The Flower Pot Men

Artist: The Flower Pot Men
Country: UK
Album: Let's Go to San Francisco
Year: 1967-1993 (reissue - 1993, Repertoire)
Label: Sunny Records
Style: rock
Genre: psych, pop, folk
Format: FLAC(separate) +CUE+LOG+SCANS
Size: 475 mb
Source: My CD collection

Let's go to San Francisco
Where the flowers grow so very high
Sunshine in San Francisco
Makes your mind grow up to the sky

Lots of sun-sun-sunny people
Walking hand in hand
They're not funny people
They have found their land...

This British group was an outgrowth of mid-'60s pop group the Ivy League. Songwriting partners John Carter and Ken Lewis wrote, produced and performed "Let's Go to San Francisco" and licensed it out to Deram, who had an international hit with it as the Summer of Love was just winding down. The pair released four more singles, including one under the moniker Friends. None were hits and the group dissolved in 1970. Though they were extremely derivative of the then-au courant West Coast sound (especially the post-surf Beach Boys), the group managed to come up with some worthwhile tracks that showed a talent for smooth pop in a variety of modes (folkish, progressive, psychedelic, etc.) albeit with little rock backbone.

The most comprehensive collection around, this has all their singles (most notably, the extended version of the Pet Sounds-influenced title track and a fantastic 1968 B-side, "You Can Never Be Wrong,") and 11 tracks not released until the '80s and '90s, some from an aborted album project. Though it can't really be called essential, much of the Flower Pot Men's legacy will nevertheless be enjoyable to lovers of '60s pop, who will be able to spot traces of the Beach Boys, the Turtles, the Left Banke, the Easybeats, the Zombies, the Move, the Moody Blues and others. (AMG).

The complete line-up of The Flower Pot Men and Their Garden, as they were sometimes billed, was loosely based around the following:

Tony Burrows: vocals - ex The Ivy League, later with White Plains, and The First Class
Neil Landon: vocals (born Patrick Cahill, 26 July 1941, Kirdford, Sussex)
Robin Shaw: vocals (born Robin Scrimshaw, 6 October 1943, Hayes, Middlesex) - later with White Plains, and The First Class
Pete Nelson: vocals (born Peter Lipscomb, 10 March 1945, London) - also later with White Plains
Ged Peck: guitar (19 October 1947, West Hendon, London)
Carlo Little: drums (born Carl O'Neil Little, 17 December 1938, Shepherd's Bush, West London - died 6 August 2005, Cleadon, County Durham).
Nick Simper: bass
Jon Lord: organ
Singer Tony Burrows' voice is also heard on many UK hit singles of that era, such as, White Plains: "My Baby Loves Lovin'", Brotherhood of Man: "United We Stand", Edison Lighthouse: "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)", The First Class: "Beach Baby" and The Pipkins: "Gimme Dat Ding".

In 1968, Nick Simper and Jon Lord became founding members of the hardrock band Deep Purple. This connection was later lampooned in the fake rock documentary, Spinal Tap, whose fictional first hit was called "(Listen to the) Flower People", a reference to "Let's Go to San Francisco".

Tracklist :
1 Let's Go to San Francisco, Pt. 1 & 2 6:17
2 A Walk in the Sky 3:51
3 Am I Losing You 2:00
4 Man Without a Woman 4:00
5 You Can Never Be Wrong 2:35
6 Piccolo Man 2:17
7 Mythological Sunday 5:18
8 In a Moment of Madness 2:59
9 Young Birds Fly 2:27
10 Sweet Baby Jane 3:35
11 Journey's End 4:22
12 Silicon City 4:05
13 Busy Doin' Nothin' 2:54
14 White Dove 4:09
15 Let's Go Back to San Francisco, Pt. 1 (Unrel.) 2:35
16 Let's Go Back to San Francisco, Pt. 2 (Unrel.) 2:46
17 Cooks of Cake and Kindnes (Unrel.) 2:56
18 Gotta Be Free (Unrel.) 3:29
19 Heaven Knows When (Unrel.) 3:39
20 Brave New World (Unrel.) 3:13
21 Children of Tomorrow (Unrel.) 7:57



NAROD