Spreading from the Ashes

by The Peanut Butter Conspiracy

Overview

With 26 tracks from 1966 and 1967, this CD acts as a comprehensive supplement to the Peanut Butter Conspiracy's more widely circulated recordings for Columbia and Challenge. While seven of these recordings found official release in 1966 and 1967 on the Vault label, the rest were previously unissued. Too, it has seven cuts (both released and unreleased) by the Ashes, the group from which the Peanut Butter Conspiracy evolved, though most of this material was done in the early days of the era in which they were going under the Peanut Butter Conspiracy billing. Because a lot of this was done in the group's formative days, much of it's a little (and sometimes a lot) more folk-rock-oriented than the more psychedelic output on their Columbia albums. That's particularly true of the sides done by the Ashes, with Spencer Dryden (just before his Jefferson Airplane days) on drums. Like the Peanut Butter Conspiracy's more widely known work, however, the music here is a second-division (though not downright second-rate) and sometimes derivative mixture of folk-rock, psychedelia, and California pop/rock, though often a bit rawer than their more familiar stuff. There are some nice tunes here, like the 1966 Ashes single "Is There Anything I Can Do," a lost folk-rock gem co-written by Jackie DeShannon; "Dark On You Now," another moody Ashes folk-rocker that the band would remake on the first Peanut Butter Conspiracy album; and "Free," which like some of their other more bittersweet tunes is a little reminiscent of the very early Jefferson Airplane with a heavier pop flavor. The 20-page booklet has Alec Palao's usual ace detective work on filling in the obscure history of the band, with lots of quotes from interviews with some of the members. ~ Richie Unterberger

Product Details

Release Date:	06/21/2005
Label:	Big Beat Uk
UPC:	0029667424523
Rank:	74497

Tracks

1. Time Is After You
2. Love's Last Ground
3. Is There Anything I Can Do
4. Eventually
5. Dark On You Now
6. Winds Up High
7. Free
8. Big Bummer
9. Light Bulb Blues
10. Let's Take Our Love
11. Enchanted World
12. I'm Falling
13. Flight of the Psychedelic Bumble Bee
14. Foolhearted Woman
15. Shirley Can You Come Out & Play
16. 1-9-6-7
17. So Lonely
18. Floating Dream
19. Shuffle Tune
20. Moment of Happiness
21. Hangman
22. Roses Gone
23. Make Someone Happy
24. Naturally (Wintry Ways)
25. Taste of Something New
26. You Should Know

Album Credits

Performance Credits

The Peanut Butter Conspiracy   Primary Artist

Technical Credits

Lance Fent   Composer
Graham Nash   Composer
Nick DeCaro   Composer
Nick Robbins   Mastering
Alec Palao   Concept,Liner Notes,Memorabilia,Photography,Pre-Production,Archive Research
Wally Sound   Pre-Production
Alan Brackett   Composer,Memorabilia,Photography
Barrie Smith   Package Design
Alan Clarke   Composer
John Merrill   Composer,Memorabilia,Photography
Tony Hicks   Composer
Jackie DeShannon   Composer