As a student of the popular music of the sixties and seventies, I know this:
There was just as much dross being released in the name of pop and rock then as there is today.
But I also know this: the good stuff was truly magnificent. Seminal, groundbreaking, classic. And more influential than any other era.
Among the artists and bands boldly going where no artists and bands had gone before were The Beatles (of course), Jefferson Airplane, Jethro Tull,
Pink Floyd & Bowie. And many, many more.
Clearly, one contemporary artist who knows that better than most is Jeff
Cannata. He has taken what is essentially a covers' album and made it into an exciting, evocative, enjoyable tribute to music that is just as relevant today.
Just as clearly, it's personal. Thus the album's title.
It's maybe the lesser known material here that makes the biggest impact.
The band Spirit was lead by - at that time - virtually unknown guitarist, Randy California. The funky, jazzy, pop gem,
'Fresh Garbage' cut against the grain of most top forty entries, but back then the record buying public was much more open minded.
The psychedelic rock of Amboy Dukes' '
Journey To The Center Of The Mind' played on the burgeoning drug culture and the so called "mind expanding" properties of substances like LSD. But in essence it's just a great pop song.
Cannata shows us that here.
Cannata's warm and occasionally dry vocal tone suits these songs perfectly. It has a lived in feel, like it's seen and experienced more than you or I ever will.
It's because of that implied authority than The Byrds' '
Eight Miles High' and
'Turn Turn Turn', songs that are both perceptive and solemn, become new and fresh in
Cannata's hands.
Apart from The Beatles' '
Norwegian Wood', two legendary Brit bands -
King Crimson and
Pink Floyd - both immeasurably influential, get a deserved inclusion.
We first get
King Crimson's magnificent
'In The Court Of The Crimson King', widely regarded to be a landmark in progressive rock. And we secondly get
Pink Floyd's
'On The Turning Away'. Despite the fact that this relatively mainstream sounding song was a commentary on contemporary social mores, it was much more poetry than polemic, and
Cannata does this and KC's songs justice, underlining the former's huge and dramatic keyboard presence, and the latter's build from a simple, heartfelt lyrical appeal to an emotionally charged demand.
Elsewhere . . . well, there's just too many to mention. All solid gold.
My only disappointment, and it seems churlish I know, but how I would have loved
Cannata to have included a version of the album's title song. Written by Dylan and covered so epically and movingly by The Byrds.
Next time perhaps.
Written by
Brian Friday, April 3, 2009
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