The ambitious triple-CD box set
I'd Love to Turn You On outlines some of the key inspirations of 1960s rock counter-culture beyond the genre's roots in blues and R&B, particularly in the realm of classical music and the avant-garde, as well as film scores, jazz, Indian ragas, and more. Pinpointing in detail how rock & roll moved beyond simple, repetitive two-minute pop songs into a form of greater sophistication, emotional complexity, and artistic expression, the set's track listing is subdivided into sections corresponding to the artists influenced by the composers and pieces in question. Given the title of the collection, it's no surprise that it starts out with more than a full disc's worth of music which inspired
the Beatles and producer
George Martin, from the
Bach concertos evoked by the band's Baroque pop period to the musique concrete works of composers such as
Stockhausen and
Cage which informed
Sgt. Pepper's and
The White Album. For most of these selections, the liner notes namecheck exactly which
Beatles song was influenced by which piece (or outright quoted in the case of songs like "All You Need Is Love"). Beyond
the Beatles, the set delves into several of
Pink Floyd's early influences, mainly concentrating on jazz, ranging from the joyous, uplifting bebop of
Charlie Parker to an astral meditation from
Sun Ra. Additionally, there's an extended raga by
Ravi Shankar (also covered in the
Beatles section), a short piece by influential British folk guitarist
Davy Graham, and even the Hallelujah chorus of
Handel's Messiah, apparently the soundtrack to an acid-laced revelation for the band. Several movements of
Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring appear, since
David Bowie referred to its tuba ostinatos as being equally powerful as any rock riff.
Frank Zappa's connection to the modern classical world has always been well documented, and the fantastically off-balance "Hyperprism" by primary influence
Edgard Varese concludes disc two. The third disc touches on
Soft Machine (leading with a remarkably grim, wonderfully strange Scottish folk tune performed by
Benjamin Britten and
Peter Pears),
Scott Walker (naturally including
Jacques Brel), and
Nick Drake (the overwhelmingly beautiful melancholia of
Ralph Vaughan Williams' "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis"). Venturing beyond British or American rock artists, the remainder of the compilation explores the influences of Brazilian bossa nova pioneers
Antonio Carlos Jobim and
Joao Gilberto. The
Jobim selections encompass piano pieces by
Debussy and
Chopin as well as a lovely guitar etude by
Heitor Villa-Lobos, while the picks representing
Gilberto include the soothing Brazilian pop of
Lucio Alves and a brief but masterful guitar piece by underacknowledged innovator
Garoto. It's obvious that there's far more ground that could be covered in a set like this, but what's included is undoubtedly important, and makes for an illuminating, informative listen. Any undergraduate who listens to this and studies the liner notes should be granted course credits. ~ Paul Simpson
![C¿¿sar Franck Edition [Brilliant]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/mimages/0000000000000_p0_v0_s192x300.jpg "C¿¿sar Franck Edition [Brilliant]")
