“It’s a Beautiful Day” plays rough here and there, but for the most part it’s psychedelic lite, a 4 a.m. chill. The forward-looking touches of world music ring true enough these days.
The LP’s influence no doubt extended as far as Dead Can Dance (and its demon spawn). Yet the overwrought singing, awkward classical musical interludes and hippy-dippy lyrics betray the work’s 1960s roots. In any case, the album has been going in and out of style over the past 50 years.
The band It’s a Beautiful Day was a late bloomer out of the psychedelic boomtown that was San Francisco.
Singer/violinist David Laflamme was there at the beginning of West Coast psychedelia, a fixture on the hippy scene. The former symphony orchestra violinist played with all of the heavy Bay area bands. He helped form Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, bringing echoes of the great Stéphane Grappelli to the acoustic band’s mix of gypsy jazz, swing and roots music.
Laflamme’s own band was formed in San Francisco in the summer of love, but got its start in Seattle, playing a residency at the Encore Ballroom, at band manager Matthew Katz’s insistence. (Katz also managed and fell out with Moby Grape.) The song “White Bird” came out of these days, when the band had little but a place to stay — the attic of an old Victorian mansion.
“We were like caged birds in that attic,” Laflamme says. “We had no money, no transportation, the weather was miserable.”
The “White Bird” line “the leaves blow across the long black road to the darkened sky and its rage” came from the view Laflamme and his (first) wife Linda had looking out the window.
After returning to SF, the band got its break opening for Cream on its Farewell tour. The year later, Laflamme and co. etched their music onto vinyl.
The debut album “It’s a Beautiful Day” was released on Columbia in 1969. While neither the album nor the single, “White Bird,” were smash hits, the records performed respectably and their popularity grew over the decade. “White Bird,” sung by Laflamme and Pattie Santos, became an FM radio staple (and cliche).
“White Bird” and “Hot Summer Day” open the album with a mid-tempo groove that holds up beautifully for the most part, but the songs do suffer from some dated passages. Sonically, both songs offer mystery and revelation.
It’s hard to hear “White Bird” with fresh ears, but notice how Laflamme keeps his powder dry, introducing his bowed violin only at the 1:35 mark. The Spanish/Django guitar gives the song a sophistication rare for the time.
“Hot Summer Day” features lovely call-and-response vocals, with Santos and Laflamme both evoking the vocals of Martin Balin. Linda’s B-3 organ provides the undercurrent. An understated bit of wah-wah reminds us we’re in psychedelic waters.
Alas, “Wasted Union Blues” and “Girl With No Eyes” kill the buzz — the former a crappy heavy rocker and the latter a baroque piddle with harpsichord. With better songs here, “It’s a Beautiful Day” could have been a masterpiece.
The heart of the matter can be found on side 2, in the “Eastern trilogy.”
The wordless “Bombay Calling”proves exotic and rhythmically sophisticated. Seemingly effortless, it’s a Lear Jet flyby of a foreign land. (This was the song copped by Deep Purple for “Child in Time.”)
If “Bombay” evokes the bustle and spirit of India, then the song into which it fades, “Bulgaria,” brings us to the darker places. Laflamme and Santos finally find their own way as a vocal team on this ghostly track, singing as if in trances — setting aside the Jefferson Airplane template.
Then we’re galloping off to “Time Is,” a 10-minute freakout and showcase for the band that recalls Zappa and, well, “Time Has Come Today.” Unfortunately there’s a â ’60s drum solo and a mournful line about how “even flowers must die” but the song gets back on track before wrapping this outstanding trilogy in a heart-stopping flash.
While most products of the hippie musical boom have been on offer well into the 21st century, “It’s a Beautiful Day” has a spotty history on record racks, sometimes doing a disappearing act for years at a time.
Decades of lawsuits and hostility between band and management combined to send this FM staple underground at various points, making it a $100-and-up collectors item. A curious fate for an album so ubiquitous in the dimming of the hippie era.
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.
Absolutely. I heard the album twice and really wasn’t fond of it. The third time was on Owsley acid and it was a revelation. I’ve never gotten it out of my mind.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
i saw them at University of Massachusetts/Amherst in 1971. the concert was: Bruce Springsteen (Asbury park days), sha na na, It’s a Beautiful Day, In Cold Blood. great outdoor concert
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 !
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 …
It seems like yesterday when I saw them for the first time . Wow this clip brings back good feelings and good times !!!
What happened to the alboms between the 1st and the maiden I remember having 3 but not the maiden?Anyone remember the names thought 1 was its a big bad beautiful Day.
How can anyone not love IABD? I saw them live in a gymnasium at St John Fisher College back in the day. They opened for the Allman Brothers with Duane and this is no shit after that show ended all people were talking about was It`s A Beautiful Day. Incredible! Sincerely Peter
Funny which bands are remembered and which are more or less forgotten. Back then, they were all new to us. And so acts like Terry Reid, Sweetwater, PG&E, Arthur Brown were routinely smoking what are now the name-brand bands. (I once saw John Lee Hooker follow Hendrix and make him look like a clown.) Thanks for the comment, Peter.
That first album is the best with Marrying Maiden second. I heard “White Bird” straight in the early 70s, played nightly on the local fm station that turned hip at night after 7 pm. It seems like it holds up well today, despite a few hippie references. What I want to know is what is the “odd lyrical blunder” one poster mentioned?
I have loved this album from 1st time I ever heard it, play it often, and never get tired of it! It inspires me, comforts me, takes me back to ‘those thrilling days of yesteryear.’ To me, the entire album works, is treasured, not a false moment in it for me…
even saw IABD a few years ago play in small church to about 300 people in san diego…
I’m one of the people who came to this because one of my parents was a total hippie. My mother was a Frank Sinatra and Elvis square. Where they agreed was on things like no TV, reading books, healthy food, and this album.
I spent way, way, way too many evenings having this album forced on me, with no escape. How dare I try to avoid “family” time?! And then there were the car trips. There was no escape.
So when my parents divorced right after I was out of high school, my dad taking his IABD 8-track with him, I thought I was finally–FINALLY–free of that sound. Then one day, I was floating around Youtube, and saw IABD featured on that dumb sidebar while I was watching Maru videos (go figure). For laughs, I clicked on it, and now the music won’t let me go.
I actually got a sentimental tear when I heard the familiar strains of White Bird again. I’m back in our living room with this album on the sideboard-sized stereo, a fire blazing, my brothers playing a card or board game around the old shipyard cargo plank that we used for a coffee table (yes, seriously), my mother doing macrame, my dad getting stoned out of his mind, and me reading a book in the hanging wicker cocoon chair that we never got around to hanging, so it sat on the floor. You’d have to be careful when you were using it, because it would flip over if you weren’t careful.
Yeah, we were a weird, groovy hippie back to basics family. And I’m damned glad of it!
I listen to the album all the time now, and realize why my parents liked it so much. It’s really a crazy, wonderful sound, like nothing else. And that’s a good thing, when music has gone so cookie-cutter lately.
Oh–and my 25-year-old son came by one day, and I had IABD playing on my iPod dock. He stopped, cocked his head, and then looked to me. “What is that?”
“It’s a Beautiful Day. Why?”
“I like it! Why haven’t you played that before?”
David was content to sell copies of this CD at his Chislehurst UK concert in August 2013, amongst several others and a vinyl album.
Hi all: I disagree with the statements made about Girl With No Eyes and Wasted Union Blues. I love this entire album. Sure, it’s dated. Most albums from this era are dated. But most albums from this era also evoke great memories, happy thoughts and a belief that with a little effort, we can change the world for the better.
I too love the Beautiful Day music. It brings forth that wonderful era in the consciousness revolution that has become part of my soul. Nothing better. There is no music that plays out the great spirt of that time for me … perhaps “Find the Cost of Freedom” comes close.
I saw them in Concert at the Los Angeles Collisium as an opening act for Jetro Tull.
This LP got a whole lot of spin time on the turntable. It is really good music that fit in perfectly for the time period. I can remember many times when someone who tell me the story about the first time they heard “White Bird” and the impact it had on their senses. Me included.
Of course, I picked up the following LP but like a lot of groups, the continued offerings did not match the quality of the previous release. No matter. I still listen to this LP today and would argue that it belongs in the top ten all time psychedelic music list.
Brilliant album for what it is. Saw them live in 1972 and they came over to our house and partied after the show. Everyone except Pattie Santos. Wild night with some people dancing on tables. They were a good show.
I also saw Zappa and the Mothers, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Steppenwolf, Blue Cheer, Iron Butterfly, the Dead, Airplane, Stones, Sly and the Family Stone, James Brown, Vanilla Fudge, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Young Rascals, Yes, Ike and Tina Turner, Bob Dylan, BB King, John Lee Hooker and the Doors among others in that era.
Looking back the Doors, Stones and Sly were the most dynamic live band shows with James Brown being recognized as a stand alone genius of a musical performer. All the others including IABD were very entertaining and good concert fun at the time. How one ranks their music depends on taste and that’s a very personal choice.
For me, the “It’s a Beautiful Day” album takes me to a very certain place, a place I cherish even more as time goes on.
The week after this band performed at the Bath Festival (1970?), I spotted a photo of Pattie Santos in one of the English music papers. That photo — her dark beauty and the mere presence of a Latina chick in a rock band — absolutely enchanted me. I was 16 years old at the time.
A Rolling Stone review used some term like “dead flowers pressed between pages of Tennyson” to describe the first album. No matter, though. That record was a constant presence in friends’ dorm rooms, homes … seemingly everywhere. And with good reason. The music.
I remember it this way. Sitting in a wicker chair in a room filled with florescent posters and black lights somewhere in Pomona. It was 1969 and I was deep into an acid trip and feeling lighter that air. Other albums played but this one stuck. I’ve owned a copy of it for more that 40 years.
I have the CDs IABD and Marrying Maiden. The Albums are scratched up and NEVER get played. I have over 300 12″ LP’s and 450 CDs from 1956 to 1996 and I would rather listen to something from these albums than most. Really takes me back to that moment. It’s only my opinion but maybe ONLY Dark Side Of The Moon is better album listening.
your immersion in this genre has made you quite jaded. you can no longer give an accurate assesment. step back, then step back some more. if there is any window-pane or micro-dot around, pop it and listen to it again. prepare to be amazed….again. relax.
I first heard the IABD when i was stationed in Korea in 1973
It blew me away of course I was blown away at the time. Still one of my favorites. I can put it on and be transported back in time.
i also saw ibday a buncha times, mostly at the avalon … i liked the vibe there better than the carousel/fillmore west … usually i was high on pot and they were really fun to dance to. … and most everyone danced … until the hype showed up and the shows became more of a spectator sport
i’ve also seen them twice in each of the last 2 years at jorma kaukonen’s fur peace ranch … this version of the band has been together for 25 years. the original drummer is part of it. laflamme’s wife is a terrific vocalist and and they were fabulous … first time they played side 2 of the first lp and jammed on it big time …
It’s a Beautiful Day… A roommate brought the LP home on the advice of some chick I introduced him to.. (Forever in your debt for that, Betsey!) We were most likely stoned out at the time, whole lotta trippin goin on.. put the record on the turntable and fired up Craig’s high-dollar component stereo…. WOW!!! LOVE at first listen!! Since that time I’ve managed to keep Beautiful Day somewhere in my consciousness … records worn out, tapes (several) and now via the ‘Net/webs. It makes me feel incredibly nostalgic for that time and place and the sounds are something I hope to be hearing at my death… something that transcends Time and Space as we know it …
This music is up there with Handel’s “Messiah” for beauty, power, imaginative and mental stimulation. The late ’60s and early ’70s were times of turmoil and social strife… The War…. sometimes hard to deal with. Beautiful Day and certain other bands (Moody’s spring to mind but there were others) made life easier and less heart-rending. Long hair, trippy music and hell yes a lotta psychedelics!!! Next Time, In Valhalla!
Ronald: Like you, I was there at the time and consider myself so lucky. One of the neighbors in the dorm (University of Texas, Austin) had this album and i was totally mesmerized. I was also into the Moodies, Spirit, Steppenwolf, Hendrix,etc. Just wanted to say you did a great job in taking me back to some of my best memories. Yes definitely … see you in Valhalla!
I Love this album and their second one, Marrying Maiden. I was lucky enough to see It’s a Beautiful Day live 3 or 4 times back in the day. They always put on a good show. Girl With No Eyes is one of my favorites along with Hot Summer Day … When we were young and foolish, Wasted Union Blues was a favorite. … Oh Well … those were the days my friend.
I had this album on 8-track at about 17 years old (1973). My friend and I listened to it one night while tripping on acid for hours over and over with head phones on. Incredible experience! I anticipate every note or sound on every song, etched in my memory, and love each song to this day. I regret never seeing them live. The framed iconic album cover is prominently displayed in my dining room.
Nice one. I had forgotten about this beauty. In the grand scheme of things “White Bird” at least is from the darker side of Romanticism.
saw them at fillmore in 1969 with dave gates and craig Johnson, high school friends, really great show, tallyho good buddy? the other bands were sons of chaplin and blues magoos. realyy quite trippy?
One of my favourites. Properly unique. Girl With No Eyes has the funniest MST earnest lyrics ever!
One did not, nor still does needs to be ripped or on LSD to enjoy their music. For me (and as a musician), It’s a Beautiful Day played music that touched places other music did not, deeper and as trans-like as the music is, i never did drugs or got drunk growing up with horses, animals and my race car. I did not need that crap. White Bird, Girl with No Eyes, were enough for me to live and love with. … i had my secrets and my secret places, and this band belonged there! to this day, i listen, my favorites, my kids know the music and now my g’kids will.
It would have been a true gift if the Band would have been able to fly forward, their music was beautiful. and yes, i saw them in concert and was stunned, especially with the harpsichord. fantastic and fascinating. … big loves for them.
Hi to all you record freaks and hippie friends old all over the world, I wanna try to give my reasons to set this extraordinary album on a list of 100 best records ever made. The music of It’s a Beautiful Day has an expressional high-class feeling rised by energetic fiddle playing and the duet voices of David and Patti that developed wonderful deep souly and thrilling moments inside of me. The fantastic vocals and the fine playing of drums and the whole rhythm section too — I’ll never forget, it’s deep in my heart as a kind of music which spreads my inner mind outside into an everlasting wave of love,spiritual warmth and tenderness that is still doing now.
It´s exactly 50 years ago when I heard this record the first time, we had a good joint or two and we were a group of maybe 6 or 8 folks sitting round together and the room was full and were full of happiness ‘n trippy laughter. This music gave me hope and clearness in good and bad times and the whole record is like a trip through your mind, if you did with smoking pot then or as I do these times as a clean headed hippie with a drug-free life now this marvelous record helped me make it though the night and day lifelong — it´s like a monument of unforgettable tunes and exciting pictures rising before your very eyes, for me it´s a symphony of my life and brings me back again and again comparing sometimes the lovely good old times and the bad and cruel times nowadays. Love and peace from me to you … and try to laugh in days of change.
Still got my original vinyl copy, some wonderful tracks on the album.
It definitely ‘influenced’ Deep Purple!
I’m 61 years old. IABD is my favorite band this side of the Beatles. My favorite activity is hang gliding, for 37 years now. Before I fly, I make sure to listen to IABD so that their music is firmly implanted in my brain while I’m flying.
Over many years of soaring above the hustle and bustle of earthbound life, hearing “Hot Summer Day at Carnegie Hall” ringing in my brain, I know for a fact that this is some of the best music ever made, a wonderful influence of Beethoven and Mozart on rock’n’roll. I can only hope to someday meeting David and shaking his hand, and telling him face to face how much Joy his compositions have given me for all these years.
I’ll fight anyone that disagrees with me.
Great album that introduced me to another side of Rock. Listening to it on my dad’s huge component stereo I heard music as it should be heard, he also picked up on a set of 60.00 head phones (expensive in 1969) that brought the music into the living room. The way I first saw them was at the L.A. Collisium opening for Jethro Tull and Robin Trower when I was in the Air Force in the 70s. But it was the album cover that was unlike any other at the time, as attractive as the beautiful girl on the cover and a Latina woman’s voice. I miss the time period when music like this was a call away from the nightly news of the Vietnam war and a looming draft that killed many a young person. Salute.