Customer Reviews

Paisley Pop

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What must be said first is that this is a nice glimpse of UK pop music scene 66-69-sometimes called Freakbeat. The Brits had a lot more going on musically than what we heard here in the States during the British Invasion.
This 22 song comp gives a decent overview of the more popular, less obscure sides, but if you tried to get originals now, you'd have to pay. Even if you own the Nuggets II set, you will find different music on Paisley Pop.
From big hitters like The Flying Machine, Neil Christian and the Consortium to lesser known Gates of Eden, the Ugly's and Scruggs you get a bit of dance hall, top 40 and pop-psych. Some bad, some very good.
Favorites tend to be more psychy, less crooned tracks like 'I Wish I Was Five' and 'Lavender Popcorn' by the Scruggs, 'Cave of Clear Light' by the Bystanders, 'I Wonder Where My Sister's Gone' by Anan and Status Quo's wonderful followup non-hit to 'Pictures of Matchstick Men', 'Black Veil of Melancholy.'
And very important to the project are the great liner notes by Pearly Spencer(?) that go thru the tracks with the times in mind. The author sets the scene as 'delightfully absurd.'
Decidedly the tamer side of the scene, but some nice paisely visions all the same.
If you are a fan, go for it.

Fans of Brit psych-pop groups such as Tomorrow, The Creation, and Honeybus will not be disappointed with this collection. Although there are a couple of well-known groups represented here, this disc contains mostly one-off singles from the Pye label circa 1966-1969. All in all, a very tasty sampling of the swirling musical colours from this evanescent era. General grooviness abounds with outstanding tracks such as The Uglys' "Quiet Explosion", Scrugg's "Lavender Popcorn", and The Montanas'"That's When Happiness Began". Trying to track down these singles on vinyl would be a very expensive proposition if they could be found at all.

Austin Powers would have frugged to these bands at the UFO!

Highly Recommended!

If you're out there searching for some great psychedelic 60's music and you've already picked up the Nuggets first two volumes and you're craving more, I recommend getting the Pebbles compilations or for one offs you can't beat the Arf Arf labels compilations of ultra rare and ultra obscure tunes--Paisley Pop is a compilation meant for those who were more into the "Turtles" type of pop music with a few psych embellishments-It has a few strong selections but not enough to justify putting it at the top of your list when there are so many better comps out there---you might even find (as I did) that some of the better tunes on Paisley Pop are on other comps (such as "I Wish I Was Five" by Scrugg and "Black Veils Of Melancholy" by Status Quo). To sum it up, if you're into albums like "Piper At The Gates Of Dawn" and "S.F. Sorrow", this compilation isn't for you--

Deep thoughts courtesy of a group called Scrugg. Fans of pre-Tommy Who (A Quick One and Sell Out) and The Hollies will enjoy this over hour-long collection of lesser-known bands from the era. There are many gems in this collection such as I Wish I Was Five, Goodbye Thimble Mill Lane, Smile A Litle Smile For Me (Rosemary), Major To Minor, and Tamaris Khan. Also included is another version of Pictures Of Matchstickmen (by The Status Quo) called Black Veils of Melancholy. Suprisingly, most of these songs are still fresh.

For a lighthearted revistitation of an era in music that will never come again, check this collection out.

[DW]

If you're looking for a great roundup of pop psychadelic tracks, this is a great CD. Most of these are all fun tracks that really take you back to another era (I'm just guessing here since I'm too young to have heard them on the radio ;-)

Another nice thing about this compilation is the excellent sound quality.

As the other reviewer alluded to - if you like your psychadelic rock with heavy crunching guitars. fuzz and acidic overtones - this is not your kind of CD. But if you're looking for the fun psychadelic tracks of that era - radio friendly and more power pop oriented - you will really like discovering some obscure tracks and bands.