Customer Reviews

Good Morning Starshine

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Look, I'm all there for SAC and was hoping this would blow me away, but the liner notes say it all: lawsuits, competing SAC bands on tour, in-fighting, forced songs they were made to sing by the label ("Good Morning Starshine"), members dropping in and dropping out, self-production where they were admittedly "over their head" and that they "cringe" when listening to now, etc.

I can go on but the liner notes really put this release in perspective. It's not awful, in fact there are some decent songs here, including the lp version of "Miss America," which has a nice nod to "California Girls" in its extended break, and "Changes," which has a nice bluesy, fusion feel. But as Ed King points out in the notes, they really lacked a decent lead singer, and it shows itself here, just plain ragged and uninspiring. In all, this one is for collectors only, even hard-core fans in my view don't need to spend the coin as I suspect it will sit on the shelves after the first listen....

Although this album sounds way different from the previous three, it is nonetheless a masterpiece. With the departure of George Bunnell and Randy Seol, and marking the arrival of Jim Pitman and Gene Gunnells, this album has a decidedly harder sound too, with the rollicking long version of "Miss Attraction" and the bluesy "Changes". Their rendition of the title track is 1000 times better than that wimpy Oliver version the radio plays. "Small Package" sounds more like the Alarm Clock of yore, while "Dear joy" and "You Put Me On Standby" are light hearted and enjoyable. Fabulous way to end the S.A.C.'s career on LP, although another lineup, sans Pitman and Mark Weitz and with Paul Marshall, would continue to tour and appear in the film "Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls".