Format Details: Gatefold Double Vinyl Album
Release Date: 28 June 2019
Label: Ace Records
Packaging Type: Gate Fold
No of Units: 2
Barcode: 029667009515
Description
Spread over four sides of two 33rpm 12-inch albums, this is a love letter to the 7-inch 45rpm single. Deluxe packaging includes a heavy-duty gatefold jacket and two fully illustrated inner bags containing the 180g orange vinyl discs. Album cover photo: Riot On Sunset Strip 1966 by Julian Wasser. Since 2016, I've collaborated with Ace Records in a mapping of the mid to late 60s in terms of 45rpm singles. We began with 1966 and time stretched backwards and forwards over 96 songs and four double CD's - one collection per year between 1965 and 1968. We did discuss releasing them on LP format but each compilation would have needed a triple album. So as a resume, we've decided to compress the four years into one year a side: beginning in early 1965 and ending in very late 1968. The idea is to give some kind of representation of each compilation on one side, and an idea of their reach across the two albums. You'll also find songs that have not been released on any official vinyl album before, including the single version of 'Rain' by Kak, the overdubbed 'People! Let's Freak Out' by the Freaks of Nature and the preview pressing of the MC5's 'Kick Out The Jams' to name but three. From 'That's The Way It's Got To Be' to 'Kick Out The Jams', this double vinyl album takes you through four fast-moving years: a period of ferment and experimentation mapped through singles, some of them hits, some of them obscurities, some of them classics. The idea behind the series was to create an idealised pirate radio playlist from each year, mixing genres and attitudes in the holistic pop mixture of the period that, by the late 60s, was dissipating. The medium of the day was the 45rpm single, a format originated in early 1949 that found its time in the mid to late 50s with the first explosion of teen music: rock'n'roll. From then on the single was THE teen format: cheap (still 6s/8d at the beginning of 1966), focussed - just two songs, one often an obvious dud, and hooked into a compelling narrative by weekly chart rundowns in both the US and the UK. You were only as good as your last hit: and that applied to everyone including the Beatles, locked into a grid of three singles a year. The 45rpm was the funnel through which so much had to flow. Whole worlds had to be compressed into those two to three minutes - a perfect discipline for musicians and producers. This held until the late 60s - when 1968 in particular saw an arms race in terms of 45rpm length: eight minutes and upwards - but for most of the records on this compilation the rule was get in, make your statement, make it stick and get out quickly. The resulting urgency remains compelling 50 years later: the everlasting NOW. Side A (1965) begins in plangent Celtic beat, then moves through some late girl group proto-psych (the Chiffons' 'Nobody Knows What's Goin' On (In My Mind But Me)' and jumping soul material (the Anglos' 'Incense') to take in a bit of folk rock (the Pretty Things' version of folkie Mick Tayl
Tracklisting
Richard Thompson
Little Richard
Elmore James
B.B. King
B.B. King
Young Jessie
Wynonie Harris
Willie Hightower
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
