The First Summer of Love

This is this best collection of songs which give a good feel of MY sixties memories, none of the usual Herman and the Hermits, Lulu type stuff.

Whoever compiled this lot did an absolutely magnificent job. I had always managed to resist the temptation of sets of this nature harking back to the glorious days of the much fabled, late 60's because however alluring the sleeve was, the track listing on the other side, never failed to disappoint. There were usually a few good tracks to catch the eyes plus loads of filler. To be fair it was actually like that most of the time back then but there was so much good music it was easier to ignore the less good. As at any time, there's pap which often sells as much as the good stuff. But just take a look at the listing below. There should be plenty there to make your mouth water. And hardly anyone should have a high proportion of these tracks, that is, unless they collected singles at the time, in which case that vinyl needs to be looked after and supplemented by CD versions.

1. Scott McKenzie - San Francisco
2. The Byrds - Eight miles High
3. Canned Heat - Going up the country
4. Traffic - Hole in my shoe
5. Move - Flowers in the Rain
6. Hollies - Carrie Anne
7. Keith West - Excerpt from a Teenage Opera
8. Thunderclap Newman - Something in the air
9. The association - Windy
10. The Turtles - Happy Together
11. The Kinks - Waterloo Sunset
12. The Band - The Weight
13. Donovan - Sunshine Superman
14. The easy beats - Friday on my mind
15. The Beach boys - Good Vibrations
16. Keith - 89.6
17. Harbers Bizarre - 59th Street Bridge song (Feelin' Groovy)
18. The rascals - Groovin'
19. The Mama's and Papa's - California Dreamin'
20. Julie Driscoll & Brian Auger's Trinity - This Wheel's on fire
21. The Troggs - Love is all around
22. Bob Dylan - Rainy Day Women nos. 12 and 35

1. Eric Burdon & the Animals - San Franciscan Nights
2. Buffalo Springfield - For what it's worth
3. Traffic - Paper Sun
4. Cream - Strange Brew
5. Jefferson Airplane - Somebody to love
6. Jethro Tull - Living in the past
7. Simon Dupree & the Big Sound - Kites
8. Bee Gees - Massachusettes
9. Flower Pot Men - Let's go to San Francisco
10. The Byrds - Mr Tambourine Man
11. Manfred Mann - The Mighty Quinn
12. The Moody Blues - Ride my see-saw
13. Love - Alone Again Or
14. Procul Harum - Whiter Shade of Pale
15. The Small Faces - Itchycoo Park
16. Three Dog Night - Mama told me not to come
17. The Troggs - With a Girl like you
18. Spirit - Fresh Garbage
19. Crazy World of Arthur Brown - Fire
20. Barry McGuire - Eve of Destruction
21. Matthews Southern Comfort - Woodstock
22. Gary Puckett & the Union Jack - Young Girl
23. Jimi Hendrix - Purple Haze

The tracks reel off just like a very high quality DJ of the time would play them. Not Peel because there's not a high enough proportion of underground stuff, and more specifically there's no Captain Beefheart here (and that's about the only negative I've spotted). It is weighted much more to the stuff that generally sold, i.e. quality pop rather than underground though numbers like "Somebody to love", "Alone Again or" and "Fresh Garbage" are here. All these would have been in the obscure category at the time though now they're just part of pop and rock history.

The compiler doesn't always go for the painfully obvious. Thus we have Cream's "Strange Brew" rather than the played-to-death, "Sunshine of your love". We do get the obvious "Hole in my Shoe" from Traffic - perhaps he was under pressure on this one - but also he slips in the same band's "Paper Sun" which gets far less plays. There are plenty of tracks here which didn't sell in truckloads in the UK at least, but still fit within what the compiler saw as his brief. The Association track, The Rascals' "Groovin'", Simon Dupree's "Kites" are examples. One of the ones I'm thankful for, because I didn't have a copy hitherto is the Easybeats, "Friday on my mind", a great example of powerpop before anyone had invented the term.

And what I really like is that every now and then we get a real purple patch, one classic after another, after another. Like "Waterloo Sunset", "The Weight", and, "Sunshine Superman". If you're an oldie like me, you need this lot to bolster those fading memories. If you're not then you're going to have a lot of pleasure exploring this splendid collection.

I'd thouroughly recommend this superb quality twofer set!

Liner notes/track listing/Artwork are as good as possibly be. All are (Stereo) studio tracks in their original recorded format. These sounds are incredible! considering that (some) of us would be dancing round a mono channel record player on the floor-playing (mono) regular 45 r.p.m. records! (3/6d.) in pre-decimalisation money!! Superb in stereo!! Nostalgia for a great party/barbecue-would invoke a great, carefree and exciting time.