Customer Reviews

Summer of Love 1

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

 

 

The maturity of the senior tracks(San Francisco, Love is all Around, San Franciscan Nights, etc),and the gloss of the junior titles(Reach out of the Darkness, Lazy Day, Sunshine Girl)combine to make a great CD. You can almost smell the flowers and practically feel the warmth of the sun on your face.

Summer of Love, Vol. 1: Tune In (Good Time & Love Vibrations) has excellent music from the era when creativity and high quality music went hand-in-hand. These are tunes that made the airwaves sizzle back in the day; and that's grand. They will easily bring back memories for many people who first heard these numbers on the radio; and this album also introduces a lot of other people to these songs and ballads. The quality of the sound on this CD is excellent and I love that artwork!

Scott McKenzie's "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" starts the CD track set off with a terrific number; Scott sings this with all his heart and soul and just one listen proves it! The music that plays goes along with Scott's vocals; they make good use of the percussion, guitar, drums and more. This is a major highlight of this CD. In addition, "Reach Out of the Darkness" shines brighter than silver and gold combined when Friend & Lover perform it faultlessly; I could never tire of hearing this tune. "Get Together" by The Youngbloods is another tune that you may recognize after you hear the first few bars; this is classic 60's music and they do this one without ever missing a beat.

The Troggs were always impressive; and I enjoy hearing their hit entitled "Love Is All Around." "Love Is All Around" features The Troggs right there in the spotlight and that's quite all right by me! They make excellent use of the strings and electric guitar as they sing this and it lacks nothing--this music is all THAT good. The Cowsills also score big with their timeless classic, "The Rain, the Park & Other Things." The Cowsills had all too brief a career working together--but wow, how they gave us great music!

The 5th Dimension does s wonderful rendition of "Up, Up and Away;" this song has them singing it to perfection--and beyond! Ooh, how they could harmonize so very well, too. The Association does "Windy" which I could never forget; and there's yet another gem in "Lazy Day" by Spanky & Our Gang. Spanky & Our Gang had worlds of talent and "Lazy Day" is one of their very best. Harpers Bizarre's "59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)" is pretty awesome; the melody is easy on the ear and that arrangement is incredibly lush.

The Box Tops perform Neon Rainbow with panache; I love how they used the guitars for this tune. The Hollies do "King Midas in Reverse" very well--they never let go of a single superfluous note! The CD ends very well with Eric Burdon & the Animals performing "San Franciscan Nights." I really like it a lot.

Summer of Love, Vol. 1: Tune In (Good Time & Love Vibrations) is not a complete retrospective of the music from the "Summer of Love;" and some will say that not even all of this music comes from 1967. Diehard fans will certainly want more comprehensive CD box sets of this music; this CD is perhaps best geared toward the more casual fan or anyone who just plain wants a smaller set of songs from the 1960's.

This is a high quality compilation for those who really dig this genre of music. Personally, I bought the CD just for the two gorgeous songs "San Francisco" and "Love is All Around." Either one of those would be worth the price of the CD, but there are lots of classics included. A few of the tracks don't seem to stand the test of time particularly well, but may be worthwhile to those who have an historical interest.

This 1992 Rhino compilation will, of course, appeal greatly to those who simply loved the "flower-power" music that prevailed in the late 1960s. However, it was also a boon to collectors of hit singles since, while also containing some tracks that were (and still are) available on any number of such volumes (i.e., tracks 1, 6, 7, 8, 9 to 11, 14 and 16), also contained a fair number that are as hard to find today as they were when this was first released.

These include: Friend And Lover's summer 1968 # 10 Billboard Pop Hot 100 hit, Reach Out Of The Darkness, one of just two hits for the husband-and-wife duo of Jim and Cathy Post on the Verve Forecast label; Get Together by The Youngbloods, a minor # 62 Hot 100 in the fall of 1967 on RCA Victor, but revived in summer 1969 when used as the theme for the National Conference Of Cbristians And Jews, at which time it soared to # 5; Love Is All Around, the last North American hit for the British group The Troggs, a # 7 in early 1968 on the Fontana label; Groovy Summertime, one of just two minor hits for The Love Generation (# 74 in summer 1957 on Imperial); Sunshine Girl, the only hit for The Parade, and a # 20 in May 1967 on A&N; and one of The Hollies' lesser hits, King Midas In Reverse, a # 51 Hot 100 in November 1967 on Epic.

The sound reproduction is excellent on all tracks, and with the insert you get six pages of detailed background notes written by noted music critic Barry Alfonso, along with pictures of Marcia Strassman, Scott McKenzie, Friend & Lover, The 5th Dimension, Spanky & Our Gang, The Association, The Box Tops, and The Hollies.

This collection pulls together many of the great songs from this very short time of musical history. This particular volume, though, is the best of the set. I did not get the others due to the tracks they include.

For some, the summer of 1967 was a special moment in time. Briefly, optimism and idealism combined with youthful enthusiasm to create a feeling than change was happening all around and that anything was possible. Songs from this collection fairly represent some of the feeling of that time.

For those who lived through that brief moment, this music will likely take you back. It is pleasant nostalgia, just before violence and drug commerce made all of that change into an ugly thing. The songs are light and hopeful. For those who are interested in that time, a listen to the music from then is revealing. However, these songs are, for the most part, pretty light weight. Some are quite forgetable, and a few have aged so poorly as to make one cringe to hear them now (Eric Burdon's "trans-love airways" for example).

So this is a collection for those who want a pleasant spin down memory lane or who just want to examine that moment in the past. Others may wonder why anyone would listen to this simple stuff. Musical style has grown and progressed way past these pleasant numbers now.

There are songs on this CD which will take you right back to the days of Flower Power, peace signs, Love In's and chemical alteration (smile). I was disappointed in a few of the tunes included - not what I would call TOP 40 at all - obsure ones. There were though, enough to get me to purchase it. I simply burned it to my computer, and deleted the few that just didn't reach me. So - if you have a hankering for remembering these days (which I will always have - and not the chemical alteration phase - just the memories of living for something larger than yourself)... buy it.

This is only a so-so compilation. It does contain a few real, original tracks. But it also has some lame remakes and some songs that were never on the charts in 1967, or any other time. Those who can remember 1967 will find this unsatisfactory.