Tucson 60'S Sound, the

Think of the Good Times, The Tucson ‘60’s Sound 1959-1968 Dionysus 2002

Incredible collection of Tucson garage/psyche bands from the era 1959-1968. No one would believe that such a small desert community (back then at least) could produce such a bounty of great bands, but heres the proof. A good portion of this has the pre-Beatles invasion surf-50’s rock instrumental feel (think Ventures, Beach Boys, Buddy Holly) but theres certainly a lot of jangly proto-psyche and even a taste of 60’s acid blues. You’ll even find Linda Ronstadt’s brother in here. Tracks are taken mostly from original rare 45s and this CD is a re-release of the original vinyl comp from 1991, with extra tracks and the greatest liner notes/booklet ever, which are worth the price of this CD in themself. Incredible historical journey through west coast garage, the Tucson music scene, even Tucson culture. Lee Joseph (Dionysus Records founder) describes this as “a labor of love”. It really shows.

1) starts with radio promo from KTKT and KIKX- wow what a cool flashback! Followed by classic 60’s proto psyche Byrds rock
2) sweet surfy instrumental
3) driving surf, Link Wray’ish, rough around edges
4) full on surf w/ wet reverb, “Boondocker” refers to big parties held out in the desert (were talking 20+ kegs w/ bands and bonfires)
5) blues progression, swingy sax rock, instrumental
6) bit more Motown feel, hear what the Detroit Cobras are channeling/lifting
7) really beautiful Spanish romantic twangy feel- The Ventures stole one of this band’s songs
8) go go 60’s rock- Anette and Frankie beach party music- Harry Nilsson provides the single “lyric”/voiceover
9) slow dance triplet w/ beautiful Motown’esque female lead vocals (think Hairspray)
10) simple 12 bar jam
11) deep twang, tom toms, spooky vocs, great dark composition
12) cool proto psyche w/ the Farfisa organ
13) western feel, nice harmonies, sad
14) cool sassy party feel
15) epic 60’s sound, voc harmonies
16) dark tone, nice
17) dark minor, cool
18) flower power quintessential 60’s psyche folk sound
19) upbeat psyche feel
20) nice upbeat w/ voc harmonies
21) jangly quintessential 60’s psyche
22) cool dancey beat and irrepressible organ, hooky and great
23) slower jangly psyche
24) cool stuff, bluesy 60’s rock
25) janglier, dark bluesy
26) edgy psyche, epic from Tucson’s most popular band of the era
27) slower ballady psyche