was in a tremendously creative phase during the latter part of 1968, owing to both a tour of the United States (which yielded a live album) and the chemical and social stimulation of his surroundings. Amid all of that activity and his subsequent recordings, his European performances, and the slightly late catch-up of his British career to his American success, 's work blossomed in several different directions on the resulting album, . He still sounded like a folkie, but on the title track as well as he was backed by and an outfit that included and , respectively. With , intermingled soft, lyrical, spaced-out , hard songs, anthems to free love, and even antiwar sentiments ( ). The result was the most challenging album then issued by , but also one of his most successful.~ Bruce Eder