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Values and mores change over time. What was once fair game is now considered transgressive; detractors will call this reality \u201cpolitical correctness.\u201d I see it as evolving compassion and empathy. When I was a kid, we routinely shared jokes about people of Polish origin. Nobody does than anymore, and that\u2019s as it should be.<\/p>\n
That said, when we look back at the past, we might wish to be careful and not always apply today\u2019s standards. A case in point: in 1966, a San Francisco band called The Final Solution filled in for a gig originally booked by The Great Society. Sure, there\u2019s irony in the polar-oppositeness of those catchphrases, and the former carries with it memories of \u2013 shall we say \u2013 some really bad stuff<\/i> that happened in the 1930s and \u201840s.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s nothing to suggest that this Bay Area band harbored any notions or inclinations of the antisemitic or fascist variety. No, they were more of a folk-rock combo with some musically ambitious ideas. In that era\u2019s fertile musical landscape, labels seemed to have snatched up every act they could, hoping to score with record buyers. But that frenzy seems not to have extended to The Final Solution. Nothing they did nor recorded would be released during the band\u2019s time together. Prior to 2016 they didn\u2019t even have a Wikipedia entry.<\/p>\n
Yet thanks to High Moon Records \u2013 a label earning well-deserved praise for its archival work \u2013 we now have a recording of The Final Solution at The Matrix from 1966. While much of the band\u2019s material (as documented on this recording of fine fidelity) has a folk-rock flavor, there are flashing hints of Eastern influence (a la the Butterfield Blues Band\u2019s \u201cEast West\u201d) cropping up in their tunes. Even without electric sitars or effects pedals, the band turns out some exotic sonic textures. Some tasty modal soloing informs tunes like \u201cIf You Want.\u201d<\/p>\n
On this set, the four-piece group makes a cohesive sound. And unlike many of their contemporaries, the band had plenty of original material, freeing them from over-reliance on covers. The harmonies have a dark, moody vibe, full of minor chording. And that suits the often melancholy lyrical imagery of The Final Solution\u2019s songs.<\/p>\n
As solid as they were, the band\u2019s big moment never came. Thank goodness that someone thought to record their Matrix set, as it would be their only gig at Bill Graham\u2019s venue. They didn\u2019t consider themselves part of the movement that included San Francisco bands like The Grateful Dead, and it\u2019s true that their sound was \u2013 if anything \u2013 closer to that of San Jose\u2019s Chocolate Watchband. As Alec Palao\u2019s liner notes\/interview makes plain, The Final Solution thought of themselves as punks.<\/p>\n
That printed material in the record\u2019s booklet is essential, as (save that Wiki entry) there\u2019s not a great deal of documentation on the band. But listeners who are interested in the Bay Area\u2019s rich musical history are encouraged to fill in a small but interesting piece of that puzzle by checking out this album. Just Like Gold<\/i> doesn\u2019t achieve the status of Great Lost \u201860 Recording or anything approaching it, but it\u2019s certainly worthwhile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Values and mores change over time. What was once fair game is now considered transgressive; detractors will call this reality \u201cpolitical correctness.\u201d I see it as evolving compassion and empathy. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29814,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,62,65,73],"tags":[5744],"class_list":["post-29813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-rawk","category-review","category-vinyl","tag-the-final-solution","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29813"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29852,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29813\/revisions\/29852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}