At three discs and 57 tracks, this
Magic Bus compilation from Universal offers a pretty solid cross section of songs from the Summer of Love and beyond. The late '60s were a cathartic time for popular music as established acts let down their hair (both figuratively and literally) and colorful new upstarts emerged out of the counterculture. Obvious characters like
the Grateful Dead,
Jefferson Airplane,
Donovan, and
the Byrds are well represented, but there are plenty of one-off nuggets included as well.
Zager & Evans' doom-laden sci-fi smash "In the Year 2525" and
Barry McGuire's similarly apocalyptic "Eve of Destruction" offer a glimpse at environmental and political concerns of the day, while songs like
the Lemon Pipers' "Green Tambourine" and
the Cowsills' "The Rain, the Park, and Other Things" are rainbows of pure flower power pop.