VARIOUS
"The Cool
Aid Benefit Album: Deluxe Edition"
LION PRODUCTIONS & LIGHT IN THE ATTIC
At the end of the 1960’s,
there was a house in Vancouver that was a home solely for
Hippies and homeless youth; it was known to locals as "the
Cool Aid House." When the Canadian government withdrew funding
in 1970, the house was in danger of closing. All of the top
bands in the Vancouver area offered to record songs for a
benefit album—and since the local music scene produced
some of the best bands in Canada, the album that resulted
was stunning; it has long been a much sought-after collector's
item. What no one knew until recently was that the original
"Cool Aid Benefit Album" was intended as a two-record set:
contractual problems with Capitol Records forced Cool Aid
House founder John Walsch to drop tracks by Mother Tucker's
Yellow Duck—tracks that are now restored to this package.
Other cuts include the strange proto-electronic burbles of
Mock Duck (quite unlike almost everything else they ever recorded)
on ‘As the Bullet Enters Anton’ and ‘Pointillistic
Scherzo’; the vicious snarl of Black Snake’s ‘Carousel,’
and the strange Spalding Grey-ish acoustic song/poem ‘The
Planet Man.’ Hydro Electric Street Car have left little
behind them, but their lovely ‘High Memory’ sounds
like a lost Grateful Dead track from their early, dreamy period.
A terrific discovery. The end result of the joint efforts
of Light in the Attic and Lion Productions is this deluxe
2xLP package, jam-packed with stand-out music by Vancouver’s
top bands of the day: Mother Tucker's Yellow Duck, Papa Bear's
Medicine Show, Mock Duck, Hydro Electric Streetcar, Route
Nine, Blacksnake Blues Band, Nancy, Spring, and Greydon Moore
and Leo Jung. Obscure cuts available nowhere else, in a wide
variety of styles: weird electronic sounds, heavy garage fuzz
guitar freakouts, stoner rock, and acoustic folk. This deluxe
hand-numbered LP edition comes in a heavy 1960’s style
"tip-on" gatefold jacket with notes on the Cool Aid House,
the original LP project, and the bands involved. All tracks
are taken from the original multi-track studio tapes, and
sound incredible as a result. Limited edition hand-numbered
2xLP package (housed in old-style tip on gatefold jacket),
lovingly remastered from the original multi-track studio tapes.
Includes liner notes and original artwork from the Cool Aid
House.
Album One: Original LP:
A-side:
1. Bring Yourself Down To Earth Lovin’ Blues Baby -
Spring (4:07)
2. Girl Of the Night Suite - Route Nine (3:00)
3. Catfish - Blacksnake (10:06)
4. The Reason - Black Snake (4:06)
B-side:
1. Pointilistic Scherzo - Mock Duck (0:49)
2. Do Re Me - Mock Duck (3:00)
3. As the Bullet Enters Anton - Mock Duck (0:44)
4. Golden Girl- Papa Bear's Medicine Show (3:57)
5. I Realise - Hydro Electric Streetcar (3:40)
6. Gardens and Flowers - Hydro Electric Streetcar (4:17)
Album Two: Unreleased Tracks
A-side:
1. Borrowed Song - Mock Duck (2:56)
2. Mountain Joy - Mother Tucker's Yellow Duck (3:47)
3. Hydro Electric - High memory (3:27)
4. I - Mother Tuckers Yellow Duck (3:54)
5. Wordplay – Spring (5:58)
B-side:
1. No Time/Got A Feeling – Nancy (6:28)
2. Carousel – Blacksnake (2:34)
3. Hastings East - Mock Duck (2:27)
4. The Planet Man - Greydon Moore And Leo Jung (7:01)
Catalogue number:
REGEN1103LP
UPC: 609728110314