The Creation: We Are Paintermen Clear Vinyl LP

Why you'll love it

This limited clear vinyl edition uses the 2016 mixes by Alec Palao. "Painter Man" reached No. 8 in West Germany and No. 36 in the UK, and "Making Time" was their first chart single.

This edition

Clear vinyl
Limited edition
2016 mixes by Alec Palao
Stereo mix

About the album

The Creation are one of those '60s bands that other musicians talk about with real reverence. Formed in 1966 out of The Mark Four and produced by Shel Talmy, they made loud, arty mod pop built around Eddie Phillips's guitar, and they were huge in West Germany before most of Britain had caught up.

Their German distributor, Hit-Ton, gathered almost everything they'd recorded into this album in 1967, with a Danish edition on Sonet. Kenny Pickett sings the early singles, "Making Time" and "Painter Man," written with Phillips, while bassist Bob Garner takes over on later songs like "Tom Tom," a German No. 14, and "If I Stay Too Long." "Try And Stop Me" and "Nightmares" show off the band's sharper edges, and their take on "Hey Joe" has been compared to the Hendrix version.

The band came back in the '90s, and today the album is treated as a mod essential. Alan McGee later named his record label after the group and his own band after one of these songs, which in our trade counts as a very large compliment.

Also at Kops: more The Creation on vinyl · browse Rock