Sopwith Camel - The Sopwith Camel FLAC download

Very underated album..it's mostly been ignored since it's release and dismissed by those that heard it as not psychedelic...this is a mix up of thinking as it's already post psych on the sopwith calendar when this hit the stores even though it's 1967 the real SF psych scene was 65/66, the mash up of Beatlism, folk rock and mind expanding boho vibe. Think Great! Society! Not Jefferson Airplane and you'll see the true light.Sopwith debut is a Pop Art biscuit, not freak beat pop art or Warhol soup, this is prime Tara King pop art, a little of this, a little of that snugly fitting into a tight 25 minutes.Well worth setting your ears on.

Yes, I was there then … and though it’s been said that if you can remember the 60’s, then you weren’t there. Well I was, and I remember, because the 60’s were the seminal point in the twentieth century for music, politics, social ideas, drugs, and a little thing so many people forget, the poster art scene, where brilliant creations advertising bands where so splendid, that many of us treasured them as much, if not more than the music, with San Francisco’s Sopwith Camel being one of them. You never had to have heard a single song from Sopwith Camel in the 60’s to know that they were at center of psychedelic music scene, and that’s because of their very cool name, an amazing poster created by Victor Moscoso for a show at the Neon Rose in February of 1967.Having some psychedelic riffs, Sopwith Camel’s initial outing was a smattering of unsophisticated musical styles that traveled down the same path as that taken by The Charlatans,The Lovin’ Spoonful, and The New Vaudeville Band, who brought us “Winchester Cathedral, creating rather popish uninspired and mostly effected folk rock and folk psychedelia that was mixed with pre World War II lukewarm pop; no doubt themed with their WWI bi-plane logo and name. Sopwith Camel was one of the first San Francisco bands to have a certified hit with “Hello Hello,” and just as quickly imploded, crashing in flames, but making a lasting mark on the times … though as I suggest, mostly for their brilliant poster.All of this being said, Sopwith Camel have marked a place in the annals of those heady days and nights, and today, listening with fresher and perhaps less judgmental attitudes, there is a solid sincerity found in the work of this band that still manages to call out, enticing people to listen … if for no other reason than the historical significance of a moment in time. Their music is quirky, and at the time consider old-timey, laced with sunshine pop attitudes that bestowed a band of cuteness, if not downright campy. Seen in the light of the Vietnam War, and the intensity of what groups such as The Jefferson Airplane [who released Surrealistic Pillow], The Beatles [who released Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever], and The Rolling Stones [who had just release “Ruby Tuesday] were doing, Sopwith Camel never stood a chance. Yet today, with fresh ears, one can hear what those at the time dismissed as being plastic and lacking sincerity, one can hear playful light numbers that don’t make for a heavy trip, coming across with the same eagerness and perfection as “I’m A Believer” by The Monkees. Today the music sounds perhaps markedly pleasant having shed the times from which it came.And therein lies the oxymoron of Sopwith Camel, the fact that they were equally loved and dismissed in 1967, and still today, one can hear a contextual atmosphere, one that on exploration will reveal some surprises and unexpected turns. But remember, I was there then, and it’s all about the poster for me, letting the work of Sopwith Camel influence today’s dreamy west coast surf, and light handed neo-psychedelic scene.Review by Jenell Kesler

My copy is standard release KLP-8060 in mono. Sounds fantastic