June 8, 2012 Playlist

WORT-FM's Summer Pledge Drive!
"The Helpful Soul First Album" by The Helpful Soul (1969)
CLASSIC ALBUM OF THE WEEK
The Helpful Soul  "The Helpful Soul First Album"  1969 (Japan)
The Helpful Soul are a fairly marginal band from the tail end of Japan's "Group Sounds" craze (so-called because "Rock and Roll" is very difficult for Japanese speakers to pronounce!)  Once heavy blooz groups like Cream, The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Iron Butterfly became all the rage, there were regional bands outside the Anglosphere waiting to catch the latest wave and interpret it for the local hippeoise.  The Helpful Soul was exactly such a band, mostly dealing in covers of blues-based garage band turd-nuggets like "Spoonful" and "Kansas City" which differ from second-rate American and British bands of that ilk only by having more heavily accented vocalists.  Except for ONE AMAZING SONG on this album, a furious opus of disillusioned youth called "Peace For Fools" (what a great title!), which sounds like The Stooges' Fun House (a year before that record came out!) crossed with "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" -- in fact The Helpful stole the riff from the latter song for a big chunk of the 10-minute running time of "Peace For Fools".  But no matter, it is one of the most super heavy amazing rock and roll performances ever to come out of Japan, and stacks up well alongside other underground classics like The Pink Fairies' "Uncle Harry's Last Freakout" and The Coloured Balls' "That's What Mama Said".  (Have you never heard any of these songs?  Well you should listen to Kosmik Radiation more often!)
I doubt there is any video of The Helpful Soul, but here is a recording you can listen to of the incredible "Peace For Fools", as well as a couple more conventional nuggets-style "psychedelic" tunes from The Helpful Soul's second album (contrary to what I said on the show, they did make more than one).
(N) = New Release
Artist Song Album Year (label) Country
Scott Walker
The Old Man's Back Again
 		Scott 4
1969
USA/UK
Steppenwolf Monster:
   Monster
   Suicide
   America 		Monster
1970Canada/USA
The Helpful Soul
Peace For Fools
 		The Helpful Soul First Album
 CLASSIC ALBUM OF THE WEEK
1969
Japan
 
  
The Helpful Soul
Little Wing (Jimi Hendrix)
 		The Helpful Soul First Album
 CLASSIC ALBUM OF THE WEEK
1969
Japan
Funkadelic
Let's Make It Last
 		Cosmic Slop
1973
USA
Chicago
South California Purples Chicago Transit Authority
1969
USA
Captain Beyond
Dancing Madly Backwards (On A Sea Of Air)
 		Captain Beyond
1972
USA/UK
 
  
Gun
Yellow Cab Man
 		Gun
1968
UK
Dr. John
Locked Down
Locked Down (N)2012 (Nonesuch)USA
Bobby ConnGREEED
Macaroni (N)2012 (Fire)
USA
Xiu Xiu
Black Drum Machine
Always (N)
2012 (Polyvinyl)USA
SpiritualizedI Am What I Am (co-written by Dr. John)
Sweet Heart Sweet Light (N)2012 (Fat Possum)UK
 
  
Jefferson Airplane
We Can Be Together Volunteers
1969
USA
Grateful Dead
New Potato Caboose Anthem Of The Sun
1968
USA
Country Joe & The Fish
Section 43 Electric Music For The Mind And Body
1967USA
Moby Grape
Omaha Moby Grape
1967USA
 
 
Traffic
Shanghai Noodle Factory
 		Last Exit
1969
UK
Elephants Memory
Super Heep
 		Songs From Midnight Cowboy
1970
USA
Santana
Everything's Coming Our Way
 		Santana (3rd album)
1971
Mexico/USA
Mahavishnu Orchestra
The Noonward Race
 		The Inner Mounting Flame
1971
UK/USA/Ireland
/Czech./Panama

 
Miles Davis
(Pete Cosey R.I.P.)
 		Wili Part 2 (live) Dark Magus: Live At Carnegie Hall
rec. 1974
USA
Frank Zappa (with Captain Beefheart) Willie The Pimp Hot Rats
1970USA
Charles Mingus Tijuana Gift Shop New Tijuana Moods
1957USA
 
 
Billy Cobham Solarization:
   Solarization
   Second Phase
   Crescent Sun
   Voyage
   Solarization - Recapitulation
 		Total Eclipse
1974Panama/USA
                   
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