The Serpent Power were amongst the many bands that emerged during those heady days of 1967 but, unlike many of their contemporaries who went on to build solid careers, their arrival was only to be a brief spell in the sun as this delightful album was to prove their sole release as a full band. There is no doubt that it stands proudly alongside other better known works of that time.
The group was formed by David Meltzer and his wife Tina, intending for it to be a vehicle for his poems. David had recently had a volume of his poems published by Oyez as The Dark Continent, some of which are reproduced in the notes for this CD reissue, and with this new venture he was very much in the driving seat writing all the music and lyrics and playing guitar and harmonica as well as sharing the vocals with Tina.
The album is linked to the sunshine pop and folk-rock genres on at least one internet site, but it was certainly not following those commercial labels despite the group containing two ex-Grass Roots in Denny Ellis and David Stenson. Rather it is representative of that small group of releases (including Fairport Convention's first album) which were genuinely seeking new musical forms. Perhaps most closely rooted in folk, they were following some of the same paths that acts like Country Joe & The Fish and early Jefferson Airplane were moving along. They were electrified but in a restrained way, and they were intent on letting the lyrics carry the songs rather than over-complicating them with any vocal arrangements. The end result quickly marks this out as a lost gem of the period.
Opening with the upbeat organ-led ‘Don't You Listen To Her’, arguably the most commercial track, they then move to ‘Gently, Gently’, a lovely quiet song led by Tina that is very reminiscent of early Fairport as it drifts on restrained drums. The organ returns effectively on the mid-tempo ‘Open House’, before Tina again leads on the relaxed and summery ‘Flying Away’ that features some beautiful guitar work. ‘Nobody Blues’ offers strong lyrics against adventurous blues guitar lines, while ‘Up And Down’ and ‘Sky Baby’ both have a Lovin' Spoonful feel to them. ‘Forget’ and the short ‘Dope Again’ continue the adventurous work before ‘Endless Tunnel’ closes the album. At over thirteen minutes, this was their obligatory-for-the-period long track, and they carry it off far better than most, with it being enhanced by the fascinating raga-like electric banjo work from JP Pickens
They had played their first gig, a benefit for the Telegraph Neighbourhood Center, in November 1966, and struck lucky as there they were spotted by Country Joe & The Fish's manager, ED Denson, who immediately recommended them to Vanguard Records where they worked with producer Samuel Charters. However the release suffered from limited distribution and they never managed to break out of their immediate San Francisco area, leading to the group breaking up in 1968, leaving us with a major 'what might have been' question.
Tina and David Meltzer were the mainstays behind the short-lived, but quite talented Serpent Power. Produced by Sam Charters, "Poet Song" offered up an odd mixture of spoken word poems and artsy folk-rock material. While marketed as a duo, the album largely served as a showcase for David. In addition to writing all 15 selections (both the poems and songs), he was also credited with lead guitar and handling about half of the vocals.
Tina clearly had the better voice, so it shouldn't come as a major surprise to discover she was responsible for most of the highlights. Those included the martial 'I'm So Willing' (kind of a proto-feminist ballad, 'Hymn To Love' and 'Pure White Place' (the latter sounding like an early Jefferson Airplane outtake).
Tracks
1. Don't You Listen To Her - 2:20
2. Gently, Gently - 2:36
3. Open House - 3:31
4. Flying Away - 4:26
5. Nobody Blues - 3:49
6. Up And Down - 3:37
7. Sky Baby - 2:31
8. Forget - 3:34
9. Dope Again - 0:47
10.Endless Tunnel - 13:13
11.I'm The Early Morning Racer (Poem) - 1:39
12.I'll Forget You - 3:44
13.The Bath (Poem) - 0:33
14.I'm A Lover - 2:51
15.Ravel Blues - 4:38
16.The Blackest Rose (Poem) - 0:55
17.It Is For You - 1:50
18.Lullaby - 2:54
19.I'm So Willing - 4:15
20.Lamentation For Hank Williams (Poem) - 1:09
21.Hymn To Love - 3:18
22.Confessin' (Poem) - 2:27
23.Pure White Place - 4:34
24.Poem For My Wife (Poem) - 1:01
25.For Tina - 2:28
All compositions by David Meltzer
Tracks 1-10 from The Serpent Power 1967
Tracks 11-25 from Poet Song 1969 The Serpent Power
*Clark Coolidge - Drums
*Denny Ellis - Lead Guitar
*David Meltzer - Vocals, Guitar, Harmonica
*Tina Meltzer - Vocals
*John Payne - Keyboards
*Jean-Paul Pickens - Banjo
*David Stenson - Bass
An early entry to the horn-rock sweepstakes, this seven piece outfit hailed from Boston, which was in the throes of the notorious "Bosstown hype" when their album was recorded. Featured the talents of bassist Sean Hutchinson, guitarist Paul Lenart, keyboard player Larry Luddecke, sax player Dick Martin, drummer Victor McGill, guitarist David Perry and singer Jere Whitting. Signed by the short-lived New York-based Vanguard Apostolic Records, the band's self-titled debut teamed them with producer Daniel Weiss.
Imagine Blood, Sweat and Tears locked into a closet with Captain Beefheart and Quicksilver Messenger Service's John Cipollina. Largely original (the lone exception being a cover of Riley King's 'Sweet Little Angel'), the album featured a strange blend of jazz, fusion and psychedelic rock moves.
The combination of styles was actually intriguing, blending howling vocals, biting electric guitar and avant-garde saxophone with other instruments such as vibraphone, organ and conga.
Tracks
1. Shapes (David Perry) - 4:29
2. Midnight Juice (Jere Whiting, Larry Luddecke) - 7:19
3. Dream? (Julia Grossman, Victor McGill) - 9:51
4. Hellhound (Jere Whiting) - 3:43
5. Earthlight (David Perry, Paul Lenart) - 3:39
6. Sweet Little Angel (Riley King, Jules Taub) - 8:05
7. Listen To The Walls (David Friedel, David Perry) - 6:51
The Far Cry
*Jere Whiting - Vocals, Harmonica
*Dick Martin - Tenor Saxophone, Congas
*Larry Luddecke - Organ, Piano
*Paul Lenart - Guitar
*David Perry - Guitar, Vocals
*Victor McGill - Drums
*Sean Hutchinson - Bass
To someone who never lived through the 1960’s, it’s hard to comprehend the amount of cultural experimentation that was taking place in America. Nothing it seemed was being taken for granted, almost as though young artists all across the country had made it their mission to try to re-imagine every last aspect of pop culture, especially music. At the epicenter of all this experimentation was, of course, New York’s Greenwich Village, which at that time was not only a hotbed of modern jazz, an art form that had at its very core, experimentation, but also the country’s budding folk music scene.
As an outgrowth of that Greenwich Village mix of jazz and folk, a group calling itself Circus Maximus emerged, formed when Bob Bruno, a young jazz piano player, happened to meet a young guitarist and recovering pop star wannabe named Ronny Crosby. A few months earlier, Crosby had come to the City from Upstate and reinvented himself as a wandering folk troubadour who went by the name Jerry Jeff Walker. Bruno had been playing piano since the age of five and had, literally, been hanging around jazz clubs his whole life.
Jerry Jeff Walker, on the other hand, had played ukulele as a kid, and eventually formed a garage band in his small hometown of Oneonta. Though his band was good enough to score an American Bandstand audition, rock and pop were not near and dear to Walker’s heart. Over the years he had fallen in love with country and folk, and knew that’s where he wanted to focus his creative energies.
So when Bruno, Walker and Circus Maximus went into the studio in 1967 to record the first of their two albums, what they came out with was an offbeat, uneven, but occasionally inspired hybrid of both jazz and folk. Around the same time that all this musical whimsy and cross pollination was taking place, there was something nearly as interesting occurring in the world of radio. The criminally underutilized FM band, with its rich, full, static-free sound, started to slowly give rise to a growing number of non-commercial “underground” stations across the country, particularly in college towns like Berkeley and Austin.
And the music the “hosts” on such underground stations played was the stuff the Top 40 stations wouldn’t touch; the experimental gumbo being offered up by groups like Love, the Fugs, the Holy Modal Rounders and Circus Maximus. And one of the first (and only) national “hits” of that underground era was a song written by Bruno called “Wind,” which proved to be particularly popular in New York and a handful of West Coast markets.
“Wind” featured an infectious jazz hook, some too-cool-for-school vocals by Bruno, and a few bars of free-form, almost atonal improvisational piano playing. It maintained, however, the unmistakable sound and feel of a folk tune, which made it perfect for an era whose musical iconography included folk legends like Bob Dylan, Donovan, Joan Baez and Barry Maguire. In part because it clocked in at just over eight minutes long, “Wind” never came close to charting as a single.
Nevertheless, for many children of the Sixties, “Wind” remains both a touchstone of their lives and an essential building block of the desert island jukebox of their minds. Because just like any magic carpet ride of youth, the song has maintained its remarkable ability, despite the passing of the years, to transport certain people of a certain age to a simpler place and time, when life was defined not so much by the choices made, but by the possibilities that lie ahead.
Glory was probably San Diego's longest-lived underground rock band. Formed in the late sixties, Glory played their brand of straight ahead, kick ass rock and roll until the early 80's at which time guitarist Jerry Raney formed the prolific Beat Farmers.
"On The Air" was recorded live in 1970 during a broadcast from the studios of San Diego's "underground" radio station KPRI. The result is an "in your face" performance built around their amazing rhythm section and led by wailing guitars and incredibly powerful vocals.
Great original tunes like "Morning Ride", "Slow Back" and "Another Man Done Gone" shows that these boys were street wise and nail tough. They also do justice to classic rock tunes like Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love" which they transform into what sounds like an evil threat from a serial killer.
Overall the LP is dark but energetic and shows why Glory earned their well deserved reputation as rock and roll mercenaries
Rockadelic
Tracks
1.Mornin' Ride (Jerry Raney, Jack Butler, Mike Millsap) - 3:23
2.Who Do You Love (Ellis McDaniels) - 4:22
3.Slow Back (Mike Millsap, Jerry Raney, Jack Butler, Jack Pinney) - 5:43
4.Another Man Done Gone (Public Domain) - 5:36
5.It Really Doesn't Matter (Jerry Raney) - 4:15
6.Come On Down (Mike Millsap, Jerry Raney, Jack Butler, Jack Pinney) - 4:30
7.Cantaloupe Moon (Jerry Raney) - 3:24
8.Bird Run (Jerry Raney) - 3:46
9.Little Queenie (Chuck Berry) - 5:51
Ancient Grease is a clever moniker for a band, although Strawberry Dust were rather baffled to find themselves so named on their 1970 debut album, Women and Children First. Dust's reputation as a rousing live act was already cemented by several years of plying cover songs around the South Wales club circuit, which is where drummer John Weathers came across them. Impressed, he oversaw their demo, which landed Dust a deal at Mercury, then co-wrote, arranged, and co-produced their full-length. And thus begins the Racing Cars story, for Dust/Grease featured both the band's future frontman, Gareth "Morty" Mortimer, and guitarist, Graham Williams.
However, this album is very much a child of its time, only hinting at what's to come. It's a heady mixture of pub rock, hard-rocking R&B, blues, psychedelia, and San Francisco prog rock, with nods to the British hard rock scene along the way, Dust/Grease hit just about every musical touchstone of their day. Incidentally, Weathers' Eyes of Blue bandmate, Phil Ryan, provides the fabulous keyboard work on the gorgeous "Where the Snow Lies Forever," the genre-bending "Odd Song," and presumably the rest of the album, although no keyboardist is actually credited.
The album's title track captures the excitement they engendered on-stage, "Freedom Train" their propensity to roam around genres, "Mother Grease the Cat" their proggy best, "Prelude to a Blind Man" their pubby predilections and bluesy flair, "Time to Die" their emotive power, and "Mystic Mountain" their pop sensibilities. Dust/Grease were ferociously talented musicians, but they were still a covers band struggling to find their own sound. They never got the chance. Mercury failed to publicize Women, and it sank without a trace. The band followed it into oblivion, as the members swiftly departed for new projects. Morty and Williams, of course, reunited later in the decade, and the rest is history.
by Jo-Ann Greene
Tracks
1. Freedom Train (John "Pugwsh" Weathers) - 4:04
2. Don't Want (John "Pugwsh" Weathers, G. Stevens) - 5:04
3. Odd Song (Gary Pickford Hopkins, John "Pugwsh" Weathers) - 5:49
4. Eagle Song (John "Pugwsh" Weathers) - 4:55
5. Where The Snow Lies Forever (Phil Ryan) - 5:06
6. Mother Grease The Cat (G. Stevens) - 5:11
7. Time To Die (John "Pugwsh" Weathers, G. Stevens) - 4:03
8. Prelude To A Blind Man (Curran) - 4:59
9. Mystic Mountain (John "Pugwsh" Weathers) - 2:55
10.Women And Children First (John "Pugwsh" Weathers) - 6:32
11.Freedom Train (Alternate Take) (John "Pugwsh" Weathers) - 3:28
The Ancient Grease
*Graham "Morty" Mortimer - Vocals
*Graham Williams - Lead Guitar
*Jack Bass - Bass Guitar
*John "Pugwsh" Weathers - Drums Additional Musicians
*Phil Ryan - Keyboards
*Gary Pickford Hopkins - Vocals
During the weekend of August 30th to 31st, 1969, a number of musicians from various bands active in the region of Eindhoven, The Netherlands, performed in a club in Mannheim, Germany. Some of the band members from "Moses and the Scouts" and "Dirty Underwear" discovered that they had much in common in terms of musical ideas and decided to form a new band - with Broer Bogaart drums and congas, Tom Fautubun bass, Eric Lintermans guitar, Bonki Bongaerts organ, Bertus Borgers saxophone and vocals and Inez and Moses performing as extra solo vocalists.
After some rehearsals, and on the way to the first gig, there wasn't a name yet for the new band. To tease the shy roadie, Albert, it was decided to call the band "The Mr. Albert Show" and despite Albert's protests, the name was never changed. After recording the new written repertoire on a cassette, Bertus and Moses hitched a ride to the Red Bullet record company. Willem van Kooten, the big boss, immediately decided to offer the band a four-year record contract, which the band members signed without any hesitation.
In 1971, the second LP, "Warm Motor", which was also produced by Peter Koelewijn, was released and perfectly reflected the band at that time. However, Red Bullet was unable to lift a single from the LP, as the songs were too long, the band no longer had a female vocalist and the music was too freaky. The band was focussing on the new trends of the time and exploring music from around the whole world, i.e. Jazz, Underground, African, Indian and much more. We wanted to be actively involved in the cultural and social developments that were actually taking place and coming up with appropriate singles wasn't exactly part of our daily interests.
As a result, the first signs of friction arose between the band and the record company. As a compromise, additional recordings were made in order to be able to release a single, e.g. "Show Me Your Tongue", but in 1972, we broke all ties with Red Bullet. We continued to play, but still had two years remaining on our contract, rendering the band members unable to sign up with another record company. We decided to go our own separate way and on September 29th, 1973, The Mr. Albert Show gave their last performance at "de Effenaar" in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
by Bertus Borgers, November 2002
Tracks
1. Did You Really Find Somebody - 10:00
2. I'm Not More Than A Sign - 3:57
3. Electronic Baby (Bertus Borgers, Bonki Bongaerts, R. Sylvester) - 6:47
4. Let It All Hang Out - 4:40
5. Bantal - 3:53
6. Woman - 12:14
7. I Can't Help It - 2:32
8. Show Me Your Tongue - 3:34
9. Can't Find My Way Home (Steve Winwood) - 5:01
10.Hooked On You - 4:07
11.Picking Up Your Page - 3:28
All compositions by Bertus Borgers unless as else stated.
Bonus Tracks 7-11
The Mr. Albert Show
*Bertus Borgers - Vocals, Flute, Saxophone, Guitar, Keyboards, Vibes
*Tom Fautubun - Bass Guitar
*Bonki Bongaerts - Organ, Piano, Bluesharp, Keyboards
*Erik Lintermans - Guitar
*Broer Boogaart - Drums, Percussion
Allegedly, members of Mr. Albert Show know on a joint concert of the two previous formations "Moses and the scouts" and "Dirty Underwear" in Mannheim have learned. Or, probably already knew each partially before from Eindhoven, but at that weekend in the square city discovered musical similarities, which eventually led to Bertus Borgers, Bonki Bongaerts, Eric Lintermans, Tom Fautubun and Broer Bogaart formed a new band, they by the Bandroadie named Albert. With Inez was found also a singer who left the group after the release of their debut album.
The band quickly attracted attention with their energetic performances in Holland, it was not difficult to get a recording contract. In the spring of 1970 in The Hague as was the self-titled debut from Mr. Albert Show. The song "Wild Sensation" was previously released as a single and reached number 17 in the Netherlands of the charts.
A jazzy complex Protoprog on Blue base there to "Mr. Albert Show" to hear Borngaerts dominated by organ and soloist influenced by sax and guitar. Stylistically similar climes are held in the early 70s and various bands from Denmark (Burnin Red Ivanhoe, Blast Furnace, the Rainbow Band and Thor's hammer - the Danish Saxprog), but also in the UK, there were there were roughly comparable to bands like Delivery, Affinity Web, Hot Dust, Colosseum or partially Black Widow. A varied mix of still squinting to the 60s songs, harder and bluesy rocking, at times almost aggressive sections and complex, jazz-rock, some of Sax, delicate guitar lines and electric piano or organ moments are here to listen. There are usually quite powerful vocals by Inez and Borgers.
"Mr. Albert Show" is a beautiful album with a powerfully presented Protoprog, not really very original or different from that which had the above-mentioned comparison bands in the program, but in the canon of all these productions certainly does not need to hide. If you appreciate this bluesy-jazzy Saxprog the early 70s and need more of it, which should also obtain the 2002 re-released on CD Long Hair re-mastered edition from the original master tapes. German record company release Long Hair Music from the German Bad Neuenahr in 2002 sent an email to Peter Koelewijn asking for information about the MR. Albert Show. To the surprise of the Dutchman, wanted to society, as they say specialized in "Psychedelic, Progressive Rock Productions", the material of the Mr. Albert Show in Germany release on CD, two and thirty years after the album release in the Netherlands. Peter brought them into contact with Red Bullet, owner of the tapes and Bertus Borgers, the big man in the former band. The CD came out and the Germans made something beautiful: there was a booklet with lots of information about the group, a story written especially for this project by Bertus and a lot of authentic photographs of the band from the heyday.
by Adamus67
Tracks
1.Act Of Love (Bertus Borgers, Roger McCough) - 5:29
2.Kings Of Galaxy (Bertus Borgers, Cees Schrama) - 4:07
3.King Horse (Bertus Borgers) - 3:20
4.Don´T Worry (Bertus Borgers) - 2:36
5.White Bear Skin Coat (Bertus Borgers) - 2:26
6.Wild Sensation (Bertus Borgers) - 3:09
7.There´S A Sad Song In The Air (Bertus Borgers, Cees Schrama) - 7:14
8.White (Bertus Borgers, V.D.Heyden, Eric Lintermans) - 4:23
9.Revolver (Bertus Borgers) - 4:31
Mr. Albert Show
*Bonki Bongaerts - Keyboards
*Roeland Boogaart - Drums
*Bertus Borgers - Saxophone, Flute, Vocals
*Tom Fautubun - Bass
*Eric Lintermans - Guitar With
*Ines - Background Vocals
*Floortje Klomp - Vocals
*Moses - Vocals
Born Again, Newman's seventh LP, may be his riskiest projects, since it's the vehicle for a flagrant and unusual degree of bitterness. But only Sondheim gets away with such bile.
On Born Again, Randy Newman addresses the Me Decade in a voice that's unremittingly snide. The album's tone is immediately established by a cover photo in which Newman poses as a prosperous young businessman with dollar signs painted, Kiss-style, on his face. "It's Money That I Love," the opening cut, suggests that in these cynical times, the only thing most Americans care about is material gratification. "Used to worry about the poor/But I don't worry anymore," crows a narrator for whom consumption is the best revenge against ordinariness. Unfortunately, this bourgeois Caliban, like most of the people on Born Again, is just a paper tiger on which Newman hangs his contempt. Not once does he stop to suggest any reasons for contemporary grabbiness.
"The Story of a Rock and Roll Band," a galumphing polka, sends up corporate rock by ridiculing the Electric Light Orchestra. Though the production cleverly glosses snippets of ELO's hits, the joke quickly palls. This is the first time Newman has treated rock & roll with unequivocal snootiness.
In the record's cheapest shot, "Mr. Sheep," a Seventies hippie lashes out at a briefcase-toting square. The moral irony is appallingly smug. We're supposed to frown on the hippie and pity the square, but we don't, since both characters are such ciphers that they're impossible to care about.
Born Again's dramatic setups ring as false as its moralism. The almost impenetrable "Pretty Boy" suggests an incipient street fight, but the song ends before the action starts. "Half a Man" pits a trucker against a drag queen, but Newman cops out by turning the encounter into a bad surrealist joke when the trucker mysteriously starts walking and talking "like a fag."
Glimmerings of the classic humorist who gave us Sail Away and Good Old Boys are evident in only two cuts, and both are mere scraps. "William Brown," the odyssey of a working man, has a beginning and an end but no middle. In "Ghosts," Born Again's best moment, an old man, deserted by his children and living in one room, cowers in fear and poverty. His final words are a mumbled "I'm sorry" for having lived at all. Set in Newman's florid Stephen Foster-cum-Gustav Mahler style, "William Brown" and "Ghosts" contain the LP's only interesting music. The rest of the tunes either listlessly parody bad movie themes ("Spies," "Pretty Boy") or stick close to the limited novelty rock of "Short People."
Ultimately, Randy Newman's Born Again sounds less like a coherent song cycle than a sloppy nightclub act whipped up at the last minute in a fit of pique and "produced" in a studio. How dismaying that the Mark Twain of American pop should have shrunk to the size of Martin Mull!
by Stephen Holden, October 4, 1979
Tracks
1. It's Money That I Love - 3:38
2. The Story Of A Rock And Roll Band - 2:53
3. Pretty Boy - 4:00
4. Mr. Sheep - 3:53
5. Ghosts - 2:28
6. They Just Got Married - 2:51
7. Spies - 3:55
8. The Girls In My Life (Part One) - 2:36
9. Half A Man - 3:38
10.William Brown - 1:50
11.Pants - 3:06
All Songs written by Randy Newman.
San Francisco in the mid-60s was an incubator for a lot bands. In 1966 a group of teenagers got together and formed a garage band that lasted from 1966 to 1978. Over that 12-year period the band went through many name changes, phases, and musical styles. They were known as Blue Fever, Time, Hodological Mandala, Kodiac, Justus, and Uther Pendragon, but the core musicians remained the same: Mark Lightcap (rhythm guitar, vocals), Bruce Marelich (lead guitar, vocals), and Martin Espinosa (bass, vocals). Once they settled on their final drummer in Mike Beers, they became Uther Pendragon in the early 70s. Despite recording tapes and demos in different studios, they never released an album.
Now over 40 years later, Spanish label Guerssen has released a triple LP, San Francisco Earthquake, of music culled from the band’s vast archive of tapes spanning their entire career. This set consists of 24 songs that include their unknown 7” acetate from 1967, unreleased demo tapes, and tracks recorded in their home studio in Palo Alto. This excellent set features a range in styles and influences. The set opens with “Intro – You’re a Human Now” with cymbals recalling Popol Vuh mixed with a bit of The Animals' “The Black Plague” that sounds a bit like a soundtrack to a 70s horror movie. After the intro the band begins to rock. The music ranges from pure psychedelic rock, psych-folk, pop psych, psych-blues, blues rock, punk psych, to rock-a-billy with similarities to many different bands including Max Frost and the Stormtroopers, Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Byrds, The Association, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Mountain, Ramones, and Rory Gallagher.
Bruce Marelich was an outstanding guitarist with most songs featuring great guitar solos and breaks. There is something for everyone in this set, even a drum solo on the 11 minute “10 Miles to Freedom.” Some of the influences are more obvious than others. For example, “A Man of Means” bears a strong resemblance to “Mississippi Queen.” One of my favorite tracks is the fantastic instrumental “Spanish Fly” with its Spanish / Gothic Western mood that reminded me of Quicksilver Messenger Service’s “The Fool.” If you are a fan of undiscovered garage-psych, then by all means this decades late release is for you.
by Henry Schneider
Tracks
Disc 1
1. Intro - You're a Human Now - 6:02
2. Side of the Dawn - 4:13
3. Who's Gonna Try - 5:44
4. Devil's Due (Mark R Lightcap, Bruce Marelich, Martin Espinosa, Mike Beers, Craig Pedersen) - 5:10
5. 10 Miles To Freedom (Mark R Lightcap, Bruce Marelich, Martin Espinosa, Craig Pedersen) - 10:59
6. San Francisco Earthquake - 5:26
7. Signify Justice - 2:58
8. Love Lock Temperature Drop (Payden Holmboe) - 2:31
9. Magical Door - 3:29
10.Peter Pan Blowup (Payden Holmboe) - 2:22
11.Luxury's Draft - 4:08
12.Realm Of 7 Planes - 5:29
13.Man of Means - 5:09
All songs written by Mark R Lightcap, Bruce Marelich, Martin Espinosa, Mike Beers except where stated
Disc 2
1. Spanish Fly - 6:32
2. King Muskrat - 6:50
3. See It My Way - 6:13
4. Rock and Roll Star - 2:35
5. Meanie Jeanie (Old Man) - 10:05
6. Troubles - 9:03
7. Woman - 4:18
8. Hell's Rock - 2:52
9. They'll Never Last (Mark R Lightcap, Bruce Marelich, Martin Espinosa) - 3:30
10.Kristina (Mark R Lightcap, Bruce Marelich, Martin Espinosa) - 4:17
11.Music Box (Mark R Lightcap, Bruce Marelich, Martin Espinosa) - 6:51
All songs written by Mark R Lightcap, Bruce Marelich, Martin Espinosa, Mike Beers except where noted
The Uther Pendragon
*Mark R Lightcap - Rhythm Guitar, Vocals
*Bruce Marelich - Lead Guitar, Vocals
*Martin Espinosa - Bass, Vocals
*Mike Beers - Drums (Disc 1: 1-4,6,7,9,11-13, Disc 2: 1-8)
*George Miller - Drums (Disc 1: 5,8,10)
*Doug Williams - Keyboards (Disc 1: 8,10, Disc 2: 10,11)
*Derek French - Drums (Disc 2: 9-11)
Though they notched only two sizable hit singles, the Electric Prunes had a surprising wealth of 45s for a band that are still often unfairly tagged as one-hit wonders. Between 1966 and 1969, almost a dozen seven-inches bearing the Electric Prunes name were issued on Reprise. "The Electric Prunes name" is a key and necessary phrase, since by the time late 1968 rolled around, not a single member remained from the group who'd hit it big the previous year with "I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)." This compilation assembles all the tracks released on Electric Prunes singles between 1966 and 1969, acting almost as a snapshot of the evolution of psychedelic music during the period.
When the Prunes first started recorded for Reprise in 1966, however, they were literally right out of the garage, coming to the attention of producer Dave Hassinger after a real estate saleswoman heard them playing in a garage in the San Fernando Valley. Their non-charting debut "Ain't It Hard" was a pounding cover of a folk-rocker by the Gypsy Trips, with a blues-rock tinge not far removed from the Rolling Stones' recent Aftermath, an album Hassinger had engineered. Stonesy rock with a touch of raga was featured on the B-side, "Little Olive," an original by singer James Lowe.
The hint of weirdness became all-out experimental psychedelia on the next single, "I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)," right from the bee-humming riff that kicks the track into overdrive before a word's been uttered. Guitarist Ken Williams, Lowe told me in a 2000 interview, "had been shaking his Bigsby wiggle stick with some fuzztone and tremolo...Forward it was cool...backward it was amazing." While Lowe's vocals still dripped with garage band raunch, the eerie melody, subtly shifting spooky electronic whines and wobbles, and bad-trip lyrics took it to the edge of Top Ten. Unbelievably, this Annette Tucker-Nancie Mantz composition was, as bassist Mark Tulin noted to me in an interview the same year, worked up "from a demo that was slow with strings...Pure Vegas lounge-act material." Stones similarities reared their head again on the B-side, "Luvin'," though Tulin stated it wasn't their intention to imitate Aftermath. "But maybe that's the only way Dave Hassinger knew to record a harmonica or slide guitar," he surmised.
Tucker and Mantz were also responsible for the follow-up, "Get Me to the World on Time," which put unhinged psychedelia to a Bo Diddley beat and made it to #27 in Billboard – though that would, surprisingly, be the last Electric Prunes single to crack the Top Hundred. This time the unearthly what-could-be-making-that-noise intro is, according to Lowe, "Dave Hassinger groaning through a mic, into the tremolo on a Fender amp," though for James the song "always lacked something to me, a solo or something. We wanted to do some wild electronic effects and a tone generator is what we settled for." In Tulin's view, "'Get Me to the World on Time' was brought to us primarily because of the title. It was up to [us to] put credibility to their clever lyrics. I can guarantee there was no Bo Diddley beat when Annette played it on the piano."
The Tucker-Mantz team also penned the B-side, "Are You Lovin' Me More (But Enjoying It Less)," which gave rhythm guitarist Weasel (aka Jim Spagnola) a turn on lead vocals. "Most of their material sounded like it was written for a female vocalist," offered Lowe. "I felt a bit uncomfortable with some of it, but at the time we couldn't write anything as commercial, so we just did it."
While Tucker and Mantz were entrusted with the next 45, and Lowe says "we always had a laugh at the variety and scope of [their] images," in retrospect their "Dr. Do-Good" seems like a downright daffy choice for a fourth single. Sounding more like a horror movie theme run amok than a radio-ready hit, it crept to a mere #128 on the Billboard listings. That's Hassinger's maniacal laugh at the end, Lowe confirmed, as "I told him I couldn't do it and he kept showin' me how, so we said, 'You do it.'" Lowe and Tulin got one of their own numbers on the B-side, "Hideaway," which Mark characterized as "our attempt to synthesize the Indian style with the rock sensibility."
Another pair of tunes from their most innovative album, Underground, was chosen for the next single, with Lowe-Tulin compositions gracing each side. "The Great Banana Hoax" was only a little less weird than its title, at a time when, as Tulin said, "we were trying anything and everything to see what it would sound like." It missed the charts entirely, and in retrospect he felt "Hassinger lost interest in the band very quickly, as when there was not an obvious follow-up single to 'Get Me to the World on Time,' he thought the band wasn't worth bothering with at all. Dave was a single sales mentality in an album sales environment. We were just the opposite." Somewhere around the peak of their popularity, however, the group did find time to cut the instrumental track for a minute-long ad for Vox's then-new wah-wah pedal, included here as a bonus cut. "You can even make your guitar sound like a sitar!" exclaims an overexuberant Vox spokesman as the Prunes demonstrate the various ways in which the effect can be deployed.
Fortunately, the Prunes got one last chance to crack the singles market with a non-LP 45 before they'd get a complete overhaul. "Everybody Knows You're Not in Love" was almost normal enough to be a weird anomaly by Electric Prunes standards, though its bouncy pop was disrupted by some typically wobbly psychedelic guitar work in the instrumental break. Tulin thought "the demo we made was much better than what ended up being released," and more of the group's personality came through on the B-side, "You Never Had It Better." Equal parts abrasive, bluesy garage rock and fierce psychedelia with magnificent distorted guitar howls, it nonetheless suffered some dilution when a four-letter word was blanked out, though Mark admitted the band "knew that would never fly."
The last two-sided single issued by the lineup when Lowe and Tulin remained aboard was taken from their third album, Mass in F Minor. Neither these two tracks ("Sanctus" and "Credus") nor anything else on the LP, however, were written by the band, who were enlisted to perform a suite of Latin religious songs written and arranged by David Axelrod. "It was his baby," commented Lowe. "They wanted a sound from us to hang the mass on." Uncommercial even in comparison to the Prunes' recent singles, it too failed to chart. So did an odd megarare one-sided promotional 45 titled "Shadows," recorded for the film The Name of the Game Is Kill, that was far truer to the band's earlier psychedelic sound. "I think they wanted the Doors to do it," Lowe told Record Collector. "It sounds like a Doors song."
As the Electric Prunes name was owned by Axelrod's manager, Lenny Poncher, by the time of their fourth album (late 1968's Release of an Oath), none of the musicians who'd appeared on their prior releases remained. Both sides of their next single, "Help Us (Our Father, Our King)"/"The Adoration," were taken from this LP, another production featuring psychedelic arrangements of Axelrod-penned religious songs, this time based on the Jewish Kol Nidre prayer. "I think I wrote the whole goddamn album in, like, 48 hours," Axelrod told me in a 2006 interview. "I thought it came out pretty good."
The new Prunes also did a more conventional non-LP single, "Hey Mr. President"/"Flowing Smoothly." "Dave Hassinger had a bright idea about recording a topical, if not somewhat political song," drummer/singer Richard Whetstone told me in a 2006 interview. "Dave insisted that we record it. For the background vocals, [bassist/guitarist] Brett Wade and I sang falsetto into a microphone that was wired through a spinning Hammond B3 Leslie speaker." Wade wrote the B-side, and the group were able to record mostly original material for their final album, 1969's Just Good Old Rock and Roll.
Two singles drawn from that LP bring this collection to a close. "Violent Rose" sounds more San Francisco than Los Angeles with its carefree air and sunny harmonies, with its flipside, "Sell," boasting an organ-paced heavy rock sound closer to Steppenwolf than vintage Prunes. Traces of San Francisco acid rock can also be heard on their final 45, "Love Grows," though the flipside, "Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers," was co-penned by Jimmy Holiday, a co-author of Jackie DeShannon's 1969 hit "Put a Little Love in Your Heart." According to Whetstone, "Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers" was the one song Hassinger directed the latter-day Prunes to record besides "Hey Mr. President."
As Whetstone noted, this incarnation of the Prunes realized "the identity of Electric Prunes was with the original band. Quite frankly, as time has borne out, what made the Prunes popular was the original material, and 'Too Much to Dream' is the signature song of the group." Yet the Electric Prunes had much more to offer than just the one song with which they're most frequently associated. As this anthology proves, they were one of the most unpredictable psychedelic groups in a genre that thrived on unpredictability.
by Richie Unterberger
Tracks
1. Ain't It Hard (R. Tillison, T. Tillison) - 2:12
2. Little Olive (James Lowe) - 2:41
3. I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night (Annette Tucker, Nancy Mantz) - 3:00
4. Luvin' (Mark Tulin, James Lowe) - 2:07
5. Get Me To The World On Time (Annette Tucker, Jill Jones) - 2:33
6. Are You Loving Me More (Annette Tucker, Nancy Mantz) - 2:25
7. Dr. Do Good (Annette Tucker, Nancy Mantz) - 3:33
8. Hideaway (Mark Tulin, James Lowe) - 2:47
9. The Great Banana Hoax (Mark Tulin, James Lowe) - 3:20
10.Wind-Up Toys (Mark Tulin, James Lowe) - 2:30
11.Everybody Knows (You're Not In Love) (Mark Tulin, James Lowe) - 3:04
12.You Never Had It Better (Mark Tulin, James Lowe) - 2:08
13.Sanctus (David Axelrod) - 2:56
14.Credo (David Axelrod) - 5:00
15.Shadows (Gordon Phillips) - 2:24
16.Help Us (Our Father, Our King) (David Axelrod) - 3:19
17.The Adoration (David Axelrod) - 3:50
18.Hey Mr. President (Mark Barkan, Ritchie Adams) - 2:50
19.Flowing Smoothly (Brett Wade) - 3:06
20.Violent Rose (John Herron, Dick Whetstone) - 2:28
21.Sell (M. Herron, John Herron) - 3:20
22.Love Grows (Bill Daffern, John Fleck, Ron Morgan, Brett Wade) - 3:43
