I wonder on what crappy dope this was written?
"Formed in the spirit of electrified folk-rock, Don MacAllister had been in the bluegrass trio Willow Creek Ramblers (everyone was rambling in some fashion or another in 1964), while Steve Labor loved to tout his never-ending hazy connection to the Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service and appeared nonstop on Seattle Center Hootenanny … neither of which established any credibility.
Daily Flash was one in a series of endless groups who attempted to fill a void that danced between a new generation of rock and the established folk music scene of the day, music that was so scripted-ly tiresome and laborious, that by the time Dylan went electric in 1965, bands such as this were righteously smitten by the sound, yet were entirely unable to make the transition (other than with cover songs), finding it impossible to keep up or create anything lasting when it came to rock n’ roll. The music held on this double vinyl/CD labors on with chunk based rhythms. That said, “Jack of Diamonds” sees Daily Flash attempting to move in the spirit of Quicksilver’s Happy Trails masterpiece, certainly a song that played well at the Fillmore live, yet lacked both honesty and integrity, leaving the band to flounder, then to breakup in a mere two short years. This left fans of colorful psychedelic rock posters, an actual enduring artifactual of the times that managed to survive longer than the music, wondering just who Daily Flash were.
Daily Flash reemerged in 1967 with an adjusted lineup, claimed to have had a hit with “French Girl”, but didn’t; with the B-Side driving them right back into their folky past with a cover of “Green Rocky Road” by Dave Van Ronk. (laughing) Actually the single did do well in Los Angeles area, matter of fact it landed the boys a gig on the hit television series Man from U.N.C.L.E., which they parlayed into a house band slot on the teeny bopper Boss City TV show.
Of course this collection is a a time capsule, though the music certainly does not in any fashion fit the jacket art of the band posed in the California desert, looking cooler than cool. So please, if it’s your goal to find an album with no less than three versions of Dylan’s “Queen Jane Approximately,” then this might just be the band for you, though hearing it once was far too much for me.
It's a double vinyl affair with an 8 page booklet that's also available as a compact disc."
Review by Jenell Kesler
guerssen.com
