STANTON SWIHART
Writing for Allmusic, Dean McFarlane says of the album: “From the opening cut, it is fairly apparent why the original album is so sought after – Magic Lantern is as fine a display of American psychedelia as late-’60s albums by It’s a Beautiful Day and Jefferson Airplane. This will appeal to fans of the fuzzed-out guitar antics of Cream and Blue Cheer.” There is also a long article in the “Biography” section in Allmusic (this time by Stanton Swihart) about Haymarket Square. The band name is taken from a place in Chicago where a famous labor riot took place in 1886.
While in high school, Chicago teenagers Robert Homa and John Kowalski of Haymarket Square had been in a garage rock band called the Real Things; the name was in honor of the British band the Pretty Things. Stanton Swihart notes in Allmusic about this predecessor band: “Not your typical amateurs, the Real Things actually played professional instruments and earned professional gigs until they disintegrated in 1967 due to the usual reasons of the season.”
Stanton Swihart writes of Haymarket Square for Allmusic: “As the music featured on it was initially utilized as live accompaniment and created expressly with that purpose in mind, the album plays much like the records of the [Jefferson] Airplane’s middle, most psychedelic period, as much visceral experiences to fill San Francisco ballrooms as they are objects for home listening, or like early Grateful Dead recordings, intended as soundtracks for Acid Tests and experimental light shows. But as with the work of those bands, Magic Lantern transcends its intended purpose; in fact, it is one of the stronger – not to mention one of the earliest – slices of acid rock from the era, outstanding in every way, from [John] Kowalski’s expert drumming, to [Gloria] Lambert’s impressive, insistent singing, to the intensely mood-filled, darkly textured original songs.”
(June 2015)
