The more things change…Here are a couple of recent release from major contributors to the sounds and attitudes of the 60s that still resonate today.
Largely forgotten today, Arthur Lee recorded the album Forever Changes back in the year of psychedelic ’67, and it slowly got acknowledged as a classic session. Fast forward to 2001, when Lee just got out of a 6-year prison term, and he brings together a band with Mike Randle/g, Rusy Squeezebox/g, Dave Chapple/b and David Green/g to deliver a re-creation of the entire album, along with a couple extras such as the frenetic “7 & 7 Is.” Believe it or not, Lee is in impressively strong voice, and the entire band sounds like it has something to prove. Lee and company sound earnest and energized on “Alone Again Or’ and peppy and electrifying during “The Daily Planet” and the assertive “A House Is Not A Motel.” Messages that still resonate a half century plus later such as “Live and Let Live” and “Bummer in the Summer” show that instruments may change, but never the themes, while the spacey sounds of “The Red Telephone” capture the spirit of the times. Check this guy out one more time!
Phil Ochs was another artist who was highly influential in the ‘60s, but is mostly forgotten now because of his early and untimely death in 1976. Influenced by Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger while being an influence to the likes of Simon and Garfunkle, Ochs personified the “protest” singer. This 2 disc set has him performing between albums Phil Ochs in Concert and the ’67 classic Pleasures of the Harbor. His songs sound like a urban minstrels, as on “Joe Hill” and the quirky “The Bells” while protests against the Vietnam War, Lyndon Johnson and frustration over the Kennedy assassination are presented on “Cops of the World,” I Ain’t Marching Anymore” and “ Crucifixion” respectively. The popular material, such as he describes as “one of my hits” are presented on “There But For Fortune” and the timelessly sardonic “Outside of a Small Circle of Friends” still resonate today. A must for folkies.