(2020) VA – Looking Through a Glass Onion: The Beatles Psychedelic Songbook 1966-72


Review:
In 2020, covering the music of the Beatles is still a relatively common occurrence, but in the late 1960s artists were churning out their own versions of Fab Four tunes almost as quickly as the band themselves could release them. What is now considered a globally familiar songbook of Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison favorites was being cemented practically in real time by acts ranging from emerging greats still finding their identity to minor one-off oddities. In another feat of archival extremism, the always-thorough Grapefruit division of Cherry Red Records offers up Looking Through a Glass Onion: Beatles Psychedelic Songbook 1966-1972. As its title suggests, this 3-disc anthology is focused on the Beatles’ influence on the burgeoning U.K. psych and progressive scenes that occurred from the 1966 release of Revolver until two years after the band’s breakup. There’s quite a lot here, and of course the results vary in quality and taste. Right out of the gate, Deep Purple and Yes take their respective cracks at “Help” (heavy, plodding, and occasionally grandiose) and the relatively minor Beatles for Sale cut “Every Little Thing” (intricate, dynamic, and sounding very much like early Yes). As with those two acts, a trend of massive growling Hammond organ swells and frenetic guitar solos plays throughout much of the collection, often with less impressive results like Welsh combo Eyes of Blue’s over-the-top reading of “Yesterday” and Spooky Tooth’s dirgey Sabbath-like “I Am the Walrus,” which while interesting wears out its welcome. Elsewhere are tighter renditions that hit their mark like the Gods’ punchy, brass-driven “Hey Bulldog” or pleasing folky tributes like Linda Peters’ (later to find success as Linda Thompson) spare version of “Get Back.” Tonally, Glass Onion runs the gamut of the era’s exploratory trends from outright jammy psych-rock and prog-rock to buoyant sunshine pop, jazz, and soul-inflected pop, some of which were pioneered by the Beatles’ original versions. Not all of it is great or even good, but there are enough diamonds in the rough to keep it interesting and the liberties taken occasionally lead to some fascinating places.





Tracklist:

CD1
01 - Camel - Mystery Tour
02 - Deep Purple - Help
03 - Yes - Every Little Thing
04 - Affinity - I Am The Walrus
05 - Rainbow Ffolly - Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
06 - The Hollies - If I Needed Someone
07 - The Mirage - Tomorrow Never Knows
08 - Kippington Lodge - In My Life
09 - Eyes Of Blue - Yesterday
10 - Sounds Nice - Flying
11 - Design - Strawberry Fields Forever
12 - Episode Six - Here There And Everywhere
13 - Cliff Bennett And The Rebel Rousers - Got To Get You Into My Life
14 - Hair Rave-Up - Birthday
15 - Blonde On Blonde - Eleanor Rigby
16 - Atlantic Bridge - Dear Prudence
17 - Jawbone - Across The Universe
18 - Duffy Power - Fixing A Hole
19 - Trucial States - Oh Darling
20 - The Tremeloes - Good Day Sunshine
21 - Infinity - Taxman
22 - Orange Bicycle - You Never Give Me Your Money - Carry That Weight

CD2
01 - Spooky Tooth - I Am The Walrus
02 - Plastic Penny - Strawberry Fields Forever
03 - Rainbow Ffolly - The Continuing Story Of Bungalow
04 - Big Jim Sullivan - Within You Without You
05 - The Gods - Hey Bulldog
06 - Freedom - Cry Baby Cry
07 - Don Fardon - Day Tripper
08 - The Frugal Sound - Norwegian Wood
09 - Penny Arcade - The Two Of Us
10 - Andy Ellison - You Cant Do That
11 - Grand Union - She Said She Said
12 - Davey Graham And Holly - Mother Natures Son
13 - Cliff Bennett And His Band - Back In The USSR
14 - The Young Idea - With A Little Help From My Friends
15 - The Shadows - Paperback Writer
16 - Phillip Goodhand - One And One Is Two
17 - The Majority - A Hard Days Night
18 - Trucial States - Birthday
19 - Linda Peters - Get Back
20 - Bo Street Runners - Drive My Car
21 - The Good Ship Lollipop - Maxwells Silver Hammer
22 - Stone The Crows - The Fool On The Hill
23 - Young Blood - I Will
24 - The Hi-Fi s - Yellow Submarine
25 - The Tomcats - Yesterday
26 - Lol Coxhill - I Am The Walrus

CD3
01 - Jason Crest - Come Together
02 - Tomorrow - Strawberry Fields Forever
03 - Circus - Norwegian Wood
04 - Big Jim Sullivan - Shes Leaving Home
05 - Deep Purple - Exposition-We Can Work It Out
06 - Affinity - A Day In The Life
07 - Andy Ellison - Help
08 - The Score - Please Please Me
09 - Loose Ends - Taxman
10 - The Eyes - Good Day Sunshine
11 - The Wilson Malone Voiceband - Penny Lane
12 - Young Blood - The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill
13 - The Real McCoy - I Will
14 - The Spectrum - Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da
15 - Brian Bennett - Rocky Raccoon
16 - Ice - Day Tripper
17 - The Sorrows - We Can Work It Out
18 - Octopus - I Am The Walrus
19 - Hardin And York - Northern Medley
20 - Vera Lynn - Good Night


Media Report:
Genre: pop, psychedelic rock
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits