The Landing (album)

   

The Landing
Original cover as designed by Andy Warhol
Studio album by the Landing
Released	27 October 1967
Recorded	January – October 1967
Studio	San Francisco, Sierra
Genre	Rock pop Psychedelia Art rock
Label	Avocado
The Landing chronology
Yesterday’s Todays (1966) The Landing (1967) Mulholland Drive (1968)

The Landing, is the seventh studio album by the Sierran rock band The Landing, released on 27 October 1967. It is one of the most commercially successful albums in Sierran history, spending 27 weeks at number one on the Sierran Sunset Chart and 15 weeks at number one in North America. It remains one of the best-selling albums of all time, with more than 32 million copies sold worldwide as of 2011. It was lauded by critics for its innovations in songwriting, production, and design, and for bridging a cultural divide between high art and popular music. It is considered one of the quintessential pieces of Sierran rock music, reflecting the interests of contemporary youth and the counterculture of the 1960s, and helped culturally legitimize pop music as a recognized medium of genuine art. The Landing is recognized for its diverse range of styles and influences. Being written and recorded during the height of the Summer of Love, the album was at the forefront of the emerging psychedelic music scene. The album contains a cover designed by Andy Warhol which has since become iconic in its own right and frequently parodied.

At the end of 1966 the band had released the critically praised album Yesterday’s Today, which marked a sharp departure from the band’s earlier, accessible sound. The band began to experiment in different directions, taking a hiatus from touring to pursue personal projects. Disagreements between the various band members and their management led to the group ending their contract with Capitol Records, instead renegotiating a new deal and founding Avocado Records as a music venture led by the band and their friends. After previously working in highly modernized studios in Porciúncula the past several years, the band reconvened in San Francisco in the hopes of reconnecting with their roots and rediscovering their passion for songwriting. They quickly became engulfed in the ongoing hippie counterculture movement, which rejected consumerist values, raised suspicions of the government, and opposed military interventions abroad. The Landing would become an integral part of this movement, while also experimenting with psychedelic drugs for the first time. Despite returning to their humble origins, the band’s exploration and innovation of recording technology did not cease, leading to the costly refurbishing of studios in San Francisco as the band sought to push the boundaries of primitive recorders of the time. As a result the sessions for the album quickly ballooned into the longest in the band’ history, with an estimated 700 hours spent in the studio.

Background

Following the conclusion of the second world war the band embarked on an unprecedented busy schedule of recording, touring, and promotion. War time precautions had seen the artistic expression and creativity of The Landing and other bands severely stifled, leading to animosity between the music community and the Sierran government. After several years of restrictions, the members of The Landing eagerly participated in the artistic explosion that occurred beginning around 1965. Over the next year and a half the band would release three albums, while also embarking on major world tours. The Sierran market was opened up to nations such as Japan for the first time, which was undergoing a physical and cultural rebuilding in the post-war. The Landing was a natural fit for Japan, having the Japanese-Sierran musician Yoko Ono as one of its members, and having incorporated Japanese inspired music traditions into their work for years. The band’s popularity in East Asia exploded, quickly becoming one of the cornerstones of Japanese music. Their success would also inspire an entire generation of Japanese and Japanese-Sierran musicians seeking to emulate The Landing and their success. Bands such as The Flowers would be sponsored by the Sierran government to further spread Sierran culture overseas. This movement would eventually develop into the genre of nickrock, which became a popular fusion of Japanese and Sierran musical traditions.

The 1966 performance of The Landing at the newly constructed Nippon Budokan arena would become one of the band’s most legendary performances, and an extremely influential concert in Japan. However, unknown to the public the band had received an anonymous telegram threatening the band member’s lives if they traveled to Tokyo, which was believed to have originated from one of Japan’s more conservative religious groups. Nearly 35,000 police would be mobilized for the group’s protection during their Japanese tour, where they performed to unprecedented, enormous crowds. These experiences would have an exhausting effect on the band and by the end of the year they had grown weary of live performances. According to Keith Winston, they could “send out five wax dolls and that would satisfy the crowd. Landing concerts are nothing to do with music anymore.” After an argument between the band and Sierran record executives, the band decided to go on a hiatus from touring and pursue different interests. Disagreements also arose between band members, especially Winston and Davies, who became two competing heads at the forefront of the band. Ono and Winston would also spend time separated from the rest of the group, experimenting with tape machines and recording techniques. It is believed that toward the end of 1966 the pair formed a formal romantic relationship. Elsewhere, Mitch Richards traveled to England and then back to India, becoming estranged for a period of a month that December, while Dylan Davies began writing an unreleased rock opera turned stage production based on the concepts explored on previous albums.

As 1967 was nearing the members of the Landing did not immediately reconvene as they had done constantly over the past few years. Instead the band members continued to work independently, mostly in Sierra, but also abroad. The band decided they were going to continue their hiatus from touring, and instead return to the Bay area to return to their roots. After an argument between Dylan Davies and Nick Venet and other label executives, the band agreed to fire their current production team and distance themselves from Capitol Studios. The group ultimately decided against renewing their contract with Capitol, unveiling their own label venture later that year, which became Avocado Records. In the meantime, the group eventually reunited in San Joaquin and became interested in the hippie counterculture movement, which rejected consumerist values, was suspicious of the government, and opposed continued foreign wars post Great War II. On 14 January 1967 the Human Be-In was held at Golden Gate Park, where Timothy Leary voiced his phrase, "turn on, tune in, drop out", to several present members of the Landing. It was during this time that the band members experimented with hallucinogenic drugs more regularly, having previously tried LSD (or “acid”) for the first time at the Acid Tests of ken Kesey and the Grateful Dead a year prior.

Recording and Production

The group would migrate to San Francisco for the earlier half of 1967, which later became the epicenter of the “Summer of Love”, a massive gathering promoting hippie art, free love, and peaceful community. The movement would have a profound effect on the group, with each member exploring psychedelics and self-exploration. Mitch Richards would pen the song “San Francisco” for the group, released on 13 May, which became an unofficial anthem for the Summer of Love and the hippie movement as a whole. The song would be recorded in a “home studio” type setup in San Francisco by the band members, Mick Bowie, and Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, rekindling the group’s interest in simple, but impactful recordings. The Landing would also play an impromptu set at the Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival that June. Over the course of the summer the band members and friends would attend a number of studio sessions, rehearsals, and concerts, creating a plethora of new songs that became hotly sought after in the underground demo market.

After a number of influential singles throughout the summer, including “San Francisco”, the psychedelic hit song “White Rabbit”, and the more rock-inspired “I Feel Free”, the band entered a studio in San Francisco to begin work on a formal album. Despite working without their usual equipment at Capitol, the group still managed to push the boundaries of recording technology, splicing takes of differing tempos and pitches to create odd mashups on songs. These sessions would prove the longest in the band’s history, with the band spending half their time engaging in the nightlife, festivals, and happenings of the city in between recordings, and leaving their bookings at the studio open ended. In total an estimated 700 hours was spent at the studio, leading to a completely unique product. According to one engineer, the band insisted "that everything on [The Landing] had to be different. We had microphones right down in the bells of brass instruments and headphones turned into microphones attached to violins. We used giant primitive oscillators to vary the speed of instruments and vocals and we had tapes chopped to pieces and stuck together upside down and the wrong way around."

The smooth and relaxed opening track “Sunday Morning” proved to be an immediate hit song, as did the experimental and psychedelic “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, believed to be written by Keith Winston about his experiences with LSD. Other acclaimed hit songs included “Discovery Fields Forever”, a warped and trippy song about Winston’s childhood park near Bernheim, and Davies’ "Interstellar Overdrive" and “I’m Waiting for the Man”. Written and sung by Yoko Ono, the song “All Tomorrow’s Parties” explored the culture of the Summer of Love and the bubbly atmosphere, while the song “Venus in Furs” would become an anthem of empowerment for the women’s rights movement. The album closer, "A Day in the Life", would consist of a sprawling epic combining multiple compositions, experimental b-sections, and a 40-piece orchestra, and would become one of the most ambitious songs ever recorded by the band. The album would also mark the temporary ascendancy of Dylan Davies as bandleader, after Winston began to grow detached due to drug experimentation, allowing Davies to have more influence in final arrangements.

Reception

Among music critics, acclaim for the album was virtually universal, with the album being praised as an immediate classic. The musical complexity of the records, created using relatively primitive four-track recording technology, astounded contemporary artists. In the wake of The Landing, the underground and mainstream press widely publicized the group as leaders of youth culture, as well as "lifestyle revolutionaries" The album was the first major pop/rock LP to include its complete lyrics, which appeared on the back cover, and those lyrics were the subject of critical analysis; for instance, in late 1967 the album was the subject of a scholarly inquiry by American literary critic and professor of English William Poirier, who observed that his students were "listening to the group's music with a degree of engagement that he, as a teacher of literature, could only envy". The album would go on to top the Sierran charts for 23 consecutive weeks, with a further four weeks at number one in the period through to February 1968. With 2.5 million copies sold within three months of its release, The Landing’s initial commercial success exceeded that of all previous Beatles albums. It sustained its immense popularity into the 21st century while breaking numerous sales records. In 2003, Rolling Rock ranked The Landing at number one on its list of the greatest albums of all time.

Track Listing

All songs written by The Landing, except where noted.

Side one

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Lead vocals	Length
1.	"Sunday Morning"	Winston, Davies	Winston	2:55
2.	"With a Little Help from My Friends"	Davies, Clapten	Clapten	2:42
3.	"White Rabbit"	Ono	Ono	2:34
4.	"I Feel Free"	Davies, Richards	Davies	2:28
5.	"I’m Waiting for the Man"	Winston, Davies	Davies with Winston	4:28
6.	"Venus in Furs"	Winston, Ono	Ono with Winston	4:12
Total length:				19:19

Side two

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Lead vocals	Length
1.	"All Tomorrow’s Parties"	Winston, Ono	Ono	3:55
2.	"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"	Winston	Winston	3:28
4.	"Discovery Fields Forever"	Winston	Winston	4:07
5.	"Interstellar Overdrive"		Davies	5:35
6.	"A Day in the Life"		Winston, Davies	5:38
Total length:				22:43

Personnel

The Landing

• Keith Winston – lead, harmony and background vocals; rhythm, acoustic and lead guitars; Hammond organ, final piano E chord; harmonica, tape loops, sound effects, comb and tissue paper; handclaps, tambourine, maracas
• Dylan Davies – lead, harmony and background vocals; bass and lead guitars; piano, grand piano, Lowrey and Hammond organs; handclaps; vocalisations, sound effects, comb and tissue paper
• Yoko Ono – lead, harmony and background vocals; violin; cello; piano, grand piano, Lowrey and Hammond organs; handclaps; vocalisations, sound effects; handclaps, tambourine, maracas
• John Paul Clapten – drums, congas, tambourine, maracas, handclaps, tubular bells; lead vocals on "With a Little Help from My Friends"; harmonica, comb and tissue paper; final piano E chord
• Keith Richards – harmony and background vocals; lead, rhythm and acoustic guitars; sitar, tambura, swarmandal; harmonica, comb and tissue paper; handclaps, tambourine, maracas

Additional musicians and production

• Neil Evans – tambura, counting, alarm clock
• Mick Bowie – producer; tape loops, sound effects; background shouts; final piano E chord
• Gerard Martin – photography; background shouts
• Simon Wright – producer, mixer; tape loops, sound effects; Hammond organ on “With a Little Help from My Friends
• Jeff Harrison – audio engineering; tape loops, sound effects
• Session musicians – four French horns: Neill Sanders, Jim H. Buck, Joe Burden, Anthony Randall, arranged and conducted by Wright and Davies; string section and harp, arranged by Jonathan Leander and conducted by Wright; tabla by Natwar Soni, dilrubas by Mary Joshi and Amrit Gajjar, and tambura by Buddhadev Kansara, with eight violins and four cellos arranged and conducted by Ono and Wright; clarinet trio: Bobby Burns, Frank MacKenzie, Henry Reidy, arranged and conducted by Wright and Davies; saxophones, arranged and conducted by Wright and Winston; and forty-piece orchestra, including strings, brass, woodwinds and percussion on "A Day in the Life", arranged by Wright, Winston, and Davies, and conducted by Wright and Davies.