Back in the pre-internet days, collectors of 1960s psych had considerably fewer sources of information to help them conduct research for future vinyl purchases. For those readers who are forty or older, chances are you owned or knew someone who had a copy of Vernon Joynson’s reference book The Acid Trip or its follow-up, The Flashback. As amateurishly written as these music guides may have been, where else were you going to be able to read about bands such as the Flat Earth Society, the Neighb’rhood Childr’n, or the Savage Resurrection in the '1980s? These tomes provided me with checklists of LPs that I just had to own, even if I often found Joynson’s musical tastes to be maddeningly inconsistent.
As the 1990s saw a significant number of these albums reissued both officially and illicitly on compact disc, the acquisition of particularly coveted recordings became a much more realistic proposition. This was especially true in regard to titles by non-American bands whose works had generally been hard to come by prior to the digital revolution in music. One of the first groups in the Canada section of The Flashback that really piqued my interest was Calgary’s intriguingly-named 49th Parallel, with their sole long player described as “excellent, full of strong songs, good guitar work, (and) diverse influences.” That was enough to make me want to check it out.
At some point during my college or grad school years, I managed to obtain the album as a bootleg CD on the notorious Flashback label (no connection with the aforementioned book). My reaction upon ultimately listening to it typified the feelings that I often had toward similar reissues of psych and garage from the 1960s. While it had tracks that were good to great, there was also a lot of stuff that qualified as mediocre to absolutely lame. The inconsistent nature of such albums always proved to be frustrating because it wasn’t as easy to cherry pick the best performances back in the pre-MP3 days. Moreover, these items presented collectors of more limited means with the dilemma of whether or not to keep them during hard financial times.
I mention all of this because it is relevant to the vinyl renaissance that we’re currently experiencing. Now that a significant number of 1960s rock albums are being legitimately rereleased on LP - making this format affordable to many for the first time - collectors are faced with yet another difficult decision: Do they or don’t they replace their CD versions of these mid-range titles with the new vinyl reissues? My approach to this quandary has always depended on my level of appreciation for the good tracks. If the worthwhile material on a two-and-a-half-to three-star albums consists primarily of five-star songs, then I’m much more likely to invest in an analogue upgrade.
One of many excellent new labels with a sizable vinyl catalogue, Lion Productions (in conjunction with the Canada’s Pacemaker) has made life even more difficult by not only repressing 49th Parallel’s eponymous LP but also putting together this collection that is simply titled 'Singles'. The promotional sticker on the shrink-wrap boasts that it includes all of the group’s 45 releases in addition to rare alternates. Since the 49th Parallel LP can be described as more of a singles-plus-filler affair than a proper album, there was bound to be some overlap between the two, and indeed there is. As a result, the sublimely psychy “Close the Barn Door”, the macho posturing of “(Come on Little Child &) Talk to Me”, and the orchestrated popsike of “Now That I’m a Man” and “Twilight Woman” (the latter of which charted in Canada and certain regions of the US in 1969) appear on both records.
The version of “Missouri” featured here is a shorter single mix and unfortunately lacks the same blistering leads from guitarist Dan Lowe that can be heard on its LP counterpart. The remaining eleven tracks are exclusive to this vinyl release, but they have also previously appeared in various capacities as bonus tracks on both the bootleg and legitimate CD reissues of the self-titled album. This discs’s languidly haunting leadoff track, “All Your Love”, was actually recorded by an earlier version of the band when they were known as the Shades of Blond and features considerably more primitive production than the other later material. “Labourer”, a rousing ode to the working man, comes up next, which is then followed by the competent if somewhat generically garagey “You Do Things” and the Byrdsish “She Says.” The snarling “Citizen Freak” combines social commentary and fuzz guitar like nothing else, and the only downside to this memorable jeremiad against the vacuity of the middle-class lifestyle is its extreme brevity. My status as a fan of Delaney Bramlett notwithstanding, 49th Parallel’s two takes on his early composition “Blue Bonnie Blue” rate as mildly pleasant, while another interpretation from that musician’s songbook, “Up to No Good,” is also nothing special. The execrable “I Need You” and “Goodtime Baby” were recorded after original vocalist Dennis Abbott had left and showcase the non-talents of his replacement, Doran Beattie, to awkward effect. The band’s repertoire never displayed much in the way of stylistic unity in the first place, and here they sound like a completely different group. All of which leaves 'Singles' in the same schizophrenic territory as the 49th Parallel LP where one third of the material is excellent, another third is middling, and the last third is dreck.
While the vinyl seems to be well pressed and the material used for the outer sleeve is up to Lion’s usual high standards, the liner and insert notes are merely adequate. The “photos” hyped on the promotional sticker disappointingly turn out to be nothing more than scanned labels from the original 45s. Even if they’re nice to look at, they don’t really count as photographs. The unimaginative cover artwork replicates that of the 49th Parallel LP but with a green background instead of blue. A missed opportunity to give a struggling graphic designer some work, to be sure.
Tracklist:
A1. Shades Of Blond - All Your LoveA2. 49th Parallel - Laborer
A3. 49th Parallel - You Do Things
A4. 49th Parallel - She Says
A5. 49th Parallel - Citizen Freak
A6. 49th Parallel - Blue Bonnie Blue
A7. 49th Parallel - Missouri (Single Mix)
A8. 49th Parallel - Twilight Woman
A9. 49th Parallel - Close The Barn Door
B1. 49th Parallel - Now That I'm A Man
B2. 49th Parallel - (Come On Little Child) Talk To Me
B3. 49th Parallel - Up To No Good
B4. 49th Parallel - I Need You
B5. 49th Parallel - Goodtime Baby
B6. 49th Parallel - Blue Bonnie Blue (Alternate Single Mix)