas has been callously compromised by this needless revisionism. If you can find it, the original vynal release, which presents the music in its unadulterated form, is highly preferable.

A great psychedelic album. Well produced and very spacey. Like a American Pink Floyd. A rare gem. Song titles are goofy, but music is first rate psychedelia.