A trip through the garden : the Rose Garden collection

"Conceived itself as a direct extension of the seminal folk-rock sound of the The Byrds, the mutual attraction between The Rose Garden and Gene Clark made perfect sense because as documented on these twenty-six tracks (fourteen of which are previously unreleased), the quintet suffered a dearth original material. Accordingly, the pragmatic support of the former Byrd was fully in line with the quintet's even more direct homage to sources including Bob Dylan and Neil Young, an approach even more overt in a live setting: four tracks from a high school concert feature compositions from Sonny Bono and Bo Diddley".

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"The lack of Rose Garden compact discs could be down to how they had only one hit single: "Next Plane to London," which climbed to number 17 in the fall of 1967. A Trip Through the Garden fills out the story, underscoring how the Rose Garden were very much a band of their time and place, quite proudly displaying their debt to the Byrds. All of their eponymous debut and the assorted ephemera on the disc recall the sweeter, folkier elements of the Byrds, but the connection is deepest with Gene Clark. The Rose Garden cut two Clark songs that are otherwise unavailable: the tuneful jangle of "Long Time" and the proto country-rocker "Till Today." These two songs, along with the mellow effervescence of "Next Plane to London," are the highlights of the album and the comp ...".

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