Is Spreading: The Great Peanut Butter Conspiracy

Peanut Butter Conspiracy | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 8, 2000)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Collectables
• ASIN: B000040JF6
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #235,063 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. It's a Happening Thing

2. Then Came Love

3. Twice Is Life

4. Second Hand Man

5. You Can't Be Found

6. Why Did I Get So High

7. Dark on You Now

8. The Market Place

9. You Should Know

10. The Most Up Till Now

11. You Took Too Much

12. Turn on a Friend (To the Good Life)

13. Lonely Leaf

14. Pleasure

15. Too Many Do

16. Living, Loving Life

17. Invasion of the Poppy People

18. Captain Sandwich

19. Living Dream

20. Ecstasy

See all 25 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Two of the Conspiracy's Columbia classics on one CD! This LA psych band hit the charts with Is Spreading in '67, scoring a pop hit with its song It's a Happening Thing . That LP and 1968's The Great Conspiracy are here plus three bonus cuts, 25 trippy tracks in all: Twice Is Life; Dark on You Now; Lonely Leaf; Ecstasy; You Can't Be Found; Wonderment , and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE PEANUT BUTTER CONSPIRACY IS SPREADING STILL!, August 23, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Is Spreading: The Great Peanut Butter Conspiracy (Audio CD)

The Peanut Butter Conspiracy, a Hollywood based group (not San Francisco) was one of the top groups on the west coast at the time of these lps (1967 - 68), at least in personal appearances, often booked atop groups thought today to have been the top artists of the time, such as the Doors, Iron Butterfly, Steppenwolf, etc. Because of a better review than the Jefferson Airplane received in New Jersey, Bill Graham said "no more gigs with Peanut Butter" and the group was kept out of west-coast packages, Woodstock, the Monterey Festival and that had a lot to do with what kept them from the big time. They were an underground group and did not have the proper people behind them to compete, a story told over and over again in the music business. They did get a lot of airplay, however and this music is very typical of the times. Barbara had a beautiful voice and the group was very good instrumentally and vocally.Although not recorded with the care that others were at the time, this is the best of the Peanut Butter Conspiracy and worth having.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Best Side from 1968?, August 17, 2004

By 

J. R. Thelin - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Is Spreading: The Great Peanut Butter Conspiracy (Audio CD)

I bought this collection of PBC's Columbia material last year, almost on a whim, since I had never been a big fan during their late 1960s existence. However, I did see the group live in Chicago, summer of 1968 (more on that later). I was familiar with the LPs, but never owned either, preferring the first one (Spreading) over the second (Great), which I found rather cold.

Well, the music obviously has not changed, but my perceptions of it has. Spreading is a decent first effort, but it has a rather piece-meal quality to it. While not a singles band, the album plays as if PBC were that very thing. Thus, the tracks work better individually than as a well-integrated album of 11 songs. The strongest tracks are "Dark on You Now" (which, sometimes, as "Swallow the Sun," was covered by a number of West Coast bands), "You Should Know," and "Twice Is Life," all written by John Merrill. (Alan Brackett, PBC's other songwriter tended to write more commercially; his compositional abilities were shown to greater effect on LP #2.) Sandi Robinson was a lovely singer, as many reviewers have noted, and she helps elevate some of the more mundane material. And actually, while the harmonies are not as ethereal as some of the Mamas & Papas or as rhythmically engaging as the Airplane's, they are generally worth hearing. A B or B- grade, if you go in for that sort of thing.

Great is another story, however. The songs do not have a cold veneer like I originally thought 35 years (ouch!) ago. Instead, PCB plays harder and tighter, emphasizing more of the Rock part of Pop/Rock. Bill Wolf was a stronger, more inventive guitarist than the previous lead of Lance Fent. His more overtly San Francisco-influenced psychedelic licks (think CJ Fish a la Barry Melton or David Cohen) balanced well with John Merrill's more traditional rock `n' roll approach to tone and rhythm. Speaking of rhythm: the rhythm section of bassist Alan Brackett and drummer Jim Voight made a great leap forward on this LP, playing with greater dynamism and subtlety. There are two tracks over 6 minutes each which allow the whole band to stretch out instrumentally (and vocally, for that matter, too), thus giving us more of a good sense of their improvisational abilities. The song quality is more consistently superior to the first LP. In fact, I challenge you to find a better 1st side of an LP from a West Coast 1960s band than Side 1 of Great. Other than Love's side A of Da Capo, I doubt there is as strong a side of musical composition/performance as "Turn On a Friend" (a stronger single and lead-off cut than "It's A Happening Thing" from Spreading, which other reviewers seem to favour) through the half-minute vocal swirl of "Invasion of the Poppy People" (okay, okay, the title is dated, but not necessarily the music). Lyrically, PCB was no great shakes. Themes were largely freedom and romance, neither surprising given the times. Sometimes their best lines bump up against awful ones in the same song (try Alan Brackett's "Living Dream," for one). Despite, the lack of profundity and wit in many of the songs, PBC brings out the luster of the tunes through their energetic playing and imaginative vocalizing. And this is a real album, not just a hodge-podge collection of songs, and not one of the many dreadful "concept" LPs hurriedly recorded and rushed to shelves after the success of Sgt. Pepper. Great gets an A (A+ for Side 1, A- for Side 2).

P.S.: The bonus tracks range from bad Mamas & Papas ("It's So Hard Hard") to soulful pop (courtesy of Sandi Robinson and writer Brackett in "I'm a Fool") to bittersweet nostalgia ("Peter Pan" - we can fly off to Neverland...we're never gonna grow old, etc.). "Peter Pan" also reminds me of my "live" experience with PBC, who opened for Spirit at the `Lectric Theatre, the Chicago northside club owned and operated by Aaron Russo (later Bette Midler's manager). I actually recall very little of PBC's performance; but I do remember, with great sadness, nearly colliding with singer Sandi in-between sets. Like Peter Pan, she never grew old - and it's hard to believe she's been dead for over 15 years - but I wish she and her true, crystal voice were still around....

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Oh Sandi..., February 20, 2004

By 

Steven Cain (Temporal Quantum Pocket) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Is Spreading: The Great Peanut Butter Conspiracy (Audio CD)

It was the exquisite voice of the sadly late Barbara (Sandi) Robison (who passed away in 1988) which got me into PBC, the first time I heard Turn On A Friend (To The Good Life) on a CBS Rock Machine sampler album.

As other fans have said, it was no lack of talent that kept this band from the big time. Sometimes people just don't get the breaks, either due to bad management, music industry politics or whatever. Incredibly, by 1969, it was essentially over, and the band that started out as The Ashes, would never record again as PBC.

These two albums are both classics, though stylistically somewhat different. Each kicks off with a storming track - It's A Happening Thing from the first album, and the superb Turn On A Friend from the second. The quality of the songs, vocals, musicianship and arrangements is second to none, and you just cannot get away from the feeling that this band should have been absolutely huge.

If you surf for the PBC unofficial website, it contains a link to a beautiful and informative tribute to Barb, which includes some beautiful photos of that fine fine lady, as does the website itself. I seem to recall the reason she became known as 'Sandi' is that as a teenager, she regularly used some false ID in that name in order to be able to play in clubs and bars.

Wonderful, and Amazon.com does it again with this simply outrageous value-for-money double set.