The Next Big Thing

Psychotic Revelation - The Ultimate Count Five (Big Beat WIKCD230)

Chances are that if you are a regular reader of this blog you will have at least six copies of Psychotic Reaction . And that, I guess, is a conservative estimate even by Jeroen's standards. "So why should I shell out my hard-earned cash for yet another copy?" I hear you ask. Simple, what we have here is the most exhaustive and twisterific Count Five compilation to ever grace a record store.

Step this way for the unedited version of Psychotic Reaction complete with original ending that just kinda fizzles out and away. A finer example of a successful collaboration between some young punks and a record label on-the-make you could not find. Simply stated, while Count Five supplied the correct musical vibe those pesky producer types edited their damn catchy tune down to something altogether more potent and chart bound. The improvement made to original recording is more than impressive, it's mind altering.

Interestingly, quite a few of the tunes differ to the versions we already love and cherish, a fact that is not always indicated in the accompanying blurb. For example, My Generation is longer to the one on the original album and includes suitable pop-art noises (e.g. guitar string scrapping). While the take of Mailman contains vocal lines not to be heard on the version of the tune on the Dynamite Incidents mini-album from the early 80s. What a great song it is too! Dig its metamorphosis from the ho-hum People Hear What I Say (previously unreleased ) into a certified floor filler. Why did this 45rpm stiff?

So what other “rarities” do you get for your money? Well, listen out for a brainstorming demo recording of Contrast that hints at the live power of Count Five. Impressed? Then cock an ear to those wah-wah trippy guitar lines on Enchanted Flowers and prepare to move into the 5th Dimension. Like, move over Stephen Stills, unplug your guitar from John Byrne's amp (see liner-notes for details of Count Five's run-in with the Buffalo Springfield) and take a listen a tune that rivals some of your old band’s finest moments.

Now add to the deal a thick info-packed booklet that will take you about the same amount of time to read as it will to listen to the contents of the CD. Damn it, anything to banish the memory of the self-indulgent essay about Count Five by Lester Bangs in the early 70s and which even found itself quoted for the liner notes of a Count Five disc on Repertoire. Say, wasn't punk, proto or otherwise, supposed to be an antidote to such unfocused dog-doo? Phew, glad I finally got the chance get that one off the chest.

Anyway, bravo to Big Beat for a job well done and please could we have a similar styled release devoted to the Syndicate of Sound?