Various: Beautiful Freaks: Waving Our Flag High, Wave On, Wave On (CD on Tad)

Band: Various
Label: Tad
Title: Beautiful Freaks: Waving Our Flag High, Wave On, Wave On

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Band:Various
Title:Beautiful Freaks: Waving Our Flag High, Wave On, Wave On
Reviewed By:Keith How
Date Published:21/09/2019

Label:Tad
Format:CD
Release Year:2019
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TAD call this “a compilation for the heads” and “the sound of the Freak Left”. 'Beautiful Freaks' is certainly a strange collection but does give a snapshot to a long gone alternative community of rebellion and creativity. I guess you know you are in for a wild ride when the eighteen-track album opens up with Allen Ginsberg’s 'Footnote to Howl', his impassioned Beat_inspired spoken word plea for Buddhism, open hearts and freedom. From then on,in keeping with the spirit of those times, anything can happen.

Naturally there is the Grateful Dead doing their thing and a strange offering from the Fool, a spacey trip called 'Fly' that swoops and swirls around your head. It’s here where things get slightly confusing as the compilers mix in the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band’s 'Music for a Head Ballet', a sly nod towards English chamber music, and follow that with a Third Ear Band track 'Earth' from their second album at a time when they were moving in a more progressive style.

The set continues in this rather eclectic and rambling manner where the English whimsy of the Incredible String Band trade blows with Gong and Hawkwind before things get really “turned on”. The inclusion of Yoko Ono’s 'Why' is “difficult”. Instrumentally the pounding beat is fine but Yoko’s delivery is tiresome. From then on in we enter true Freak territory. The rap sounds on David Peel’s 'Up Against the Wall' seem dated as do the Holy Modal Rounders and Country Joe and the Fish's acid-fuelled folk mantras. No set from these times would be complete without some spoken word, so the inclusion of Timothy Leary calling for us to turn on, tune in and drop out is essential. The whole collection ends with a Fugs exorcism mantra from 1967.

A historical snapshot from a time of political fear and unrest, times not dissimilar to today and although a powerful force among a young generation history has proved that 'Sticking It to the Man' did not change anything externally.

'Beautiful Freaks' comes with superbly researched booklet that gives newcomers a balanced insight into those interesting times.

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Track Listing:

01) Footnote To Howl Allen Ginsberg
02) That's It For The Other One (Pts I-IV) The Grateful Dead
03) Fly The Fool
04) Music For The Head Ballet Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
05) Earth Third Ear Band
06) Le Goudron Brigitte Fontaine
07) Way Back In The 1960s The Incredible String Band
08) Nimm Einen Joint Mein Freund Witthüser & Westrupp
09) Fohat Digs Holes In Space Gong
10) A Mind Blown Is A Mind Shown Hapshash & The Coloured Coat
11) Be Yourself Hawkwind
12) Be Yourself Yoko Ono
13) Up Against The Wall David Peel & The Lower East Side
14) The STP Song The Holy Modal Rounders
15) The Fish Cheer / I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag Country Joe And The Fish
16) That Cat Is High Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band
17) Part II: One Final Word Timothy Leary
18) Exorcising The Evil Spirits From The Pentagon, October 21, 1967 The Fugs

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Fabulous compilation from the TAD label which journeys back to the late 1960’s counterculture

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