"Jon Savage's 1968: The Year The World Burned" by VARIOUS (30 November 2018 UK Ace 2CD Compilation of Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Shadows On Stones..."

This is the fourth in a series by compiler and Music Lover Jon Savage (see list below) and like the others, it features an eclectic combo of 48 great, good, not-so-good but rare, overly familiar and downright bat-dung crazy moments - a 2CD aural journey aided and equally hampered by inclusions and exclusions (what can and can't be licensed). Let's get our pretty bits burned baby...

UK released Friday, 30 November 2018 (7 December 2018 in the USA) - "Jon Savage's 1968: The Year The World Burned" by VARIOUS ARTISTS on Ace Records CDTOP2 1536 (Barcode 029667092821) offers 48-Tracks Remastered across 2CDs.

The beautifully laid out and fact-filled 28-page booklet sees Savage make a case in his own liner notes for every song and smartly he's included deep discography info for number nerds like me - the US and UK release dates and separate catalogue numbers for their respective 45s.

Disc 1 (71:53 minutes):

1. Honey Chile - Martha Reeves and The Vandellas

2. Sunshine Help Me - Spooky Tooth

3. How Does It Feel? - The Creation

4. Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) - The First Edition [with Kenny Rogers]

5. Dear Delilah - Grapefruit

6. Carpet Man - The 5th Dimension

7. Big Bird - Eddie Floyd

8. Tighten Up - Archie Bell and The Drells

9. Changes (TYGSTL) - The Ceyleib People

10. Everydays - Buffalo Springfield

11. Talkin' About The Good Times - The Pretty Things

12. Just For You - Dave Mason [of Traffic]

13. Danse A La Musique - The French Fries

14. Israelites - Desmond Dekker and The Aces

15. Why Does It Feel So Right (Doing Wrong) - The Shades Of Jade

16. Wonderboy - The Kinks

17. Gotta See Jane - R. Dean Taylor

18. Do You Know the Way To San Jose - Dionne Warwick

19. Classical Gas - Mason Williams

20. Your Mind And We Belong Together - Love

21. Dino's Song - Quicksilver Messenger Service

22. World In A Jug - Canned Heat

23. Lift Me - The Beau Brummels

24. The Snake - Al Wilson

Disc 2 (72:24 minutes):

1. Fire - The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown

2. Hard To Handle - Otis Redding

3. Eastern Organ - Brother Dan All Stars

4. People Got to Be Free - The Rascals

5. I Say A Little Prayer - Aretha Franklin

6. Piece Of My Heart - Big Brother and the Holding Company

7. Lord Of The Manor - The Everly Brothers

8. Lincoln County - Dave Davies [of The Kinks]

9. Omnibus - The Move

10. I'm In A Different World - The Four Tops

11. Say It Loud - I'm Black And I'm Proud (Part 1) - James Brown

12. Rain - Kak

13. A Song For Jeffrey - Jethro Tull

14. Magic Carpet Ride - Steppenwolf

15. Freedom Train - James Carr

16. Smell Of Incense - The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band

17. Cloud Nine - The Temptations

18. Train To Nowhere - Savoy Brown

19. Everyday People - Sly and The Family Stone

20. I Got A Line On You - Spirit

21. Throwaway Street Puzzle - Fairport Convention

22. Crimson And Clover - Tommy James and The Shondells

23. Machines - Lothar and The Hand People

24. Kick Out The Jams (Preview Version) - MC5

Every entry has either a label repro - Aretha's "I Say A Little Prayer", The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown and his "Fire", Fairport Convention's rare B-side "Throwaway Street Puzzle" along with Big Brother & The Holding Company's cover of Erma Franklin's "Piece Of My Heart" all get either sheet music or Cash Box trade adverts and so on. Mastering is by long-time Ace associate NICK ROBBINS and the Audio depends greatly on the source - The First Edition (with Kenny Rogers) and their Psych take on Mickey Newbury's "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)", Spooky Tooth's plea for uplift on their "Sunshine Help Me" both sound kicking as does the fabulous Church Soul of "Freedom Train" by James Carr and the tear-down-the-ramparts Punk of MC5 delivering "Kick Out The Jams" (a Preview Version with "Brothers And Sisters" replacing the MFs). But the Canned Heat tune reflects their typically sloppy way of recording.

There are moments listening to "The Year The World Burned" when you admire and even applaud Savage's savvy choices - the fantastically trippy Sitar of "Changes" by an acid-dropping bunch of yeah baby sessionmen called The Ceyleib People (the track was actually called an unpronounceable "Tygstl" on the album and re-titled for the 45 on Vault Records 940 in February of that year) or those tyre-burning compatriots over the way in France who had The French Fries (yes folks that was their name) sing a French language version of Sly & The Family Stone's "Dance To The Music" as "Danse A La Musique" (I can see those mini-skirts and thigh-high boots a-calling me home). Other goodies come in the genuine message song "People Got To Be Free" by those grooving Rascals - a number one smash in their native USA for five weeks that but a tune that meant diddly squat in the UK. There is the seriously great and completely forgotten "Lord Of The Manor" - a hugely unlikely Psychedelic piece from The Everly Brothers (yes folks the Eves did Psych, maybe just once mind you) tucked away on the B-side of "Milk Train" on Warner Brothers Seven Arts 7226 in August 1968.

But then you get the lightweight Pop of "Do You Know The Way To San Jose" and "Classical Gas" by Dionne Warwick and Mason Williams or the flanged Blues Rock and get-up-in-the-morning Reggae rally cry of "A Song For Jeffrey" and "Israelites" by Jethro Tull and Desmond Dekker - and you seriously wonder what any of these songs had to do with burning anything down. I can understand the inclusion of James Brown's "Say It Loud! I'm Black And I'm Proud" or "Cloud Nine" by The Temptations on the grounds of emerging ethnic pride sat uncomfortably alongside their cities and communities being flooded with the horrors of drug addiction. But songs like the funk of "Hard To Handle" or "Gotta See Jane" by Otis Redding and R. Dean Taylor leave me baffled or even the whimsy of "Wonderboy" by The Kinks and the girly Rock of "Omnibus" by The Move. If we actually want to show a 1968 world on the boil as opposed to the love-in that represented 1967 - what should be here of course is "Revolution" by The Beatles or "Jumping Jack Flash" by The Stones or even "Mrs. Robinson" by Simon & Garfunkel to reflect "The Graduate" film. And when I look at the UK and US Top 40 charts of 1968 – there were full of absolute Pop like Gary Puckett and The Union Gap giving us the optimism of "Young Girl", British cardigan crooner Des O'Connor getting his moment with his "I Pretend", The 1910 Bubblegum Company inflicting their "Simon Says" chant and loveliness/joie-de-vie personified in the Bond theme of "What A Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong.

None of the above reflects 1968 society torching itself – but having said that I’ve been living with this 2018 twofer for some days now and I find myself returning to the fantastic "Rain" by the obscure Kak – a fuzzed-up guitar-groover B-side to "Everything’s Changing" on Epic Records in September or even the neck-jerking Reggae-Ska instrumental "Eastern Organ" by Brother Dan’s All Stars, the Byrds-pretty big-eyed wonder of "Smell Of Incense" by The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band or the sexy naughtiness of "Why Does It Feel So Right (Doing Wrong)" where The Shades Of Jade sound like a Motown act with a lady vocalist discovering illicit sex can be something else other than a heartbreak.

Discovery of the new, kids dismantling the old, high school guys and gals dipping in and dropping out, future dot.com execs on the hippy trail, cloud nine dandies disrespecting mama while other brothers die overseas in someone else's war - they're all in here. Will we ever see the like of those crazy swirling days again? Fifty years on and we are still referencing them.

With a knowing wink Al Wilson sings "...Take me in tender woman...in a curvature of silk...take me in for Heaven's sake...hissed the Snake..." in his warning moment at the end of Disc 1.

Try this Magic Carpet Ride and find out what tempted those impressionable lads and lassies over to the wayward side and why part of them (even now) is kinda glad they succumbed...

Titles in Jon Savage's Year Series are (2CD Compilations)

CDs:

1. Jon Savage's 1965: The Year The Sixties Ignited (26 January 2018 2CD set on Ace CDTOP2 1513 - Barcode 029667086028)

 

2. Jon Savage's 1966: The Year The Decade Exploded (30 October 2015 2CD set on Ace CDTOP2 1452 - Barcode 029667074223)

 

3. Jon Savage's 1967: The Year Pop Divided (31 March 2017 2CD set on Ace CDTOP2 1495 - Barcode 029667079525)

 

4. Jon Savage's 1968: The Year The World Burned (30 November 2018 2CD set on Ace CDTOP2 1536 - Barcode 029667092821)

 

5. Jon Savage's 1969-1971: Rock Dreams on 45 (25 October 2019 UK 2CD set on Ace CDTOP2 1559 - Barcode 029667096621)

 

6. Jon Savage's 1972-1976: All Our Times Have Come (26 March 2021 UK 2CD set on Ace CDTOP2 1594 - Barcode 029667101523)

7. Jon Savage's 1977-1979: Symbols Clashing Everywhere (28 January 2022 UK 2CD set on Ace CDTOP2 1610 - Barcode 029667104623)

8. Jon Savage's 1980-1982: The Art Of Things To Come (24 February 2023 UK Ace Records CDTOP2 1625 - Barcode 029667107921)

9. Jon Savage's 1983-1985: Welcome To Techno City (26 January 2024 UK Ace Records CDTOP2 1639 – Barcode 029667110020)

VINYL:

1. Jon Savage's 1965-1968: The High Sixties On 45 (June 2019 UK on Ace Records XXQLP2 060, 35-Track 2LP Set on Orange Vinyl in Stereo and Mono, Barcode 029667009515)