Hideki Ishima 石間秀樹 The Flowers

At the end of 1969, Ishima joined Yuya Uchida and The Flowers and got to put his sitar practice to quick work, as the first thing he recorded with The Flowers, Rock ‘N’ Roll Jam ’70, included him on sitar on the cover of Janis Joplin’s “All is Loneliness”. After another Joplin cover, Joe Yamanaka (though Uchida introduces him by his old name “Jou Akira”) comes out as a vocalist for a cover of “You Shook Me”. It’s obvious that Ishima was no longer a garage band guitarist and was heading for rock star status when he and Yamanaka do a nice Page and Plant call and response bit near the end of the track. After yet another Joplin cover, vocalist Dave Hirao from The Golden Cups and keyboard player Kuni Kawauchi join the band for the finale, another Zeppelin cover.

Ishima also joined Eddie Ban, Katsuhiko Kobayashi and The Happenings Four Plus One for a cover of “Boom, Boom”.

The Flowers’ performance was pretty unusual for its time. While all the songs were covers, they were smart selections and they were all quite well done, unlike most of the sappy string-filled ballads that the Group Sounds bands covered.

Samples of this album are available at Allmusic.com.

Everybody saw the new direction they were headed in. In February, 1970, The Flowers disbanded and Flower Travellin’ Band was formed.

Incidentally, it’s been mentioned else where that Ishima played with The Flowers on “Opera From the Works of Tadanori Yokoo” by Toshi Ichiyanagi but I doubt that’s the case. The album was released in 1970 but was recorded in the summer of 1968 when Ishima was still with The Beavers.

Sources

• Liner Notes to Rock ‘N’ Roll Jam ’70
• 日本ロック紀GS編　コンプリート Psychedelia in Japan 1966-1969 by Susumu Kurosawa