YUYA UCHIDA & THE FLOWERS - FREE STONE

FREE STONE

YUYA UCHIDA & THE FLOWERS

SONGWRITER: JIMMI HENDDRIX

COUNTRY: JAPAN

ALBUM: CHALLENGE!

LABEL: NIPPON COLUMBIA

GENRE: PSYCHEDELIC ROCK

YEAR: 1969

Challenge! is the debut studio album by Japanese rock band Flower Travellin' Band, then called Yuya Uchida & The Flowers, released in 1969. It features mainly cover songs, and was a means for Yuya Uchida to explore the emerging psychedelic rock movement outside his own career, and to introduce the work of upcoming Western bands such as Cream, Big Brother and the Holding Company, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Jefferson Airplane to a Japanese audience. It was named number 34 on Bounce's 2009 list of 54 Standard Japanese Rock Albums.

Shocked after seeing Jimi Hendrix perform in London in 1967, Yuya Uchida returned home and wanted to introduce a similar sound to Japan. He formed "the Flowers" as a cover band with various group sounds musicians, and two vocalists; male singer Hiroshi Chiba and female singer Remi Aso. The album also gained notoriety for featuring all of the band members nude on the cover.

Following its release, Uchida dropped all the members, except drummer George Wada, recruited guitarist Hideki Ishima, vocalist Joe Yamanaka and bassist Jun Kobayashi, and formed the Flower Travellin' Band as a band that would appeal to international audiences. Uchida himself reverted exclusively to the producer/manager role. Their first album, Anywhere, mirrored Challenge! by mainly consisting of cover songs and nude cover art.

On September 26, 2007, a limited edition of Challenge! was released with five bonus tracks. They are "Last Chance", "Flower Boy" and "Yogiri no Trumpet" which were previously released as singles in 1969, and the previously unreleased covers of "Fire" and "Five to One".

Every day in the week I'm in a different city

If I stay too long people try to pull me down

They talk about me like a dog

Talkin' about the clothes I wear

But they don't realize they're the ones who's square

Yeah!

And that's why

You can't hold me down

I don't want to be tied down I gotta move

Hey

I said

Stone free do what I please

Stone free to ride the breeze

Stone free, baby I can't stay

I got to got to got to get away

Yeah

Listen here baby

A woman here a woman there try to keep me in a plastic cage

But they don't realize it's so easy to break

Yeah but a sometimes I get a ha

Feel my heart kind a gettin' hot

That's when I got to move before I get caught

So dig this

And the is why, listen to me baby, you can't hold me down

I don't want to be tied down

I gotta move on

I said

Stone free do what I please

Stone free to ride the breeze

Stone free I can't stay

Got to got to got to get away

Yeah

Tear me loose baby

Hey

Yeah!

I said

Stone free to ride on the breeze

Stone free do what I please

Stone free I can't stay

Stone free I got to I got to get away

Hey

Stone free go on down the highway

Stone free don't try to hold me back baby

Stone free stone free

Stone free got to baby

Stone free got get on.