Talking About the Good Times, Vol. 1: A Collection of Unreleased Acetates & Obscure Psychedelic Pressings

Ever since the Pebbles series introduced the concept of collector-oriented compilations of rare garage and psychedelic singles from the '60s, there's been a steady stream of LPs and CDs unearthing obscure tunes both remarkable and otherwise, and by this point, there are enough of these collections that, along with albums reissuing old singles, there are now albums devoted to reissuing albums of old singles. Case in point: Talking About the Good Times, Vol. 1 first surfaced in 2001 as a grey market CD-R collection of rare psychedelic singles from the U.K. and Europe, and the Past & Present has since given the set a silver disc reissue. While this album certainly offers us a few notably rare sides -- two so rare that they were sourced from acetate discs and the identity of the artists is not known -- for the most part, this is standard-issue psych stuff, most of which leans towards what would become prog rock rather than the "I Feel so Strange" school of acid casualty rock (which was more common in the United States). There are a few musicians included here who would go on to more lucrative careers down the line -- the J & B features Mick Jones, who went on to arena rock stardom with Foreigner, and Skip Bifferty's keyboard player, Mickey Gallagher, would go on to play alongside Peter Frampton, Ian Dury, and the Clash. While U.K. acts dominate the disc, it's the bands from elsewhere who offer the most exciting music, such as Denmark's the Young Flowers, Italian garage rocker Bruno Castiglia and 5 Gentlemen, from France. And while the two sides credited to "Unknown" may make seekers of rarities take notice, "The Light" is good but hardly exceptional, while "Red Admiral" sounds like a demo rather than a finished track, and not an especially compelling one. And the new liner notes written for the Past & Present edition are lamentable, often substituting self-promoting enthusiasm for info about the artists, and confusing the song "Creation" by the Image for a track by the considerably more famous (and interesting) band the Creation. Talking About the Good Times, Vol. 1 isn't without interest for fans of rare psych and acid pop, but there are plenty of hard-to-find compilations more deserving of another chance in the marketplace than this one. ~ Mark Deming