329 - THE ALLMAN BROTHERS - Revival (Love Is Everywhere)



The Allman Brothers were heroin addicted chopper riding wild men, yet this sounds like something an retired bank manager/audiophile sticks on the turntable while his wife attends a church event - it's that polite. Lyrically it could be hippy guff or Christian guff but either way it's guff. I'm walking away, I don't want anything to do with this. 2/5

328 - PAUL McCARTNEY - Momma Miss America



I found it hard to believe this was released as a single but I did some digging on the internet and apparently it was released as a 45 in Iran of all places. I guess it qualifies then. 'Momma Miss America' if you don't know is two instrumentals joined together. Nothing earth shattering, nothing objectionable. McCartney was obviously a great bass player, that's evident here, but his drumming always bothered me a bit. I suppose if you are looking for a frame of reference it's McCartney kind of doing a Booker T & the MGs sort of thing but to be honest I didn't like them much and this is merely OK. 3/5

327 - THE CHAIRMEN OF THE BOARD - Pay To The Piper



Didn't The Chairmen Of The Board have a big hit? I can't think what it was right now though. Anyway Jackson 5, early Stevie Wonder, Motown, it's all here. There is absolutely nothing 'wrong' with this and it might even be enjoyable if the person listening was less tightly wound than I am. However to me, ever the niggly critic, this comes off as just too generic to really elevate into the hallowed range of 4/5. It's too much other things and not enough itself and it lacks something or other. Therefore I have to award 3/5. Now what was that hit? No googling....

Chairman of the Board's big hit was "Give Me Just a Little More Time," which I love. They also did the original version of "Patches," later a hit when done by Clarence Carter (though not much later, I think both versions were 1970).

'Give Me Just A Little More Time' was on my 1969 shortlist. Should have remembered and in fact did afterwards.

Clarence Carter's 'Patches' will be coming up in roughly about February 2021 provided I survive that long/don't have my electricity cut off. Couple more Chairman of the Boards as well.

So 323 is Jimi Hendrix - 1983 (A Mermaid I Should Be) but since the Hendrix estate doesn't allow tracks on You Tube I can't really do this one here. It's disappointing because I'm 3,500 songs into this little project starting in 1963 up to 1970 and I think the only songs that haven't been on YT are Hendrix songs. Ah well. I'll listen to my copy of Electric Ladyland and add the score in later. I'd imagine it would be a 4 but it is a while since I heard it.

Onwards to....

322 - OPUS - Baby Come On



As the comments state this was actually released in 1970. YT isn't very good at putting the correct release date on things. And talking of things that aren't very good...here is Opus going for that very 1970 hard rock sound but they forgot to actually write a song. This is just structureless noise that's apparently being made up on the spot by people who can't improvise. Pretty much every thing on this record is as rudimentary or generic as it could be. I especially 'like' the Led Zeppelin rip off end sequence. Yeah, this one whiffs a bit. 2/5.

321 - BREAD - Make It With You



Had no idea what this was going to be but....hey! I know this song! Now it has a name. This is one of those one's where perhaps people with different tastes to me would laud it while I don't really like it much. It's well written, played, sung, it's just too schmaltzy for my tastes with it's country & western lite sentimentality and lush strings. 3/5.

319 - STEVIE WONDER - Heaven Help Us All



This kind of reminds in a way of Michael Jackson's Earth Song, ie, preachy horse shit with a bombastic choir. Oh such injustice in the world, we are doomed if we don't come together and channel our innate goodness towards AH SHUT UP! FUCKING IDIOT! Just beyond asinine. There's ways to do this kind of thing but this is a clodhopper. 2/5.

318 - JOHN LENNON - Mother



Was reading just the other day that Lou Reed rates this as a Top 5 song of all time. But Lou Reed is an asshole. No one, and I mean no one, loves The Lennon more than me, and I actually really like this album, but I don't like this track much. Not only is it musically pretty bland I also think Lennon is lyrically playing to the gallery here. He's pulling the wool over our eyes, he's mythologizing his own tortured artist persona, it's not sincere and basically he's full of shit on this one. 2/5.

317 - EDGAR BROUGHTON BAND - Apache Dropout



I've never had an animal talk to me while on acid but if one did I imagine it may well sound like however contributed vocals to this track. This is a weird one, a Captain Beefheart cover mashed up with The Shadows that ends up sounding not a million miles from current day Black Lips. I also kinda like the band aesthetic, a sort of Hammer Horror witch-finder general look, as if Three Dog Night had gone all summary execution-y. I actually like the wackiness of this but musically I think I can only justify a 3/5.

316 - MOUNTAIN - For Yasgur's Farm



I suppose the feeling was that they couldn't keep doing balls out rockers and that some kind of different angle was required that showed a greater degree of sophistication. Unfortunately this has merely produced an awkward sounding, mostly uninteresting attempt. If this was weather it would be one of those days that's mostly dull but occasionally throws a slanted sunbeam down before it's almost immediately smothered by grey skies again. Some nice guitar touches but restraint reigns supreme. 3/5

314 - CHRISTIE - Yellow River



This might well be the original template for all the completely shit, lightweight, annoyingly up beat, substance less, pop garbage of the 1970s. It brings to mind all the worst aspects of the decade. Bad hair, bad clothes, giant lapels, ridiculous kipper ties, polyester, crimplene, bri-nylon, the beginning of mass philistinism and worst of all appalling taste in music. Just checking, just checking....oh OF COURSE it was a Top Ten hit! OF COURSE! I'd bite the nose off any one of the pricks in this band and spit it in their face. You crossed the line Christie! 1/5! No! ZERO OUT OF A MILLION!

313 - SUB - Ma Mari Huana



This would have been throw-a-way, trashy psych in 1967 quite what it's doing in 1970 is anybody's guess. Apparently Sub were a German band and apart from them putting out this single and a live album I know nothing about them. Perhaps they have some kind of cache with acid heads but this sounds like bandwagon hopping hopeless cases to me. I mean marijuana was vaguely daring in 65-66 and psych was already approaching being played out by 1970 so the whole thing seems like embarrassing tail coat grabbing from faux scenester shit heads. 2/5.

312 - TEN YEARS AFTER - Working On The Road



Don't have much to say about this one. It's just kinda a standard rock song, nothing especially bad about it, nothing especially stand out about it. You'd say it was probably album filler except of course it was released as a single. Maybe give that album a miss! 3/5

311 - THE METERS - A Message From The Meters



Some nice funky details here and there but for the most part this is monotonous and under powered. I gave the The Meters the benefit of the doubt last time so this time I must withdraw that privilege. 3/5.

310 - CHRISTOPHE - The Girl From Salina



The descending chords at the beginning reminded me strongly of a Crazy World of Arthur Brown track but I doubt that was an influence but who knows. I know Christophe was a dude, if that's him singing he had a pretty high voice. The first time I listened to this I only gave it a 2/5 but maybe I was a little harsh. It has that lachrymose European tone to it (for Christophe is French) which I've personally always found a bit overwrought but at the same time it builds to something quite well. You know what, I'm gonna stick to 2/5. Sorry Christophe!

309 - MARVIN GAYE - Abraham, Martin & John



Shades of 'Midnight Train To Georgia' about this although that didn't come out till 1973. And MTTG was much better than this typically rather limp effort from Marvin who was going through a bit of a creative lull at this time (Don't worry kids 'What's Going On' is only a year away). 3/5

308 is 'Izabella' by Jimi Hendrix. So due to the Hendrix YT embargo we move swiftly on to...

307 - DEREK & THE DOMINOS - Tell The Truth



Clapton, Allman, this should be a guitar lovers heaven but I'm having a hard time getting too enthusiastic about this one. It kinda sounds like the credit music to a straight to VHS Chuck Norris movie about a sheriff who cares not about the rules in small town Louisiana. There's also more than a hint of self love going on with this dull effort. 3/5.

306 - BLONDE ON BLONDE - Castles In The Sky



Maybe you, like me, were expecting Dylan acolytes but no this is more the dying, twitching stump of psychedelic pop from a bunch of bandwagon jumping musical nobodies. This would have been mediocre garbage in 1968. Subsequently Blonde On Blonde called it a day in 1971 and I think that was a wise decision based on this whiffy can of tuna. 2/5.