THE FLOWER POT MEN | Midsummer Dreaming: An Anthology 1967-1970 3CD coming soon…
- 3CD anthology of recordings from British harmony pop maestro John Carter and friends under their flower-power era guise The Flower Pot Men.
- Includes Summer of Love hit 'Let's Go To San Francisco', further 45s (some using alternative period aliases), two unreleased-at-the-time concept albums and several tracks now gaining their first-ever issue.
- Inspired equally by the Haight-Ashbury scene, the worldwide Summer of Love and Brian Wilson's recent groundbreaking work, in mid-1967 former Ivy Leaguers John Carter and Ken Lewis pieced together the hugely ambitious, six-minute 'Let's Go To San Francisco'.
The result was a UK Top Five hit, a success that encouraged Carter to record more material in the same vein including follow-up 'A Walk In The Sky', which flopped at home but became another Top Ten hit in mainland Europe.
When psychedelia withered and died, Carter abandoned the name in public but continued to work on a brace of Moody Blues-style concept albums that failed to appear at the time.
A four-hour set, ‘Midsummer Dreaming’ gathers up all four Flower Pot Men singles, those two aborted albums and sundry other material that either didn't gain a release or was issued under other aliases, such as the highly regarded 'Mythological Sunday' (credited to Friends) and 'Midsummer Deaming' (John Carter & Russ Alquist).
An essential item for lovers of intelligent, melodic, harmony-based late 60s British pop and psychedelia, ‘Midsummer Dreaming’ includes five hitherto-unissued studio tracks as well as a brace of late 1967 Radio 1 sessions that are also gaining their first-ever official issue.
DISC ONE 1 Let's Go To San Francisco Parts 1 and 2 (original mono version) 2 Mythological Sunday (John Carter lead vocal) 3 A Walk In The Sky 4 Blow Away 5 Say Goodbye To Yesterday 6 Now And Then 7 Cooks Of Cake And Kindness 8 Children Of Tomorrow 9 Mythological Sunday (Tony Burrows lead vocal) 10 Midsummer Dreaming 11 Let's Go To San Francisco Parts 1 and 2 (stereo mix) 12 E=MC2/Musha Hada 13 Let's Go To San Francisco* BBC session 14 California Dreamin'* BBC session 15 Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall* BBC session 16 Don't Worry Baby* BBC session 17 A Walk In The Sky* BBC session
1 Single, Deram DM 142, released August 1967 2 Alternative version of Peace track, recorded 1968, unreleased at the time 3 Single, Deram DM 160, released November 1967 4-8 Alternative versions of Peace and Past Imperfect tracks, unreleased at the time, recorded 1969-1970 9 Single, credited to Friends (Tony Burrows lead vocal), Deram DM 1968, released July 1968 10 Single, credited to John Carter & Russ Alquist, Spark SRL 1017, released October 1968 11 Later stereo mix, unreleased at the time 12 From the musical Seasons, recorded c. 1970, unreleased at the time 13-14 BBC session, recorded September 1967 15-17 BBC session, recorded November 1967 |
DISC TWO 1 Prologue 2 These Heavy Times 3 Mythological Sunday 4 Colours 5 Blow Away 6 Cooks Of Cake And Kindness 7 Gotta Be Free 8 Heaven Knows When 9 White Dove 10 Epilogue 11 Now And Then 12 Say Goodbye To Yesterday 13 Memories Of Tomorrow 14 Autumn Love 15 Morning Prayer 16 Blues 17 I Am Me 18 Journey's End 19 All I Have Is You 20 Brave New World 21 Children Of Tomorrow
1-10 The album Peace, recorded 1968-69, unreleased at the time 11-21 The album Past Imperfect, recorded 1970, unreleased at the time |
DISC THREE 1 The Laughing Man 2 Mr. Light 3 Magic People 4 In The Sky 5 Conversations (In A Station Light Refreshment Bar) 6 A Letter To Josephine 7 Tahiti Farewell 8 Pantomime People 9 A Night To Be Remembered 10 Goodbye To Rosalie 11 Sunday In The Park 12 Going Round And Round 13 Life Is Living 14 Roberto Billow 15 When I Was Born 16 Rain, Rain, Rain (John Carter lead vocal version) 17 Going Nowhere* 18 I Think I'll Be Leaving Tonight* (Tony Burrows lead vocal) 19 Land Of Love* 20 Take Me Along* 21 Lady Of The Blue Lagoon* 22 Am I Losing You 23 Man Without A Woman 24 You Can Never Be Wrong 25 In A Moment Of Madness 26 Young Birds Fly
1 Single, credited to John Carter & Russ Alquist, Spark SRL 1017, released October 1968 2-5 Demos, recorded circa 1968, unreleased at the time 6 Single, credited to The Haystack, United Artists UP 35024, released June 1969 7-8 Single, credited to The Haystack, United Artists UP 35035, released September 1969 9 Single, credited to Dawn Chorus, MCA-UK MK 5004, released October 1969 10-16 Demos, recorded circa 1968, unreleased at the time 17-21 Demos, recorded circa 1968, previously unreleased 22 Single, Deram DM 160, released November 1967 23-24 Single, Deram DM 183, released April 1968 25-26 Single, Deram DM 248, released March 1969 * previously unreleased |