March of the Flower Children: American Sounds of - March Of The Flower Children: The American Sounds Of 1967 / Various

Three CD set. A four-hour overview of the American music scene in 1967. A dazzling cornucopia of psychedelia, garage punk, folk-rock and sunshine pop that acted as the soundtrack to the Summer of Love (US division). By 1967, rock's eternally restless spirit had moved on from Liverpool, the British Invasion and Swinging London and found a new place to dwell. The scene's new creative epicentre was San Francisco, from whence the underground's tentacles spread throughout the nation and beyond as flower-power erupted into full and glorious bloom. Over three CDs and four hours of music, 'March Of The Flower Children' anthologizes the sounds of American rock and pop during a year that would become enshrined in the history books as the Summer of Love. New names - The Grateful Dead, Moby Grape, Vanilla Fudge, Strawberry Alarm Clock - are joined by established hit-makers (The Monkees, The Byrds, Lovin' Spoonful, etc), an emerging breed of singer/songwriter (Tim Rose, Tim Buckley) and a handful of older acts adopting a voguishly flowery sheen (Tommy Roe, the Everly Brothers, Jan & Dean). Among such a beatific scene, we also find space for not-so-merry pranksters like The Velvet Underground, The Mothers Of Invention and Captain Beefheart, all of whom had little in common with the peace 'n' love vibe surrounding them. Featuring hits, misses, key album tracks and a whole host of hugely collectable one-off local 45 nuggets, 'March Of The Flower Children' - housed in a clamshell box with accompanying 48-page booklet - is a fascinating aural and visual document of this most pivotal of pop-culture years.