*** 1970's Album Draft - Commentary Thread ***

[BuckyBuckner]

You know what else I've been getting into from this draft? BBuckner's LA obscurity The Last, and God help me, Motorhead. And that T-Rex "Buick McKane". But I'm not sold on that Gene Clark yet.

Glad you are liking The Last. That make me very happy to spread the word about them.

[Erik]

Foot -- That Nektar album is the shit. I'll have to check out more of their stuff.

I suspect that another reason they never broke big in the US was that they had no one who could sing with the skill or charisma of a Gabriel, Collins, Lake or Anderson.

You may or may not be familiar with Umphrey's McGee, a band from Chicago that combines jazz and prog influences with Phish-like jamming. Some passages of Recycled are very similar to Umphrey's approach. Nektar was likely a huge influence.

[ManCalledFoot]

Foot -- That Nektar album is the shit. I'll have to check out more of their stuff.

I suspect that another reason they never broke big in the US was that they had no one who could sing with the skill or charisma of a Gabriel, Collins, Lake or Anderson.

You may or may not be familiar with Umphrey's McGee, a band from Chicago that combines jazz and prog influences with Phish-like jamming. Some passages of Recycled are very similar to Umphrey's approach. Nektar was likely a huge influence.

Sweet! You're right, Nektar was a band without a charismatic frontman; even their fans probably couldn't pick Roye Albrighton from a lineup. That and their curse of being on the tiny Passport label kept them from the big time, quite a shame because they had the most difficult thing of all: great songwriting and great hooks.

There's no question where to go next: fans are generally split as to which LP was their best, 'Recycled' or 1973's 'Remember The Future'. RTF is amazingly good... less complex (no synths) but more of an organic, hippie kind of vibe than a tech one. Those killer hooks and riffs... you'll love it. I think even a Lucky or a Mith could get into that one. After that, their early prog classic 'A Tab In The Ocean' is the choice, and 'Down To Earth' ranks 4th. I wouldn't venture beyond that, quite honestly.

If you give RTF a listen, make sure you get the properly remastered version... the CD was notorious for YEARS of having the wrong mix, one that buried the guitar deep down. They finally fixed it in 2002, but I think the old mix is still lurking on YouTube.

Never heard of Umphrey's McGee, will give it a listen!

[Mithrandir]

Sweet! You're right, Nektar was a band without a charismatic frontman; even their fans probably couldn't pick Roye Albrighton from a lineup. That and their curse of being on the tiny Passport label kept them from the big time, quite a shame because they had the most difficult thing of all: great songwriting and great hooks.

There's no question where to go next: fans are generally split as to which LP was their best, 'Recycled' or 1973's 'Remember The Future'. RTF is amazingly good... less complex (no synths) but more of an organic, hippie kind of vibe than a tech one. Those killer hooks and riffs... you'll love it. I think even a Lucky or a Mith could get into that one. After that, their early prog classic 'A Tab In The Ocean' is the choice, and 'Down To Earth' ranks 4th. I wouldn't venture beyond that, quite honestly.

If you give RTF a listen, make sure you get the properly remastered version... the CD was notorious for YEARS of having the wrong mix, one that buried the guitar deep down. They finally fixed it in 2002, but I think the old mix is still lurking on YouTube.

Never heard of Umphrey's McGee, will give it a listen!

I am listening to RTF from Nektar right now and it is damn good! Really digging it...

[senorsheep]

Foot -- That Nektar album is the shit. I'll have to check out more of their stuff.

Yeah, I've been listening to some Nektar, too. Although, according to AllMusic, Foot picked their worst album.

I'm rocking A Tab In The Ocean right now. Pretty sweet - I can't believe I'd never even heard of them before.

[Erik]

Sweet! You're right, Nektar was a band without a charismatic frontman; even their fans probably couldn't pick Roye Albrighton from a lineup. That and their curse of being on the tiny Passport label kept them from the big time, quite a shame because they had the most difficult thing of all: great songwriting and great hooks.

There's no question where to go next: fans are generally split as to which LP was their best, 'Recycled' or 1973's 'Remember The Future'. RTF is amazingly good... less complex (no synths) but more of an organic, hippie kind of vibe than a tech one. Those killer hooks and riffs... you'll love it. I think even a Lucky or a Mith could get into that one. After that, their early prog classic 'A Tab In The Ocean' is the choice, and 'Down To Earth' ranks 4th. I wouldn't venture beyond that, quite honestly.

If you give RTF a listen, make sure you get the properly remastered version... the CD was notorious for YEARS of having the wrong mix, one that buried the guitar deep down. They finally fixed it in 2002, but I think the old mix is still lurking on YouTube.

Never heard of Umphrey's McGee, will give it a listen!

The most proggy Umphrey's album is Mantis. The title track and "Spires" are good places to start.

While reading up on Nektar while checking out Recycled, I discerned that some people are totally rabid about Remember the Future. If I had known anything about Nektar going in, I would have predicted that would have been the one picked.

[ManCalledFoot]

Wow, a fucking Nektarfest! I don't believe it. Nektar was my very first concert, 15 years old at the Capitol Theater in Passaic NJ in 1976. Sparks was the opening act.

In my gang, 'Recycled' was the big one over 'RTF' by a large margin. I think the 2nd side is Top 5 best prog ever.

[Erik]

Wow, a fucking Nektarfest! I don't believe it. Nektar was my very first concert, 15 years old at the Capitol Theater in Passaic NJ in 1976. Sparks was the opening act.

In my gang, 'Recycled' was the big one over 'RTF' by a large margin. I think the 2nd side is Top 5 best prog ever.

The first three songs on Side 2 were the ones that stuck out to me. "Marvelous Moses" is still in my head.

[Erik]

If you give RTF a listen, make sure you get the properly remastered version...

I found one with the original vinyl. It, too, is the shit.

[Erik]

Roye Albrighton (who spells "Roy" with an "E" anyway?) definitely has some Steve Howe in his playing style.

[Erik]

That's the version I listened to. Pretty interesting stuff. For some reason the wah pedal intro and first couple minutes sort of bug me but it gets much better right before the 3:00 mark and generally kicks ass from there. Definitely some Floydian moments interwoven in there at spots.

Whereas I didn't mind the "groovy" opening. The instrumental freakout toward the end of the first side is my favorite part on first listen.

[Erik]

Perhaps coincidentally, when I posted a song from Recycled on another board, one of the responses was "They have some disco in them."

[ManCalledFoot]

My favorite part of RTF is late on Side 2:



How was that not a hit? Very Floydian indeed.

I always thought the beginning with the wocka-wocka porno-movie guitar was a little corny too, lol. Early on they were based in Germany (the land of being 3 years behind every trend) so they always seemed a little old-fashioned in a strange way. There is almost no old footage of them (none from the "Recycled" era), this clip from '73 shows them looking like '68 with the old psychedelic slide show:

[Erik]

One of my high school buddies who's really into Krautrock said his favorite Nektar album is A Tab in the Ocean, though he finds them inconsistent in general.

[revo]

Devo guitarist Bob Casale, who played with the group alongside his brother Gerald from the original incarnation of the groundbreaking Akron new wave band in 1973 all the way through their recent tours, died suddenly on February 17th of heart failure. He was 61.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/ne...#ixzz2thjr8hkT