Dino Valente

Dino

FLOATING WORLD. CD Songs of love and freedom from a psychedelic seducer.

In 1966, Dino Valente was in jail on a drugs charge, having sold the rights to his Summer of Love anthem-in-waiting Get Together to fund his defence. His old backing musicians were making their name as Quicksilver Messenger Service. Eventually, over winter ’67/68, Valente got to record his LP, but it took a year to surface and then sank. It’s a neglected but wonderful timepiece that’s every bit the equal to Valente’s billing on the original sleevenote: “A philosopher as well as a poet… making love through music and with music.” His voice has that slightly aged feel, the songs the same seductive, yearning quality of that other old lag Charles Manson. Unsurprisingly, the lost souls came in their droves. Producer Bob Johnston recalls 20 and 30 girls in the studio mesmerised by Valente and his 12-string serenades.