MICHELE “Saturn Rings” psych rock LP ABC stereo ‘69 BOETTCHER htf NICE

$

42

Artists:  MICHELE

Title:   “Saturn Rings”

Label:   ABC ~ ABCS-684.  Stereo pressing on medium weight vinyl.  Black label with silver text.  

Year: 1969

Condition: 

DISC:  Vinyl is nice NM/VG++ with full original gloss.  Has been played a small number of times and handled with care.  Side A is flawless.  Side B would grade NM except for a few minor skate marks on the first track that produce a few barely audible soft tics.  Both sides play cleanly with no clicks, pops, or distractions.  Fidelity is superb.  Labels are pristine.  A very fine playing copy of this rare, little known gem.

JACKET:   Jacket is nice VG to VG+.  Front art work has some ring wear; otherwise is nice and bright.  There is wear on seams and at corners.  Reverse is clean, with some slight ring wear.  No writing, stickers, cutout indications, or other issues.     

Track Listing: 

Side One:

• Would You Like to Go
• Blind as You Are
• Song to Magic Frog
• Fallen Angel
• Spinning, Spinning, Spinning
• Know Yourself  

Side Two:

• Musty Dusty
• Lament of the Astro Cowboy
• White Linen
• Misty Mirage
• Believe You

Review:

“Saturn Rings by Michele O'Malley, issued on ABC in 1969, is truly one of the lost psychedelic pop masterpieces.  O'Malley was a member of the Ballroom, and was a session vocalist in Los Angeles, singing backup on Tommy Roe's It's Now Winters Day and Sagittarius' Present Tense.  West Coast popster and legendary crazy man Curt Boettcher (leader of the Ballroom) was heavily involved, with arrangements by Michael Melvoin and session players including Lowell George (pre-Little Feat), Bobby Notkoff (pre-Rockets), Elliot Ingber, Gordon Alexander, and Bobby Jameson (aka songwriter Chris Lucey).  Boettcher either wrote or co-wrote seven of the album's 11 cuts, and sings backup on the sessions as well.  To say the album bombed is an understatement.  It disappeared almost upon release, and O'Malley never made another one.  

While the sound here is dated, there are some truly amazing moments such as "Fallen Angel," with its beautiful sawing electric violin floating through the mix above the acoustic guitars, tabla drums, and electric bass.  O'Malley's voice just soars and glides between Western melody and Eastern modalism effortlessly.  Some of the psychedelic pop arrangements have the feeling of some stranger than strange nostalgia -- like a sound that is familiar, but its textures are strange and alien, such as on "Spinning, Spinning, Spinning," with a harpsichord and either an oboe or soprano saxophone and strings.  O'Malley wrote "Song to a Magic Frog" for Sagittarius, and the arrangement on this version is lush, full of elegant textures and richly layered instrumentation.  Her voice is where the real "magic" lies, however.  She moves through the melody with a meld of passion and restraint and creates hooks where there are none.  The truth of the matter is, that with bands like Belle & Sebastian out there, if Saturn Rings were released today it would be regarded as a quirky masterpiece.  Its production and arrangement excesses for the time -- which made it inaccessible to the masses -- would now be heard as the work of genius…”

(courtesy Thom Jurek, allmusic.com).

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