Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Prelude - Nightmare Fire Poem Fire - Arthur Brown, Kit Lambert, Pete Townshend
2. Fire Poem - Arthur Brown
3. Fire - Various Artists
4. How Does It Feel To Feel - The Creation
5. Feelin', Reelin', Squealin' - The Soft Machine
6. Good Times - Eric Burdon & The Animals, Tom Wilson, Vic Briggs
7. It's Alright Ma, It's Only Witchcraft - Fairport Convention, Joe Boyd, Tod Lloyd
8. We're Going Wrong - Cream, Felix Pappalardi
9. This Wheel's On Fire - Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity
10. Sunshine Day - Jethro Tull
11. Born On The Wrong Side Of Time - Taste
12. People You Were Going To - Van Der Graaf Generator
13. Dogs - Kit Lambert, The Who
14. Grandma's Lawn - Caravan, Tony Cox, Gerald Chevin
15. Reality - Second Hand
16. All Is One - Eric Burdon & The Animals, Tom Wilson
17. Road To Cairo - Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity
18. Magic Mirror - Aphrodite's Child
19. Firebrand - Van Der Graaf Generator
20. Deserted Cities Of The Heart - Cream, Felix Pappalardi

Disc 2:

1. Amazing Journey - Kit Lambert, The Who, Damon Lyon-Shaw, Chris Stamp
2. Weird Of Hermiston - Felix Pappalardi, Jack Bruce
3. Banquet - Audience
4. Break-Out - Julie Driscoll
5. Something In The Air - Thunderclap Newman, Pete Townshend
6. Extrapolation - Giorgio Gomelsky, John McLaughlin
7. She Was Naked - Supersister
8. One Word - Tony Williams
9. Sinner Boy - Taste
10. Gypsy Escape - Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come
11. Let Me Ride - Ginger Baker, Ginger Baker's Air Force
12. Can't Believe Its True - Rory Gallagher
13. No Tree Will Grow (On Too High A Mountain) - Hans Van Oosterhout, Supersister
14. War Girl - Neil Slaven, The Pink Fairies
15. Time Is Passing - Pete Townshend
16. Sunrise In The Third System - Tangerine Dream
17. Spirit Of Joy - Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come

Disc 3:

1. Prologue - The Pink Fairies
2. Right On, Fight On - The Pink Fairies
3. Naked Eye - The Who
4. There's A Forest - Jack Bruce
5. Morning Story - Jack Bruce
6. A Better Land - Brian Auger's Oblivion Express
7. Meadow Meal - Faust
8. Meadow Meal - Faust, Uwe Nettelbeck
9. Epic Forest - Rare Bird
10. Rising Sun - Medicine Head, Tony Ashton
11. Are You Receiving Me - Golden Earring, Fred Haayen, Pieter Nieboer, Damon Lyon-Shaw, Job Maarse
12. The Great 1974 Mining Disaster - Barclay James Harvest, Rodger Bain
13. Hocus Pocus - Focus

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22540 in Music
• Released on: 2008-08-25
• Number of discs: 3
• Format: Box set
• Dimensions: .33 pounds
• Running time: 261 minutes

Album Description
Between the years of 1967 and 1974 Polydor was one of the most "progressive" of labels along with Decca, Island Records and Vertigo. Spirit of Joy celebrates those heady days with 40 tracks from the cream of Polydor including songs by Audience, Arthur Brown, Jack Bruce, Cream, Pink Fairies, Soft Machine, The Who and many more. This 3CD set in a clamshell box also contains a 48 page booklet containing sleevenotes by Mark Powell, biogs and rare photographs.

Customer Reviews

Underground????
Hot on the heels of "Strange Pleasures" (the second 3 CD Decca/Deram box set of late 60's/early 70's underground sounds) Universal Music has again let Esoteric Records boss Mark Powell loose in its vaults. After issuing similar box sets of Vertigo material and the aforementioned Decca/Derams, Mark (teamed again with maestro Paschal Byrne at the mixing desk and the highly creative Phil Smee in the design room) has produced another excellent offering. As with the aforementioned releases,the packaging is first rate. The 3 cds come in their own mini fake aged LP sleeves accompanied by an informative 48 page booklet with a section per artiste and plenty of rare photos/original album covers. In his introduction, Powell also gives a history of the label and how it came to acquire the MGM Verve catalogue, Giorgio Gomelsky's Marmalade label and its links with Track and Reaction which allow this box set a far wider selection of material than would have applied to the main Polydor imprint alone.

Polydor was not however a label I associated with the "underground". After all it was, at heart, a major German classical label and its pop/rock roster included mega selling bands such as Cream (on Robert Stigwood's Reaction imprint)and the Who (on the Who management's Track label) both of which feature strongly here. This set also boasts top 10 singles by Thunderclap Newman, Julie Driscoll and Arthur Brown - so hardly qualification as an underground label. However the inclusion of material by Ladbroke Grove's Pink Fairies, unknowns like the Web and Second Hand plus obscure singles by Van Der Graaf Generator (slightly manic) and Jethro Tull go a long way to establishing real underground credentials. As a German Label Polydor also had a fair sprinkling of European bands: Golden Earring, Focus, Tangerine Dream, Faust, Supersister and Aphrodite's Child. Although euro bands tended to enjoy limited credibility here in the UK back in the day, the selections here are all worthy inclusions showing highly skilled musicianship and being very light on dodgy english vocals.

All in all, fewer unearthed obscure gems than its predecessors and whilst the selections will inevitably not please everybody (eg I could ask why no Blossom Toes or other Marmalade label bands which would have boosted the underground feel) this is another highly enjoyable, well conceived and executed package. Keep them coming Mark Powell!

A Real Joy
In recent years Universal has been releasing a series of progressive and/or psychedlic collections and this one is up there with the best. It has a great balance of hit songs such as Thunderclap Newman's 'Something In The Air', Focus 'Hocus Pocus', Julie Driscoll's 'This Wheel's On Fire' and Arthur Brown's 'Fire' and rarities which are either difficult to track down or you've ever heard of.

It features a roster of great Polydor artists from 1967-1974 such as Cream, The Who, Taste, Jack Bruce and Fairport Convention and there is high quality of material throughout the 50 tracks, which starts of with The Crazy World of Arthur Brown's 'Fire' suite and closes Focus 'Hocus Pocus'.

If you have the likes of Decca's 'Strange Pleasures - Further Sounds Of The Decca Underground', Harvest's 'Breath of Fresh Air' or 'Time Machine - A Vertigo Retrospective' then you will have an idea of what to expect from this collection of well known songs and obscurities from the late 60's/early 1970's. It really is a worthwhile investment if you are into the Prog/Psych music from the era.

Wonderfull!!!
Initially my only interest in buying the compilation was to hear both tracks by Van der Graaf Generator. Previously the tracks were only available on Repertoire CD release of their Aerosol Grey Machine as bonus tracks.
But when I start listening to the entire compilation from the beginning I was just totally blown away by the music!!! I've opened many great names not known to me before! Spirit of that time and of course JOY is very much notable!!! Very sad that the time gone, but we have such invaluable document to keep memory alive!
I never heard most of tracks before but I must confess that sound quality is excellent at all! Today not many modern releases can boast such brilliant sound! The sound engineers those days were heroes! As of VdGG tracks.... They were definitely remastered, so that now they sound more comfortable than before.
And at the end - packaging. That's fantastic! Having opened it I recollected old cartoon tape boxes! Very nice and moving!
Thank you guys at Polydor/Universal for this great compilation. These days, when many (hopefully not most) people went lo-fi (damn the bloody mp3), this sort of rare releases can be a ray of hope for those who still know/remember what is real EMOTIONS, real MUSIC and real HI-FI!
God bless the creators.
Alexey