REISSUE. David Axelrod. Song of Innocence (1968)

Publicat in: 09.07.2018, 12:09PM
Autor: Richard Constantinidi
Comentarii: 0
Vizualizari: 936
Etichete: David Axelrod, Now-again Records, Song Of Innocence

Artist: David Axelrod

Title: Song of Innocence

Label: Now-Again Records

Genre: Jazz, Rock

Format: LP/CD

David Axelrod delivered one of the great psychedelic albums with 1968’s “Song of Innocence”, based around the poetry of William Blake. It is considered by many to be his masterpiece.

“Song of Innocence” is this weird hybrid that no-one, not even Axelrod himself, could ever really describe. The listener is pulled in by his melodies, simplistic at first, but coloured by odd chord progressions and turnarounds, grounded by the drummer Earl Palmer and Carol Kaye’s funk. Torn between the juxtaposition of musical elements – a jazz vibraphone solo here, a fuzz guitar tear here, a nod to the baroque in Don Randi’s clavichord comps – “Innocence” is put at ease, always, by Axe’s arrangements, which utilize brass and strings in a way that no 1960s arranger did.

It’s worth noting that there are really count-on-your-hand examples of anything that might even be compared to “Song of Innocence”. Perhaps Arthur Verocai’s self-titled and only artist album, issued on the Brasilian Continental label in 1972, or the collaborations between Serge Gainsbourg and Jean Claude Vannier, which found their epitome in 1971’s “Histoire de Melody Nelson”. But even these albums, superb, in any thinking music fan’s canon of the best from this era, perhaps in their lives - and perhaps in line with “Song of Innocence” - are one-offs. Axelrod’s “Song of Innocence” set in path a series of artist albums on Capitol and other labels, and influenced the world countless times over, from The Verve to DJ Shadow, to Madlib to J.Dilla.