THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,432) Hamilton Camp — “Lonely Place”
This otherworldly and “[h]auntingly beautiful [’67 folk number] with psychedelic undertones” (Folk Funk & Trippy Troubadours, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7wf9_MB7WA) transports me to places unknown, with “period reverb and . . . eerie, swirling flute”. (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/album/heres-to-you-mw0000864692)
As to the LP (Here’s to You), Richie Unterberger is not particularly complimentary:
Like many veterans of the early-’60s folk revival, Camp eventually moved into arrangements with a rhythm section and full-band accompaniment. Here’s to You is peculiar, though, in that it’s not so much folk-rock as folk-pop, with over-rich orchestrated arrangements that come close to Los Angeles sunshine pop. Top L.A. session dudes Van Dyke Parks . . . Hal Blaine, Earl Palmer, and Jerry Scheff . . . all played on the LP, with Felix Pappalardi — a veteran of folk-rock session playing and production himself with Fred Neil [see #344], Ian & Sylvia, and the Youngbloods — producing. But though Camp’s singing is moving, with a slightly pinched, pained, and earnest quality, the tunes are ordinary folk-rock-pop, made to sound fruitier by the buoyant, sometimes inordinately happy-go-lucky settings. . . . [P]eriod reverb and Bud Shank’s eerie, swirling flute give “Lonely Place” a whiff of strained psychedelia . . . . Sometimes it sounds like a combination of late-’60s Beau Brummels [see #713] (who were good) with the misbegotten attempts by Glenn Yarbrough to record orchestrated folk-pop in the same era (which were bad).
What can I say, I love the album. A “whiff of strained psychedelia”? Unterberger makes Camp out to be a constipated hippie! Camp out? I crack myself up!
As to Hamilton Camp, Craig Harris writes that:
Whether performing solo or in a duo with Bob Gibson, Hamilton Camp served as one of the links between the Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger folk music of the ’40s and the singer/songwriter school of Bob Dylan [see #126, 823, 1,133, 1,162], Tom Paxton, and Phil Ochs in the ’60s. Camp’s tune “Pride of Man” was covered by Quicksilver Messenger Service in 1967, while the Camp/Gibson collaboration “Well, Well, Well” was recorded by Simon & Garfunkel on their debut album . . . . In the early ’60s, Camp and Gibson played in clubs, coffeehouses, and festivals throughout the United States. Their most influential album, At the Gate of Horn, was recorded in 1961 at the famed Chicago folk club. When the duo separated, Camp continued to perform as a soloist. His debut solo album was a live recording at the same club in 1963 . . . . Camp’s musical career was ultimately dwarfed by his success as an actor. First attracting attention for his skills in improvisation as a member of Second City in Chicago and the Committee in San Francisco, Camp played recurring roles in such TV series as He & She in 1967, Too Close for Comfort in 1980, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman in 1993. In addition to appearing in such films as American Hot Wax (1978), Heaven Can Wait (1978), Eating Raoul (1982), and Dick Tracy (1990), his voice was heard in animated movies including The Little Mermaid (1989), Aladdin (1993), Pebble and the Penguin (1995), and All Dogs Go to Heaven (1996).
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/hamilton-camp-mn0000557674#biography
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