Time Machine 1970 #1

2-17-10 Time Machine 1970 #1 – January 1970

Thankfully, Strange Days magazine in Japan has kept up with it’s “Time Machine” series, which I find quite interesting. I wonder where they get their release date info from?

Strange Days 2010.03 lists “January 1970 Albums” as Badfinger “Magic Christian Music” (Apple UK SAPCOR 12), Roy Harper “Flat Baroque and Berserk” (Harvest UK SHVL 766), Deep Purple “Concerto for Group and Orchestra” (Harvest UK SHVL 767), Syd Barrett “The Madcap Laughs” (Harvest UK SHVL 765), Family “A Song For Me” (Reprise UK RSLP 9001), Love Sculpture “Forms and Feelings” (Parlophone UK PCS 7090), Taste “On The Boards” (Polydor UK 583 083), The Band “The Band” (2^nd album) (Capitol US ST 132) and Aphrodite’s Child “It’s Five O’Clock” (Polydor UK 2384 005). Honorable mentions would seem to go to Canned Heat “Cookbook” and Brinsley Schwartz “The New Favourites of Brinsley Schwartz” LP.

Of the 9 featured albums for January, 1970 – I own 8 of them – everything except Aphrodite’s Child. I only got “The Band” recently, but I’ve owned the other 7 for nearly 40 years!

The Badfinger LP appeared before the film “The Magic Christian” did. There had already been a high-profile hit single “Come and Get It”. I found the Roy Harper LP very inexpensively ($1?), so I tried it…and liked it. I bought his new albums for the following 20+ years. Never much cared for this particular Deep Purple LP, but I did find a really cheap US Tetragrammaton copy of it at the time.

I had not really been a big Pink Floyd fan by the time I saw my first copy of Syd Barrett’s “The Madcap Laughs”. I just knew that I liked the cover (and sentiment) and…it was on the same label as Roy Harper! When I finally got my first copy to take home and listen to it, I was pleasantly surprised. At the time, I had no idea the Soft Machine was backing him.

I had been buying Family LP’s already by January 1970 – both “Music In A Doll’s House” and “Family Entertainment” – two of my favorite 60’s albums. I first found a US copy of “A Song For Me” probably towards the end of 1970 – it’s been one of my favorite albums ever since, Side One especially!

I had heard the Love Sculpture on the FM radio – “Sabre Dance”! I called th local hippie record store as soon as I heard that and – yes! They had a copy! So, I rode my bike over there with my $2.98 + tax in hand, and bought one. Dave Edmunds, Mike Finesilver and Peter Ker. Yeah! (Note: new restored re-mastered CD out now!)

All respect to Rory Gallagher and Taste. I have an Atco US copy of “On The Boards”. I only started on The Band about 2 or 3 years ago, via Bob Dylan’s “Basement Tapes”, so I am still at work on the 2^nd album by The Band. I never really went for Aphrodite’s Child – not even their famous album, “666”. Demis Roussous and Vangelis Papathanassiou.