Touch — Street Suite 1969 (USA, heavy psych blues rock)

Touch — Street Suite 1969 (USA, Psychedelic,Blues Rock)

The only album by a band from St. Louis, Missouri. There was another American band with the same name from Ohio. Coming directly from playing live with some of the finest hard rock bands of the era, Touch entered the studio to record their only album in 1968, released the following year in a limited pressing of 100 LPs. This Gear Fab reissue collects that entire album with the original lineup's two non-LP 45s, three songs recorded by the altered post-LP lineup, and a couple cuts by the Essence, the latter day band of Touch leader Ray Schulte. As such, it is the complete collection of the band's intense, sometimes left-leaning psychedelia grounded in blues. The early singles, which show the band as still slightly tentative, include a slowed-down version of the Doors' "Light My Fire" bolstered by some nice fuzz guitar and a smoking take on the traditional "Stormy Monday Blues," as well as two solid band compositions.

At this stage in the band's existence, Paulette Butts still mainly sang harmony to Schulte's appealingly gruff lead, but she began to surface out front more on the LP, adding another tensive dimension to the music. This is also where the band's political consciousness began to assert itself. The "suite" in the album's title is not figurative; Street Suite opens with a song sequence comprised of the introductory "Happy Face" and "Beginnings," which leads directly into the incendiary "Get a Gun," subtitled "A Song About Self Defense." Indeed, the song burns with the intensity that it implies, and Butts' vocals add a subversive edge to the performance. "Catfish" pulls off some progressive blues that cut a bit deeper than much of the era's blue-eyed blues, and Touch showed that they were equally capable of slowing things down on "Got to Keep Travelin' On," a cut that is both country-ish and reminiscent of the Lovin' Spoonful.

Tracks:
01. Stormy Monday Blues (Single A-Side, 1969) - 0:00

02. Round Trip (Single A-Side, 1969) - 6:25

03. Day To Day Man (Single B-Side, 1969) - 9:42

04. Light My Fire (Single B-Side, 1969) - 13:00

05. Lady Of The Universe (Bonus, Previously Unreleased) - 18:39

06. The Magic Inside You (Bonus, Previously Unreleased) - 24:48

07. Rainbow (Bonus, Previously Unreleased) – 28:53


Original album:

08. Happy Face - 31:57

09. Beginnings - 38:02

10. Get A Gun - 47:08

11. Catfish - 50:24

12. Got To Keep Travelin' On - 56:17

13. Let's Keep The Children On The Streets - 1:01:33

14. Motor City's Burning - 1:08:40

15. Gettin' Off - 1:10:58

16. Melt Away (Previously Unreleased Material By Ray Schulte) - 1:13:30

17. Everything To You (Previously Unreleased Material By Ray Schulte) – 1:15:58


Personnel:

Raymond Stone (Ray Schulte) - guitars, vocals, harmonica
Paulette (Paulette Butts) — female vocals, tambourine
Jerry Schulte - bass
Ovid Bilderback – percussion
+
Joseph Pokorny – producer