Grateful Dead’s history a Society affair

Roll over Frederick Douglass and tell Abe Lincoln the news: the Grateful Dead have crashed Manhattan’s local history museum.

Dead heads are flocking to Central Park West this weekend as “Grateful Dead: Now Playing at the New-York Historical Society” debuts.

The exhibit comes almost exclusively from the Grateful Dead archives at the University of California Santa Cruz and is its first major showing. So what’s the Dead memorabilia doing way over there in Manhattan?

The historical society has your answer in one incredibly long sentence: “(The Dead) played in and around New York City on a regular basis, from early dates at Greenwich Village coffeehouses, impromptu performances in Central Park and at Columbia University during the 1968 Student Strike; to concerts at midsized venues, including the Fillmore East, the Academy of Music and the 46th Street Rock Palace in Brooklyn during the 1970s; and, ultimately, to performances at larger halls and stadiums such as Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden and Giants Stadium.

“The Grateful Dead’s time in New York will be viewed in the context of cultural traditions and events unique to New York, but also as yet another stop on a long, strange touring trip that included dates in New York, San Francisco, and everywhere in between,” the museum explained.

Another reason: the Dead archive materials remain mostly warehoused in Santa Cruz, as the university prepares primo exhibition space as a permanent home.

Goodies on display include the band’s famed psychedelic concert posters, trippy set lists, album art such as the “American Beauty” cover, giant marionettes and other stage props, banners and crazy funky fan mail. Band documents include evidence of their early decisions to allow free taping by fans.

For those who want take-home, the gift shop is brimming with fun psychedelic stuff.

The Los Angeles Times tracked the Grateful Dead exhibit’s history, which starts improbably with Henry Kissinger, who gave a speech at the museum urging historians to look at the ’60s in order to understand the U.S. A former museum board member copped to being a Dead head and lobbied for a band exhibition as a follow-up on Kissinger’s advice.

The exhibition runs through July 4 — fittingly, as it’s a touchstone holiday for the band and its Uncle Sam.

Abbey Rd. for sale: home to Beatles, Floyd

Abbey Road, the London recording studio where the Beatles and Pink Floyd crafted their classic psychedelic albums, reportedly has gone on the block.

EMI built the studio in 1929 and has owned and operated it since. Numerous sources told the Financial Times that the famed studio was being sold to help lower the debt from the 2007 leveraged buyout of EMI.

Update: EMI denied the FT report a week later: “We believe that Abbey Road should remain in EMI’s ownership,” the company said. EMI said it was in talks with third-parties about revitalizing the studio.

The Beatles, an EMI act, made almost all of their recordings there, including the psychedelic-era touchstones “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “Revolver,” “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “Magical Mystery Tour,” “The White Album,” “Yellow Submarine” and “Abbey Road.”

Pink Floyd — Abbey Road’s other “house band” — tripped out in the venerable studios with “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn,” “A Saucerful of Secrets,” “Ummagumma,” “Atom Heart Mother” and “The Dark Side of the Moon.”

While previously known as a classical studio, Abbey Road briefly ruled the pop charts. In 1963, 15 out of the year’s 19 No. 1 singles were recorded there. The Beatles and George Martin worked most of their magic in Studio 2.

The Abbey Road brand is considered as valuable as the studio facilities. The zebra-striped traffic crosswalk featured on the cover of the Beatles’ “Abbey Road” still draws tourists from across the world to that corner of St. John’s Wood.

The studio, which can accommodate full orchestras, evolved into a film-recording destination, where scores for movies such as the “Star Wars,” “The Lord of the Rings” and “Harry Potter” series were recorded.

The mutitracking technical innovations inspired by the Beatles now can be found on laptop computer software, making Abbey Road an expensive destination for rock musicians. “If an artist goes to a label and asks to record at Abbey Road they will be met with maniacal laughter,” a media lawyer told the Financial Times in its story on Abbey Road being sold.

Both the Beatles and Pink Floyd worked with the legendary house engineer and producer Norman Smith. The later rock star Alan Parsons was a staff engineer at Abbey Road who worked on “The Dark Side of the Moon.”

The Beatles’ satellite performance of “All You Need Is Love” (from the 1967 “Our World” linkup) was captured at 3 Abbey Road.

The Zombies recorded most of the baroque psychedelic classic “Odessey and Oracle” at Abbey Road while the Pretty Things created the rock opera “S.F. Sorrow” (produced by Smith). George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass” triple album also came to life there.

Syd Barrett made several solo albums at Abbey Road. Later, the Alan Parsons Project recorded “Tales of Mystery and Imagination” and “I Robot.” Procol Harum’s “A Salty Dog” found the space for its orchestrations in the studio complex.

Other progressive artists making albums at Abbey Road included Kate Bush, Radiohead, Mike Oldfield, XTC and Camel.

The rereleased Beatles CDs of 2009 were remastered at Abbey Road, appropriately.

‘Crazy World of Arthur Brown’ returns

“The Crazy World of Arthur Brown” gets another shot at salvation with the release this month of a remastered special edition. The album includes a second disc of bonus material.

The hard-edged psychedelic classic returns Feb. 25 in the U.S. and Feb. 22 in the U.K. via Esoteric Recordings, which is part of the Cherry Red label group in London.

“The Crazy World of Arthur Brown” ranks No. 16 on our list of the most important psychedelic albums in rock history. (Read the full Arthur Brown review.)

The album is best known for the smash single “Fire,” with its blazing intro: “I am the god of Hellfire and I bring you fire!” The centerpiece is the “Fire Suite,” a side-long, five-track rock operetta once called “Tales From the Neurotic Nights of Hieronymous Anonymous.” (The rock opera king, Peter Townshend, associate-produced “Crazy World” with Who manager Kit Lambert.)

The CD initially came out in 1991 as a PolyGram U.K. import that, unfortunately, ruined the concept album’s concept with the appearance of four mono tracks from the album before the complete stereo version began. The 1997 release from Retroactive ran through the work before starting with the bonus tracks, which include the first three extra tracks presented here. Universal Japan put out a vinyl version in 2006, packaged in an LP cover.

The upcoming release’s bonus disc begins with “Devil’s Grip,” a 1967 single, followed by its B-side, “Give Him a Flower.” Then it’s “Music Man” (aka “What’s Happening”), the B-side of the 1968 “Nightmare” 45. (These tracks are not included in the 2003 retrospective “Fire! The Story of Arthur Brown.” The singer recut “Devil’s Grip” in 2007.)

Two songs from an April 1968 BBC Radio 1 session are led off with a short interview by Brian Matthew, the influential U.K. TV and radio personality who hosted almost all of the era’s major rock acts. (The five songs from this BBC session were previously bootlegged.)

The mono tracks of the Fire Suite return (marked as “alternate mono mixes”) along with a “first” version of “Fire.” A reprise of “Nightmare” comes from the unreleased U.K. movie “The Committee,” which features a terrific sequence with Arthur Brown (wearing a flaming headdress), the brilliant Hammond organist Vincent Crane and drummer Drachen Theaker (video below).

Here are the track listing, as provided by Esoteric.

CD 1: The original album remastered
Prelude Nightmare
Fanfare Fire Poem
Fire
Come and Buy
Time/Confusion
I Put A Spell on You
Spontaneous Apple Creation
Rest Cure
I’ve Got Money
Child of My Kingdom


CD 2: Bonus tracks
Devil’s Grip
Give Him a Flower
Music Man (Stereo mix)
Fire (first version previously unreleased)
Prelude Nightmare (alternate mono mix)
Fanfare Fire Poem (alternate mono mix)
Fire (alternate mono mix)
Come And Buy (alternate mono mix)
Time/Confusion (alternate mono mix)
Brian Matthew interview (BBC session April 1968)
Fire Poem Fire (BBC session April 1968)
Come And Buy (BBC session April 1968)
Nightmare (From the soundtrack of “The Committee” movie)

No. 26: ‘Sky Pilot’ by Eric Burdon

In 1968, Eric Burdon had completed his transition from white R&B shouter to long-haired leaping gnome.

The English singer disbanded the original Animals (of “House of the Rising Sun Fame”) in 1966 and enthusiastically turned to lysergically inspired music.

The sprawling single “Sky Pilot,” released at the dawn of that war-torn year, proved to be a game changer, one of rock’s first cinematic songs.

At more than seven minutes, the number sprawled across both sides of the 45 record, its many sonic effects captured in true stereo. Even at that length, Eric Burdon’s song was a hit single, reaching No. 14 in the U.S. and remaining an FM radio staple over the decades.

While the song’s subtle anti-war message surely concerned the Vietnam War, its shadowing invoked the two world wars. The millieu reportedly as witnessed by Burdon’s grandfather in WWI.

The titular sky pilot is a military chaplain, charged with comforting soldiers headed off to the battlefield. Burdon begins his profile a cappella against a black silence:

“He blesses the boys as they stand in line
The smell of gun grease and the bayonets they shine
He’s there to help them all that he can
To make them feel wanted he’s a good holy man”

The song picks up the pace with the entry of a rock band, lean and muscular. Moments later, “Sky Pilot” takes off on a sonic adventure incorporating bagpipes, gunfire, the screech of dive-bombers, distorted guitars and reverb-drenched vocals, flanged-out drums, horns, woodwinds and even piccolos.

Musically and conceptually, the song brings to mind the Doors’ “The Unknown Soldier” (recorded a month after “Sky Pilot’s” release), the Who’s early mini-rock operas and the Beatles’ orchestrated character studies of 1966 and 1967.

Emotionally, “Sky Pilot” recalls the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby,” another song about death, religion and loneliness that was released in 1966. After mumbling a prayer, the “so tired” chaplin returns to his bunk as the lads march off to their fates. “He’ll meditate/but it won’t stop the bleeding/or ease the hate.” The functionary sky pilot, we’re told, will “never reach the sky.”

At the climax of the song’s combat sequence, we hear military bagpipes play “All the Bluebonnets Are Over the Border.” Then, a string quartet provides sweet contrast to the singer’s invocation of the “stench of death” and the bleak hopes for our sky pilot. More orchestral instruments join in, freestyle, the resulting sonic swirls reflecting the absurdities of war.

Burdon shared writing credit with his “new” Animals: Vic Briggs (guitar), John Weider (guitar and electric violin), Danny McCulloch (bass), and Barry Jenkins (drums). Briggs arranged and orchestrated the song, which was produced by Tom Wilson (Bob Dylan, the Mothers of Invention). It appeared on the album “The Twain Shall Meet.”

Burdon would successfully repeat the cinematic style a few years later with the fantasy “Spill the Wine,” another strong entry on our list of the Best Psychedelic Songs.

“Sky Pilot” lyrics:

He blesses the boys as they stand in line
The smell of gun grease and the bayonets they shine
He’s there to help them all that he can
To make them feel wanted he’s a good holy man
Sky pilot,
Sky pilot,
How high can you fly?
You’ll never, never, never reach the sky.

He smiles at the young soldiers
Tells them it’s all right
He knows of their fear in the forthcoming fight
Soon there’ll be blood and many will die
Mothers and fathers back home they will cry
Sky pilot,
Sky pilot,
How high can you fly?
You’ll never, never, never reach the sky.

He mumbles a prayer and it ends with a smile
The order is given
They move down the line
But he’ll stay behind and he’ll meditate
But it won’t stop the bleeding or ease the hate

As the young men move out into the battle zone
He feels good, with God you’re never alone
He feels tired and he lays on his bed
Hopes the men will find courage
in the words that he said
Sky pilot,
Sky pilot,
How high can you fly?
You’ll never, never, never reach the sky.

You’re soldiers of God, you must understand
The fate of your country is in your young hands
May God give you strength
Do your job real well
If it all was worth it
Only time it will tell

In the morning they return
With tears in their eyes
The stench of death drifts up to the skies
A soldier so ill looks at the sky pilot
Remembers the words
“Thou shalt not kill”
Sky pilot,
Sky pilot,
How high can you fly?
You’ll never, never, never reach the sky.

No. 28: ‘Space Hymns’ by Ramases

The tale is told that the shade of Egyptian Ramesses II one day appeared before the Englishman Martin Raphael.

The big bald Raphael learned there and then that he was the reincarnation of Ramesses II — not merely a central-heating contractor. The ancient pharaoh ordered the unlikely medium to spread the secrets of the universe to the rest of mankind, using music as his vehicle.

Psychedelic music, as it turned out.

First, there were some strange singles in the late Sixties. Then “Space Hymns,” the first complete work, emerged in 1971, in the dimming of the original psychedelic era.

Despite the album cover by famed fantasy artist Roger Dean (Yes), few ever heard the musical word of Ramases — as Raphael took to calling himself. Most of those who did found the album remarkable.

Looking back, “Space Hymns” serves as one bridge between the folk-tinged psychedelia of the 1960s and the space rock/prog rock of the 1970s. Maybe a cross between the Incredible String Band and Hawkwind. It anticipates the late-century mash-ups of Arabic music and rock, as well as the neo-psychedelic folk movement of the new century.

10cc fans know the album as an early group effort from Lol Creme, Kevin Godley, Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman, all of whom backed Ramases. Background vocals came from Ramases’ wife, now known as Selket.

(One rumor has Stewart singing the songs attributed to Ramases. This at a time when the future 10cc lads recorded at Strawberry Studios (in Stockport) under numerous fanciful names. Could Ramases be a cosmic goof? It’s a meaningless question.)

Gouldman remembers the sessions: “It was a really fine album to make. We would sit down on the floor with acoustic guitars, that kind of vibe, very hippy and mystical.”

The album’s first track, “Life Child,” opens with silence. Then a faint eerie sound out of “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” Acoustic guitars morph electric. A disembodied voice emerges, in character as an alien returned to Earth. “I see your sun is going down; I see your wreckage on the ground. … Your seas are full of poisoned water.”

The Moroccan-flavored “Oh Mister” and the straightforward acoustic number “And the Whole World” follow. Then it’s back to spaceland:

“Quasar One” wanders across almost seven minutes, with production that’ll feel familiar to 10cc fans. Chants and drums leap back and forth from the speakers. The singer fades into a sonic black hole before returning to finish his cosmic love song, the proceedings increasingly dissonant and disorienting.

“You’re the Only One” tests listeners with its one-line lyric taken from “Midnight Cowboy”: “You’re the only one, Joe.” Over and over, with acceleration. Music to freak out by.

In “Earth-People,” our alien speaks of traveling the deserts of Zeus and witnessing the birth of a planet. But he cannot navigate human communication. Nick Drake on acid. The angels in “Wings of Desire.”

“Molecular Delusions” brings more chanting, with an Arabic music influence.

“Balloon,” the catchy repetitive single, cautions Earthlings not to foul their air: “Don’t burst your bubble/or you’re in trouble.” Things that go swish and zoom race from speaker to speaker before the apocalyptic finale. “Jesus Come Back,” a similar folkie ballad, advises “no fears for the future.”

“Journey to the Inside” closes out “Space Hymns” with more 10cc phase shifting, Beatle-esque dingo balls and dark sci-fi effects. “Oh, what are you going to do with me,” Ramases asks. Psychedelic cocktail party chatter brings us to stop.

The story goes that Ramases killed himself in the late 1970s. Survivors include this fine curious rock record and one other, “Glass Top Coffin.”

The “Space Hymns” import (Repertoire label) is available via Amazon; it tends to go in and out of stock. The follow-up record, “Glass Top Coffin,” finally is being made available on CD May 2010), according to Amazon, which lists the label as Esoteric Uk/Zoom.

Read more about Martin Raphael and Ramases at Brian Currin’s fan site. Also, John Bowers has a lovely piece on his blog titled “Ramases in Felixstowe.”

Meet the ‘Yellow Submarine’ Beatles

Looks like director Robert Zemeckis has found his fab four actors for that new version of “Yellow Submarine.”

Dean Lennox Kelly (TV’s “Collision”) will be John; Peter Serafinowicz (”Shaun of the Dead”) will play Paul; Cary Elwes (”The Princess Bride”) is doing George; and Adam Campbell (”Date Movie”) has the Ringo part.

The Beatles imitators the Fab Four will be used for musical performances featuring the band, the Hollywood Reporter said. The acting deals for the new “Yellow Submarine” are “in negotiations,” THR reported, trade talk for pretty much done.

Director Zemeckis reportedly has approached both Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr about participating in the film, to be shot in 3D using motion-capture.

The director and co-producers Walt DIsney Pictures have rights to the 16 original Beatles recordings, which should bring a windfall for fans: more surround-sound mixes of Beatles songs. Let’s hope the results are at least as good as the 5.1 take on the title song from the “Yellow Submarine Songtrack” project of 1999.

The movie “Yellow Submarine” hasn’t been treated all that well over the years, with the DVD version currently out of print. No major restoration has been undertaken, despite the opportunity to greatly update the sound.

George Dunning, who worked on the Beatles’ Saturday morning cartoon series, directed the original film. It was released in 1968 to the delight of a stoned generation. Any top 10 of psychedelic movies would include the animated feature, which was surprisingly strange and included obvious drug references.

The original “Yellow Submarine” album finally was rereleased last September along with the rest of the Beatles catalog.

Zemeckis, understandably, is taking heat for his decision to fool with the classic Beatles animated film (made in 1968 without much help from the Beatles). (You have to ask: Does anyone really need to see an “improved” Blue Meanie?) The director’s CGI-laden films using the performance-capture process include the Jim Carrey “A Christmas Carol” and “The Polar Express.”

Strawberry Alarm Clock on Corgan label

The sound you are about to hear is the Strawberry Alarm Clock, still ticking after 40-some years.

The psychedelic-era hitmakers (”Incense and Peppermints”) are back in the music media with the announcement that they’ll be recording for the new label from Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins.

Keyboardist and singer Mark Weitz told Psychedelic Sight that the band is getting back to its 1960s roots, “trying to do what our fans like. … We’re picking up where we left off, but with a modern sound.”

The Strawberry Alarm Clock, which charted at least five singles in the 1960s, produced a more melodic strain of rock than the era’s similarly named acid rockers. But the group still retains a connection to the dazed days:

“We take listeners on trips in the form of songs — and gently let them down again,” Weitz said. “We create songs that put you in a different place.”

The Strawberry Alarm Clock’s new material is being recorded at Smashing Pumpkins producer Kerry Brown’s studio in L.A. and is in “the demo process.”

Weitz performed with Corgan at last summer’s L.A. tribute to the late Sky Saxon, and went on to tour with that nine-member band, called Spirits in the Sky. The Strawberry Alarm Clock is penciled in to perform “Mr. Farmer” on the upcoming Saxon tribute album.

Along with recording new music, the SAC is working on a project that combines material cooked up in recent years as well “revisited and rerecorded” versions of their 1960s songs.

Based on a sampling from Weitz’s stash CD, it’s impressive stuff, not easy to pin down stylistically. While the songs are all originals, you’ll hear passages that bring to mind the Who, the Beach Boys, XTC, the Beatles, prog rock and, yes, some old-school psychedelia.

“Everything we do we try to ‘Clock it up’ — our signature sound of catching the ear while doing something you wouldn’t expect,” Weitz said. “Our songs never sound the same — every one is its own entity.”

Original members remaining in the band are Weitz and George Bunnell (pictured above right) as well as Howie Anderson. They’re all writing new songs for the group, as is percussionist Randy Seol.

Steve Bartek (Oingo Boingo), who played on the first SAC album in 1967, had evolved into a longtime band member but recently pulled back due to his workload with Danny Elfman’s film music. “Steve will always be involved with the band on some level,” Weitz said. He anticipates a heavier keyboard sound for the SAC given its personnel shifts.

Other groups connected with the Corgan-Brown label are the Electric Prunes, the Germs (fronted by the guy from the biopic) and Fancy Space People.

Brown said in introducing the label: “We are very excited to be collaborating with amazing artists that have made a huge impact on the underground music world. … From the psychedelic garage rock of the 60’s and the punk rock insanity of the 70’s and 80’s to the post-punk Pleiadian power-pop that is now.”

The Strawberry Alarm Clock’s catalog albums are handled by MCA. Check out the Strawberry Alarm Clock website.

Furthur adventures of the Grateful Dead family

Bob Weir and Phil Lesh’s Furthur project is getting on down the road on its first U.S. tour.

The new band is warming up with an eight-night stand in Mill Valley, California. The shows are called “Live Rehearsal Sessions” and, no, you can’t get a ticket. The band even asks that the ticketless stay away from the town and the two venues.

The Furthur winter tour officially begins Feb. 5 in Miami and is scheduled to end March 8 in Portland, Oregon.

The band consists of Weir (guitar, vocals), Lesh (bass), Jeff Chimenti (keyboards), John Kadlecik (guitar), Jay Lane (percussion), and Joe Russo (drums). The musicians have ties to the family of Grateful Dead-related acts such as Dark Star Orchestra and RatDog.

Furthur debuted in September with a three-night stand in Oakland, Calif. They played New Year’s shows in San Francisco, at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium.

The set list looks familiar to Deadheads, of course. Songs so far include “Touch of Grey,” “Eyes of the World,” “Here Comes Sunshine,” “Brokedown Palace,” “Ship of Fools,” “Truckin’” and “Turn on Your Lovelight.”

Here’s a swatch of the Furthur New Year’s Eve show review by Garrin Benfield on JamBase:

This is a living, breathing band capable of rocking, spacing, and generating some serious psychedelic boogie. … The first half of the first set on New Year’s Eve felt like an old school Dead show, when songs were not all necessarily connected by long segues. … (The next set) was, with just a few exceptions, a gorgeously drippy psychedelic excursion through “Cassidy,” “The Wheel,” “Dark Star” and perhaps most notably, Pink Floyd’s “Time” from Dark Side of the Moon.”

Digital downloads and CDs of the tour already are available via the Furthur band’s website.

Mill Valley was selected, apparently, so the band could stay home, rehearse during the day, play the shows at night and sleep in their own beds. The small town, however, is having issues with the inevitable Deadhead hangers-on. The Marin Independent Journal reports: “Some see this as an economic windfall, bringing glamour and excitement to Mill Valley. Others complain that unsavory Deadheads without tickets have been trashing their downtown.” Weir and Lesh had asked fans without tickets not to show up, saying they wanted to continue to be able to play similar shows in small venues.

Furthur is named for the 1939 school bus owned by Ken Kesey and used in the ’60s as psychedelic transport for the trippy writer and his extended family, the Merry Pranksters. At one point, the Beat era heavyweight Neal Cassady was the bus driver. The story was well told in “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.”

Here is the Furthur tour schedule:

February 2010
5th: Miami — Bayfront Park Amphitheatre
6th: Orlando — Hard Rock Live
8th: Atlanta — The Tabernacle
9th: Asheville, N.C. — Thomas Wolfe Auditorium
10th: Charlotte, N.C. — Bojangles Coliseum
12th: Hampton, Va. — Hampton Coliseum
13th: Fairfax, Va. — Patriot Center
14th: Ithaca, N.Y. — Barton Hall
15th: Bethlehem, Pa. — Stabler Arena
17th: Buffalo, N.Y. — Shea Performing Arts Center
18th: Manchester, N.H. –Verizon Wireless Arena
19th: Amherst, Mass. — Mullins Center
20th: Utica, N.Y. — Utica Auditorium
22nd: Newark, Del. — Bob Carpenter Center
23rd, 24th: New York — Radio City Music Hall
26th: Uncasville, Ct. — Mohegan Sun Arena
27th: Atlantic City, N.J. — Trump Taj Mahal

March
2nd, 3rd: Chicago — Auditorium Theatre
8th: Portland, Oregon –Portland Memorial Coliseum

RatDog and the Dark Star Orchestra also have booked shows for the first half of the year.

‘New’ Hendrix album among 2010 rereleases?

A “new” Jimi Hendrix album of unreleased studio material could be in the wings for this year.

The widely distributed report came from London columnist Gordon Smith, whose online post mostly consists of a rehash of what’s already known about the Hendrix estate’s plans for the 40th year after the guitarist’s death.

“Incredibly, I’ve heard there is a new album in the works made up of unreleased studio material,” Smith wrote Jan. 6.

What’s known is that “definitive deluxe editions” of Jimi Hendrix’s classic albums will be released this by Sony Music Entertainment, according to the record label and the psychedelic guitarist’s estate.

The project also will include “never before heard studio recordings, alternate versions of classics, one of a kind ‘live and in concert’ performances and more.”

Sony’s “Legacy Recordings,” its catalog division, has done outstanding work on many of the ’60s and ’70s rock classics.

The core classic Hendrix albums — “Are You Experienced?” “Axis: Bold as Love” and “Electric Ladyland” — were last remastered and rereleased in 1997. “Band of Gypsys” resurfaced in 1998. These albums as well as some of the mountain of posthumous releases will be part of the 2010 campaign (those produced by the Hendrix family via the Experience Hendrix organization).

All music from the Hendrix reissues will be available digitally, according to the original Sony and Hendrix Experience press release of August 2009.

The Hendrix campaign comes a year after the long-overdue rerelease of the Beatles catalog.

Big Brother guitarist James Gurley dies

Big Brother and the Holding Company member James Gurley, once dubbed the “father of psychededlic guitar,” has died at the age of 69.

Gurley (center in photo, with Big Brother) died of a heart attack at his Palm Springs home, two days before his 70th birthday.

Big Brother guitarist Sam Andrew wrote on the band’s web site that “James was the spirit and the essence of the band in its early days. He showed us the way as a Zen master would show the way.” Country Joe and the Fish lead guitarist Barry Melton has called him “the Yuri Gagarin of psychedelic guitar … the first man in space.”

Gurly played on the band’s recordings with Janis Joplin, notably “Ball and Chain” and “Piece of My Heart.” His screaching intro to “Cheap Thrills” is among the best known guitar performances of the psychedelic era. Guitar Player magazine listed Gurley and Andrew’s off-modal work on “Summertime” as one of the best psychedelic solos ever recorded.

Gurley was a self-taught guitarist, who closely studied the recordings of bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins. He moved to San Francisco in the early 1960s and played the coffee-house circuit as a folk musician, as did many of the musicians who would later shape the psychedelic “San Francisco Sound.”

“He was plugged into the early San Francisco scene before the rest of us were,” Andrew told the Marin Independent Journal.

Rock promoter and psychedelic music patron Chet Helms brought Gurley into the young Big Brother and the Holding Company, which built a following around his aggressive, high-volume, amp-abusing playing style. He was the band’s first star, until Helms imported Texas singer Janis Joplin.

In a Big Brother web site tribute, drummer David Getz recalled the first time he heard Gurley: “I’d never heard anyone play guitar like that, heard a sound like that. It was this frenzy of notes that took one to the kind of place that people like Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane were trying to reach, not something you expected to hear from a rock band.”

Rolling Stone’s Lester Bangs called Gurley’s playing “a searing storm of noise … directed (at listeners) with a kind of joyous fury.”

Big Brother as a band often drew fire for ragged playing, often attributed to drug use. Joplin soon left the group, taking Andrew with her. Gurley recalled the superstar’s departure as “a sick morass of disgusting slime.”

Gurley played bass in the post-Joplin Big Brother, which recorded several albums before disbanding in 1972. (The married guitarist and Joplin apparently had an affair in the band’s early days.) He joined Andrew and Getz in a reunited Big Brother in 1987, remaining a member until 1996, when he left on bad terms.

Gurley had a long history of drug-related problems. In 1970 he was charged with second-degree murder in the heroin overdose of his wife, but was acquitted.

In later years, he released solo albums (”Pipe Dreams,” “St. James”) and worked in new age and space rock. He formed a musical partnership with percussionist Muruga Booker. “I didn’t want people to come hear me play and want “Ball and Chain,” Gurley said of the solo works.

Gurley is survived by his second wife and two sons. Big Brother is planning a benefit performance for Gurley’s family early next year.

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