By the time the 1970's rolled around, a new and experimental phase of Rock that began life as a hybrid between Psychedelia, Classical and Free-form Jazz in the 60's, burst on the scene and took Europe by storm. In the States, it took a while. Shrugged off in the American press as pretentious, sterile and overly-intellectual, the genre had to find its audience by almost by word-of-mouth.

With such bands as Yes, The Nice (in the later 60's) and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, inroads were made that bridged the gap between a skeptical press and an eager audience. But still, the overwhelming majority of bands in the Prog-Rock genre were the exclusive property of "that" side of the Atlantic.

Genesis had been around since the late 1960's. With one early album (From Genesis To Revelation) showing promise, but lacking that winning spark. They eventually signed with Charisma Records, founded by former Manager-turned Label owner Tony Stratton-Smith and their fortunes soon changed. Getting a word of mouth and popularity in England and all over Europe (especially in Italy), they secured a license deal with Dunhill Records in the U.S. - they had made one or two brief tours of the U.S., primarily in the Northeast and, almost unbeknownst to the U.S. record industry, Genesis were gaining a huge popularity. When Charisma struck a label deal with Atlantic, and their maiden album with the new arrangement, Selling England By The Pound was released in 1973, Genesis took the record industry big-wigs completely by surprise and sold out every venue they were booked in during their first cross-country U.S. tour. Word-of-mouth paid off with dividends.

Tonight it's the opening track from that milestone album, Dancing With The Moonlit Knight.

Maybe you remember it - and maybe you've never heard it before.

Pull up a chair and have a listen for the next seven minutes.

It seemed like every band that were worth their salt was plunging mind-deep into the genre of Psychedelia around 1968. The Pretty Things were only one of the myriad of bands setting rock or R&B aside and tinkering with mellotrons, tablas and phasing. Departing from their longtime label Fontana and settling into the EMI fold and eventually their newly founded Harvest offshoot, The Pretty Things set out to record some pretty extraordinary sessions. Working with Norman Smith (who did the first Pink Floyd albums and who later gained fame as "Hurricane" Smith . . .but that's another ball of wax), they crafted a series of singles and albums that stand out as high points in the bands career, with their masterpiece album S.F. Sorrow as something of a legendary forgotten classic.

One of those tracks we're playing tonight, Talkin' About The Good Times was their second single under the new label and direction. Released in February 1968 and three months after the release of their initial single Defecting Grey (which we'll play at some point, don't worry), The Pretty Things quickly established themselves as the arch purveyors of all things musically hallucinogenic and would keep them in that direction until they up and changed once again. But that wasn't for a few years into the future.

Tonight it's black lights, calico walls and no looking back.

(photo: Dezo Hoffmann)

(Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett - Extraordinary madness loomed)

I have never been able to figure out why this track hasn't been officially issued on any of the compilations featuring early Pink Floyd. Vegetable Man has evolved into Holy Grail status over the past forty or so years. First rumored to have been destroyed during one of Syd's meltdowns, then destroyed by EMI, with the only evidence surviving a 45 acetate of what was to be the b-side of their fourth single. Countless bootlegs surfaced over the years featuring this and the A side "Scream Thy Last Scream", all in various stages of lousy sound. Just recently this version surfaced, presumably the closest to a surviving master so far. It's in stereo but the opening notes have some tape drop-out (as do almost all the other versions I've heard). Still, it's the best sounding of what's available of a legendary unreleased song.

Perhaps this is the only known surviving version of what has been a much fabled withdrawn track by Pink Floyd during the last months of Syd Barrett's involvement. Who knows? Perhaps someone at EMI will make a great discovery.

Perhaps. Or perhaps not.

Check out the Syd Barrett Archive. It's a good one.

(Spring - 1971 had a lot of promise)

It's like beating a dead horse to say there were an awful lot of bands in the 1970's who barely got past their first albums before going separate ways. Sometimes it was just a case of getting lost in the shuffle. From around 1969 on, a lot of major labels were starting up subsidiaries whose sole purpose was to cater to the eclectic market, growing in size as the result of free form FM radio. Philips started Vertigo, Polydor had Dandelion, EMI had Harvest (with Pink Floyd being an anomaly). And RCA had Neon.

I could never figure out what Neon's story was, since they had a rather large roster of acts, none of whom made much dent, but most of whom were really quite good. RCA in the U.S. were almost totally clueless as to what to do with them, and in large part tossed the albums out on the market with little or no publicity, with the hopes some strange phenomenon would occur - which invariably never did.

Spring was one of those acts that deserved so much more recognition than the none they got. Heavy on Mellotrons and with some excellent production, they recorded one album and were in the process of doing a second when the plug was pulled.

Their first album quickly went out of print (less than six months, as was the norm) and languished pretty much unnoticed until an Italian label Akarma reissued them on CD a few years ago. I'm not sure the Akarma reissue is still print, but I would highly recommend seeking it out, if this track, Inside Out appeals.

Which I have the sneaking suspicion it might.

(Sandra Phillips - Soul doesn't get much deeper than this)

I have always loved checking out singles B-sides, the ones that didn't get the airplay and the ones that didn't make the lp and the ones often forgotten about when reissues come along.

I was working several years ago on a project for EMI doing a reissue project for the legendary soul label Sue, and had the great pleasure of running through the master library for all the released singles. I wasn't all that familiar with Sandra Phillips and knew the A-side was "You Succeeded", but out of curiosity listened to the B-side "When Midnight Comes". It blew me away and I've loved it ever since.

So here is the seldom heard B-Side to her 1965 hit "You Succeeded", "When Midnight Comes". From what I gather, it's Ike Turner's band in the background. Say no more . . .