Fifth Dimension - Up Up & Away
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Artist: Fifth DimensionEdition: Music CD
Format: Extra tracks, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2000-04-18
Music Label: Buddha
Soundtracks:
- Up, Up and Away
- Another Day, Another Heartache
- Which Way to Nowhere
- California My Way
- Misty Roses
- Go Where You Wanna Go
- Never Gonna Be the Same
- Pattern People
- Rosecrans Blvd.
- Learn How to Fly
- Poor Side of Town
- I'll Be Loving You Forever
- Train Keep on Movin'
- Too Poor to Die
Free Music Notes for Up Up & Away
Free Music Review: Soulful Song Cycle Synopsizes Sixties Southern CA
Hit: 5 Stars
This unlikely mixture of an unknown black group (the 5th Dimension), a well-known but tragically unhip young white producer (Johnny Rivers) and an even younger songwriter/arranger/conducter of amazing ability (Jimmy Webb) confounded all expectations when first released in 1967, and has aged far better than contemporary "Summer of Love" drivel.
It is only in retrospect, in fact, that "Up, Up and Away" emerges as that most elusive of beasts, the listenable song cycle. Webb and, certainly, Rivers, were both influenced by the majesty of Brian Wilson's "Pet Sounds", released a year before, when the 5D were getting their start on Rivers' Soul City label as the Versatiles.
This CD, in addition to remastering the original album tracks, also includes three Versatiles tracks, useful both for compulsive completists and for the startling contrast Webb's arrangements made to the group's sound. The uncredited orchestra provides magnificent, lush underpinnings to Webb's anomic ballads, adding to the propulsive beat provided by crack LA studio hands like drummer Hal Blaine and guitarist Tommy Tedesco.
The title track showcases a silky smooth vocal effort gliding over a Wall of Sound to rival Phil Spector's. The gears quickly shift with the Sloan/Barri composition "Another Day, Another Heartache", preceded by the first of a series of between-tracks "Eastern (Pet?) Sounds" doodled on a bouzouki by guitarist Al Casey.
The contrast between the unbounded optimism of the first track and the wearily stoic second continues with Webb's haunting "Which Way to Nowhere", the first real showcase for Billy Davis Jr.'s evocative tenor. Track 4, the grittily optimistic "California My Way", somehow missed becoming the anthem of that state's newly-arrived residents, drawn from all over America by the promise of fun and sun -- promises the 5D sound as though they're not buying, but are intent on checking out nonetheless.
The fifth track, Tim Hardin's achingly lovely "Misty Roses", sets the theme for the rest of the disc -- Southern California's promise, and its beauty, may enchant and entice drifters from other states, but are no more substantial than flowers made of smoke.
This way, the album seems to hint, lies cynicism ("Pattern People"), heartbreak ("Learn How to Fly"), and even madness ("Rosecrans Blvd.")
If there is redemption to be found in lotus land, it is the redemption offered by those left behind -- as Rivers' feeble attempt at blue-eyed soul, "Poor Side of Town", is magically transformed into the real thing by the luscious choral harmonies of the 5D.
The Grammies were responsible for some major howlers in the '60s (the Lettermen always seemed more likely to win Best Group than, say, the Beatles), but in 1968 the Academy got things right -- "Up, Up and Away" won five awards for the 5D and Webb.
I'm just grateful technology has brought this pop soul masterpiece back for good.
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