"Another Age of Atlantic" compilation

Beginning in 1969, Atlantic Records released a trio of rock music compilation albums to promote its roster of artists. The first record, Atco Blockbusters, featured then-up-and-coming acts such as Iron Butterfly, Dr. John and Buffalo Springfield. The next compilation, The Age of Atlantic, continued the format in 1970 and featured Led Zeppelin, Yes and MC5. The final album, released in 1972, was New Age of Atlantic. It again featured Led Zeppelin and Yes, as well as Cactus and John Prine.

These compilations were sold at a bargain price -- less than it would have cost to buy all the singles.

I don't know why other compilations in the same vein didn't follow, but it's possible that they didn't sell well or many of Atlantic's acts by this time didn't need additional promotion. But I wondered what a fourth compilation might have included, and this is what I came up with.

SIDE A
1. D'yer Mak'er - Led Zeppelin
2. Give It to Me - J. Geils Band
3. In the Midnight Hour - Cross Country
4. Jerusalem - Emerson, Lake and Palmer
5. Easy Money - King Crimson
6. Right Place, Wrong Time - Dr. John

SIDE B
1. Angie - The Rolling Stones
2. Isn't It About Time - Stephen Stills and Manassas
3. Jack of All Trades - Heads, Hands and Feet
4. Everything that Touches You - Michael Kamen
5. Prison Song - Graham Nash
6. Jim Dandy - Black Oak Arkansas

To determine the track list, I decided to look at the albums and singles released and distributed by Atlantic and its subsidiaries in 1973. The record company's roster was really varied. But the three compilations released focused on rock acts. So, keeping with that concept, I didn't include pop, R&B, soul or country music.

The resulting tracklist is a really mixed bag of hard rock, country rock and prog rock, with a ballad thrown in here and there. Some groups (Stones and Zep) have stood the test of time, while others (Cross Country and Heads, Hands and Feet) seem more like curiosities now. If you don't already have all the albums these songs came from (and I can't imagine anyone would), you can download most of them individually. The exceptions appear to be "Jack of All Trades" by Head, Hands and Feet and "Everything That Touches You" by Michael Kamen. For those two, you'll have to do a deep dive.

For a cover, I wanted to get inspiration from the covers of the compilation series. But none of those covers showed any relation to the others, so I figured I had free rein. In the end, I decided on a rather simple design that, quite frankly, is nicer than the covers of the actual series.

King Crimson - "In the Wake of Poseidon" (double album version)

Despite a successful debut album, King Crimson splintered soon after its supporting tour. Singer and bassist Greg Lake co-formed Emerson, Lake and Palmer and multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald and drummer Michael Giles formed the duo McDonald and Giles. That left only guitarist Robert Fripp and lyricist Pete Sinfield. Perhaps it was a case of too many chefs in the kitchen.

According to the liner notes of McDonald and Giles' sole album, much of it was written while they were in King Crimson. I'm not sure of Greg Lake's songs for the first ELP album, but it seems probable that they, too, were originally intended for King Crimson's sophomore effort.

With this in mind, I attempted to create a new version of King Crimson's second album In the Wake of Poseidon if the original band members had remained together.

SIDE A

1. Peace - A Beginning

2. The Devil’s Triangle

3. Cadence & Cascade (Lake vocals version)

4. Lucky Man (solo version)

SIDE B

1. Take a Pebble

2. Cat Food

3. Is She Waiting

SIDE C

1. Birdman

SIDE D

1. Groon

2. Tomorrow’s People - The Children of Today

3. In the Wake of Poseidon

4. Peace - An End

As you might imagine, with three albums worth of material, there's a lot to choose from (plus, some tracks are really long), and trying to distill it down to a single disc just didn't seem reasonable.

But there are only two songs on ELP's debut album that were written solely by Lake so I used both. I used a true solo version of "Lucky Man" that appears as a bonus track on the 2012 reissue. So no Emerson and Palmer. And that's fine because I hate Emerson's annoying synthesizer at the end of the originally released version. We're not as fortunate with "Take a Pebble," but it is what it is - maybe think of Emerson and Palmer as "guests."

From McDonald and Giles, I took the full "Birdman" as McDonald co-wrote it with Sinfield, as well as McDonald's "Is She Waiting" and Giles' "Tomorrow's People."

From the actual In the Wake of Poseidon, I chose seven tracks. Two, "The Devil's Triangle" and "Cat Food" were co-written by McDonald before he left. In addition, the two "Peace" bookend tracks still begin and end the album, and the title track and the non-album b-side "Groon" are included. And finally, I also added a version of "Cascade & Cadence" that features Lake on vocals. It was a bonus track on the 40th anniversary version. That puts each side at about 20 to 21 1/2 minutes.

What's nice about this reimagined album, I think, is that every band member has at least one track. So now it's a band effort rather than a Robert Fripp show.