04 November 2009

Kim Fowley - 1967 - Love is Alive and Well

Quality: 3.5 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 3.75 out of 5

I've sometimes heard Kim Fowley referred to as a psychedelic huckster, grasping at straws to churn out freakish records of bubblegum psych. This record will do nothing to dissuade that viewpoint, but I kind of like it anyway. There is a distinct cheezy charm as Fowley never quite hits the vocal mark even though he seems to be trying really hard, and the production pretty much throws out every psychedelic pop cliche that it can. It's very much a sell-out of its era, though, and this entertains me at least.

There is admittedly not a whole lot of originality here, but there is plenty of a fabricated Summer of Love sound. "Flower City" is an almost cringeworthy re-appropriation of "Ode to Joy," but it does feature a groovy beat and a short rave-up. "This Planet Love" manages to rip off "Who Do You Love?,' complete with a rabid Bo Diddley beat, and "Reincarnation" nicks the "Pushin' Too Hard" beat, which the Seeds themselves admittedly reused themselves about 57 times. "Super Flower" is a completely useless 'interview' section. You'd think that on a 21 minute album they would be able to avoid that sort of track. My favorite here is "War Game," which is a completely insane bit of orchestrated spoken word which would fit nicely on a 60's Zappa album. I will say that "See How the Other Half Love" is a fine psych-pop rocker that doesn't seem to have a specific antecedent (not that it brings anything particularly new to the table).

This isn't a good album, but it has a lot of charm. It's sort of like listening to a distorted, demented version of 1967 pop radio. If you aren't already familiar with cult stars like the Chocolate Watchband or the aforementioned Seeds, by all means explore that first. This odd Kim Fowley album is really just a little sugar for the already initiated. Half the fun is figuring out all of the things he's sonically stealing from elsewhere.

13 comments:

The Bomber said...

dropped some at the private garage!

Dr. Schluss said...

Thanks for the droppings! Wait... that didn't sound quite right.

Anonymous said...

Jajaja...
:)

Anonymous said...

Kim Fowley is usually worth a listen so I'll give it a chance.

Unknown said...

Kim is a legend, a king. Just listen to 'the trip' en you'll instantly want to drop acid, yeah! And all your friends will be there! ;)

Steve Engler said...

I've been trying to find this for years, mainly because I had this record as a kid.

Jörg said...

"Due to a violation of our terms of use, the file has been removed from the server."

Anonymous said...

Where can I get it?

Thanks, I am looking so long for Kim Fowley... He has great songs!

Maybe someone can post the Link???
Twinkle... :):):)

Thx :)

srecko ujka said...

http://www.mediafire.com/file/3wjy4zjij2t/kimfowleyone.zip

Not some precious quality, but great as an information. If possible, I'll make it better!

srecko ujka said...

http://rapidshare.com/files/2847034/Kim_Fowley_-_Love_Is_Alive_and_Well.rar


Much, much better, but, not perfect still!

srecko ujka said...

Sorry, can't make it flac, you'll have to be satisfied @320bps!

Dr. Schluss said...

Thanks for the post!

JJ said...

Two of Fowley's songs are on a Tower Records Psychedelic sampler, "Underground". It includes songs from other Tower Records artists such as Jake Holmes, Pink Floyd, The Chocolate Watchband, and the Them.