A decidedly unique visit to the high point of psychedelia from a unique artist.
This album is a companion piece to Hitchcock’s recent book, “1967: How I Got There And Why I Never Left” (reviewed here) and it finds him reimagining 11 songs from that year in his own inimitable fashion along with one new song on the title track. Given the genesis of most of these songs, released in the first full bloom of psychedelia and utilising all manners of studio gimmickry and sound effects newly available back then, Hitchcock is quite restrained in his updates, eschewing any idea of copycat covers. Indeed, for a year which he describes in the book as the dawning of a technicolour age there’s a decidedly monochromatic approach, down to the album cover art which is primarily black and white. A sense of what is contained here might be gleaned from his cover of The Doors’ ‘Crystal Ship’ on his album “The Man Upstairs”, a disc which was produced by Joe Boyd, a man who was a mover and shaker back in 1967.
Hitchcock strips the songs back while retaining some of the sense of adventure that accompanied their release while he is accompanied by a cohort of friends (including Kimberley Rew, Lee Cave-Berry, Davey Lane, Charlie Francis and Kelley Stolz) who add guitars, harmonies, keyboards and sitar. How successful they are varies from song to song (and probably personal preferences) but, for this reviewer, listening to the album was quite the delight.
Procul Harum’s ‘A Whiter Shade Of Pale’ opens the album with Hitchcock’s guitar faithfully following the Bach influenced melody of the song while Charlie White’s keyboards approximate the original, but there’s no mistaking that Hitchcock voice, giving the song a darker edge. It’s just about the same to be said for all the songs here, they’re oh so familiar but they all come delivered with the Hitchcock stamp. Hendrix’s ‘Burning Of The Midnight Lamp’ is jagged with spiky shards of acoustic guitar and ‘Waterloo Sunset’ positively sparkles with its harmonies and sharp guitars. ‘My White Bicycle’ has more than an essence of groovy 60s sound effects with its backward guitar sounds while Hitchcock’s delivery of Traffic’s ‘No Face, No Name, No Number’ is perhaps the best match on the record as Hitchcock gets all ethereal and captures some of the eldritch mystery of the original. Meanwhile, there’s a fun filled frolic through The Incredible String Band’s ‘Way Back In The 1960s’ which, uncannily, sounds as if Robin Williamson had got on board to help out.
The second last song and title track, ‘Vacations In The Past’, finds Hitchcock in peak form on a song which positively shimmers as he dives deep into the Hitchcockian universe which, as ever, is populated by sea creatures. It seems to be his oblique way of examining his ties to the past, his formative years and influences and it segues quite cleverly into the song which, almost inevitably, closes the album. ‘A Day In The Life’ opens with church bells and vinyl hiss before Hitchcock launches into what is the most faithful reimagining here. It’s a wonderful version, obviously crafted with a love of the original, even up to the closing crescendo chord and the repetitive vinyl groove run out which is unfortunately truncated on our CD copy.
