“One Real Spins Free” taken from the LP ‘Gordon’s Buster’ | (Columbia CS 9693) June 1968
Gordon Alexander | One Real Spins Free | (Columbia) 1968 | It’s back to finding some long lost nuggets on albums and here’s a very interesting one by obscure late 60s singer songwriter Gordon Alexander.
”Gordon’s Buster” is not one of those immediate albums that blows your mind. It will take a couple of plays over a day or two before the songs and rhythms start sinking in and making sense. It’s a very diverse collection of freak rock, psych tinged folk with jazzy & blues touches.
Checking out the cover information reveals that renowned Producer Curt Boettcher worked on three songs ”Looking For The Sun” ”Windy Wednesday” and ”Miss Mary”.
soft psych touches
All of these cuts have his unmistakable soft psych touches. I’ve read elsewhere that members of his own band The Millenium also helped with instrumentation throughout.
The other songs on the album, including my highlight ”Thinking In Indian Again” were produced by Sonny Knight. Arrangements by David Angel fresh from his work with Fever Tree and Love’s ”Forever Changes”
”Thinking In Indian Again” is a short burst of psychedelia notable for the way-out and trippy guitar sound.
”How is your mind bending, how is your mind bending.
I like to fly using my middle eye on a beam to the end of the brain.”
Gordon Alexander | One Real Spins Free | (Columbia) 1968
One single was taken from the album as a promo sent to radio stations ”One Real Spins Free” ”Topango” during July 1968.
” . . . . . It’s almost embarrassing to say – but I really did see a new star being born at the Troubadour last week . . . . By 1969, Gordon Alexander will be one of the most important stars of New Rock and he will make a lasting contribution to music . . . ” (Nat Freeland, Los Angeles Free Press)
The opening track, “Looking For The Sun”, one of three produced by Curt Boettcher, is pretty interesting – downer vocals with a slow beat and a really cool recurring flute line.
Next up is a somewhat boring horn-laden blues, a good-timey number a la Sopwih Camel, an OK track with a decent beat and bass (somewhat sub-Springfield), a bossa-influenced tune with some nice David Angel horns, another vaudeville-rhythm number with piano and strings this time.
Gordon Alexander | One Real Spins Free | (Columbia) 1968
Side two’s opening track is pretty fast-paced with a couple of relatively wild fuzzy solos. The next two tracks have some of the most interesting arrangements of all the LP, worth hearing both.
Finally, the last two tracks are Boettcher productions again, and they really stand out from the rest of the album, either with some haunting echo throughout or some tasty psych guitar lines. You could say all from Boettcher’s isn’t gold, but here it sounds like he really made a difference, even the singing is better somehow.
In conclusion, a reasonably interesting album, all the tracks are pretty short, with some rather curious titles and lyrics, and Gordon Alexander’s voice could be considered a weak point overall, though it’s not unpleasant either. (Discogs Review)
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