Adrastos, Album Cover Art, Music

Album Cover Art Wednesday: The Fifth Dimension

At their best, the Fifth Dimension were one of the best non-Motown pop vocal groups of the 1960’s and ’70’s. They were best known for working with swell songwriters such as Jim Webb and Laura Nyro. I went looking for a representative album cover and found two.

First, the group’s debut album Up, Up and Away, complete with hippy dippy Fillmore poster style graphics:

fifth-dimension-up-up-and-away-660-80

We’ll take you to a Stoned Soul Picnic after the break. If you behave, we might even drink some Sweet Blindness...

I lied about that, y’all. Hope you’ll forgive me and not subject me to a Cersei style walk of shame. That reminded me of a bad particularly bad and moralistic day on Twitter. Now where was I? Oh yeah, the sweet soul stylings of the Fifth Dimension.

Earthbound was the last album featuring the original group and I’d never seen the cover until the other day. It’s rootsy, man. It mostly consists of Jim Webb songs. It’s pretty darn good in a surprisingly uncommercial way as you’ll learn below.

Earthbound

Here’s the title track of their debut album. Interestingly enough, it was arranged by Mel Torme’s partner in musical crime Marty Paich:

Earthbound features a Macca song, one of Jagger-Richards’ artier tunes, and a plethora of heavyweight musicians including Fred Tackett, Larry Coryell, Jeff Porcaro, and Jesse Ed Davis. Parts of it are surprisingly funky for the Fifth Dimension. Good Gawd, y’all:

 

2 thoughts on “Album Cover Art Wednesday: The Fifth Dimension”

  1. One thing I love about this blog is this feature, which rummages through the virtual vinyl archives to promote gems that would otherwise founder in some dusty resale bin.

    Moonlight Mile is one of my favorite songs by Mick / Keef, and the 5th Dimension has transformed it into something of an entirely different character. Still don’t know what to make of it. But that’s beside the point. I never would have known about it, absent this post.

    One quibble: Why the need to bowdlerize the lyrics to MM? “Sky full of snow” instead of “head full of snow”? I mean, your band is named “The 5th Dimension,” which doesn’t exactly scream “Just say no!”

    A very minor quibble, to be sure. I do love the music, and the band has exquisite taste in songwriters. Can’t go wrong with Jimmy Webb or Laura Nyro. Too bad they didn’t throw in some Lee Hazlewood just for the hell of it. I bet the 5th Dimension’s “Some Velvet Morning” would be spectacular.

    1. Thanks for the kind words. I’d never hears Earthbound until yesterday. It really good. I think they were to mainstream to go there with MM>

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