A BLAST OF FLOWER POWER...??

PLEASE TAKE A JOURNEY TO MY PIECE THE COUNTERFEITERS ON NEWS BLAZE! I NEED TO BOOST MY NUMBERS OVER THERE. THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! ALSO, YOU CAN FIND ME ON VERVEEARTH NOW! JUST CLICK ON AUSTIN AND PUT IT ON ART, MOVIES, OR HISTORY AND YOU WILL FIND CLAUDE BOVEE. IT`S PRETTY NEAT!

I`m longing for a blast of flower power today. This may be partially due to the fact that this story is breaking about possible new bodies being found on Barker Ranch. I didn`t think that the Manson Family story could have such endurance, but it`s coming back to life again. Eerie memories seem to surface, but I surfed itunes for some flower power ditties from a fresher period. I found it in Gene Clark`s Echoes, a 1967 release, a little bit before the over-ripening of psychedelic generation. I downloaded the twenty tracks just like that! To my surprise I have never heard this before. It sounds just like The Byrds, but the quality of the songs is a little sub-par. It still has Chris Hillman and Michael Clarke as the rhythm section. The jingle janglie guitars, possibly twelve string, are stacked to the sky and the harmonies are complex and choir-like, just like The Byrds. I didn`t really know Gene Clark`s story very well, so I read up on him on wikipedia. It`s a sad one along the lines of Townes Van Zandt or Gram Parsons. This is a recurring pattern…I astutely discern. I came to Gene Clark because he wrote two of the songs that appear on Raising Sand, a really spectacular record that I am trying to write a review on. Polly Come Home and Through the Morning, Through the Night are two very fine songs that led me to Gene Clark. Then when I was reading up on The Byrds I realized that he had written many of the mega-hits, like Eight Miles High, I`ll Feel A Whole Lot Better, and Set You Free This Time. I`ve never heard most of the songs on Echoes, but the sound is familiar to me and the tambourine shaking is an old sensation.

Only Colombe is playing right now and has a mandolin rippling throughout. So you Say You Lost Your Baby is the last track…it`s just an acoustic guitar and a vocal and it has double-entendre lyrics and a nasal vocal…very good song. I doubt if many people have ever heard it. Echoes is a big production number. Strings, flutes, and the lyrics are electric. I just read that Terry Melcher was the producer for The Byrds…Eurekia! There`s the Manson connection with Gene Clark that I was able to make through the back door. Melcher actually owned the Sharon Tate mansion and was possibly the real target of the flower molls, if I can remember my Ed Sanders. His book on The Family is really the best one to read, in case you are curious to travel down that Black Brick Road…He headed up the band The Fugs and it`s been a long time since I heard them.

I Knew I`d Want You is a great song too…harmonies all the way through…the guitars are crisp and top off each line. Here Without You reminds me of Eight Miles High, the way the minor key melody cascades up the scale…the harmonies on the chorus are rapturous. I knew I Wanted You is more of a drone, an ode? On Set You Free This Time the melody is atonal, but the sound is full, overdubs are present on the vocals. I`m beginning to believe that the folk/rock label of The Byrds was largely due to the influence of Gene Clark. Boston is a catchy one and starts off the album. For Me Again is maybe the best song on the record. In listening to these ancient songs I feel like I am in a museum for ancient music. I`ve found some very old tracks and as I look at the ghost town photos of Barker Ranch a chilly feeling comes over. I can`t find my old Byrds, so it`s lost, just like many of these great stars who have succumbed to substance abuse…wasted talent. I sure needed this blast from the past today, and I don`t know exactly why? So you say you lost your baby…if they find some lost flower children buried behind Barker Ranch we will discover something odd from the past. Maybe Manson really is The Devil! But I need a fix of positive flower power today…not the Dark Force of The Sixties!