The group moves even farther away from their original political stance, to the record's detriment. This sounds like a bunch of over-the-hill hippies badly playing 60's pop tunes. And it wasn't even the last record of their so-called heyday. The CJ Fish album which follows this one is supposedly a whole lot worse, but I wouldn't know, because I have never heard it.

This is more of a satirical record than anything else, and there's barely anything psychedelic here. The centerpiece is an intentional B-movie goofball runaway deal called "Rock and Soul Music"; from there, it zooms off to various little halfway-entertaining tangents that make you wonder just what the hell you are listening to?

This album is mildly interesting to me because it's funny at all the wrong times, but quite disturbing when it's trying to be funny. The title track and "Thought Dream" fit into the latter category; everything else fits into the former. Maybe it's a bit overlong, but as far as early provocative-style records go you could do a whole lot worse.

This long-forgotten document from what many would consider the ultimate musical relics - Country Joe & The Fish - actually deserves a closer look. But not too close. It sounds so dated while it's playing but to this point, there was no record as clearly defined as acid rock as this one. Put on the headphones for the end of "Bass Strings". You get the idea. The tone was set - it was anything-goes with this crazed rabble, leaving the listener to sort through each album pile by pile. The debut pile, I mean, album, was a fairly interesting one to sort through.

Santana's debut came along really late compared to other bands in the San Francisco scene, but better late than never, since a lot of those bands appeared to be running out of steam by this time. Meanwhile, Santana brought back the jam and - most importantly – the rhythm, into heavy rock. For all the hype over Carlos' guitar playing, the more dominant features are the ever-present Latin percussion and Gregg Rolie's driving Hammond organ. Also, this is a top and bottom-heavy record from a sheer song standpoint. What's in between was either under composed or in the throwaway category. But overall, the album works as intended – professional street hippie band jams for your entertainment, with that mystical Carlos Santana twist.