Goin Round in My Mind: The Merrell Fankhauser Anthology 1964-1979

IMPACTS、FAPARDOKLY、HMS BOUNTY、MUなどガレージ/サイケのカルトバンドを渡り歩いたメレル・ファンクハウザーのキャリアを総括する6CD BOX!

USサイケ界の偉大なる落し子メレル・ファンクハウザー。キャリアのスタートとなったメレル・アンド・ザ・エグザイルズでティーン・ポップスを2曲ほどヒットさせたのち、1967年にFAPARDOKLYを結成、USサイケのレア盤として名高い『FAPARDOKLY』を残します。そして、バブルガム度を強めたHMS BOUNTYを経て、バンドはMUへ移行。後にキャプテン・ビーフハートのMAGIC BANDのメンバーとなるジェフ・コットンを片腕に、あらゆる土着音楽を下敷きしたUSサイケデリア孤高の名作『MU』を残します。MU解散後はハワイのマウイ島に移住。自分で建てたジャングルの小屋に住み、ソロ『THE MAUI ALBUM』を録音。本作はそのキャリアを余すところなく追った6CD BOX。1964年から1979年のアルバムとシングルを全曲収録し、同時期のアウト・テイクも多数収録。新規リマスター。

If you were going to use one artist as an example of the shifting musical and cultural tides of the 1960s and 70s, Merrell Fankhauser wouldnt be a bad choice. In 1964, when America was just inching into the mindset of the 1960s as the 50s well and truly ended, Fankhauser was playing sharp surf music with the Impacts, and moved on to a strong pop/rock band called Merrell & the Exiles, whose music was just a bit too polished to truly qualify as garage rock. As rock was getting more sophisticated and youth culture embracing a new sense of cool, he formed Fapardokly in 1966, whose cleverly crafted folk-rock reflected a more ambitious outlook. A couple years later, America was turning on, tuning in, and dropping out, and in 1968 he was exploring psychedelia with a pop chaser in Merrell Fankhauser & H.M.S. Bounty. Once the bloom was off the rose of the counterculture, Fankhauser had retreated to Hawaii, and in 1971 he was exploring new levels of consciousness with Mu, a band devoted to the myth of a lost continent with a sideline obsession with UFOs. By the end of the 1970s, hed thrown off many of the trappings of hippie outlook, and as a solo artist he was making sophisticated soft rock with a slightly mournful, introspective overtone. While this might make it sound like Fankhauser was a man who devoted his career to chasing trends, his music doesnt sound that way; he wasnt an opportunist so much as a sincere man of his times, whose changes were in sync with the larger culture. Throughout it all, hes shown an innate melodic intelligence, a sure hand at guitar playing that doesnt sink into flash for its own sake, and a habit of surrounding himself with talented and simpatico accompanists. The long, occasionally strange trip of Fankhausers career in the 1960s and 70s gets a thorough overview in Goin Round in My Mind: The Merrell Fankhauser Anthology 1964-1979, a six-disc box set that gathers a very healthy majority of his major recordings from that period, and given that much of his catalog has a habit of dropping in and out of print without warning, having so much of his work in one place makes this a boon for fans. While the styles shift from disc to disc, the level of quality is admirably consistent, through the highlights are Fapardoklys well-crafted folk-rock and the imaginative weirdness of Mus two albums, the first built on a foundation of slightly twisted blues and the second a journey into prog rock and the mysteries of flying saucers. David Wells extensive liner notes offer an excellent history of Fankhausers life in music, with plenty of quotes from the man himself, and the remastering is clear and pleasing. If you have any interest in this elusive hero of 1960s rock, Goin Round in My Mind is as good a one-stop shopping place as you could ask for. ~ Mark Deming