Customer Reviews

United States of America (Reis)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is THE Underground classic of the 60's.

The United States of America was, along with the Doors and Jimi Hendrix, one of the most played "alternative" rock albums when alternative rock meant something. After the 60's, some of these albums made it into the classic pantheon, others, just as good, like USA, are obscure.

In 1968, 99% of the rock stations refused to play this because it was too good, too topical, too loud, too literate, too weird and, well, too psychedelic. Only low power college stations would dare to played it and boy, did they ever! Over and over all night!

Dorothy Moskowitz had (has?) a voice with the beauty and power of the Jefferson Airplane's Grace Slick. Dorothy, it's good to hear from you. You were great, Dorothy, why did you stop?

USA, with their synthesizer and distortion violin and without lead guitar goes where no album had gone before and few since. The first rock album to make extensive use of synthesizer as a lead instrument. This was the first and as far as I know the ONLY rock album ever released on the prestigeous classical Columbia Masterworks label.

Commander America said, "The US of A was...the most successful attempt to simulate the mental and bodily sensations of certain popular intoxicants of the Sixties".

To be appreciated it MUST BE HEARD THROUGH HEADPHONES. "Hard Coming Love" hops around your head like a rattlesnake on a skillet in an attempt to simulate an orgasm between your ears!

Full of musical and literary references, Byrd often sounds like late Charles Ives repeatedly quoting "Columbia the Gem of the Ocean". "Steppenwolf" (the book by Hesse, not the band) "the cost of one admission is your mind". "Winnie the Pooh". The visions of Hironymous Bosch's, "Garden of Earthly Delight" where Bryd descibes what he sees inside his girlfriends eyes.

"Song for Dead Che" a beautiful ballad, "Agnus Dei" which compares the aftermath of love and memory to a nuclear blast "shadows on the pavement but no bodies do you find". "Coming Down".

Don't be scared by Byrd's lead-off vehement anti-war diatribe about the military industrial complex, the "American Metaphysical Circus". I still can't listen to American Metaphysical Circus without a feeling of fear and loathing.

From beginning to end a lost classic of the sixties. Alternately lyrical, thought provoking, excessive, paranoid, beautiful, raucous, US of A is a classic with a short half-life which repeatedly appears and disappears from the marketplace. This is the real sixties, not the "Peace and Love - Flower Power" you usually hear about.

USofA was a statment against all that was violent, trivial and puerile in America. There was a war on. Students hated this war and the draft with a anger 1000% higher than war opposition today. Kids were being drafted and sent to die in a war they violently opposed. In the midst of this war, blacks were rioting everywhere. It was a violent angry, dangerous, time. The DC, Detriot, Chicago, Watts were in flames. People were dying everywhere. Today the 60's were viewed as flower-power and silly clothes and drugs, but in reality, these were escapist reactions to the ongoing madness over which they had little control.

This album was definitely NOT viewed as a gimmick. It was the leading edge. The avant garde. Synthesizers were brand new inventions, there were only 3 very obscure Pop albums on the market that used them (Gershon Kingsly), no rock bands.

This was the direction not taken in music because no one else had the wits and talent to pull it off. And no other record company had the guts to release it.

get it while you can. five stars, my highest rating. a classic.

Recorded in 1967 and released in 1968, this album largely reflects the vision of avant-garde composer Joseph Byrd. The supporting musicians on the album include excellent fretless bassist Rand Forbes who was a modern classical bassist (he bought an electric Ampeg fretless for the occasion), wonderful vocalist Dorothy Moskowitz, violinist Gordon Marron and percussionist Craig Woodson. The album is stylistically diverse and the pieces range from Beatles/Jefferson Airplane influenced psychedelic pop, gloomy quasi-Gregorian chant, through electronic experimentation and spacey interludes, to found sounds and general avant-garde tendencies suggestive of an influence by composers like Cage, Stockhausen, and Edgar Varese. The use of electronics on this album is very creative for 1968 and includes (most notably) a crude wave generator built by none other than Tom Oberheim (he was responsible for synthesizers like the Oberheim polyphonic for example). Other electronic effects include running the violin through a ring modulator, which resulted in the violin sounding like an electric guitar - this is an interesting choice given Joe's desire to get away from the guitar "clutter" as he referred to it as. Joe also subjected the vocal parts on The American Metaphysical Circus to the ring modulator treatment as well. Finally, the wave generator was run through an echoplex (echo device) that added yet another tonal color to the recording. The ten pieces are fairly short and range from the 2'37" Coming Down to the 6'38" The American Way of Love. With the exception of the whimsical introductory vocal section of the piece I Won't Leave My Wooden Wife for You, Sugar, all of the music is quite serious. Overall this is an exceptional recording that is a refreshing departure from the rock music typically associated with the late 1960's (or at least the music that Rolling Stone Magazine would associate with the 1960s). Although I was more than satisfied with the ten tracks from the original album, the ten bonus tracks on the CD are OK with Osamu's Birthday being exceptional - in fact, it should have been included on the original album. For those folks that enjoyed this, the avant-garde Swedish band International Harvester and their album Sov Gott Rose-Marie (1969) might also prove enjoyable.

I have been acquainted with the TUSoA album since it was fairly new, and it always held interest for me. But rediscovering it now via this newly expanded Sundazed release has been a revelation.

Joe Byrd's concept was to organize a group of musicians coming from other genres and disciplines to record a rock album, and the result was a conceptual masterpiece -- sonically progressive, lyrically adventurous, whose corruscating flavor could be termed (at different times) humorous, schmaltzy, daring, brazen, corrosive, sensuous. They even quote Hermann Hesse's "Steppenwolf." The album is arranged as a flowing, organic whole -- an experience that alternately charges, romps, coos seductively and shimmers like a flying saucer. I mean, what more can you ask of an album?

The new remaster has given the album a full-bodied presence it has never had before. The bass playing is masterful and fluid (and has been mixed to reach down to the subwoofer, unlike some remasters I could name), but so is all the playing. There is something to love here, musically, whether you favor The Mothers of Invention, Jefferson Airplane, It's A Beautiful Day or Country Joe and the Fish... yet The USA seems more modern when heard today than any of those other acts. The vocals of Dorothy Moskowitz are often described as icy, but I find her sound warm and fragile on the classic "Love Song for the Dead Ché" and other times, as on "Hard Coming Love" as being casual, savvy and enticing. She would not sound at all out of place duetting with The Zombies' Colin Blunstone.

As an added enticement, Sundazed has included several bonus tracks to the original album. Among these are USA's Columbia audition tapes (which sound spectacular), alternate versions ("I Won't Leave My Wooden Wife For You, Sugar" provocatively sung by Dorothy, but not as effectively as by the male vocalist on the album), and a few demo tracks from the Dorothy-led splinter group which never recorded an album of their own. These songs are softer and less complex than the material on the USA album, but interesting and at times infectious in their own right. "Tailor Man" has a particularly catchy groove that is hard to dismiss. She had her own sound, and a valid one.

I post this at a time when there are several brilliant new releases vying for my ears, from Brian Wilson's SMiLE to Bjork's MEDULLA, and TUSoA -- thirty-some years old -- is exerting as strong and as fresh a pull on my attentions as any of them. It is probably my favorite album of the moment, which is saying a lot, if only in the face of SMiLE. Perhaps this is because the USA made only this one album, which makes it all the more precious, or it may be a testament to its creative invention, youthful vitality and sheer variety. The USA was a great, undervalued band who deserve broader recognition. I hope a recording will come forward someday to document how they sounded live.

P.S.: I love knowing from Joe Byrd's liner notes that this album was played loud at a party in the home of a personal hero of mine, actor James Coburn. I picture him sitting in the midst of all his guests, playing along with "Coming Down" by banging a gong with complete abandon.

This album has amused and bemused me since I first disovered it on third-hand vinyl so this reissue is most welcome. Byrd's USA were not a rock group, as such; he was a Californian student of avant-garde composition who got lucky with a recording contract to so something 'far out'for the kids. The idea, according to the lucid and self-critical liner notes by Byrd and Moskowitz, was to liberate rock music from the guitar, respect indeterminacy and smuggle some counter-cultural anarchy into the record shelves; the results were in fact a variant of psychedelic studio-pop, both melodic and satircal, albeit rather tentative and kitsch in places. Pretty violin melodies or driving rock rhythmns are derailed by Babbit/Stockhausen style modulations,discordant arrangements or occasional musique concrete passages; 'American Metaphysical Circus' and 'Coming Down' are the most immediate pieces, while 'Love Song for the Dead Che' best indicates the seriousness of intent(lyrically and musically)of Byrd's artistic vision. It is all held together by Moskowitz's delightful vocals, although her notes confirm the suspiscion that the band didn't entirely know what they were doing (hence the poor Beatles pastiche 'Stranded in Time'). The bonus tracks are genuinely illuminating in this regard, charting the bands drift from dissonant demos to a lightweight pop sound.
I suspect this album was alreasy seen as a gimmick by '68, when rock was heading back to its roots with The Band, although the recent UK synth-pop of Broadcast has drawn on its legacy. More restrained than Zappa and ignored in NYC and Cologne (where rock and the avant-garde really did come together),the USA album is recommended as a post on a path not taken by 60s rock.

Folks, this is a great listen! And yes I have been listening to it off and on for 30+ years now. All the other reviews cover it other than 2 small points:

ONE: If this album has a failing as rock music it is that this is careful playing. Worse yet, a lot of the music is rather tightly composed and arranged. On this level it is a bit like the Beach Boys or Beatles. But it is not always pretty music despite Dorothy's appealing vocals. The sounds are a bit more challenging. On this level it is more like Hendrix from Electric Ladyland with environmental sounds thrown in. This combination will drive people with sissy ears crazy. You are warned: If you only like pretty music or jam bands, then have a nice day. If you like music that is reasonably challenging and complex you MAY like this a lot.

TWO: Despite rumors to the contrary, this is NOT this group's only outing. 'Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies' (essentially the same group) put out 'The American Metaphysical Circus' about the same time. If anything it is more composed, but it is also quite pretty in a sardonic and occasionally downright disgusted sort of way. Joe just does not tolerate knaves and fools gladly. Think Zappa. I also have a solo synthesize LP from Byrd on John Fahey's Tacoma label. (A hoot!) And Byrd did the arranging for Rye Cooder's JAZZ album. (Highly recommended!) I am sure he has been involved in many other projects of which I am unaware. I heard Dorothy on the radio (WRIR Richmond VA) with Country Joe last week. Probably from his `Paris Sessions' LP-- Trust me, DogPile, Google and the various web encyclopedias are full of these folks! Seek and ye shall find.

I tracked this down after reading that Broadcast had largely based their sound on this band (no joke- they are almost indistinguishable from one another at times). This is a distinctly 60's affair, but the pioneering nature of the band means that a lot of these sounds will be familiar, having been adopted by countless groups since and subsequently becoming commonplace in contemporary music. The songs are generally fairly straight ahead hard rock songs, with a typically 60's tinge of blues pervading the whole thing. The United States have outfitted their pop savvy with wild experimentalism however, and this is where the album established itself as such an influential classic. Standard psychadelic issue drums, guitar and organ are replete with chaotic instrumental garnishes and studio trickery, and most distinctly, a nearly out of control ring modulator that careens madly through the tracks. The production is exceptionally punchy and clear, and much of it is drenched in reverb that accentuates the outer space feel of the whole thing.

The band is also adept at switching quickly from head-nodding rock & roll to weird ambient soundscaping, nowhere more apparent than in the songs "Hard Coming Love", a banging tune with a crazy freakout in the middle, and its dreamy, skyward-gazing follow-up "Cloud Song". The United States have exceptional prowess at building lush, immersive sonic environments with unorthodox composition and recording techniques, aided by a profound curiosity and humor.

Besides everything else, the whole album is worth it for the fourth track if nothing else. This crazy tune barely makes it past two and half minutes, but I have listened to probably a dozen times in a row on numerous occasions to make up for its shortness. The band works out a pretty straight forward organ and bass groove that is fairly unsurprising until it literally explodes into the chorus. The drummer absolutely POUNDS all the way through to the end of the song, even seeming to miss a cymbal in his excitement on the last hook. Throughout the whole thing, the characteristic ring modulator is whooping around in a sort of avalanche of chaos. This is a tune that just gets better and better the louder it is. The vocalist, whose name escapes me, has a very Gracie Slick sound about her, and the distinctly psych-rock refrain "You will find them in her eyes" wouldn't be out of place on a Jefferson Airplane record if it weren't for the completely bonkers instrumentation.

What more can be said?
It is easy to be drawn into the myth of the United States of America: Field Hippies, the legions of Cage followers, psychedelia, happenings... It is easy to believe that this album is some sort of monument -- a testament... Or, equally, it is easy to denigrate this work to the dust-bin of history -- a footnote at best. Perhaps they are all of the above. I am not sure. Yet, beneath the surfaces of sounds and gyrating layers of electronic modulations and frantic montage, the United States of America, perhaps one of a few recorded happenings, or performance art pieces, to masqurade as part of popular culture, is somehow authentic. They are truely explorers -- on what happened to be very different trajectories -- who came together at a cross road. The album is but residue of a deeper, perhaps more profound, attempt to make something new... to make something happen... to propell themselves beyond the present.
This work, or trace of their productivity, cut short by strife and a certain amount of confusion, is very listenable. In fact, it is downright enjoyable... dare I say "elegant?" I am compelled to listen repeatedly, and repeatedly, I find differences, nuances, sometimes a familiar track becomes strange and is discovered anew, as if for the first time. These are layers which emerge between the listener and the work, belonging to that alchemical union -- a union that is more present in live music than studio work. I continue to listen to this work. Perhaps it is changing how I listen to music. Perhaps it is changing me. Slowly.
I encourage you to listen -- the music is not the object (or an object) but the subject of a happening. This happening involves you and draws you into its gravity well.
You may enjoy it or you may not. It may change you.

In the sixties, when we escaped AM radio to find on FM the music AM radio wouldn't play, little did we conceive of the fact that there was also music FM wouldn't play. Kim Fowley, Emitt Rhodes and most germain to this review, Joseph Byrd are classic examples of the not-radical-enough-for-us slights. Emitt's disappeared, Kim's made great music under the radar for four decades, and Professor Byrd is alive and well, humble and creative, expanding young minds at College of the Redwoods, among the trees of the same name, in Northern California. The Burgenius says: buy this music, enjoy, and e-mail the professor thanking him for not drinking himself to death, or dying of an overdose, at thirty. Buy Kim, too. And if you see Emitt, tell him to drop me an e-mail. I'd love to hear from him.

Remember all throughout school we had to stand up and recite the Pledge of Allegiance? Wouldn't it have been better to sing along to THIS album instead? Yes, that wouldn't have been so boring, and we certainly wouldn't have been falling asleep as we barely had the energy to stand up and look at a flag first thing in the morning, especially after a rough teenage night.

But all joking aside (rather terrible joking- sorry I'm not too talented in the joke department) the United States of America (yes I KNOW what you were thinking the first time you read that... hold on a second... my favorite part of a Locanda delle Fate song is about to play

*20 seconds later*

Alright where were we? Oh yes, I KNOW the first thing you were thinking when you found out there was a band called the United States of America is WHAT the heck were they smoking to come up with such a horrible band name? I don't know what they were smoking, but give me none of that, because it's not the stuff.

Let's just get right to the point- what makes this album interesting is that these extremely melodic vocal melodies are playing, and behind the melodies are some really strange, noisy and just messed up experiments going on. I can't even explain all the things in the background of the opening song for instance- I just remember that one super awesome vocal melody that keeps repeating for several moments.

Then the band turns around and does something like "Cloud Song" which makes you think about heaven and the Moody Blues and you're like "WHAT??? Am I listening to the same band???"

WAIT!! I know how to describe the opening song. Imagine grabbing a microphone and standing in the busy streets of New York City. Alright maybe not the streets... how about a construction zone or something? Anywhere where you can hear a variety of different sounds that border on annoying, but not annoying enough to distract you. Then, with the mic, block out all the sounds around you and sing a passionate vocal melody. That's kind of what the opening song is like. If you don't think so, well, we're just two very different people.

Just pick up US of A today.

It was 1967. A new enclosed mall near my house in Philadelphia - Cedarbrook Mall - had a Woolworth's with a huge, separate record department run by a contractor. Unlike many other stores, this one did not mind neighborhood kids hanging around so long as they checked out the merchandise. I was a regular. Fortunately, this was a time of great ferment and creativity in the music business; the bottom line MBA types had not yet taken over the music buisiness. The iron grip of old-time middle of the road acts (Montavani, Perry Como, Andy Williams, Burl Ives, etc.) on the record business was weakening, and, spurred on by the success of the Beatles and other groups of the British invasion, labels like Columbia and Elektra were signing up new and creative talent and giving them license to go wherever their talent took them. Out of this creative stew arose the United States Of America.

After looking at it for a week or two, I bought this album new at the record department of that Woolworth's store in Philadelphia for the then princely sum of $2.98 (I did not have much money at this time and it is worth noting that Sgt. Pepper - also released that year - cost only $2.17 at that same store!). It came in an unusual brown paper envelope with the band's logo on it. Very strange for 1967. I was 14 and deeply into the then-new electronic-psychedelic sounds. My friends thought I was nuts - until they heard it. They were amazed - none of us had ever heard anything like this album. Now - some 41 years later - the world is finally catching up. I still have my old scratched album, but I now listen to the CD, and it STILL never fails to blow away anyone who hears it. Just a great and unique album by an incredibly talented group of visionary musicians. One of the great tragedies of 60's music is that the band only did this one album. A mash-up of synths, bass, drums, the haunting Grace Slick-like voice of lead singer Dorothy Moskowitz, and NO GUITARS! Utterly amazing for its time and completely unique, yet listenable. This is one CD you MUST add to your collection!