Real Life Permanent Dreams – a cornucopia of British psychedelia 1965-1970 (compilation week)

Vanessa Williams once warbled, “save the best till last,” and though her insipid brand of asinine drivel is as welcome at Head Full of Snow as a particularly nasty bout of necrotizing fasciitis, as far as Compilation Week is concerned, we find ourselves obliged to heed her advice and have, indeed, saved the best till last.

Real Life Permanent Dreams – a cornucopia of British psychedelia 1965-1970, from Sanctuary Records, is exactly what it says on the tin, a veritable abundance of psychedelic joy that’s as essential as it is comprehensive.

With four discs (yes, four), a 46-page, oversized glossy booklet, and a monumental 99 tracks that kick off with the original demo version of The Smoke’s ‘My Friend Jack’, is there really any need for me to continue this review?

The set is a mixture of rarities, unreleased tracks and live recordings. There are contributions from more established acts, such as The Small Faces, The Kinks, Soft Machine and The Nice, and an absolute wealth of material from lesser known artists. Ramases & Selket, The Orange Bicycle, Our Plastic Dream, Fat Mattress, Harmony Grass… Just looking at the names on the back of the elongated slipcase this treasure trove is housed in, is enough to send any psych, acid, or early prog enthusiasts bandy with excitement.

Each of the four discs on Real Life Permanent Dreams sports its own title, reflecting the chronological categorising of sound, as opposed to date, into which the five years have been divided. So it starts with Sowing the Seeds before moving onto Plant a Flower Child Today, then HappyDaysToyTown, and finishing on Circus Days Are Here Again. Any one of these discs, if sent out into the cruel world to fend for itself, would prove a formidable force to reckon with. When combined, like Dai-X on Star Fleet, they become both the unstoppable force and the immovable object that, if ever were to meet, would spell the end of the world.

Sowing the Seeds largely covers the raw, infant sound of psychedelia – though some tracks are as late as 1968 – with early, acid-laced examples from Donovan (‘Sunny Goodge Street’), John’s Children (‘The Lilac Hand of Menthol Dan’), Lord Sutch (‘The Cheat’) and future Quo, The Traffic Jam (‘I Don’t Want You’).

Plant a Flower Child Today blossoms the more flowery sound associated with the summer of love, as The End start things out with an alternative version of their ‘Loving Sacred Loving’, featuring a closing harpsichord flourish of ‘Land of Hope and Glory’, absent from the album version. The disc finishes 26 tracks later, on another alternative take, this time an unreleased, brass-free version of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown’s ever-incandescent ‘Fire’.

HappyDaysToyTown hits the toytown and popsike trail with such little-heard gems as Timon’s ‘The Bitter Thoughts of Little Jane’, The Beatstalkers’ tale of the pot-smoking ‘Silver Tree Top School for Boys’ and Andy Ellison’s mellatron-infused ‘Fool FromUpper Eden’. If that’s not enough to tempt you, then there’s also a BBC session of one of the all time psychedelic-pop classics, The Status Quo’s ‘Pictures of Matchstick Men‘, as well as Birmingham’s own, and early Steve Gibbons excursion, The Uglys with ‘Love and Best Wishes’.

Circus Days Are Here Again charts the shift from psychedelic pop into the heavier territory of psychedelic and progressive rock, with Velvett Fogg (‘Lady Caroline’), Humble Pie (‘The Light of Love‘), Man (‘Empty Room’) and Bobak Jons Malone (‘On a Meadow Lea) all on fine form, among others. There’s a live snatch from one of the Soft Machine’s meandering excursions as well as, somewhat peculiarly, Andrew Bown’s ‘Tarot’, the theme tune to ITV’s 1970 kids’ series Ace of Wands.

Of course, there are notable omissions (Tomorrow, The Pretty Things, Pink Floyd…just a few), but when faced with the kaleidoscopic feast that’s on offer instead, that’s quickly forgotten. Besides, I’m sure anybody salivating at the thought of this collection will already have everything recorded by those bands and any other big name exclusions.

Real Life Permanent Dreams – the title, incidentally, coming from a Tomorrow song but included here as a cover by The Orange Machine – if you hadn’t already gathered, I quite like. All it leaves for me to say is make sure you get a hold of this superior psychedelic compilation. Through fair means or foul, it matters not; just get your hands on it. Now!

So there you have it. Our psychedelic/prog/folk compilation week reaches its end. Now that’s over with, Jeffman’s headed for a long lie down beneath a heavy cloud of polychromatic sounds. Until next time…

Real Life Permanent Dreams – a cornucopia of British psychedelia 1965-1970 appears to have been deleted, but if you have money to burn it can be picked up for extortionate prices at Amazon.co.uk

Also in Compilation Week:

Looking Towards the Sky – Progressive, Psychedelic and Folk Rock from the Ember Vaults

Cave of Clear Light – The Pye and Dawn Records Underground Trip 1967-1975

Strange Folk

Spirit of Joy – Tales from the Polydor Underground 1967-1974

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album reviews, prog rock, psych-pop, psychedelic rock