391) Nirvana — “Girl in the Park”
No, this is not “About a Girl”! This is the original Nirvana!! The feel-good/feel-bad ‘68 A-side comes from Nirvana’s second album All of Us, which Vernon Joynson calls “an even more poignant collection of dreamy pop songs” than the band’s first, The Story of Simon Simopath (see #287). (The Tapestry of Delights Revisited). Pezza says that “the catchy psychedelic pop comes thick and fast [on the album,] with songs like . . . the bouncy ‘Girl in the Park’ . . . . (https://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/review/1784/)
However, Richie Unterberger says that:
Nirvana’s second album was dainty period British pop-psychedelia, falling on the lightest shade of that category that could be imagined. For some adventurous pop fans, few higher recommendations could be concocted. For most 1960s collectors, though, it’s fair to say that it’s too precious and insubstantial to qualify as a major work. Their most well-known song, “Rainbow Chaser,” leads off, with its prominent phasing effects; “Tiny Goddess,” one of their best ballads, comes next. The rest of the album doesn’t measure up to those two tracks, with pretty but not compelling melodies (sometimes reminiscent of, but not in the same class as, Paul McCartney) and orchestration that, like the songs themselves, seem to tiptoe for fear of being too forceful. The overall result is too saccharine, and occasionally even childish.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/all-of-us-mw0000082739
When Ritchie rips an album like that, you know it’s good!
Pezza also notes that “Like so many excellent bands of the time . . . they never achieved the success they deserved . . . . ‘All of Us’ is a beautiful late 60’s psychedelic-pop album, full of eccentric English imagery and catchy songs, definitely an unsung classic.”
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
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The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
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Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! / Off the Charts: 60s Rock Revelations 