Search - Rotary Connection :: Rotary Connection

A marvelous example of the experimentation of the '60's.

03/21/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First of all, I am amazed to find it available on CD. I remember hearing a story was that there was a fire at the recording studio and the master taped were destroyed. Glad to see the story was wrong. Anyway, this is a classic example of the various factions coming together in the music world of the '60's. Psychedelic, gospel, classical, eastern influences and more all fuse with rock on this album. This is what made music exciting back then. You didn't find them on the radio; you found them at a friend's house. When they cover songs, like Lady Jane, they do them in a style all there own. No commercial exercises here. Using several singers each song sounds truly unique. ( At least one of them, Minnie Riperton, went on to some solo success.)"

Energetic/stylized/sensitive projections from a bygone time

Phil Rogers | Ann Arbor, Michigan | 03/25/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Take an utterly beautiful, soulful band like the Fifth Dimension and add a heavy, professionally-crafted theatrical sheen, and you've got Rotary Connection. One of my amazingly astute and lively college companions/girlfriends was heavily into theatre - and was wild about them. If you like listening to music that's reminiscent of 'Hair' and/or 'Jesus Christ Superstar', RC will be right up your alley - they're definitely a very artistic/dramatic/appealing element of the late 60's counter-cultural ethos.
It's also notable that some of the instrumental breaks and harmonic underpinnings veer a bit in the direction of folks like Van Dyke Parks - quite an avant-garde touch, as it were, and quite flavorful, if that's were your tastes lie."

One of the all-time best examples of 60s psychedelia

12/16/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As another reviewer remarked, this was the type of album you were turned on to at a friend's house, who had somehow acquired it. Perhaps the group was not marketed well enough, as its audience typically was in Chicago and points further south in Illinois. Be that as it may, "Rotary Connection" is a wonderful concept album (the sides are called "Trip I" and "Trip I continued," as I recall. There are short, smooth instrumental transitions between the main tracks, and each song is recapped in something like a reverse overture at the end, going into one of the best covers ever made of "Like a Rolling Stone." Different people imprint heavily on different albums, of course, but mention this album to any old hippie you happen to see, and I daresay the response will be either "Oh, MAN!" or just simply "Wow.""