Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Blue Aquarius LP Not quite krishna psych






In my search for Krishna rock records I stumbled on this Blue Aquarius LP which is a real odd ball on the Stax Gospel Truth subsidiary(GTS-2725). Calling itself "the new sound of free music". Clearly a peaceful anti-Vietnam 70s vibe on this. Based on the label and the graphics, I expected California Hippies, but I got a large British group in blue suits dedicated to Guru Maharaji Ji. Rolling Stone was apparently hip to the Guru and this article is worth checking out.
I think Dusty Groove got the review right, "The sound of the best tracks is almost in a Hair-type mode -- kind of groovy, with large chorus vocals, and a slight bit of funk in the arrangements. The album sports two great instrumental funky tunes called "Alive & Well" and "Foxfire". I would add a Bee-Gees/G.Harrison vibe as well. "Rock Me Maharaj Ji" is an odd lyric. The song "Arti" that closes side one sounds ripe for a late period Elvis to come chiming in over. "How many lifetimes" opens side two with a soft rock nod to "the red and the black" by BOC(which came out around 1973 so it's possible). Side 2 was apparently recorded live at the Hammersmith Odeon. Dusty Groove is right the 2 instrumentals on side 2 are good. "Foxfire" has a good feedbacky guitar solo. "Alive and Well" is funkier and lets the organ player get some and also lets rip an ill Synthesiser solo. A kind of Afro-Funk groove to it all. "Satguru" brings it home with a HAIR meets Chicago type groove. The "live" side 2 is much better than side one and the 2 instrumentals are head and shoulders above the soft rock guru worship laid out elsewhere on the LP.
A quick google search showed that this was a very musical guru with a connection to Geroge Harrison. Hopefully I can resist the urge to track all these down.

3 comments:

MIInsane??? said...

I'm really looking for a copy of this album. Have you converted it to mp3?

Rainer Lungershausen said...

Just posted one of the songs of old Blue Aquarius of 1973 to my Facebook profile

Rainer Lungershausen said...

Sorry that i erased my upload version of one of the songs of 'old Blue Aquarius' in the meantime