Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

News and views about philosophy, the academic profession, academic freedom, intellectual culture, and other topics. The world’s most popular philosophy blog, since 2003.

  1. J.P. Loo's avatar
  2. Sebastian Sunday Grève's avatar
  3. Giovanni Molteni Tagliabue's avatar
  4. Fabien Muller's avatar
  7. Saul Smilansky's avatar

Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: Flower Travellin Band, “How Many More Times,” late 1960s

Brian Leiter

ORIGINALLY POSTED JUNE 29, 2019–COMMENTS NOW OPEN

They don't get much more obscure than this Japanese pscyhedelic/progressive/hard rock band of the late 1960s and early 1970s, that enjoyed no commercial success even in Japan, but has long had a small cult following.   They began by doing covers of various British blues rock numbers, of which this is one–a rather distinctive version of the song Led Zeppelin ripped off from Howlin' Wolf and Albert King and made famous:

If anyone knows the precise year of this recording, please post in the comments, along with links to any other "Flower Travellin Band" favorites!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

4 responses to “Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: Flower Travellin Band, “How Many More Times,” late 1960s”

  1. Dean C. Rowan

    This particular recording was "Recorded live on January 26, 1970 at Young Mates, Tokyo."

    https://www.discogs.com/release/12400646-Mops-FlowersHappenings-FourGolden-Cups-Rock-N-Roll-Jam-70

    Reply
  2. Dean C. Rowan

    But note one comment at Discogs: "The vocal on this disc is not Joe Yamanaka. I doubt this band is FTB."

    Reply
  3. Colin

    What an excellent choice! Following what Dean C. Rowan says above, I believe this was recorded by members of the pre-Flower Travellin' Band band The Flowers. It seems also to have been on the live split album ''Rock Live!'' attributed to The Mops and The Flowers, though the recording might have been made by former Flowers members shortly after that band's dissolution (I'm not sure). See here:

    https://www.discogs.com/master/1084059-Mops-Flowers-Rock-Live

    The album was issued in 1971 and the recording seems to be from 1970, but the (classic) Flower Travellin' Band lineup with Joe Yamanaka had formed by then. This is such a great version of a great song, in any case.

    How nice to see FTB discussed on a philosophy forum. I was lucky enough to see them (and play in the opening act!) during their extremely brief reunion period c. 2009, before Joe Yamanaka's death in 2011. Their ''Satori'' album (1971) is a true masterpiece at the conversion point of psych rock and the earliest heavy metal:

    Reply
  4. Dean C. Rowan

    I'll bite! What was your opening act?

    I was in stupid bands that opened for Levi & the Rockats and The Motels. Better, The Sunset Bombers opened for us. The Sunset Bombers, you ask? They were Doug Fieger's band before formation of The Knack.

    —–
    KEYWORDS:
    Primary Blog

    Reply

Designed with WordPress