Comments on: No. 25: ‘It’s a Beautiful Day’

By: Jere

Jere — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 18:24:55 +0000

It seems like yesterday when I saw them for the first time . Wow this clip brings back good feelings and good times !!!

By: abel

abel — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 00:27:27 +0000

Ed — I wonder what younger listeners make of this record. Always worth revisiting, especially at sunset. Maybe I’ll try that in the Fla. Keys next week …

By: ed

ed — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 21:54:56 +0000

I do love this LP and would recommend anyone to get a copy of this one and Marrying Maiden. However I still do agree in part with the initial review of the LP. It does get a bit hippy dippy dated at times. However, It’s just as well I like all that and can see through it. Fortunately the slightly awkward hippy moments dont dominate the debut LP and they dont destroy the overall atmosphere of what afterall is a great LP. I first heard it in the Greek Islands ! It was my holiday mates ( a group of great Greek Hippies ) that played the LP every night at sunset ! loved it ! As English wasnt theirf first language they didnt notice the odd lyrical blunder ! Overall though a great LP with a great great great cover . Worth getting the record version as well as the CD !

By: POed Lib

POed Lib — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 02:33:17 +0000

I was at U of I in Urbana Il in the 1970s. Heard these guys. I did various psychodelics, and must have heard them. yes, the lyrics are hippie-dippie, and there is a lot of pretentious blather. But the violin is good. I also THINK I remember seeing them live in Chicago in maybe 1972, but the memory is really hazy – I was probably fairly high on something – the venue was really weird, and I remember little. Good memories tho.

By: Dave Bottoms

Dave Bottoms — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 02:31:24 +0000

MUCHO thanks for posting this clip!
I’m only 45, so I’ve had to educate myself over time about the vast history of Pop–including the ’60s explosion(s).
One of the most jaw-dropping records I’ve ever heard (and one of the best debuts) was this gem…simply incredible, and I place it alongside the Airplane and Moby Grape for pure Cali sweetness…
I’m writing up the LP for my current blog post–trying to turn on more folks to it…whatever came after, THIS initial record is a mind-bender!

By: Rusty Suender

Rusty Suender — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 02:54:26 +0000

I’ve been a big fan of It’s A Beautiful Day since I first heard the album” Marrying Maiden”.It brings
me back to the 1970′s when I went to college up near Stowe Vermont(Johnson State College)
The gang I hung out with turned me onto the LP one day when we were all tripping on acid and smashed out of our minds on wine(along with Vermont Cabot and grapes).The song “Essence
Of Now” and “Searching For The Dolphins”were absolutely my favorites.I wished I could’ve seen them in concert.

By: Don Reed

Don Reed — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 03:26:35 +0000

I still to this day when I hear IABD played can remember how absolutely dead-still the world became, and then became a much more stellar world, worth living in, joy born where none existed before.

It just burns me up that a band this talented got shafted beyond belief.

By: WimGrundy

WimGrundy — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 13:44:26 +0000

I just loved the cover at first, man,, but also bought the first King Crimson album for the purple and blood screaming cover . . . you can still find a pretty good copy of the cover and vinyl LP in the music listening room at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where I last listened thru headfones back in 2007 – straight as an arrow, man; this album STILL freaks me out!

By: abel

abel — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 08:03:25 +0000

Thanks, Squirrel, for the correction on the date, I must have been tripping.

Probably did hear the album for the first time whilst high on this or that, can’t recall what I thought of those two songs then. Now, meh. I remember loving “Bombay Calling,” for sure.

I do think “It’s a Beautiful Day” has gotten a bum rap over the years; it is a much better album than reported out by critics like Robert Christgau, who trashed it.

“Wheels of FIre” and, especially, “Happy Trails” definitely make the psychedelic albums list.

Thanks for the suggestions and feedback, hope you’ll be back with more ace comments like these.

By: Squirrel

Squirrel — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 06:32:06 +0000

It’s a Beautiful Day was released in 1969. I listened to it long before I ever smoked pot, and I first did that on New Year’s Eve, 1969.

As for the songs panned here — it isn’t likely that the author heard the album for the first time when he was on acid, spacing out on op-art dayglo posters, surrounded by burning candles and lifted by a cloud of incense and hashish, or he would have nothing negative to say about the psychedelic power of the album, either in part or as a whole.

No offense, but Girl With No Eyes is absolutely mind-blowing on psychedelics. So is Wasted Union Blues. Time Is is nothing like Time Has Come Today if you are stoned out of your gourd, either.

The albums following this album pretty much fell flat, although some songs were marginally entertaining. Mostly corny sounding, as David LaFlamme’s dramatic vocal renditioning sounds entirely bored, one album after the other. Linda LaFlamme apparently was the cosmic spark that left the band after this album.

I would have this album somewhere in the top 10, probably ahead of Sgt. Peppers for pure tripping power.

Wheels of Fire and Happy Trails should be somewhere in this list. A very nice website. Thanks.