Author's note: From this post, A Crazy Gift of Time will be posted once a week/two weeks. I have a couple more posts already written, and this will give me time to concentrate in college and to write more stuff. Anyway, I hope you enjoy your stay in this crazy gift of time, thank you for reading this timeline! :)
To where you once belonged
The Beatles, ca. 1969.
As 1969 progressed, the tensions between the band were high at the point that in every session the band wasn't entirely present. Consistently, there were Ringo and George, sometimes Paul, sometimes John, and sometimes the reverse. For Brian Epstein, the situation in the management was almost the same too, as a rift between him and Allan Klein became very apparent.
"For a time, it was just me who was very wary with Klein. Then, Brian [Epstein] said to me some stuff that he was discontent with his work there, he wanted to replace Klein, but wanted the band to secure his action. I immediately stood up for him. Then, Ringo joined us, then John and George."
-Paul McCartney, 1988
At the time, Epstein's visits to the studios became less and less frequent, as he had to deal with Apple Records. And with this, the situation in the studios became more and more chaotic, with the presence of their families, mostly Yoko and Linda, and sometimes their kids too. For the first time, the band had other producer than George Martin to the Get Back project, Phil Spector, to finish the overdubs.
Apart from production, John Lennon briefly left the Beatles between 19 to 26 September 1969, a fact that was known a year later when Klein was fired from Apple. John would still return because of Epstein, who talked to him during meantime. As for the others, with the end of the sessions, Paul would begin to record his debut solo album, entitled McCartney, in secrecy, as did the other Beatles. Ringo still would participate in sessions with Spector.
"John wanted to scrap the film, but Paul and Brian vehemently rejected the idea. 'Doing all of that work for nothing?', they asked. And they were quite right, we are human beings, and that would be the sign that in the studios, the things were a lot different than publicly."
-Ringo Starr
In February 1970, dissatisfied with the turn that the label was going, John and George, the remaining members, were convinced by Brian Epstein to dismiss Klein. "He thought a lot about that, and we knew that he wasn't wrong. The Apple venture was something that we weren't prepared for, and Klein was a weight on his back.", George Harrison. Officially, Klein was dismissed in March 1970, two months before the release of Get Back and the premiere from the movie.
After the release of the album, Lee Eastman was appointed officially to replace Klein in the management. As for the Beatles, the band decided to enter in a hiatus for a year, deciding to record the album in a two-year period. However, the EMI label demanded a last album after Get Back before the management company signed a new contract with them. And at last, Lennon and McCartney decided to dissolve their partnership. Finally, The Beatles were renovated, a new band diving into the 1970s along with other bands altogether.
Get Back was finally announced, alongside the documentary with the same name in April 1970. At the time, rumours said that The Beatles were about to break-up since the dismiss of Klein from Apple, and as the movie was released, it would only confirm those claims to their public. As some tracks were released as singles mostly in the previous year, I've Got a Feeling and The Long and Winding Road were released as a double A-side single, topping the UK Singles Chart and reaching number 3 in the Billboard Hot 100.
The Beatles – Get Back
The Beatles - Get Back (1970)
Genre: Rock, pop, blues rock, film soundtrack
Total: 84:22
Disc One - 41:56
Side A - 21:27
1. "The Palace of the King of the Birds" (George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Richard Starkley) - 5:04
2. "Get Back" (Lennon-McCartney) - 3:09
3. "Dig a Pony" (Lennon-McCartney) - 3:54
4. "Two of Us" (Lennon-McCartney) - 3:33
5. "I Me Mine" (Harrison) - 2:26
6. "Old Brown Shoe" (Harrison) - 3:21
Side B - 20:29
7. "Come Together" (Lennon-McCartney) - 4:20
8. "Don't Let Me Down" (Lennon-McCartney) - 3:35
9. "Sour Milk Sea" (Harrison) - 3:50
10. "(You Know) It Ain't Easy" (Lennon-McCartney) - 2:59¹
11. "Octopus's Garden" (Starkley) - 2:51
12. "One After 909" (Lennon-McCartney) - 2:54
Disc Two - 42:26
Side C - 21:01
13. "Medley I: Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard/Polythene Pam/She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" (Lennon-McCartney) - 6:41
14. "For You Blue" (Harrison) - 2:32
15. "Watching Rainbows" (Lennon-McCartney) - 4:08
16. "I've Got a Feeling" (Lennon-McCartney) - 3:37
17. "Let It Be" (Lennon-McCartney) - 4:03
Side D - 21:25
18. "You Never Give Me Your Money" (Lennon-McCartney) - 4:02
19. "Across the Universe" (Lennon-McCartney) - 3:48
20. "Isn't It a Pity?" (Harrison) - 4:45²
21. "The Long and Winding Road" (Lennon-McCartney) - 3:38
22. "Medley II: Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End" (Lennon-McCartney) - 5:12
Get Back is the thirteenth album by the British rock band The Beatles. It was produced by George Martin, Glyn Johns and Phil Spector and released in 8 May 1970 by Apple Records and distributed by EMI. Part-studio album, part-live album, and part-film soundtrack, the double album contains the material recorded during the sessions of the documentary with the same name, Get Back, plus more songs that didn't appear in film.
The album was recorded in a difficult time for The Beatles, as the band needed to resolve the management issues in Apple Records with manager Brian Epstein and Allan Klein. Paul McCartney gave the idea for a documentary showing how the albums were done, and also a back-to-basics routine for the band. Throughout the year of 1969, the tensions between the members of the group remained high, prompting to John Lennon's brief departure from the band in late September.
With the release, the album was met with universal acclaim by music critics and by fans, topping the charts in both sides of the Atlantic, Billboard 200 for almost 30 weeks and the UK Album Charts for 21 weeks. Get Back is considered another album that blew up expectations by the band, with journalists claiming that "even after eight years, The Beatles never cease to impress us". The album is considered among the Beatles' best, alongside Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, A Doll's House, and Band on the Run.
Beatles' Get Back is considered among musicologists a landmark on music's history, and on the band's history itself. The album cover mirrored the band's debut album, Please Please Me, and also became one of the most imitated in popular music. In 2020, it was ranked fifth in Rolling Stone's list of the greatest albums of all time. The album has also been ranked as one of the Beatles' best-selling, including a multi-platinum certification by the RIAA.
Still, Get Back wasn't free from criticism of the Beatles themselves. Paul McCartney considered Phil Spector's embelishments unnecessary in most of the songs, while John Lennon felt that the album lacked authenticity. The record also is the last record with the iconic partnership between John Lennon and Paul McCartney, which after that, both members would be credited individually for their songs.
Shagrat the Vagrant
Steve Peregrin Took, somewhere in the 70s.
As 1969 was passing, Steve Took — former member from Rubber Band and now the former drummer from Syd's touring band as he was backed by Tailboard — started to connect with more members from the now-crumbling British Underground, forming the 'Pink Fairies Rock'n'Roll Club'. Some of the members included the Deviants (such as Mick Farren), former members from The Pretty Things, and sometimes even Syd himself, who was mostly absent because of touring.
Throughout the year, Took collaborated with two songs on drummer Twink's debut solo album Think Pink, "Three Little Piggies" and "The Sparrow is a Sign", and also collaborated with former The Deviants Mick Farren's solo record Mona – The Carnivorous Circus. And that is where he could find his future band.
"So, after breaking up with Rubber Band, after leaving Syd's band, I was quite lost in my way. I wanted to be in a group so bad, I had written a couple songs to do something, but I was missing my opportunity to shine. And that's why I am thankful to Mick helping me by meeting with Shagrat."
-Steve Took, 1976
During the sessions for Mona, Took met bass player John Gustafson and keyboardist Pete Robinson. Gustafson was a member of Episode Six as Roger Glover left to join Deep Purple, together with Mick Underwood, who didn't participate in the sessions. However, asked if he wanted to join a group John was forming, Steve gladly accepted, suggesting Shagrat as the name for the group, accepted by them. However, this time, Steve filled up the role for guitarist, and eventually, a frontman for his new group alongside Gustafson.
All the people having dinner inside
Os Mutantes, ca. 1970.
The group Os Mutantes was a band heavily linked to the Tropicália movement back in Brazil, and the country's greatest revelation for rock music at the time. The band pioneered the use of electric guitar in traditional Brazilian music, seen as 'blasphemous' to the more conservative and puritan elements of music. (And when I say 'conservative elements', they even did a march against the electric guitar, I mean, what were they thinking?) Anyway, back to the story...
Os Mutantes were formed in 1966 by the high-class friends Rita Lee and brothers Arnaldo Baptista and Sérgio Dias. They were a part from a larger musical group called Six Sided Rockets, which was reduced to the trio in a year. And since 1967, the group released three albums: Os Mutantes (1968), Mutantes (1969) and A Divina Comédia ou Ando Meio Desligado (1970, recorded in 1969).
Between 1969 and 1970, Os Mutantes would go touring in the psychedelic melting pot of France, and invited by Carl Holmes, the band started to record an album, at the Des Dames Studios, to attract an international audience to the band. At the time, the band was signed with Polydor Records. The album would be released as Technicolor, and released for international markey only, reaching Brazil under a reissue in the 1980s.
Still, winds of change affected the Brazilian music scenario as the military dictatorship was getting harder and harsher against the opposition, resulting in the exile from famous musicians at the time, such as Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, the last two, the main figures of Tropicália alongside Os Mutantes. One of the effects of the persecution was the bittersweet ending of the Tropicália movement, as their main figures distanced themselves from the 'tropical, psychedelic-esque' sounds, moving towards the typical Brazilian Pop Music (MPB, for short).
However, for Os Mutantes, they would remain for a while with a foot on Tropicália territory, but as time progressed, the group would be more influenced by the growing progressive rock scene and by hippie ideals that came (quite late) to Brazil, eventually moving to a hippie settlement throughout the 1970s. For many artists, including them, that period was considered the post-Tropicália era, fuelled by a bitter sentiment against the military regime and by previous influences, quite like a transitionary stage.
"Since we were one of those major figures in Brazilian music at the time, the military government was keeping an eye on us constantly. It was the most common thing at the time to a musician to have a song prohibited by the censorship offices. That happened to us, and to everybody, to Taiguara, to Milton [Nascimento, Caetano [Veloso]... It was awful."
-Rita Lee, 1992
Year of the rooster
Carl Palmer, also somewhere in the 1970s.
At last, there is Atomic Rooster. A new, democratic, incarnation from the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, the band was initially composed by Arthur Brown (vocals), Andy Dalby (lead guitar), Nick Graham (bass guitar and vocals), Vincent Crane (keyboards), Carl Palmer (drums), and one of the most promising acts with their newest material infusing heavy psychedelia, progressive, and experimental rock music.
The group would start to perform around London, headlining at the London Lyceum in August 1969, with the opening act by Deep Purple. Atomic Rooster signed with Blackhill Records, replacing the former incarnation of the group. Andy Dalby officially joined the group as he was found by Arthur Brown when he was looking for a touring band. The band would start to record their debut album in December 1969.
In January 1970, the non-album single Friday the 13th, written by Vincent Crane, was released, with Gypsy Escape as the backing single. The single reached number 14 in the UK Singles Charts and didn't chart in the United States, and despite being considered an average song by the critics, the song passed unnoticed by the public. "That's when we knew that we needed the help from Blackhill.", Nick Graham.
The album was announced as Galactic Zoo Dossier by Blackhill, featuring a lot of promotion by the label as the new incarnation of the 'successful' Crazy World of Arthur Brown. From the hit single "Fire", not the album "Strangelands". One of the acts was to put the group as a headliner at the upcoming Blackhill's Hyde Park Festival in July 1970.
"Not gonna lie, I was quite nervous with the album, after what happened with Strangelands. And that was the first album without some considerable leadership, even if I was the frontman for the group, haha."
-Arthur Brown, 1981
Atomic Rooster – Galactic Zoo Dossier
Atomic Rooster - Galactic Zoo Dossier (1970)
Genre: Progressive rock, space rock, hard rock
Total: 43:58
Side A - 21:31
1. "Internal Messenger" (Arthur Brown) - 5:08
2. "Space Plucks" (Brown, Crane) - 3:21
3. "Galactic Zoo" (Brown) - 2:32
4. "Broken Wings" (John Mayall) - 5:47
5. "Devil's Answer" (Crane) - 4:43
Side B - 22:27
6. "Banstead" (Crane, Nick Graham, Carl Palmer) - 3:30
7. "Medley (Galactic Zoo/Space Plucks/Galactic Zoo)" (Brown, Crane) - 3:18
8. "Decline and Fall" (Crane, Graham, Palmer) - 5:45
9. "Simple Plan" (Brown) - 3:03
10. "Sunrise" (Brown, Crane) - 6:51
Galactic Zoo Dossier is the debut album by the British band Atomic Rooster, and the first album of most members after the failure of Strangelands. The album was released in 23 February 1970 in the United Kingdom and 5 March 1970 in the United States and the rest of the world. Galactic Zoo Dossier is one of the first conceptual albums of the first wave of Progressive rock, and considered a primal example of space rock.
The album was recorded after the American tour as the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, and after the release and the critical reception of Strangelands, the group reformed into Atomic Rooster. The band started to tour around London and the United Kingdom before gathering and recording Galactic Zoo Dossier plus a few more tracks which were released a few years later in reissues.
Atomic Rooster's Galactic Zoo Dossier would be released to a great appraisal by the critics and well-received by the public in general. The album would peak in number 3 in Britain while it would reach number 86 in Billboard 200. Devil's Answer would be released as a promotional single, reaching number 8 in the UK Single Charts and number 10 in Billboard Hot Rock Charts, backed by Space Plucks. Galactic Zoo Dossier would be considered a 'redemption album' after the disastrous Strangelands.
It is the only album to feature drummer Carl Palmer and bassist Nick Graham. Palmer would later leave Atomic Rooster to form the supergroup Emerson, Lake and Palmer with Keith Emerson and Greg Lake, while Nick Graham moved to Skin Alley, replacing Thomas Crimble. The remaining members would form the main core of Atomic Rooster for the rest of the first era. The album would receive a lot of appraise by its contemporaries.
"Galactic Zoo Dossier was the shit at the time, probably Blackhill's greatest venture at the time. Vincent [Crane] and [Arthur] Brown did a great job with that album. That would be one of the things that I would stop everything I was doing and listen to while high."
-Syd Barrett, 2013
"That stuff was... mind-blowing when I first listened. It's hard to tell how Galactic Zoo Dossier was influential for me in several aspects. Probably there wouldn't be a Ziggy Stardust without that record."
-David Bowie, 1999
Author's comment:
And here we are in the 1970s! At least with a foot on it, welp. And we have the introduction of a new band, Os Mutantes! A Brazilian band, very successful at the time, and they have quite an interesting scenario to work with. As for Arthur Brown, finally here it is a new reintroduction to Atomic Rooster and their debut album, Galactic Zoo Dossier, based on the OTL album with the same title, from Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come.
Sources
The Beatles - Get Back:
- The Beatles - Abbey Road
- The Beatles - Let It Be
- The Beatles - Past Masters
- George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
- '(You Know) It Ain't Easy' is 'The Ballad of John and Yoko'.
- 'It Isn't a Pity' is the second version in the All Things Must Pass album.
Atomic Rooster - Galactic Zoo Dossier:
- Atomic Rooster - Atomic Roooster
- Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come - Galactic Zoo Dossier
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