Jack Ames spent a lot of money on a classy, die-cut album cover, so only 300 copies of the Music Emporium LP were pressed. The remarkable album became a collector’s item and was bootlegged several times. Eventually Sundazed Records bought the master tapes and brought out a proper reissue of the Music Emporium album on CD in 2001, Music Emporium. Besides the 10 songs on the original 1969 album, instrumental versions of 5 of the songs are included as bonus tracks on the CD. These bonus tracks demonstrate how well crafted the lush musical settings are and show the classical background of most of the bandmembers.
The Music Emporium album opens with “Nam Myo Renge Kyo” that features chants of the Buddhist mantra that forms the title, along with psychedelic-style lyrics in the manner of the Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”. “Catatonic Variations” features an atonal structure that was just coming into vogue in the classical world, if I am remembering that correctly. The album closes with the obligatory protest song, “Day of Wrath” that features the tag lyric: “There is no question that there will be peace on earth / But will man be here to enjoy it”.
(October 2013)
