Customer Reviews

Golden Years 69-71

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To my knowledge,this is one of about three Pink Fairies domestic releases on CD.Starts off with two songs the psych nugget "Ten Thousand Words In A Cardboard Box" and "The Sparrow Is A Sign" which both are penned by Twink,the band's drummer and were pulled from his 1970 solo effort 'Think Pink'.Other notable tracks would be the demo for "Do It" and the nineteen-minute live version of "Uncle Harry's Last Freakout".There are a couple of rough mixes of "The Snake" and the oldies standard "Lucille".The Pink Fairies would be best described as psychedelic garage rock.As far as I know,Twink and bassist Paul Rudolph semi-exist today as the Pink Fairies.I encourage you to check out their first three lp's out now on import CD,'Never Never Land','What A Bunch Of Sweeties' and 'Kings Of Oblivion'.You won't be sorry you did.

The sound quality has been attacked unmercifully by those who have reviewed this cd, before me. But what do you expect from an eight track that's been set in the middle of the room to record a jam session? I got similar results when I used to be a musician some twenty years ago. But man, I love the Pinks. They can do little wrong in my mind. This stuff is the epitome of warp speed psychelia/hard rock/garage punk, and I don't care about the sound quality. To hear the evolution of these early recordings gives the first album even more meaning to me. It tells me where they were heading (whether they ever had a direction) even if they were sometimes too stoned to realize that themselves. But I have to add; I believe the Pinks could play better stoned, and I don't believe that I'd want to hear them play it straight. When I bought this CD some three years ago, I thought, "Wow, I'm finally going to add to my Pink Fairies collection!", and I tell you, as a musician--retired--I don't care about the sound quality. Paul Rudolph was displaying to me why he's a damned great guitarist, and when he was in the band from 1971 and 1973, and so on, I noticed that his guitar was a driving force; the very wheel by which this critically acclaimed inept (then) band was rising to whatever level they were going to achieve. "Do it" has always been one of my favorite Pink songs, next to Pigs of Uranus, Right On, Fight on, and their drug crazed, hyper-rocker version of Walk, Don't Run--once done by the Ventures. The Snake is the epitome of human anatomy songs, but most people don't understand that it is about the male sex organ( and I hope that I'm not offending anyone). This is righteously wierd rock & roll, and only the crazed minds of the Pink Fairies could bring it off. So, right on, fight on! Man!

I don't remember where I read about the Pink Fairies (this CD ends three years before I was born) but I've always been interested in pre-70s punk or hardcore, and I decided to check it out. The music was terrific; THE SPARROW IS A SIGN and their superb cover of the Beatles' TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS were probably the best. I must agree with the first reviewer, though; if they could manage to improve the sound quality (which was pretty abysmal) or remaster it somehow, it'd be great...

The sound quality has been attacked unmercifully by those who have reviewed this cd, before me. But what do you expect from an eight track that's been set in the middle of the room to record a jam session? I got similar results when I used to be a musician some twenty years ago. But man, I love the Pinks. They can do little wrong in my mind. This stuff is the epitome of warp speed psychelia/hard rock/garage punk, and I don't care about the sound quality. To hear the evolution of these early recordings gives the first album even more meaning to me. It tells me where they were heading (whether they ever had a direction) even if they were sometimes too stoned to realize that themselves. But I have to add; I believe the Pinks could play better stoned, and I don't believe that I'd want to hear them play it straight. When I bought this CD some three years ago, I thought, "Wow, I'm finally going to add to my Pink Fairies collection!", and I tell you, as a musician--retired--I don't care about the sound quality. Paul Rudolph was displaying to me why he's a damned great guitarist, and when he was in the band from 1971 and 1973, and so on, I noticed that his guitar was a driving force; the very wheel by which this critically acclaimed inept (then) band was rising to whatever level they were going to achieve. "Do it" has always been one of my favorite Pink songs, next to Pigs of Uranus, Right On, Fight on, and their drug crazed, hyper-rocker version of Walk, Don't Run--once done by the Ventures. The Snake is the epitome of human anatomy songs, but most people don't understand that it is about the male sex organ( and I hope that I'm not offending anyone). This is righteously wierd rock & roll, and only the crazed minds of the Pink Fairies could bring it off. So, right on, fight on! Man!

Mind you I love the FAIRIES, went to London to see them live @ The King's Cross Cinema way back in July '73! Fantastic concert, lots of fun, naked girl onstage... Those were the 70's! The amazing Larry WALLIS was the guitar player then, having replaced the awesome Paul RUDOLPH. There's no doubt about it, both were fantastic. But time passes. And like the aforementioned Larry WALLIS was quoted as saying, TWINK, who was no longer with the Fairies by the end of 1971 disgraced himself and the Pink Fairies in allowing such low-quality recordings to see the light of day! The songs on this CD do not sound vintage, they sound as if they were played on a transistor radio with low batteries and recorded on a tape which was already half torn. Twink surely needed the money badly. Together with Paul Rudolph, they even released a couple of CDs about 10 years ago, as mentionned by some other reviewers, under the Fairies monicker! The sound is better but the songs are worse. Has anybody out there been able to listen to the lengthy track titled "No Picture" from the Cd of the same title without hitting the forward button after 2 minutes? If you miss the Fairies badly like I do, buy instead the Larry WALLIS solo album "Death In The Guitarfternoon" which was released in '02. This is what the real and genuine Fairies were about, the best Fairies album since "Kings Of Oblivion"! It says it all.

10,000 Words In A Cardboard Box was originally by Aquarian Age which Twink was in around 1968 and they only had two songs. You can find it as a bonus track on Tomorrow's self titled album. This version is also on Twink's Think Pink album from 1971. You should check out the original version from the Aquarian Age though.

a word of warning: these recordings are not professional quality (most of them). The first 3 are OK, but the 2nd song is a joke/novelty song, so that leaves you with two well-recorded songs. Paul Rudolph is in another league from the rest of the guys, and plays with real crunch in spite of them. "Lucille" is the most blistering display. The guitar stands out better than any instrument on these inept recordings, and thank God for that.

ILL just say THEY WERE, like LIGHT YEARS, more INTELIGENT BETTER AT BEING BAD THAN THE STOOGES, ever WERE,THANX god their is nothin remotely IGGY popish on THIS SLAB of mayhem.