Recorded in the Fall of 1965, these (mostly) bare bones demos are disappointing. There's the spectacular version of "Someone to Love", along with the proto-psycho-raga "Free Advice", but these have been previously available. There's a half dozen songs that weren't on the live set, five written by David Miner, and one by Grace Slick, although that one is just a fragment. But there's precious little of Darby Slick's wonderfully edgy solo guitar, and the musicianship of Peter Vandergelder, who hadn't yet replaced Bard Dupont, is sorely missed. This CD release is more of an historical, rather than musical, event. If your budget is limited, you might want to skip this one.
At the time of this recording, David Miner was the dominant creative force in the band, and his lead vocals predominate. Grace Slick's vocal contributions here are restrained; maybe by the necessity of having to not overwhelm Miner, and perhaps by a lack of confidence. Compare her vocals here to the live set; she was on the verge of discovering the confidence and power to create her unique, landmark voice. "Someone to Love" displays that voice beginning to break through, along with a powerful Darby Slick solo. "Free Advice", reflecting Darby's interest in Indian music, features droning open string guitar, a nice little sitar-like guitar line, and some great pseudo-Indian vocal figures by Grace. Bard Dupont's clumsy bass part keeps this song from being a true classic, though. "That's How it Is", Tom Donahue's pick for the Great Society's first single (he was overruled by the band) is the last of the three songs that received any kind of production. It's unremarkable, and, like the rest of the recordings on this CD, reveals the naivete of the musicians about the techniques and capabilities of their instruments and the studio; but, gosh, it's 1965!
Not much time was spent on over dubbing the basic tracks, perhaps none on all but those three songs mentioned above. As a consequence, most of Darby's playing is straight, unembellished rhythm guitar. "Girl" has a nice guitar part, and "Right to Me" has some cool riffing, but that's it; the great solo lines that he played on the live set are not here. "Right to Me" is probably the best of the "new" songs; it also has a piano part - don't know if it's Grace (Billy Preston was hanging around at the studio during the time these recordings were made, and producer Sly Stone played piano as well).
"Love you Girl" belies all of Darby's claims that the Great Society were a strictly "non-commercial" outfit. This bit of schmaltz features lyrics like "And when I've kissed your tears away / I'll bundle up my dreams / And say goodbye." Does have a nice flute part though; which you might find worming its way into your subconscious to replay incessantly.
Neither "Where" nor "Double Triptamine Superautomatic Everlovin' Man" are particularly good, at least in this crude demo form. What came to be known as the "San Francisco Sound" was just being born, and these two songs show that at the beginning there was a significant country and western influence(remember the Charlatans?).
"Heads Up" is just a fragment, but it's one of Grace Slick's first compositions, so that makes it a lot more interesting than it deserves to be. Listen to the lyrics on this one - they represent a intriguing bridge between Beat lingo and the emerging Hippiespeak.
"Born to be Burned", which was ultra-cool on the live set, is pretty clunky here, a Bob Dylan meets Screamin' Jay Hawkins kinda waltz. "Daydream-Nightmare-Love" is a little better, but the reading here is a bit rushed, and the nifty flute part is still a work in progress. A harmonica part distinguishes "You Can't Cry" - maybe it's Bard Dupont, since the bass part doesn't begin until it's over. There's also a great closing verse sung by Grace. Were people afraid to offend anyone back in 1965? (And have we now come full circle?) In "Father Bruce" the band sings "Get your beads out, baby", not "Get you beads out, Catholic."
What strange alchemy transmuted these unremarkable demos into the soaring, ethereal pieces on Conspicuous / How it Was? Was it an increased confidence on the part of Grace Slick? Was it just those six months of practice (it's only rock and roll, after all)? Was it because Darby is riffing on the live tracks? Or was it the addition of Peter Vandergelder? Put all those ingredients together, and it's intriguing to ponder what might have been. Compare the Great Society's live set to what Jefferson Airplane were doing at the time. Consider that the songs that propelled the Airplane to national prominence (along with the public perception that Grace Slick was the Airplane) would have been on that first Great Society record.
The packaging material is well done. The interior of the jewel box shows reproductions of what appears to be the original log sheets from these sessions. Most of the photos in the booklet have been used somewhere before; many are from Darby Slick's autobiography. The booklet notes by Jud Cost are well written; although there's not much new information, it's a good one-source summary on the musical career of the Great Society. Cost also settles one of those legends that been floating around for thirty years. He states, rather authoritatively (and he's seen the studio log sheets), that the number of takes needed for "Free Advice" was 53.
The CD is now available in the stores; I've seen it as low as $11. If you can't find it, you can order from Sundazed directly for $16.98 (includes $3.00 for postage); just phone 1-800-295-8079. I left my order on a Thursday afternoon, and the CD was in my mailbox Saturday morning! If you don't have a credit card, you can contact them at Sundazed Music, PO Box 85, Coxsackie, NY 12051. Sundazed ("Building a better future by making the past safe for the future") has a catalog filled with musical offerings from a multitude of 1960's (distant) also rans (and Buck Owens). For a mere $65.88 (not including postage) you can buy six different Kingsmen CDs!
There is a bootleg circulating containing some of the material on the CD. The boot has all of the songs on the CD, except for "Where" and "Right to Me". There is only one take of each song on this particular boot.
The bootleg versions of "Free Advice", "Someone to Love", and "That's How it Is" are either inferior takes or unaugmented demos. Grace's backing vocals on the bootleg version of "Free Advice" are restrained (she's just humming, really), not like the joyous yelping that's on the better CD version. On the boot version of "Someone to Love", Grace and David Miner were mixed to about the same level through the song, so Grace needed to keep her vocals pretty flat (dynamically). So what was the best song on the CD is here missing the spectacular, soaring Grace lead vocal, as well as the great solo by Darby.
As far as the songs missing on the boot, "Where" is nothing to be upset about, unless you're a rabid completist (but, then, you'll buy the CD anyway). "Right to Me", on the other hand, is one of the more interesting tracks on the CD, and is a definite deficiency of the bootleg.