Little remembered today, Dragonfly was a record by a band called Dragonfly that never really was. They were The Legend, but the botching of their debut record gave them good reason to distance themselves from that name and record a record of music THEY wanted to make. They pulled out all sorts of tricks and the album's a real trip. One song suddenly jumped into reversed play, the word "care" is slowed down, reversed, and sped back up. And there's some random marchings drums at the end of the first track. But there's also some killer drumming and great Psychedelic Fuzz Guitar leads. Bankrupted by the album, Dragonfly/The Legend faded away...but this little relic remains. Seek this rarity out, is a classic gem of the fabulous 60s. KEY TRACKS: Enjoy Yourself * I Feel It * Time Has Slipped Away

The Beatles, with their matching suits and haircuts, ruled the music world in 1966. As they began to experiment with tape effects and different musical styles, they obviously had something special. Nothing was too much on Revolver. Music hall, raga rock, singalongs, ballads, and freak-out pieces of psychedelia all find their place here. Lennon/McCartney were the biggest songwriting duo of the sixties, and here it was shown in full. George Harrison's compositions are mind-boggling as well, ranging from straight groove rock like "Taxman" to Indian mantra and sitars galore of "Love You To." "She Said, She Said" and "And Your Bird Can Sing" are buzzing rock & roll from Lennon, while McCarney burst onto the scene with the blazing brass of "Got To Get You Into My Life," and the character sketch "Eleanor Rigby." And the closer? What can be said about "Tomorrow Never Knows?" It's gloriously unique. Revolver was pop. It was art music. It was everything.

Syd Barrett's only full album with The Pink Floyd ("The" was soon dropped) is a fairy tale book of acid-spiked stories. Happy trips through interspace, hobbitesqe creatures, and Satanic cats are color these trippy songs, but there's more than just British whimsy in Barrett's writing. "Astronomy Domine" was Pink Floyd's original space jam, with disembodied voices beaming in from Alpha Centauri or wherever, and "Interstellar Overdrive" being the all-time space jam, an instrumental of solar sonics. The band is very much the Pink Floyd that would carry on to record Dark Side Of The Moon, albeit playing with more happiness than can be imagined. Rick Wright's keyboards are ever clever and Hallowen erotic, Roger Water's bass is percolating, and Nick Mason brings the pounding space drums brilliantly. Add to this Barrett's so-English voice and chicken-scratch bits of choppy guitar, and you have a far-out classic.

People seem to forget Hotter Than Hell, Kiss's second album, and focus more on the likes of Rock And Roll Over, Destroyer, and (of course) Alive!. But letting you in a little secret, this is their best. Sludgy sound (was this recorded in a garage?), but good mix (wiiiide stereo) aid the album. Not that the songs can't hold up on their own. Few of these are heard now, besides the title track (and what a groove it is). "All The Way" is just punky-hard rock from Kiss, "Parasite" is a muddy mess of metal from Space Ace Frehley, "Got To Choose" opens the album with a classic riff and gloriously typical Kiss fare, and "Mainline" (sung by Peter Criss) is so blasted happy! "Goin' Blind" is a bit unsettling (tale about a teenage girl and an old man in love), but it rocks too. Somehow, this one has cruelly been forgotten.

The Stooges' self-titled debut could easily have been recorded in yesterday, but it wasn't. It was recorded in 1969, and nothing had ever sounded so extreme. With stoner-predicting guitarwork and a delightful primitive nature, they played what they considered REAL psychedelic music, and there certainly is something far out about it. But with similar sorts of music cropping up subsequently (and The MC5 & Blue Cheer already there), this would eventually become known as hard rock. But the Stooges were also one of the earliest incarnations of what would become punk, after the Troggs and the Barbarians but before the New York Dolls. "I Wanna Be Your Dog," propelled by randy frontman Iggy Pop's teen sensation (so to speak) became the legendary track here, and "No Fun" (what a groove), "1969," "Real Cool Time," and "Little Doll" are all fine pieces of angst-ridden scuzz, created by Ron Asheton's wall of guitar wah-wah and distortion, and the rhythm sections incessant pounding. Crank it.