Yes, you knows Wallace loikes music games.

Firstly I'd like to respond to Stuart: reason I've not been posting here is I'm not THAT into UK harmony-psych, which is to say popsike. (Even less so, the neopopsike - where this forum seems to be headed.)

As you know, I am the Lord of Pwog, a bona fide Prog Masterman!

Also, yes, I'm still on dial-up, so I cannot get past the capchka requirement and have to post from the library computer.


.....
I've done a " Historical Figures (prog) concept lps" thread on another forum and the response was rather good.

So I'm thinking, "Why so few psych albums referencing literature? (The only one I can think of extemporaneously is theincoherent concept of "12 Dreams of Dr Sardonicus" which doesn't even make my stipulation since I don't believe it has anything to do with the Ray Russell novel.
And then ,of course, there is the H>P>Lovecraft albums - but that's just the band name, not concept.)

Okay, admitttedly there are a few Alice In Wonderland/Peter Pan-influenced lps - speaking of...Jude Law as Hook???? - but full concepts?

I know, people make the stand that the majority of popsike is whimsey, but, again, full concept lps like , for instance, "Wind in the Willows"?

Interesting question, is it limited just to Psych LPs?

a few oblique lit refs that instantly spring to mind -

Dando Shaft book by d.g calhoun

Titus Groan & Fuchsia both characters from Mervyn Peake, the Titus Groan LP has at least 2 tracks specifically about the books - Fuchsia Is Here and Hall of Bright Carvings (a chapter title)

Fruup also reference Peake I think..

Gentle Giant reference the brilliant Rabelais in Pantagruel, and also Bram Stoker in Alucard

And thusly the terrible Bram Stoker on Windmill.

Piper at the Gates of Dawn a chapter from Wind In the Willows

Ithaca...home of Odysseus, not very overt. Cover a poor copy of a William Blake.

Trader Horn by a.a.Horn

Hawkwind Chronicles Of The Black Sword and many other references to Moorcock

Not sure if Deep Purples Stormbringer is also Inspired by Moorcock?

Marvel World of Icarus - Stan Lee, with Steve Ditko & Jack Kirby. This may be the one that fulfils your criteria.

Tristan the Sun, private acetate box set.

World of Oz..? Baum.

The Great Crash has a song that references W.E.Johns.

Wishbone Ash Argus side 2 references the Bible.

Captain Marryat name lifted from the audacious author Frederick Marryat, who ran away from home at 14 to join the Navy, fought alongside Nelson, saved umpteen shipmates by leaping off galleons into the sea, had hundreds of daughters, wrote a large number of brilliant madcap novels, and otherwise the lp has nothing to do with him actually...but check out Peter Simple, one of his best. Not Children of the New Forest, his most famous, and worst.

Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band...isn't this a ref to the 20s cartoon character Bonzo ?

Toby Twirl as above ? And the shelved 1967 concept LP "The Mill On the Flossie Fillet". Or was that by Turquoise.



This probably doesn't answer your question correctly, will be thinking about it all night.

Rush 2112 - all inspired by Ayn Rand - Anthem

Slave - lover, the madman and the poet - title is from Shakespeare and the unfathomable lyrics may be based on a play

"Mad, bad and dangerous to know' - I think is the title of a 70s USA/Canadian psych lp, though I don't remember the band, it's a quote about Lord Byron by Lady Caroline Lamb. Also used by Dead Or Alive

As You Like It, recently discovered band named after the play by the immortal bard.

Bevis Frond - connected to a children's novel Bevis, memory here is hazy, not read it but leafed through it - looked leaden.

But if you are only looking for genuine psychedelic concept lps which are based upon books there's as many as 60s latvian folk duos making concept lps about String Theory.

Eureka here's one -

Gulliver's Travels on Instant. (Swift)

And a few lame connections -

Cressida a girl's name but poss lifted from Troilus and Cressida

Led Zep what is and what should never be - unfortunate mentions of Mordor, Tolkien

Comus - a failed riff on Miltons play.

This is an open forum Wallace, and I completely disagree that it is heading in any particular 'direction' - everyone is free to open up a topic at any time as you have done here. Let's face it the tumbleweeds were whistling across this forum regardless of any neo-topics being posted. Good to see it's picked up a bit in the last few days though.

Brave New World - impressions on reading Aldous Huxley (German vertigo 1972)

Peggy's Leg also has a track about Huxley featuring a truly horrible guitar tone.

The Peake one is "Gormenghast" from Fruupp's best lp, "Modern Masquerades"


David Bedford has three lps on novel theme:
Rhyme of Ancient Mariner
Rigel 6 (Ursula K. Leguin)
The Odyssey

Side 2 of Rutherford's first solo lp is Curry's wonderful - like a factory-world Gormenghast - "Smallcreep's Day"


Banco - Darwin

First+Aid - Nostradamus (also Kayak)


Renaissance - Mother Russia



John Mills-Cockell - horns of Albion (Blake)

Lothlorien by Argent
Galadriel by Barclay James Harvest
Lord of The Rings by Bakerandband

Mistake on my last post. The Bakerandband track is Land of Mordor

The threat of a hobbit onslaught has been realised above, here's more of the dread Tolkien -

Hobbit - First and Last (deroy 1970)

Galadriel (Polydor Australia 1972? and German test pressings)

Lothlorien & Her Elf Friends (private EP/acetate circa 1968) school project includes a very nice Donovan cover, might be Lord of The Reedy River. Project by two teachers/composers, one English, the other, female, had a hyphenated English/eastern European name, they also made lps at that school but it's lost to my memory. Probably 2 alternative type hippie music teachers - they may have other more interesting recordings if found.

Dr Z - Burn In Anger is a modified version of Aleister Crowley's Hymn To Pan, and other lyrics are taken from Crowley. The music is also heavily informed by the 1st Renaissance lp by the Relfs, meaning there only 5% Dr Z , though it's astonishing and brilliant.

Bulldog Breed - Austin Osmanspare English occultist, artist and writer.

Aesgard - In the Realm Of - they do an updated version of Austin Osmanspare.

An oblique and famous one -

Led Zep IV - the Porky inscription Do What Thou Wilt...usually rightly but wrongly attributed to Crowley from his Book Of The Law which he claimed was dictated to him by Aiwas or the Scarlet Lady of Babylon in a cave , but its more likely he read it in Rabelais - Gargantua and Pantagruel, where a monk who saves a Vineyard from pillagers and kills the lot to save their wine supply is rewarded by a King and granted his own Citadel, and the monk inscribes Do What Thou Wilt above the entrance gates. However this goes back even further than Rabelais and I believe one of those ancient Greeks said the same in a surviving fragment, Zeppo of Tesco or some such chap.

Shuttah imagemaker - might be lit based, haven't heard it all or analysed lyrics

Caedmon 1978 private, named after the earliest known British poet and I believe it uses his only surviving work, Caedmons Hymn. We can't approve his anti pagan stance but he did look after animals in his Abbey, the balance is redressed.


Stevie Nicks - Rhiannon, could be just anyone called Rhiannon but an early demo/ solo piano version I heard has Nick's intoning "you are in my blood, for you are in my blood" at the end. So I think this is connected to the mystical Rhiannon from The Mabinogian, from the red and white books of Hergest, the earliest known books in Great Britain.

3 mind blowing corkers -

Black Sabbath - Iron Man (Def the Ted Hughes Book the iron giant)

Jackie - White Horses (Follyfoot TV series based upon a series of books by Monica Dickens, great grand-daughter of Charles Dickens)

Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë


Also

Kate Bush - Cloudbusting , a book of dreams - Reich.

Necronomicon - a book that doesn't exist, I think Colin Wilson wrote a fake

Electric Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

Salamander - 10 Commandments , holy Moses!

Samson - I am Samson, Bible

Narnia - the abominable c s Lewis

Aslan - as above

10 million other UK private Christian lps based upon the Bible, Cair Paravel etc, burn them all.

Gandalf- grey wizard am I

Vanity Fayre - the magnificent Thackeray, but isn't it a phrase from Shakespeare?



Thematic linkage -

Simon and Garfunkel - Bookends

Ken Hensley - Proud Words On A Dusty Shelf

Manfred Mann Chapter Three Volume One.

There's a Danny Kirwan Lp that looks like a book...

I like it you bring up private press UK.
............

Some book covers:

kirwan - 2nd chapter
bonzo dog band - history of
byrds - collector's guide to british birds
richie havens - portfolio

prog: manga Vallis - book of dreams
horslips - book of invasions
parsival - legend
lazlo benko - lexicon ( i have this lp, I think he was keysman of solaris???)

finally I can't believee you got me bringing-up (truely) these two fucks:
pearl jam - vitology
the ever-present fucking Partridge Family

okay. some progs here:

cream - tales of brave Ulusses
strawbs - thru aphrodite's eyes
elp - 3 fates
floyd - sisyphus
gatto marte - danae
captain beyond - ikarus
eloy poseidon
rose - a taste of neptune
pallas -mnotaurus
Genesis - lamia
mike batt - hunting of the snark
Caravan -canterbury tales
marillion - grendl
gentle giant - pantagruel
argent -lothlorien
trader horn - 3 rings
Isildur's Bane
Prudence - gandalf
Shadowfax
glasshammer journey of the dunadan & middle earth album
rivendell
minas tirith
nazgul
mithrandir
decamaron - journey's end
fat mattrass - magic forest
mostly autumn - helm's deep
mastermind ( & tangerine dream)- tiger tiger
greenslade/nature - how sweet I roamed
sunzoom - the happy fly
gilgamesh
robert reed ( and David Bedford) -nurses song with elephants
bedford lp on poet kenneth patchen
horslips -book of invasions & the Tain
oldfield - red book of hergest, diana
donovan - walrus & carpenter
enid - white godess (robert graves) also there is a Spanish band concept on Graves on Movieplay label - I have it but forgot.....
finnegan's wake
r j godfrey - fall of hyperion (keats)
procol harem (there's lots) - wreck of the hesperides
ayers - garden of love
ayers - owl (Lear)
starcastle - lady of the lake (scott)
social tension - macbethia
Genesis - cinema show (Wasteland)
tom newman - ozymandias
genesis - colony of slippermen (wordsworth)
prof fuddle's fantastic fairy tale machine (shakespeare)
also I think Perth County Conspiracy had a Shakes. somewhere
dr strangely strange - strings in earth & air (Joyce)
Wakeypoos - lines in a country churchyard,country airs (shelley)
donovan - song of wandering Aengus (yeats)
kansas - ikarus (& MacDonald and Giles)
beowulf (canadian 2lp rock opera)
alan white - song of innoence
donovan- owl & pussycat
beggars opera
RODYS - VAN EEDEN 'LITTLE JOHANNES"
zOMBIES - ROSE FOR EMILY (FAULKNER - THE SHIT WRITER)
enid - la chanson de roland
robert connolley - plateau (erich von daniken)
mantler - haples child (gorey)
steeleye span - wintersmith (pratchett)
richard pinhas - chronolyse (dune) klaus schultz also, and Szjaner
hawkwind - magnu (shelly hymn to apollo)
arena - unquiet sky (m.r.james casting the runes)
SAHB - tomahawk kid (treasure island)
Paul Roland -LOTS!
birmngham sunday - peter pan
hackett - Narnia (Hey! you DO NOT diss c.s. lewis!)
tables - great adventures in wonderland (I'm assuming/hoping its peter pan)
Caedmon - aslan
genesis - unquiet slumbers )bronte)
YES- close to the edge (Hesse Siddhartha)
fit & limo (alsoSpontaneous Combustion) - pan
renaissance -scherazade
ISB - mad hatter's song
national health - tenemos roads (Eddison - one of my top 5 writers)
camel - snow goose
VDGG -childlike faith in childhood's end
heldon -east west (norman spinrad)
Krann (name from Jack Vance (another top fav writer!)dying earth
hammill - when she comes (blake & poe)
propaganda -dream within a dream
seru giran - cancion di alicia
henry cow - in praise of learning (Heinlein)
jeannie lewis - freefall (ikarus again)
gentle giant - moon is down (steinbeck -another shit writer)
-memories of old days (Orwell comng up for air)
-cry for everyone (camus)
jeff wayne - war of worlds
solaris - martian chronicles



Get down!

...I'll get my coat.


But given the staggering erudition displayed by your list, and the Hesse mention, how could you have missed -

Hawkwind Steppenwolf

Also wondering if Al Stewart, Claire Hammill, Roy Harper may be stuffed with lit references.

And Robert Calvert too...though he counts as literature in his own right, plus I think Cap Lockheed quotes the Starfighter instruction manual, (is it literature class ?) and Lucky Leif may be drawn from one of those early Icelandic works, Erik the red, or snorri snurlsson...or...all mixed in the memory.


I wonder if everyone else on this forum has only ever read Record Collector and Noddy & Big Ears or if theyve been busy for 3 days cross-referencing their lp collections. I suspect the former, the gauntlet is down!


Marvelous Kid..named after a line in Kipling's old Man Kangaroo, just so stories. They used one L.

Agreed on Steinbeck, Faulkner and most other USA writers bar Charles Schultz. Stendhal pondered why America hadn't produced a single decent work of art, at that point in time. Obviously since then we've had Knight Rider and the Twilight Saga.

Aha!


Hawkwind - Damnation Alley - Roger Zelazney


How did I not think of Magnu one of their best tracks.

Didn't someone use Barefoot in the Head as a song title ? There's a radical and forgotten book.

Edit - a man called Adam, bit late for this forum...but wasn't there an earlier usage?


Small Faces Tin Soldier, Hans Christian Anderson.


Partridge Family 10, C.S. Lewis 0.


"Keysman of Solaris" ? a 70s SF book waiting to be written.

Fuck me! I'm at the library computer now and there is this library book stacker wot has Tourette's and is going on all the time impersonating R2D-wotsit (Star Wars shit) and is not inclined to shut the fuck up. Very bothersome, so forgive my typo/spelling mistakes.


What are the good Record Collector articles ?(I have British private press and British folk from decades past.)

.....JAMES BRANCH CABELL IS MY FAV us AUTHOR.he must have released 30 books.

.....

wot you got against c.s.lewis?

.....

I've bin reading Kipling short stories all week. did I mention the check group BARNODAJ and their concept lp, "Maugli"?

You need to watch this Czech Psych video, apologies for any resulting psycholgical trauma -


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y0KMkQFDxiM


Bizzarely I once owned every Czech lp and single ever made in the rock idiom, collection created for a private london archive. They have them in a box in a cellar up the road from Jimmy Page. They may never see daylight again.


Synkopy 61 also tackle the mighty Heep.


These lps are worth a listen -

Olympic - Zelva

Blue Effect - Meditace


I will build up to the Lewis question, and as long as the intense rainfall and dripping fogs continue here will answer later

Ps -


Al Stewart - Sirens of Titan !

Sympathy for the devil - stones, inspired by bulgakovs unusual The Master & Margarita

Rocket Man - diff songs by pearls before swine and Elton John, from Ray Bradbury

Tom Sawyer by Rush, magnificent.

In search of Peter Pan - Kate Bush

1984 by Bowie

Don't Fear the Reaper Blue Oyster Cult, Romeo & Juliet.

Motorcycle Emptiness - Manic Street Preachers, the book Rumblefish and parts of a poem.

Romeo & Juliet - Dire Straits, brilliant song.

Zero She Flies lp - Al Stewart, apparently inspired by Meryvn Peake

Is a pattern emerging that these all tend to be great songs?

1984 - anthony phillips
1984 -wakiepoos

strawbs - lady Fuschia
bowie - aladin sane (Waaugh "vile bodies")

good call on Al Stewart. wasn't aware (Zero She Flies lp is imposible to find here in Leutonia. I don't think it was released here)


SIMON SAYS - siren songs
VDGG - siren song
the FLOCK - mermaid (but cannot think of any mermaid novels just now. think there was one by Baron Le Motte Foque but, of course, Flock weren't referencing him)

lotta folk songs about silkies

.............
neoprogs:
Galahad
Pendragon

................

As to Check popsike /fusion & prog, Wallace hath a formidable collection of East Euro. But I'm still REALLY needing these:

GATTCH - SAME (fuzz!)
OLYMPIC - ZELVA & PTAK ROSOMANK (also English version of some Ptak tracks "sTORY OF A WONDER" released only in France as EP and under group name of FIVE TRAVELLERS)
HAMMEL & VARGA -ZELENA POSTA

and:
Savoy - iscaltura de lumina (Romania)
Indexi - modra rijeka (yugo)
R.M. Tocak (jugo)
Krzysztof Klenczon-same (fuzz, poland)
Laza Ristovski - 2/3, sztemko (yugo)
Jiri Schelinge Group (hungary ,a big dealer there tells me the Hungarian rock/psychs are now impossible to find in his country)
Skaldowie - YS (mainly want it for the beautiful cover)
Leb i Sol - 1 (Macedonia)

split enz - Titus

A mermaid novel -


Edith Nesbit - Wet Magic

Possibly the water babies Kingsley.

When I was about 10 I was obsessed with a children's novel where the main character finds a strange stone carving on the shore of a humanoid figure with webbed features, eventually leading him or her to an undersea race. No idea what it was called. But dark and strange.


There are more. Could this thread convert to a list of mermaid themed lit and drop the music bit ?

Call foul on Pendragon, Galahad etc, they are British historical figures, not fiction.

Your question " what are the good record collector articles ?" -

Teams of scientists have been sifting through piles of issues from number one up searching for good well written articles, so far no sign.

Wallace - Do you know why genuine Czech underground musical artists dislike every officially released czech rock lp and single from the communist era ? This can inform your listening experience.

Wallace, there's a little red flame next to this thread in the index (whereas all other threads merely have a dull black icon meaning "not very interesting, yawn" ?) Ha.

Thus you can congratulate yourself on being a trendsetter followed avidly by the illiterati. I think a self congratulatory tipple is in order and a jammy Dodger.

If only to drop the music part and write solely about lovely books and f*ck with the other members minds.

Kylie Minogue - Jacques The Fatalist

I would hope not a JOHNNY dodger!


.........

"Call foul on Pendragon, Galahad etc, they are British historical figures, not fiction."

Well, there is no proof that Pendragon ever kicked about.So knock that one on the head.

As to Galahad I don't believe he is even mentioned in Geoffrey Monmouth.

Malory brought in a lot of gubbins loike the Round Table and Launcelot (whose son was Galahad.)


Note I did not include Wakiepoos "Myths & Legends of King Arthur" cos "myths" - yes, but actual historical figure????

The Annales Cambriae, Latin chronicles late 10th century place Arthur's death at he battle of Camlann.(These chronicles put down some 300 yahres after Arthur's death ). 12 battles are recorded fought by this Arthur against the Saxons.

In Monmouth's "History of the kings of Britain" Emperor Hiberius demands a tribute of King Arthur . If he refused to appear before the Roman Senate the Romans would attack.Arthur refuses and with his cousin King Hoel seeks allies and goes to Brittany. Later he meets the army of the Roman empire in Burgundy....

In this version we have Launcelot as Hoel's son, making him Brittany, not Welsh as said some other place.

........

No I don't know.
Why do Check dislike......

There Be Dragons

"There's no proof..." Well there's no real proof about anything or even if anything actually exists Viz the charming notion of Solipsism, within the framework of accepted reality such figures most assuredly did exist, all myth has roots in truth, not only did Uther Pendragon walk this sceptred isle, so did actual dragons, just check Ivor the Engine to validate this statement.

Czechpoint Charlie

Under communism artists were not allowed to play unless they were officially approved and sanctioned by the state. 'bands' had to apply to be bands, conform to communist dictates, and play in front of suited up Commie Committees to get an official License. Everything they did was approved by Big Brother first, and issued on the state owned labels Supraphon, Panton etc.

The actual Undergound Movement, a word which has an entirely different meaning to the western 'Underground' (music/art) was ILLEGAL. These bands played what they wanted as a political statement and were frequently imprisoned for doing so, they could not legally play live or issue records. The main players were The Plastic People of The Universe, Vaclav Havel,DG 307, Aktual by Milan Knizak. Knizak was a founder of the anti art movement FLUXUS (Yoko Ono too) and later director of the Czech National Gallery.

Many of these people looked upon the state sanctioned bands, and that means Olympic, Synkopy, Blue Effect eg al as puppets of the regime and garbage.

Milan Knizak began to smash up lps and glue random segments of different records together. These exist as art objects, I think beginning late sixties, but also he RECORDED one.

It was not allowed to be issued in CZ, but was issued in Italy as 'Broken Music' ithink in 1972. It is literally the recording of an lp made of segments of other smashed lps.

Knizak also pioneered 'Noise' events. He ran for government but didn't get elected. I will throw in an odd fact as a personal reminiscence, that Knizak once asked me where I lived because "I may need to send people to kill you if things go wrong". But it was one of my better meetings, and more fun that anything record related.

The Plastic People of the Universe inadvertantly caused the complete break up of communism after their last arrest caused outrage. This created Charta 77. Thus Havel's presidency.

Ppu themselves didn't give a f*CK about politics and play this all down as an accident. Very hitchhiker's guide.

That's it, all the music of these communist states that was officially released, is like manufactured S Club 7 Monkees fakery. But the Monkees are better than the Beatles, so what does this all mean, is it acceptable to enjoy fake state manufactured plastic political propaganda dressed up as youth culture ? Probably ok in the 21st century when Values mean nothing. And what is genuine what is real, did any bands really play from the heart or just play what they felt they should or for contrived reasons, for girls, to be popular, for money, to fit in.

A lot of the official CZ rock bands tracks are clever composites of western tunes.

There was a black market in imported rock from UK, USA,Germany.

There was a subculture of illegally pressing western records on Rentogen machinery. Eg X Ray machines.They are a bit like flexis. Very rare.

There was a Czech label called Black Point that issued a lot of recordings from the Czech Underground. To stress - Czech Underground means illegal counter culture, absolutely not the same as what we perceive as 'underground' eg Cream or the Mother's are not Underground in the Czech sense. The Samizdat movement of hand typed books that were banned eg by authors like Hrabal is part of that history. PPU played at Havel's country place.

Maybe Skrewdriver technically qualify.

Later artists Iva Bittova and also her sister Ida Kelarova are quite good listening.

Exception to the Commie Rule


...it's the Karel Kryl - Bratricku... Lp on Panton. The title translates roughly as "Brothers Shut The Gates" . That refers to Russia.

The lp was banned in Cz upon release and withdrawn. Although a lot were sold.

It's protest folk and pretty good, especially the epic "Morituri te Salutant"


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BWcLkj74mv4


I'm sure you know the lp.

The cover is a photo by Josef Koudelka, a very important photographer who worked with Magnum. Alas, not Magnum P.I.

Yes, I know about those Xray vinyls.


....

My Hungarian friend says it was more riskier in Hungary than Check.
He says Illes were really brave to put out their lps. compared to Plastic People (who were doing experimental/political even) Illes with their innoculous Beatles-like POP were on the same level of risk.

I was active in the eastern bloc for 20 years Bosnia up, hungarian lps like Omega, Locomotiv, Skorpio, Sarolta Zalatnay were very common in the Czech Republic at least til 6 or 7 years ago when I was buying them there for fun, I saw them everywhere, 50czk up (£1 then). Even the early Omega lps. Maybe it's changed now, same for Polish lps.

Hard to believe they are considered rare.

To me the state control aspect makes the music inauthentic. Czechs greatly excelled in their Cinema and Photography, I don't rate their musical output at all.


This is very good, Iva Bittova -


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEZg3TX1k_g

It's true that there was a late sixties period of perceived freedom in Czechoslovakia, known as Prague Spring. This resulted in the Russian Tanks rolling in and the president being whisked to Russia to make a humiliating apologetic radio broadcast. Of course, with the end of communism things have changed...haven't they...?

If only the British Empire had not been given back after ww2 bankrupted us and well- intended but misguided ideologies infected england.

Not sure about Illes, communism bred a paranoid and duplicitous backstabbing populace of informing on neighbours for rewards. People who genuinly did step out of line would have been disappeared. That happens in the UK and west as well obviously to this day, sometimes it's necessary.

I'm suspicious of people who survived - The father of an ex girlfriend there had a collection of Western lps like ISB, Cream, Led Zep. They were not legally sold. He got them from the authorities in exchange for informing on fellow college students. This runs through the entire history of their culture. Some would say the velvet revolution was a set up. Those ex commies in authority were all set up very nicely after that happened. People who had worked in the National Galleries there all suddenly became rich, flogging off state treasures.

Similarly before the troops got to iraq the art world did, antiquities were removed and sold silently to the west before any declaration.

Re "

JAMES BRANCH CABELL IS MY FAV us AUTHOR.he must have released 30 books.

.....

wot you got against c.s.lewis?"

This all went off topic so I think I will really get my hat this time, but lastly to answer these final 2 unanswered points -

Cabell - thanks for mentioning this author, I've not heard of him but he sounds extremely interesting and quirky, and from a good period. So I will try some of his work as a result. I doubt very much that I will like it as I don't get on with American writers in general, other than Sinclair Lewis (pleasant but a lesser Wells), Anita Loos,(short and sweet), and Salinger is ok but again more like pamphlets than books...
Twain enjoyed in childhood but his backwards and blinkered comments about Austen unforgivable. So anyway will try Cabell. Last 3 books suggested to me by others were amongst the worst I have ever read. We'll see.

It's incredible how it's still possible to stumble upon authors one has somehow missed. A joy to do. Eg I've only just discovered that Edgar Rice Burroughs copied John Carter from the earlier English novels of Gulliver Jones of Mars. Astonishing.


C.s.lewis.

That whole insidious Inklings bunch of (mostly) Christian propagandists , opening the cover of a CS Lewis is like willingly opening a door to a horde of rabid Jehovah's Witnesses and Evangelists hell-bent on converting you. The ghastly blatant metaphors and thinly veiled preaching. Ditto Tolkien.

Approve actual Morality and Ethics, Plato, Marcus Aurelius, and the stoics, but Christianity is sorely lacking therein. The Christian attitude to animals has resulted in torture, suffering, abuse and repulsive behaviour, this alone condemns it as vile, and thus Lewis condemns himself.

Also note that the brilliant E.Nesbit wrote a passage in which the Queen of Babylon travels through time to a London street and is stared at by bowler hatted crowds who disparage her bikini, in a clever sequence thats veiled as a dream, she massacres the londoners. This is a brilliant mind at play.

Lewis plagiarised that entire sequence later on. Except of course he didn't have the b*lls of Edith and ends limply, not in Nesbits lovely bloodspilling of middle class mediocrity.

Plagiarism is a cardinal sin. Lewis copied Nesbit. Lewis, a typical Christian.

I realise you can argue that virtually every pre 1920 book has Christian undertones, all the Russian authors for example, but they were writing books not religious propaganda.

Apologies for the overlong answers, I think the otherwise rubbish Pascal said "I don't have the time to make my letters shorter".

All my suggestions of songs are from a fallible memory not checked and may be wrong. But this was an interesting diversion from a grey period. Thanks, where's my hat.

Here is one book that IS NOT Christian: the exquisite Wind In the Willows .(Also NOT a children's book.)

By the way, no one mentioned the obvious album citing a book: Pink Floyd "Piper At Gates of Dawn". (Although I don't believe anything beyond the title references Wind In Willows.)

Agreed it's a true classic, and the Piper chapter is unexpected and astonishing, like many at that time he was influenced by the Celtic Twilight and possibly the Order of the Golden Dawn.

His two books Dream Days and The Golden Age are also exceptional, although they are composed of short stories.

The comment about pre 1920 books being mostly Christian is a generalisation but fairly accurate, and just reflects prevailing beliefs in the 19th century. So the Christianity was intrinsic, which is very different to deliberate contrived attempts at conversion through insidious texts such as those of Tolkien and Lewis.

Piper didn't get mentioned because it's too obvious, as with White Rabbit by the Great Society/Jefferson Airplane.

This thread drew a large amount of views but it seems only 3 people contributed. We must assume other members have never read beyond Mojo or Record Collector, an unkind person might suggest they are thickos or illiterate. Other than Wallace and May Twitz,only the chap from Ithaca, Mr Howell, added some Hobbit related titles.

We have certainly only scratched the surface of this topic. Although it was an exercise in futility and had no real reason to be.

I leave it with the idea that A Book Of Record Covers That Look Like Books could make a ridiculous Taschen publication.

That Kirwan lp is pretty bad. I always liked the Future Games LP with the Kirwan tracks like Dragonfly when I was a child, the solo lp a serious disappointment.

Two songs by the late great Bob Hughes -

'Jonathan Livingston Seagull' (Richard Bach)
'Kerouac' (as in Jack)

Roy Harper meets Al Stewart -

Bob Hughes Jonathan Seagull. 74 views in 6 years. Give it a quick listen in memory of a great eccentric who wrote songs privately for 50 years


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=11WajdOEdvI&pp=ygUSQm9iIGh1Z2hlcyBzZWFndWxs

An "unkind"person as you put it who thinks reading magazines and NOT the books you and Wallace(like authors using aliases) have read and spoke about here,would not only be unkind,but deemed judgemental,as faux intellectual with a degree of snobbery,possibly an inkling of elitism,as it IS ironically on a music forum dedicated to a niche in mainly 60s and 70s music and touches on that times youth culture,that the discussion has took place,basically the type of stuff in those mentioned magazines,that an unkind person could insult the intelligence of those who read and enjoy those said magazines.

Could it not be the case,that few have interacted with your discussion on those books as it may be subject matter uninteresting to those who come to a psych music forum?Who have little or no interest in either view from both yourself and Wallace on the books and political history you both have touched upon?Why not have that intellectual discussion on a group that IS knowledgable about those subjects,then attempt to be an "unkind"person by looking down on those who ONLY read Record Collector and the like,because i'm sure on those type of discussion groups,that "unkind" person will be quickly brought to heel on their superior intellect,by others with far more knowledge on said books,but that provides NO evidence that those who have more knowledge on said books are any more intellectual than the others,maybe on THAT subject,but that subject alone,as on other subject matter,they may be utterly unknowlegable,but that does NOT make them dumb now does it?

You get my drift?
Its great having those discussions on here,i personally wholeheartedly welcome them,and i have followed the whole discussion that has been had,in particular the music behind the so called iron curtain,under communist rule from USSR,and the comments made on the bands who did release albums under the puppet regime in old Czechoslovakia,as my brother has lived in the town of Brno,in the now Czech Republic for many years,with his Czech born wife and family,so that was of much interest to myself,as i have cd reissues of quite a few "state sanctioned"albums i think you remarked,of fake groups from this time who you state were disliked and deemed as rubbish,by most people.THAT was a fabulous discussion to follow,how much of what you said is true,i don't know,but it made interesting reading none the less.

What i DON'T like is when it veers onto faux intellectual snobbery with "unkind"people denigrating others for ONLY reading magazines and such,THAT i abhore,we are ALL individuals,with our OWN main interests,and good luck to everyone in their enjoyment in those interests,as someones garbage,is anothers passion...so ANY denigration that would be proper and right,would be self criticism and denigration,as for the "unkind"person to even think they're somewhow more intellectual because of a subject they have knowledge about,and possibly a passion for,and to use that to look down on others,with NO interest in that subject,is indeed a unkind,fake intellectual with high opinions of themself,and probably ARE total bores to be with......but only if that "unkind"person intentionally denigrates people,as unbeleivably there are those who are so up their own arse,common sense and decency has been lost.

top thread guys

Donovan - Lord of The Reedy River.


It's based upon Leda & the Swan ...... But delving deeper


There's a Cicely Mary Barker illustrated Children's book circa 1940 entitled -


'Lord of the Rushie River'


About a child and Swans... I can imagine Donovan reading this, fits with the Gift and HMS aesthetic.


Barker is best known for her Flower Fairies books. Could it be that Donovan substituted Rushie for Reedy to avoid being sued by Flower Fairies?


Thanks One Shed Phil. I once lived in a shed for a year. Then again for a few months. Different shed. Shed Dwellers Survival Forum anyone?

It begs the question of whether you are content with one shed, hanker after more, or if it's an obscure martial art.

There are surely a lot more, especially American

Poe Through The Glass Prism. Long time since I heard this, but either Poe's poems set to psych pop music, or very heavily influence.

Wind In The Willows - Debbie Harry's first hippy pop band from 1968, I think there is a track with narration from the book, but I could be wrong.

Mr Flood's Party. Brilliant US psych LP, named after the book of poetry by Edwin Arlington Robinson, though not sure if further connections in the songs.

David Axelrod - Songs Of Innocence and Songs Of Experience - 2 LPs 'inspired by' William Blake's poetry volumes, likewise The Priests Of The Raven Of Dawn by The Open Window.