Customer Reviews

Rotary Connection

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First of all, I am amazed to find it available on CD. I remember hearing a story was that there was a fire at the recording studio and the master taped were destroyed. Glad to see the story was wrong. Anyway, this is a classic example of the various factions coming together in the music world of the '60's. Psychedelic, gospel, classical, eastern influences and more all fuse with rock on this album. This is what made music exciting back then. You didn't find them on the radio; you found them at a friend's house. When they cover songs, like Lady Jane, they do them in a style all there own. No commercial exercises here. Using several singers each song sounds truly unique. ( At least one of them, Minnie Riperton, went on to some solo success.)

Take an utterly beautiful, soulful band like the Fifth Dimension and add a heavy, professionally-crafted theatrical sheen, and you've got Rotary Connection. One of my amazingly astute and lively college companions/girlfriends was heavily into theatre - and was wild about them. If you like listening to music that's reminiscent of 'Hair' and/or 'Jesus Christ Superstar', RC will be right up your alley - they're definitely a very artistic/dramatic/appealing element of the late 60's counter-cultural ethos.
It's also notable that some of the instrumental breaks and harmonic underpinnings veer a bit in the direction of folks like Van Dyke Parks - quite an avant-garde touch, as it were, and quite flavorful, if that's were your tastes lie.

As another reviewer remarked, this was the type of album you were turned on to at a friend's house, who had somehow acquired it. Perhaps the group was not marketed well enough, as its audience typically was in Chicago and points further south in Illinois. Be that as it may, "Rotary Connection" is a wonderful concept album (the sides are called "Trip I" and "Trip I continued," as I recall. There are short, smooth instrumental transitions between the main tracks, and each song is recapped in something like a reverse overture at the end, going into one of the best covers ever made of "Like a Rolling Stone." Different people imprint heavily on different albums, of course, but mention this album to any old hippie you happen to see, and I daresay the response will be either "Oh, MAN!" or just simply "Wow."

I had this album 30 years ago & gave it away. The other day I got to
thinking about the song Amen on this album. Could not remember the name of the band, typed in the song title & 975 possibilities
came up about 100 was Rotary Connection. I ordered it, this album is better than I remembered it being. Will definitely keep it this time. Thanks for having a great musical library so us old farts can enjoy our past again. Feel like being a hippie again.

This is one of the great 60's musical experiments that blossomed not suprisingly at the peak of the psychedelic era. I know very little about the group or the artists, but I do know it is one of the few albums I enjoy listening to now as much as I did almost 35 years ago when it was first released. Absolutely awesome orchestration with great overtures, powerful vocals, and superb harmonies. Best Tracks are covers for "Soul Man" and "Like a Rollin' Stone", (the latter is argueably the best Dylan cover ever, right after the Byrds' version of "Mr. Tamborine Man"). I would like to know more about the group, where they came from and what happened to them, if anyone knows.

I appreciate everyone's comments about the CD. I bought the CD because I had occasionally heard the haunting church organ rendition of Ruby Tuesday on the radio. Is that not the most unusual and creative cover of that song?

After all these years, Rotary Connection stands out as my favorite concept album of the mid-late 1960's. So why do I rank this higher than "Days of Future Past" or "Sargent Pepper?" I think it's because the album has always remained musical to my ear. (I don't think I ever want to hear "Days of Future..." again!). The CD remaster shows just how good stereo could be in 1967. Give this a try, it's amazing.

I was born in late 1969, and remember my parents listening to this album all the time growing up as a child. This wasn't mainstream music from my understanding, and was unique to the Chicago area. Definitely an album for those who have a music collection like me that needs that unique enhancement to it.

Back in the day I could never find Rotary Connection records in my towns record store. I heard Ruby Tuesday and Soul Man from this album on the radio maybe once or twice. They left an impression on my mind for the next 38 years until I found RC on CD here at Amazon. To my terrific surprise the best song for me on the album was one I never heard back in the day. The RC cover of the Stones Lady Jane is just magically over the top. It literally blows my mind. I've never heard anything else like it. I play it over and over and the astonishment is just as powerful every time. The rest of the album is just darn great. This was the first album by RC and their most experimental and psychedelic. Minnie Ripertons voice is a wonder in itself. Sometimes I think I'm hearing a musical instrument when it is her voice still soaring up in that 5 octave range. RC isn't for everyone, but if you like experimentation, and psychedelic music at all then you definately need to get your hands on this one. I think it is the best of the RC albums and I doubt if there will ever be anything esle quite like it. It was a one of a kind jem during an era when so much good music was being produced that some groups got mostly overlooked in the commercial airwaves. They did psychedelic covers of pop hits similar to but earlier than Vanilla Fudge. Throw in some Sly & Family Stone, the Fifth Dimension on Psychedelic steroids and you've an idea of the sound of RC.

It's impossible for a concept album to be better than a body of original work, but "Rotary Connection" does the impossible! For sheer creativity, this one is up there with "Abbey Road" for my money !!!

Many songs are done with a diverse religious theme:
"Amen" has a brassy Black Gospel drive,
"Lady Jane" has an orchestral Balinese temple dance tempo, proceeded by pink noise (the sound of waves rolling on a beach).
"Ruby Tuesday" is almost uncanny as it begins with Sursum Mentes before continuing the Jagger/Richards lyrics in the same chant + a driving rock beat chorus.
"Turn Me On[:I want to know what it's all about]" includes a 1968 psychedelic electric guitar riff.
Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone" has a full orchestral treatment with only the lyrics, HOW DOES IT FEEL belted out in the chorus.

And there are still other great numbers on the CD

If you've not heard this one you are REALLY missing something!
(many of the songs have been uploaded, if you know where to look)