Saturday, December 2, 2006

Spanky & our Gang - Without Rhyme or Reason - `69



hey all !

here is my fave LP by Spanky & our Gang ; psych pop at its best ; total high production on this. a real headphone trip ... vocals arrangements & harmonies are out of this world , even a bit of fuzz guitar here & there. have alot more from these guys too , will probably up "like to get to know you " soon too ~
transferred this from the original wax , sounds great !
HIGH REZ LP art included.
transferred @ 320 KBPS , only the best for my kidz - 73 MB

let me know what ya think blokes !



"The best (though not the best selling) of the group's three original albums, Without Rhyme or Reason (which is also sometimes known as Anything You Choose/Without Rhyme of Reason) was their most ambitious creation and the album of theirs that holds up best on CD, a 40-minute soundscape in which songs drifted from one into the other. The wryly cynical "Leopard Skin Phones (cleverly describing the needs of the modern recording process) slides into a Little Brother Montgomery narrative, which dissolves to Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane giving her best blues performance ever on "Mecca Flat Blues," a co-creation of her and Montgomery; the smooth, relaxed title track with it '50s pop-jazz style harmonies, which leads into "1-3-5-8 (Pedagogical Round #2), a more musical successor to "My Bill" from the previous album and segues effortlessly into the wordplay of "Jane" (sung by Malcolm Hale, his only lead vocal on this album), which manages to recall the Serendipity Singers at their most playful, this is the prelude to "Since You've Gone," which starts out as an ethereal ballad but ends as an impassioned, screaming (yet elegantly produced) rocker reminiscent of the Grass Roots from the same period; "Anything You Choose" may be the hardest rock song the sextet ever recorded, and it precedes the romantic, folk-pop/rock styled "And She's Mine," written and sung by bassist Kenny Hodges; "Yesterday's Rain" was a valiant attempt at an upbeat, serious philosophical song, the other side of early hits like "Sunday Will Never Seem the Same" and "Lazy Day"; Hoagy Carmichael's "Hong Kong Blues" gets a lean, fresh treatment, a lively, busy vocal arrangement without too much instrumental embellishment; and "Nowhere to Go" isn't much more than a song fragment, but it makes a compelling intro to "Give a Damn," enhancing the familiar single. In contrast to their prior two albums, Without Rhyme or Reason contains no major hits, and none of the songs off of it ever charted seriously, although "Give a Damn," which closes it, nearly made the Top 40 despite a radio ban over the use of the word "damn" in its title and chorus; thus, it was their poorest selling album. The group hardly played at all on most of the record but provided their most elaborate vocals arrangements, and it proved to be their most lasting creation apart from the hit singles. The death of Malcolm Hale on October 30, 1968, during the recording of the album, coupled with the group's satisfaction over what they'd achieved musically, resulted in the decision to disband in the early 1969, soon after the release of Without Rhyme or Reason." -- AMG



SPANKY & OUR GANG - WITHOUT RHYME OR REASON - MERCURY - `69 - 73 MB

  • 1 - Leopard Skin Phones (Baker - Hodges) 2:55
  • 2 - But Back Then (Little Brother Montgomery) 1:08
  • Mecca Flat Blues (Montgomery - McFarlene) 3:21
  • 3 - Without Rhyme Or Reason (Landsman - Dorough) 2:29
  • 4 - 1-3-5-8 (Pedagogical Round #2) (Dorough) 1:09
  • Jane (Scharf) 3:08
  • 5 - Since You've Gone (Scharf) 4:35
  • 6 - Anything You Choose (Scharf) 2:46
  • And She's Mine (Hodges) 2:34
  • 7 - Yesterday's Rain (Baker) 3:20
  • 8 - Hong Kong Blues (Carmichael) 3:45
  • 9 - Nowhere To Go (Scharf) 0:50
  • Give A Damn (Scharf) 3:33


download -- here --

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

DuDe
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Had this on vinyl in another life.
Played the @#$% out of it.
You are the penultimate.
Again, danke schoen

Anonymous said...

Please sir, i'd like to have some more.

Mickey

Anonymous said...

When I had a little blog myself, back in the day, this was the first album I posted, a crappy rip from my much-treasured vinyl. So I'm pleased to download this better-quality biscuit.
A MASTERPIECE album, in one of the best sleeves ever!

akashaman said...

thanks for the comments all : ya , i LOVE this lp , as mentioned one of the best lp , sleeve designs ever -- had to include the inner sleeve in scan.
i am gonna up the 1st two soon , so hang tight :
i think rip came out real clean from wax eh ?
mine is in nm shape , so ;
thanks again kids & turn it up for daddy ...:)

aka`

Anonymous said...

A great request for a great new blog:MORNING GLORY-TWO SUNS WORTH.Thanks-NATURE BOY

Anonymous said...

I don't know if you have the "Spanky's Greatest Hit" album, but that's a must-have item, as it features re-recordings of their hits. Still sixties, so it was an unusual thing to do.
I used to have the reunion album, but I remember it as being too country rock for me back then. maybe I'd like it bettter now.

akashaman said...

i have the greatest hits , but i did not know that anything has been re mixed.!?
i know there are a couple extended versions , like sunday mornings , etc.

i will try & get that up as well tho !

aka`

Anonymous said...

Great album
thanks

Anonymous said...

Yes, a great album...everything by Spanky & our Gang are great!

Look foward in listening to the greatest hits when you have time (haven't heard the extended versions in years)!

akashaman said...

ha , thanks for that link , that was classic !
i found a NM WLP promo copy of spanky`s LIVE lp yesterday & will get that up soon as well - it was recorded before thier 3 lp`s here , back in the small clubs : i`ts great !

thanks for feedback dood:

aka`

Anonymous said...

OMG!! Thank you so much. One of the all time greats. I wore out 3 vinyls of this and haven't been able to find a 4th. There aren't enough thank yous in the world to thank you for this.

Anonymous said...

Thanks - tho i've tried downloading a couple of times on March 1st, and the files appear to be corrupted. Would so love to hear this unsung classic!

akashaman said...

i tested it myself & the file is fine & is not corrupted.
i would re try.

aka`

benito X said...

hi and thanks for all your brilliant posts! It's so nice to see you going to so much trouble with the covers...

unfortunately this post seems to be deleted.
Any chance you could re-post?

Anonymous said...

Thanks a lot, really great music. Never heard of this group and is hard to believe that they are not famous.
"Mecca flat" is more than wonderful. You have given me delicious hours of music, thanks again.

Willem
Netherlands

King Daevid MacKenzie said...

...I just got word that Stu Scharf, who co-produced this album with Bob Dorough, died on 8 November 2007 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. This LP ranks as my #2 favourite American music album ever produced (Phil Ochs' PLEASURES OF THE HARBOR is #1)...

Anonymous said...

thanx for all the Spanky,all i ever heard was a best of, great cover scans as well, Grant

Anonymous said...

Great album, thanks a lot.

Anonymous said...

great music!
check out
calisoulbrother records
for rare PSYCH, PROG, soul, jazz, funk, brazil & latin records!

Unknown said...

hi,

ron e. in charlotte here - thank you thank you thank you for posting this. i have my VGC LP upstairs, i think it must be 30 years old by now. i still LOVE this record, especially side 2. i'm going to have a wonderful day, thanks to you!

cheers
ron

akashaman said...

i hear ya , this is one of the best of its genre. sure brings back some memories eh ?
turn it up !
love the leopard skin phones !

silkfarm said...

A million thanks for these Spanky albums and the 320 bit...

Anonymous said...

transferred this from the original wax - MAD LOVE!!!

Anonymous said...

One of my favorite albums! What great arrangements!

akashaman said...

One of the best pop psych LP`s ever , imo !

spin on

aka

Anonymous said...

This really is an amazing LP, thanks so much for posting!

nedinma said...

I was wondering why/how you listed the song order you used. From the day I first bought this album in 1969, I always thought the song "Anything You Choose" as song #1 of the first side... "Give a Damn" as last song on first side... "Leopard Skin Phones" as song #1 of the second side and "Since You've Gone" as the last song of the album. Seems to make more sense to me that way.
Any current comment about this subject?

Anonymous said...

Actually, the sides are marked A & 1, instead of 1&2. The reason being, you could choose which side you wanted to play first; it played well either way.