THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,411) The Blues Project — “Fly Away”
This lovely Al Kooper (see #642, 705, 765, 804)-penned âradio friendly [folk-rock song, which] . . . could easily be mistaken as a tune from The Beatlesâs middle years (Rubber Soul-Revolver). . . . [is] spectacular [and] should have brought them more fame than it did.â (Charlie Diehl, https://60sundergroundmusic.wordpress.com/2012/12/15/the-blues-project-projections/)
Al Kooper tells us about the song:
It’s a song I wrote about my first marriage. And I had a good arrangement for it, which my first marriage could have used. So it was easy for us to do because I just showed everybody what to play. It’s one of those ones where the arrangement was equal if not better than the song. It was a really good arrangement. And so there’s no holes in it. I think it really helped to make it work and we were all really playing together. Everybody’s playing exactly what they should play. There’s no bad parts in it. What was I influenced by? Probably more Dylan in the verses. I would say Dylan in the verses and the chorus was pretty original. I didn’t take that from anybody. Except in the arrangement there’s maybe a little “Down in the Boondocks.”
As to the LP â Projections â Tim Hibbs writes that:
The music of Projections eludes easy classification, fusing elements of jazz, electric blues, folk-rock and psychedelia into a vibrant new mixture. The improvisational interplay honed on the road immediately bore fruit in the studio . . . .
Tim Hibbs, liner notes to the CD reissue of Projections
Charlie Diehl adds:
For the blues rock or psychedelic rock fan this album is an absolute must. Itâs an incredible adventure into the very heart of 60s underground music and well worth going out of your way to find it.
https://60sundergroundmusic.wordpress.com/2012/12/15/the-blues-project-projections/
As to the Blues Project, Richie Unterberger tells us that:
One of the first album-oriented “underground” groups in the United States, the Blues Project offered an electric brew of rock, blues, folk, pop, and even some jazz, classical, and psychedelia during their brief heyday in the mid-’60s. It’s not quite accurate to categorize them as a blues-rock group, although they did plenty of that kind of material; they were more like a Jewish-American equivalent of British bands like the Yardbirds, who used a blues and R&B base to explore any music that interested them. Erratic songwriting talent and a lack of a truly outstanding vocalist prevented them from rising to the front line of ’60s bands . . . . The Blues Project was formed in Greenwich Village in the mid-’60s by guitarist Danny Jake, Steve Katz, flutist/bassist Andy Kulberg, drummer Roy Blumenfeld, and singer Tommy Flanders. Al Kooper, in his early twenties but already a seasoned vet of rock sessions, joined after sitting in on the band’s Columbia Records audition, although they ended up signing to Verve. . . . Flanders would leave after their first LP, Live at the Cafe Au-Go-Go (1966). The eclectic rĂ©sumĂ©s of the musicians, who came from folk, jazz, blues, and rock backgrounds, were reflected in their choice of material. Blues by Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry tunes ran alongside covers of contemporary folk-rock songs . . . as well as the group’s own originals. These were usually penned by Kooper, who had already built songwriting credentials as the co-writer of Gary Lewisâ huge smash “This Diamond Ring,” and established a reputation as a major folk-rock shaker with his contributions to Dylanâs mid-’60s records. . . . [T]he group truly hit their stride on Projections (late 1966) . . . . [T]hey really shone on folk- and jazz-influenced tracks like “Fly Away[.]â . . . A non-LP single . . . the pop-psychedelic “No Time Like the Right Time,” was their greatest achievement and one of the best “great hit singles that never were” of the decade. . . . [I]n 1967 Kooper left in a dispute over musical direction (he has recalled that Kalb opposed his wishes to add a horn section). Then Kalb mysteriously disappeared for months after a bad acid trip, which effectively ended the original incarnation of the band. . . . Kooper got to fulfill his ambitions for soulful horn rock as the leader of the original Blood, Sweat & Tears [see #765] . . . . BS&T also included Katz (who stayed onboard for a long time). Blumenfeld and Kulberg kept the Blues Project going for a fourth album before forming Seatrain . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-blues-project-mn0000041899#biography
Here is Bobby Vee:
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