PIPE DREAM

Listen to PIPE DREAM by Chad and Jeremy.

Earlier in the year, the blog went on at some length about post-1967 Kinks. One of the things about the Kinks is that they really suffered commercially for zagging so dramatically against the prevailing post-Peppers pop psych in 1967 and 1968. It turns out that they were just ahead of the trend in many ways, and by 1968 and 1969 the music scene had long gotten Sgt Pepper's out of its system. However, someone forgot to tell Chad & Jeremy...

Chad and Jeremy might be at the opposite end of the spectrum from Ray and Dave. Similar to the Kinks, Chad and Jeremy's biggest hits came at the beginning of their career, but the similarities stop there. Chad and Jeremy were seen as a pair of upper class twits, and their career never really took off after the brilliance of Yesterday's Gone and A Summer Song (reading how thoroughly the music magazines mercilessly mocked Jeremy's Eton education makes you realize anew how stupid this country's discourse about "class warfare" can be.)

Anyway, the chaps hung around, and had decent recording contracts, so their albums sound pretty good, even if they can be a little wrong-headed. Pipe Dream is from 1968, and I have no doubt it sounded a little dated even then. Dated it may be, but it's still a classy piece of recording, with great harmonies, produced by Gary Usher, and it is accordingly a psych pop favorite of mine.

Photo: Car fire on First Avenue (1).