One of the attractions of these compilations, especially for genre aficionados and collectors, is the chance of discovering rare and obscure releases long lost to time. And that’s certainly true of this three CD set which, as the title, says digs into an era given birth by The Byrds’ ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ with Dylan as the midwife. It is, indeed that distinctive McGuinn 12 string opener that is the first track on Jingle Jangle Morning, followed by the man himself with ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’. Across the three discs there’s a good selection of familiar gems, among them Judy Collins with ‘Both Sides Now’, Love’s ‘Alone Again Or’, S&G’s ‘The Sound Of Silence’, the Nitty Gritty Dirtband’s take on ‘Mr Bojangles’, Buffalo Springfield’s ‘For What It’s Worth’, The Dead’s ‘Uncle John’s Band’, one hit wonder Scott McKenzie and Mike Nesmith with ‘Joanne’. But it’s the lesser or indeed complete unknown tracks that are the real gold – or in some cases lead – in the collection. Let me say right off, there’s are a couple that should remain buried and are far from treasures, most notably The Leaves with their garage rock race through ‘Hey Joe’ (Tim Rose having the genre’s definitive version) and Mouse’s shameless attempt to imitate Dylan on ‘A Public Execution ‘is beyond embarrassingly bad. And while We Five may have got there first with ‘You We’re On My Mind’ their version isn’t a patch on Crispian St Peters.
Some curios are pleasant but forgettably bland, whether it be by second division names like The Sunshine Company (‘I, To We, And Back Again’) or bigger stars such as Poco (‘What A Day’). On the other hand, the terrific bluesy ‘Hard Lovin’ Loser’ from ‘In My Life’ is a reminder that Judy Collins wasn’t just about folk music.
Alongside the likes of H.P. Lovecraft, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Dion (who gets two tracks), Tim Hardin, Nico, Phil Ochs, Johnny Winter (his 1966 outtake ‘Birds Can’t Fly’, making its CD debut, a long way from his usual blues rock), Tom Rush and Gene Clark, names forgotten almost as soon as they surfaced include minor gems from the jangly The Byrds meets the Mamas & Papas sound of The Ashes (‘Is There Anything I Can Do’), Fapardokly (one of two to feature Merrell Fankhauser) with the psychedelic folk of ‘Lila’, the Donovan-influenced ‘Guinevere’ by The Lemon Drops, The Love flavours of Stourbridge Lion on ‘Watch Me Walk Away’, Massachusetts student outfit The Rising Storm whose soft spooked ‘Frozen Laughter’ also echoes Love and includes quotes from TS Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’, and the original Jesse Kinkaid version of ‘She Sang Hymns Out Of Tune’ covered by The Dillards (who are also included here) and Hearts & Flowers (who should have been). Particular lesser known nuggets by established names would have to include Janis Joplin and Big Brother Holding Company ripping through the folk traditional ‘Coo Coo’, Tim Buckley’s Vietnam anti-war protest ‘No Man Can Find The War’ and Gordon Lightfoot’s searing ‘Black Day In July’ about the 1967 Detroit riots. It’s also worth noting how Barry McGuire’s ‘Eve Of Destruction’ remains depressingly still pertinent 60 years on.
The four hour Jingle Jangle Morning collection features a meticulously researched booklet with annotations on each track by Richie Unterberger, and even if not everything here is the musical equivalent of unearthing a pharaoh’s tomb, there’s more than enough to keep any collector enraptured.
Mike Davies
www.cherryred.co.uk/format/cd/jingle-jangle-morning-the-1960s-u-s-folk-rock explosion-various-artists-3cd
The Byrds – ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ – live on TV:
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