THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,826) Billy Mitchel — “Electronic Dance”
This jazz-rock/psych pocket symphony ended up on the soundtrack of Nicolas Roeg’s Australian new wave film Walkabout. It is “[j]azzy folky dreamy hippie goodness” (newarkpsych, https://rateyourmusic.com/account/login), “[a] forgotten slice of late 60s lysergic studio-psych”. (Soul Jazz Records, https://soundsoftheuniverse.com/sjr/product/billy-mitchel-electronic-dance)
The Australian label Roundtable’s release notes state:
[“Electronic Dance” is] a “whirling mix of Indian raga, heavy jazz drums, buzzing electronics and tape collage melding into blue-eyed soul folk from the Woodstock scene. The perfect psychedelic supplement to John Barry’s hallucinogenic orchestral score.”
EugenOhneland writes :
Billy Mitchel sang at the end of the sixties . . . [in] the blues and psychedelic scene. He performed in the Gaslight Cafe, Night Owl Cafe and Cafe Au Go Go. . . . [H]e gave the opening act for Hendrix, played guitar on Carly Simon’s “Summer Song” and also on Richie Havens . . . “Portfolio”. He took over a speech part in Milo Forman’s Hair.
https://johnkatsmc5.tumblr.com/post/183012037624/billy-mitchel-might-be-hope-1970-us-psych-pop
As to Walkabout, Luke Buckmaster tells us:
Nicolas Roeg’s 1971 classic, Walkabout, about two young British siblings who get lost in the desert and befriend a wandering Indigenous man, is a work of striking atmospheric contrasts. . . . [g]lorious and awe-inspiring one moment, dangerous and harrowing the next. . . . It is regarded as one of the earliest works of the Australian New Wave and is considered seminal — particularly for its bold, dreamlike exploration of the Australian wilderness and the deep spiritual bonds between the land and its original occupants. . . . In the Outback, a] father of a well-to-do family sits in a car with his teenage daughter and young son . . . . The dapperly dressed dad starts shooting at his children . . . then lights the car on fire and kills himself. . . . Walkabout finds an emotional centre when the kids meet an Aboriginal Australian . . . who helps them find water and joins them as they drift between sun-parched settings. . . . The unforgettable vividness with which Roeg captures the Australian outback arises from the perspective of a foreigner trying to understand it. . . . Roeg revels in the hallucinatory, creating a wilderness that exists as much in the mind as it does the land.
The release notes state:
In addition to John Barry’s spellbinding original score, several pieces of popular music can be heard throughout the film transmitting from a portable radio, an obvious symbol of western civilization as the protagonists wander disorientated in the ancient tribal Australian wilderness.
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term Like Thisfamiliar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 1,200 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.
Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! / Off the Charts: 60s Rock Revelations😊 