 On the 40th Anniversary of the summer of love and flower power classic Lets Go To San Francisco we present the story behind the song and the group. An interesting story unfolds as the studio recordings of John Carter and team take on a life as a real band, which brought in a further crop of outstanding performers. We begin with the build up pre- .San Francisco songs by group members such as Neil Landon, John Carter, Russ Alquist , through the Rain Rain Rain recording which used the Mellotron to such great effect and prefaced its later use by Carter on the hit just a couple of months later, onto the hit, and the various attempts at a follow up using different artist names. The subsequent live group was led by vocalist Tony Burrows, but at times included future Deep Purple members Jon Lord and Nick Simper in the backing band. Our sleeve notes have new interviews with most of the writers and artists involved talking of their experiences with the group. Previously unreleased tracks, alternate versions, original mono versions, tracks unreleased at the time , all combine to make this a collectors gem, and a totally worthy celebration of the 40th anniversary. What's The Matter Juliet / Waiting Here For Someone (By Neil Landon) / I Couldn't Spend Another Day / Rain Rain Rain (John Carter Vocal) / Lets Go To San Francisco Part 1 (Original Mono) / Lets Go To San Francisco Part 2 (Original Mono) / A Walk In The Sky / Am I Losing You / A Man Without A Woman / You Can Never Be Wrong / Hello Hello Hello (Demo) / Piccolo Man (As Friends) / Life Is Living / Mythological Sunday (As Friends) / Letter To Josephine ( As Haystack) / Pantomime People (As Haystack) / A Night To Be Remembered (As Dawn Chorus) / Lets Go Back To San Francisco Part 1 / Lets Go Back To San Francisco Part 2
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In true Pokemon style these guys had morphed from Carter Lewis & The Southernaires into the Ivy League and finally The Flowerpot Men. All the while it was really Ken Lewis and John Carters ability to roll with the times changing their sound accordingly that provided the backbone to these groups. And they were successful too with a string of hits along the way.
