Here’s an interesting collection due out in late November. For fans of my old Dreamweavers: The later pop stylings of pre-Beatles people 1966-1971 or the Teenbeat label’s Marshmallow Skies (60s Pop Stars Flirt With Psychedelia). This features another airing for Roy Orbison’s ‘Southbound Jericho Parkway’ and nice to see Lou Christie included as well. I don’t think I recognise most of these though. Anyone curious about (or aghast at?) the inclusion of Frank Sinatra, check out his 1970 album Watertown.

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Bob Stanley & Pete Wiggs Present State Of The Union ~ The American Dream In Crisis 1967-1973 (Ace CD / LP)

By mid-1968 there was a growing consensus that something had gone horribly wrong with the American dream. The nation s youth had loudly made their feelings clear, but now the older, pre-Beatles generations began to look at the country with urban riots, Vietnam, and the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy and wonder what the hell was happening. This album includes rare classics (The Beach Boys Fourth Of July), lost masterpieces (Roy Orbison's seven-minute Southbound Jericho Parkway), and forgotten gems by some of the biggest names in the business (Elvis Presley's Clean Up Your Own Back Yard). Reactions to America's existential crisis ranged in subject matter from divorce (Frank Sinatra's The Train) and the break-up of the nuclear family (The Four Seasons Saturday's Father), to eulogies for fallen heroes (Dion's Abraham Martin and John), sympathy for Vietnam vets (Johnny Tillotson's Welfare Hero), the church's institutional racism (Eartha Kitt's intense Paint Me Black Angels), and even questioning the ethics of the space programme (Bing Crosby's terrific What Do We Do With The World). Compiled by Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs, State Of The Union follows on from their highly acclaimed English Weather and Paris In The Spring compilations. With clear parallels between today's fractured country and the USA fifty years ago, this is a fascinating condensation of what Americans were thinking when they turned on the TV, or the radio, or simply walked down Main Street in 1968. Available on CD and 180g blue vinyl double LP.

1. Clean Up Your Own Back Yard - Elvis Presley
2. Brand New Day - Della Reese
3. Abraham, Martin and John - Dion
4. The Train - Frank Sinatra
5. Saturday's Father - the 4 Seasons
6. 4th of July - the Beach Boys
7. Wine in the Wind - Anita Kerr & the Anita Kerr Singers
8. What Do We Do with the World? - Bing Crosby
9. Lord of the Manor - the Everly Brothers
10. Hitchhiker - the Four Preps
11. Paint America Love - Lou Christie
12. Mr Businessman - Ray Stevens
13. Paint Me Black Angels - Eartha Kitt
14. Southbound Jericho Parkway - Roy Orbison
15. Questions - Bobby Darin
16. This Crazy World - Paul Anka
17. Take a Letter Maria - Mel Torme
18. Cherrystones - Eugene McDaniels
19. Some People Sleep - the Tokens
20. Cardboard California - Buddy Greco
21. Do You Believe This Town - Dean Martin
22. Welfare Hero - Johnny Tillotson
23. Save the Children - Teresa Brewer
24. Revolution - the Brothers Four

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07H63Q3S1?ref=em_1p_1_ti&ref_=pe_4107651_319310801

An interesting post, Paul.
Personally, I never could quite understand those pop acts who dipped a toe into the waters of Psychedelia and then backed off to continue their pop careers. Often it seems it was to jump on the 'peace n love' bandwagon for a while 'and shake the hippy music magic money tree!' - Not about opening the doors of perception and entering, but rather cautiously sneeking a peek in through a window. Also I'm not so sure if many artists here used real orchestra musicians and not early synthesisers. Anyone know? [I mean in the studio, not later on tour when some of them had attained a degree of fame and fortune.]

The Vietnam War dragged on for nearly 20 years. [1 Nov 1955 – 30 Apr 1975]
By the time the 1967 'Summer of Love' came around, millions of young Americans and youth across Europe and globally knew the system was very wrong. It stank of corruption, greed and death. People were marching, peacefully protesting and turning on, tuning in and dropping out. The wiser older ones [like the 'beatnicks', many jazz musicians, some authors, painters, poets etc] were already doing the turn on, tune in, drop out thing already and never stopped.

A few of the artists/bands featured here I have much respect for, including the Beach Boys!

Dennis Wilson composed "4th of July" in the early 70s during the Vietnam War (his co-writer was Beach Boys manager Jack Rieley). Carl Wilson sang the song. It was supposed to be included on the "Surf's Up" album, but was withdrawn after a disagreement among the band.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3JJXbF9_Ow

The other song omitted from "Surf's Up" and that was also withdrawn after a "disagreement among the band" was this little Beachboys masterpiece:
"(Wouldn't It Be Nice) To Live Again" was written by The Beach Boys' drummer, Dennis Wilson, and Stanley Shapiro. The song was recorded in 1971 during the Surf's Up sessions, but it did not appear on the album. "(Wouldn't It Be Nice) To Live Again" was eventually released on The Beach Boys 2013 boxed set, "Made In California".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdrnEPl2zzk

Some were musical carpet baggers of course but people like Bobby Darrin really meant it. Try his 'Born Walden Robert Cassotto' and 'Committment' LPs from 1968-9. The point is if even people like Bing Crosby were commenting on the state of things, you know it was serious. I don't think the aim here is to point to psych toe dipping as I am not really sure much of this could be called psych however lightly, though Lou Christie's contribution might well be near it. It's more like the artists of the parental generation expressing and sharing the concerns of their children as the 60s wore on which they would not really have done five years before. I think these collections are always useful as they branch off the main narrative to reveal or point to lesser known works by familiar artists that help encapsulate a moment or concern in time.

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