U.S. 69 – I’m On My Way (A Patch Of Blue)
U.S. 69 – I Hear You Talkin’
U.S. 69 – Never A Day Goes By
First heard this at KALX back in the day back when Matthew Africa used to follow my radio show. As I was restacking my records and CDs in that glorious KALX library, I heard the opening notes of “I’m On My Way” but wasn’t fully paying attention. The massive head nod inducing sitar and heavy drums that rush in at about :45 seconds in rapidly changed all that and I made a beeline back to the studio to figure out what Matthew was playing. Turned out to be this record, the only release from this quintet that has one foot firmly in psych-rock and the other spread out into jazz, funk and Indian/African elements the hippies were fond of. Most psych records I pick up are two trackers at best. It’s rare for me to run into a psych album I can listen to, repeatedly, from start to finish but this one is one of those rare gems without a throwaway track.
In fact, the tracks most people know off of this, “Yesterday’s Folks” and “Miss Goodbody” are mighty solid, but they’re not even my favorites. “I Hear You Talkin'” definitely gets a vote, as does the aforementioned opening cut (which I love to play at the open of a set when I spin out in loungey styled places). “Talkin'” has this flighty flute and punchy drums throughout and is filled with what Matthew described as “Little Girl Leave Your Plastic World” lyrics, a theme which is picked up throughout the record.
Strangely one of the least funky songs on this record, “Never A Day Goes By” is the one that tends to stick in my mind the most. For some reason or another I always seem to visualize this song playing in the scene in Kassovitz’s film La Haine, where Hubert is in his room smoking up to Isaac Hayes, the DJ starts to cut things up on the decks and then the camera breezily floats out the window and around the area. Happens every single time I start that song, has been for years and I have no idea why…something perhaps about the dreamy though gritty quality of that scene, which is shared by this song.
Somewhere, I’m convinced of it, there is a instrumental version of this record (I’ve always been perplexed by the “Authorized Version” tag beneath the band’s emblem on the back cover, is there really an “Unauthorized” version?) If an instrumental backing track exists, I hope it doesn’t waste away in someone’s musty attic. As much as I love this record, I’d love even more to hear these tracks stand alone and have every break run clean.
Cheers,
Michael