Comments
Listed in chronological order. Newest comments at the end.

She's got all bases covered for sure. Within a few seconds she goes from blues to big band to show tunes to <click here to quit>.

Yeah, Expat, that's about as far as I got, too.
She seems to be having trouble deciding what song she wants to sing.

And while her singing isn't Indigo-Girls-awful, it's not especially great or distinctive, either.

Somebody should do a count of how many "next Bob Dylans" have been announced since 1962 (when Dylan's first album came out). I'm guessing it's in the low thousands.

Dylan's first album, in my opinion is his best. He's got a way about him that just makes it all seem so easy to do. I play both the harmonica and the guitar and I can tell you his stuff isn't as easy to play as you think. At least not the singing, the playing harmonica and guitar all at the same time. But it is very fun to play.

Maxx you got some 'splainin' to do. How do you sing and play the harmonica at the same time?

BTW, are you in this photo?

Please tell me the woman with the zydeco isn't naked.

LOL No, I am not in that pic but I have seen them.

There are a few times that you have the harmonica (in a harmonica holder) so close to your mouth that when you sing you can hear the harmonica. Of course that's a fuck up!

kingmonkey - That's a washboard. Zydeco is a type of music that generally uses a washboard or accordian or both.

I got about halfway through and it suddenly occurred to me what was missing - I need to smoke a joint before I could get through it all.

KDP - Don't bogey it either! Pass it around.

there's a reason why we have never heard of her. love the picture expat.

It looks like Golden is coming with a website soon. There are lots of ego driven Wikapedia pages; maybe her's will be an accurate one. The few pictures I've seen of this lady, I like. The EELs used one of Golden's songs (in a sample) a few years ago; Mark O. Everett has good taste. Golden's LP is not for the faint-of-heart. If you can appreciate "On The Road" and other such classics, then you'll understand the journey. Scroll down and check out a recent review of her Atlantic LP, Motor-Cycle @: http://www.helmethairmagazine.com/index.php/road-goddess-guide.html

Jason-ross--thanks for the tip!

My pleasure Paul. I did a bit more digging and one of my mates, turns out, has located the original LOOK Magazine article referenced here. Context is everything. Golden was discussing her frustrations with the business side of music. As it turns out, her instincts were right, because Atlantic did a miserable job of promoting her LP. It took a lot of money to make an LP happen—investing in promotion and touring. Here is what Golden said in the interview.
Look magazine: Lotti frets over the business and competitive side of her new career: "The easy part is to sit down and create. The hard part is making yourself heard--the promotion. I wish I could be like Dylan already--put out an album and have everyone dig it. That's what I look for. Not money. It would be easier to marry a rich husband."
This sounds pretty honest and innocent to me. Remember, it's also in the age of a male dominated industry, and in general, women did not aspire to careers the way they do today. Here's a young girl around what was no doubt a bunch of wolves. BTW, Golden looks really hot--absolutely gorgeous in the photos. Hope you appreciate.

Lotti Golden's "Motor-Cycle" on Atlantic records is pure genius. Golden was ahead of her time, with lyrics that read like poetry covering some highly controversial subjects--even for the late '60's. Listening to Golden's LP is like watching a Tarantino film as Golden introduces the listener to a freaky cast of characters, using music very much like a soundtrack. The reason Golden switches genres--from rock to jazz, r&B;and funk is to heighten irony, or to make a point and it works brilliantly. I've read on other blogs that there are fans who would like to see "Motor-Cycle" reissued by Atlantic on CD--I agree. But maybe the material is too hot to handle even in 2009.

It's nice to see someone is paying attention to this great nearly-lost album, a time capsule of the psychedelic Sixties, or one part of it. This is one of my all-time favorite albums, obscure as it is, and though it hasn't been released on CD (and may never be), it's great that it's been made available for download so I can hear it again. LPs are available pretty often on ebay, and there's one nut who thinks he can get $500 for this "insanely rare" record - as he puts it.

Anyway, its disjointed sound is most likely the result of the odd couple pairing of singer/songwriter Lotti Golden with pop producer Bob Crewe - most famous for producing most of The Four Season's hits and his own "Music To Watch Girls By." This has always sounded like he took her stream-of-consciousness songs and ran with them ... and ran, and ran, and ran. He hired great session musicians - you'll see their names on tons of records - and came up with some very inventive arrangements. I understand if people feel this is hit or miss - it is, though for me it's mostly hit. Then again, I grew up with this album, and it just sounds natural to me. (Cree Summer - remember her? - said something similar, in that she grew up on a commune and her parents had two records, and this was one of them - read more at http://creefanclub.deviantart.com/) If you ever hear her second album, "Lotti Golden," you'll hear a radically different sound, without the bold production, and I think it suffers by comparison.

So Jasmine, while I agree with you about the material's brilliance, my theory is that the wide-ranging sound is more the producer's doing. I doubt Lotti had much creative control - input, sure, but final approval, probably not so much - but I believe she must have been pretty pleased with the results. For me, although I like the long songs that veer through a few genres, over the years I keep gravitating to the two more compact songs in the middle of side two - "Who Are Your Friends" and "Get Together With Yourself." They're just a bit more cohesive and coherent (apart from that strange minor passage in the first one). I would welcome a CD release, but don't expect it any time soon, due to less than overwhelming demand. What we need is for someone to become immensely famous and mention a few times how much he or she loves this album and wishes it were available on CD. I'm still working on that angle.

And thanks to Paul for starting this, and the tip about Warp 9. Not my cup of tea, mind you, but I hadn't heard that before. I think I read about it during some searching a while back, along with other efforts from her producing career, including Eternal and tracks for Taylor Dayne and others. Glad she was able to keep involved in the business somehow. I would still like to see her get her due. Hopefully "Motor-Cycle" won't be considered too dated to be relevant. I like to believe great music is timeless and eternal. But I'm in the minority, and have non-mainstream tastes in music.

Wonderful and insightful comments, Journeybear. Many thanks!