Description

Together With Him is the sole full-length album by the American psychedelic rock band Moonrakers, released on Shamley in 1968, distributed by Universal City Records (a.k.a. UNI Records), a short-lived (c. 1967-1972) imprint of MCA featuring rock and psychedelic music, mostly. The album was engineered by Paul Buff with Frank Slay and John Phillips producing for Chicory Productions. Nine of the songs were written or co-written by band member Veeder Van Dorn.

Denver’s Moonrakers released several secular 45’s in the ‘60s, but this is their only album. Typical sounds of the times, this is organ heavy with fuzz lead guitar and strong drumming with a few horns thrown in. Add female background vocals on the R&B tracks. Some of the standouts here include the funky «Love Train» and «Together with Him», but the shining star is «Not Hiding Anymore», an energetic tuneful song with a very strong chorus and some wailin’ fuzzy lead!! Though they appear on all of the tracks on the album, drummer Jerry Corbetta and lead guitarist Bob Webber would leave shortly to form Sugarloaf of «Green Eyed Lady» fame. Social gospel spoken here lyrically. A neat color cover shot of the band on the steps of an altar in a church while a band shadow on stained glass graces the back. [Bob Felberg, The Archivist, 4th Edition]

I’ve only met one person that had heard of the Moonrakers (this in ’89) and until I researched on them on the net two years ago, I knew absolutely nothing about them. Except that they recorded this stunning LP. And for 1968, it is stunning. In my opinion, not one weak song on an album that is truly psychedelic, veers on the progressive, has oodles of pop sensibility and the rawness of mid 60s garage rock. There’s strange noises, feedback, plinky plonky piano, whimsical passages, slamming drumming, lovely harmonies, trebly fuzzy guitar and fun sounds. The lyrics are, by turn, incisive, poetic, mystical, sometimes impenetreble musings, with generous helpings of social commentary, finger wagging at dishonest preachers and heartfelt cries of devotion to God. If you’ve heard the two albums by the Holy Ghost Reception Committee No.9, ‘Together with Him’ is almost like those guys got a few years older, a whole bunch more daring and learned about the recording process, while visually, for some odd reason, they remind me of Azitis. The melodies are excellent, the rawness of the recording gives already edgy songs some serious edge and kick and the playing is tight and loose almost simultaneously. Not every song has the same line up but it matters not at all. I didn’t fall over when I first heard this, but within a couple of weeks, I knew this was an LP that I’d be listening to until my dying days. It’s without a doubt one that I’d take to that desert island. I seriously dig every song, but my absolute faves are: «Talk to the Soldier’s Son», «He’s a Comin’ My Lord», «The Pot Starts to Boil» and «No Number to Call» and the absolute kingpin line comes from «The Pot Starts to Boil» :’I’m hot and I’m cold and I’m almost electric/ Like toys I once played with, I feel disconnected’. [grimtraveller, 2010]

LP tracklist:

Side One
A1. “Talk To The Soldier’s Son” – 4:35
A2. “He Knows Why” – 3:35
A3. “Not Hidin’ Anymore” – 2:57
A4. “He’s A Comin’ My Lord” – 2:52
A5. “The Pot Starts To Boil” – 3:45

Side Two
B1. “No Number To Call” – 3:06
B2. “Look Outside At The Sun” – 3:50
B3. “Take A Friend” – 3:54
B4. “Love Train” – 2:47
B5. “Find Me” – 3:37
B6. “Together With Him” – 3:45