Beautiful Freaks: Waving Our Flag High

Waving Our Freak Flag High, Wave On Wave On. Music from the original counterculture.

Anyone interested in '60 films and music, along with the cultural revolution that took place in that decade will no doubt have noted with sadness the recent passing of actor, screenwriter and activist Peter Fonda. I can't claim to be an expert on his life and I'll admit I've never actually seen Easy Rider, the film for which he's most famous. I do however own a vinyl copy of the film's soundtrack which I purchased as a teenager. The tracks I enjoyed most at the time were 'Born To Be Wild' and 'The Pusher' by Steppenwolf and 'The Ballad Of Easy Rider' and 'I Wasn't Born To Follow' by The Byrds.

One of the songs on the soundtrack that I didn't know previous to buying is 'If You Want To Be A Bird' by The Holy Modal Rounders. It's something of an anomaly sticking out like a sore thumb amongst the better known rockier tracks. The Holy Modal Rounders were originally a duo, formed in New York's Lower East Side during the early '60s folk boom. Their merging of folk, psychedelia and subversive comedy made them key players in the Greenwich Village scene. In many ways their appearance on the Easy Rider soundtrack encapsulates the film's countercultural slant more successfully than Hendrix, The Byrds and Steppenwolf combined.

Another of the group's songs 'The STP Song', appears on Beautiful Freaks, a brand new compilation expertly put together by Tony Harlow and released by Tad Records. It features a wealth of '60s underground talent, many with roots in the New York or San Francisco poetry scenes, or the politicised sections of the '60s folk boom. With detailed and insightful sleevenotes Beautiful Freaks captures the often overlooked DIY ethic adopted by acts that were too political or too quirky for the mainstream record labels.

Other bands featured include Country Joe & The Fish, David Peel & The Lower East Side, Yoko Ono, The Fugs, and Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band, along with poet Allen Ginsberg and polemicist Timothy Leary. There's also a healthy quota of similarly idiosyncratic UK acts including Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, The Incredible String Band, Hawkwind and Third Ear Band. Absurdist humour, protest, civil rights, and satire are just a few of the threads that bind this eclectic and fascinating compilation together. The events of the '60s that required that musicians, poets and culture in general should rise up and say something. Truth to power if you will. And with the current political climate music and protest surely need to converge once more. Beautiful Freaks is an pointer, an early mapping of how that can be done. 

https://www.normanrecords.com/records/177247-various-beautiful-freaks-waving-our-flag 

https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/various/beautiful-freaks-waving-our-flag-high-wave-on-wave-on-music-from-the-original-counter-culture 

Various – Running The Voodoo Down 2 (Explorations in Psychrockfunksouljazz 1965-77)

Superbly curated compilation exploring the African-American music's myriad shoots.

A compilation album curated with care and expertise can be an absolute joy. It's not necessarily just a historical exercise either - In the past decade or so seminal compilations have helped form current scenes and even inspired bands to form. The resurgence of acid-folk collectives can be traced to to Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs' Gather In The Mushrooms compilation. Similarly the current raft of retro-glam led by bands such as Giuda and Faz Waltz owes much to the Velvet Tinmine reissue series.

Whether this latest compilation on TAD Records will have the same inspirational reach will only be known in due time but it is without doubt one of the finest genre compilations to be released this year, mixing well known tracks with lesser-known gems. Its subtitle (Explorations In Psychrockfunksouljazz 1965-77) tells you much but doesn't spoil the surprises and inspired juxtapositions that come your way. Much of the music is directly inspired by the civil rights movement and mirrors the rise of black consciousness that was also present in literature, poetry, art and sport. Collectively this grouping together of songs brims over with anger, intelligence, sonic attack, superb musicianship, poetry and the sense of fun that comes with being at an exploratory cutting-edge.

The collection opens with John Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme, Pt 1 Acknowledgement'. Coltrane's quest to the outer limits of music and spirituality permeate this collection and its fitting that several of the tracks explicitly honour his influence. Outside of the jazz scene, white rock musicians were also taking note. The following two tracks highlight Coltrane's influence on rock music. The Byrds' 'Eight Miles High' famously features atonal guitar lines by Roger McGuinn, his attempt to echo Coltrane's saxophone playing. Similarly influenced by Coltrane is 'Starship' by MC5, a manic poetic meditation reaching for the outer limits.

It's a fantastic opening trio of songs but there are other joys to come, the standard doesn't dip. Other highlights include Sonny Sharrack's 'Black Woman' its wordless vocal alternating between ecstasy and agony while chains rattle symbolically in the background. Then what about 'Ungena Za Ulimwenga (Unite The World)' by the Temptations, a prime slice of psychedelic soul from the early '70s. It's a track I'd not heard before but it had me staring at my hi-fi speakers in disbelief.

Running The Voodoo Down Volume 2 positively explodes with spirit, ideas and open up multiple avenues of further exploration. If you only buy one compilation this year this should be the one.

Click here to buy via Norman Records.

CD Tracklisting

John Coltrane – 'A Love Supreme, Pt 1 Acknowledgement'

The Byrds – 'Eight Miles High'

MC5 – 'Starship'

Joe Zawinui – 'In A Silent Way'

Shuggie Otis – 'Aht Uh Mi Head'

Melvin Van Peebles – 'Sweetback's Theme'

Sonny Sharrock – 'Black Woman'

Chairmen Of The Board – 'Life And Death in The C&A Suite'

The Temptations – 'Ungena Za Ulimwenga (Unite The World)'

Dr John – 'Zu Zu Mamou'

Jimi Macon – 'Jimi's Guitar Raps'

Lou Bond – 'Do The Establishment'

Isaac Hayes – 'Do Your Thing'

Sarah Webster Fabio – 'Equinox'

Bob Thiele – 'Lament For John Coltrane'

**Vinyl LP contains a bonus track – Herbie Hancock - 'Spank-A-Lee'**