Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart: It's All Happening On the Inside (1969) Original A&M Records Vinyl Transfer

Conceptual bubblegum? Is there such a thing? Well, I guess Kasenetz and Katz tried to pull it off a couple times with mixed results but Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, hit makers for the Monkees and who had a hit record of their own a few years earlier with "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonite", give it a go here with good results. Boyce and Hart, while known for their single material were actually quite adept at assembling a cohesive album, as all three of their LPs have a distinct and quick flow, leaving very little space between tracks giving the impression that many of the songs flowed together, when in fact, much of the time they really didn't (the exception being this record, as this album has a real concept and theme). Their material was often a balancing act of bubblegum pop and trippy studio creations, and that is certainly the case on their last LP It's All Happening On the Inside, released in 1969 on A&M records.

The album starts off with "Prelude" some phased-out old timey carnival sounds and some carny announcing "Step right up! It's all happening on the inside!", when all of a sudden the album takes off on a rollicking ride of soul inflected bubblegum, complete with faux crowd noise and gospel singers. The albums quickly quiets down with the next two tracks "Change" and "Maybe Somebody Heard". These two sugary soul ballads flow seamlessly together, its tough to even distinguish when one track ends and another begins. At the end of "Maybe..." Bobby Hart goes on some LSD induced preacher rant, while the studio sound effects swirl around him he declares "If we could just all just hit the same cosmic chord!..." or some such nonsense. And then in a burst of even more studio effects the title track that was hinted at in the "Prelude" comes rushing out at full force, an extremely catchy slice of soulful, bubblegum with a delightful, fat piano track. The first side concludes with a Moby Grape-esque psych jam written by the backing band called "Abracadabra" which segues into a completely unnecessary but kinda cool version "Jumpin' Jack Flash" done in the same pseudo psychedelic-soul fashion as the rest of the tracks on the first side. The first side of this record is definitely something you could call a 'song suite', with the tracks all sharing lyrical and musical similarities and flowing together with impressive ease. Very fun listening experience.

Side 2 is less conceptual, with a lack of the soul accents that dominated the first side, instead focusing on headier psychedelic material. But the flow among songs still exsists on this side of the record. "We're All Going To the Same Place" is haunting harmony number, with lyrics ruminating on the inevitability of death. Pretty heavy for a supposed bubblegum act. "Strawberry Girl" is a fuzzed out acid-pop tune, with a searing guitar solo and big harmony vocals accompanying the hooky chorus. "Thanks for Sunday" is another great fuzzy bubblegum number, pretty reminiscent of the Strawberry Alarm Clock's trippier material. The record ends with another dose of bubblegum soul, an acidic take on the Holland-Dozier-Holland classic "Standing in the Shadows of Love", Boyce and Hart's version includes another blaring fuzz guitar solo and emphasizes the epic, haunting background vocals. The song abruptly segues into the closing number, "Alice Long", a return to the bouncy bubblegum that Boyce and Hart were known for, a relentlessy catchy vocal hook propelled by stomping drums, handclaps and a thick, punchy brass section.

Really cool album, better than their second album Test Patterns and definitely on par with their awesome debut I Wonder What She's Doing Tonite?. The production is crisp and interesting, utilizing studio trickery and psychedelic sound effects efficiently and concisely. Boyce and Hart's vocals are great, as are their harmony parts. This album has not been re-issued on CD in it's original format, but some of the songs have been included on various 'greatest hits packages'. So, I'm presenting here a complete vinyl rip of the entire album. I did not seperate the tracks individually, instead just ripping two tracks, side 1 and side 2, as this record is most definitely intended to be listened to from start to finish. The vinyl copy I used was not exactly perfect as there are some moments where surface noise is audible, but in terms of actual audio quality this is best sounding rip of these songs I've heard. Ripped by EAC .WAV editor and converted into 320vbr using dbpoweramp with LAME 3.97. Enjoy: http://www.mediafire.com/?551w1n837jq62tc


-Casey

P.S. Listen to my podcast @ http://kpsu.org/ at 5pm Pacific Standard time 17:00 GMT, tomorrow, Thursday the 15th for more Boyce & Hart on original vinyl!