Its title equal parts promise and threat, Here Come the Doodletown Pipers makes rock & roll safe, sensible, and palatable to the masses -- you know, pretty much what Rolling Stone would do, albeit in magazine form.

What's crazy is that when you really think about it, the Pipers are weirdly in sync with the spirit of the counterculture revolution, presenting a utopian ideal where the young generation -- men, women, white and black -- comes together in the name of harmony, vocal and otherwise.

The music itself is ridiculously vanilla, of course, but it's far less disingenuous and far more energetic than at least half of the major-label rock records released at the same time.

Doodletown...not a bad place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there.

[Epic Japan's 2006 CD reissue includes both mono and stereo presentations of the complete LP.].