LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

Time Something New Listen To Me Me And My Uncle Tomorrow Children Of The Sun New Wind Blowing Everything Is Gonna Be OK Test Evangeline/ Floating World official reissue. A fascinating enigma of the San Francisco psychedelic scene, Valente is most famed as the author of the song Get Together. This definitive '60s love-and-peace anthem was recorded on the Jefferson Airplane's first album, and taken into the Top Ten by the Youngbloods. Valente was an original member of Quicksilver Messenger Service, and his one off solo single in 1964, a folk pop song called Birdses became the inspiration for Gene Clark to name his new band the Birdses, amended of course, to the Byrds, because of his admiration for Valente's single In 1968, following a spell in jail for drug possession, he got a deal with Epic Records, recording an album produced by Bob Johnston (most famous for overseeing much of Bob Dylan's classic '60s output). It was idiosyncratic even within the psychedelic community. Valente sang elliptical, stream-of-consciousness hippyisms without much in the way of narrative, beginning, or end, but with an evocative lyricism. The accompaniment is mostly stripped down guitar playing pleasingly haunting minor folk-jazz acoustic chords, swelled by wads of studio reverb. In March this year, Mojo's 67 Lost Albums You Must Own article included this album: 'On leaving Quicksilver Messenger Service after changing his name to avoid the taxman, the chemically deranged but incredibly charming Dino Valente knocked off this beautifully elongated acoustic ramble, then promptly disappeared. Emotional, aching and gloriously daft in places, its stream of lo-fi consciousness spawned generations of bedroom strumming by moody suicidal peaceniks. All a bit intense on the surface, it's wonderfully engaging even today. (DH)'