Incredibly Strange Tis tong-poying record contains two full Coptelelbums each complete on one side cn unforgettable musical experiencePVC vo PN a Caacs lid——— Publishers/Editors: V. Vale/Andrea Juno Production Manager: Elizabeth Borowski Staff Photographers: Robert Waldman, Olivier Robert Production Staff: Mindaugis Bagdon, Maria Coletsis, Nicole Frantz, Mason Jones, Mary Ricci, Ken Sitz, Marian Wallace Book Design: Andrea Juno Communications Director: Chris’Trela Chief Consultant: Ken Werner Special Thanks to: Rex Doane, Tom Guido, and everyone else we couldn't interview ‘who sent us tapes and suggestions—you know who you are st/Foreign Rights: Ira Silverberg, NYC, Tel: 212-226-6580 Publi Copyright © 1994 by Re/Search Publications ISBN; 0-940642-21-2 BOOKSTORE DISTRIBUTION: Saint Paul, MN 55114-1065, “onsortiuin Book Sales & Distribution, 1045 Westgate Drive, S {612-221-9035 or 800-283-3572, FAX: 612-221-0124, NON BOOKSTORE DISTRIBUTION: Last Gasp. 777 Florida Si, San Francisco, CA 94110, TEL: 415-824-6636. FAN: 415-824-1836. UK. DISTRIBUTION: Airlift, 26 Eden Grove, London N7 TEL: 071-607-5792, FAX: 071-607-6714, gland, ‘SE for catalog: RE/SEARCH PUBLICATIONS, 1232 Pacific Ave an Francisco, CA 94109 (415) 771-7117 Printed in Hong Kong by Coloreraft Ld. Photostat service: Northern Lights, San Francisco 98765432 Eront Cover Albums: Music Ou of the Moon—Peace of Mind, © Capitol Records, Inc. Music featuring the Theremin, themes by Harry Revel. Album cover credits: cover posed by Virginia Clark of Earl Carroll's ‘Theatre, Hollywood. Photograph: Paul Garrison. Space Escapade by Les Baxter, © Capitol Records, Inc. Electronic Hair Pieces by Mort Garson, A&M Records. Produced by: EmGee Productions. Album cover credits: art director: Tom Wilkes, photography: Jim McCrary Music to Work or Study By by The Melachrino Orchestra, conducted by George Melache © RCA Victor a Back Cover Photo (of Jello Biafra): Robert Waldman The publishers would like to thank all the record companies who gave their permission to use album covers for this book, It has not been possible in all cases to trace the copyright sources used in this book and the publisher would be glad to hear from any such unacknowledged copyright hold112 122 132 142 150 168 172 176 180 188 194 203 208 216 ee ee ce ce ee ee ae JELLO BIAFRA RUSTY WARREN CHRIS LONG KEN NORDINE CANDI STRECKER KEN SITZ KORLA PANDIT DEAN SANTOMIERI ROBERT MOOG REV. WARREN DEBENHAM. JUAN GARCIA ESQUIVEL YMA SUMAC O. RODGER HARRIS ELISABETH WALDO IAN HARTLEY AL ENNIS BEBE BARRON QUOTATIONS CATALOG INDEXIncredibly Strange Music, Volume Two, continues the exploration of the territory spotlighted in Volume One: mostly out-of-print vinyl re- cordings from the ’50s-’70s which do not fit into the already critically scrutinized genres of rock, jazz, and classical music. (See the introduc- tion in Volume One, which need not be repeated here.) As inVolume One, we have included collectors who have remapped their own musical aesthetics (taking chances on records for a quarter or a dollar at garage sales and thrift stores). We also interview original artists re- sponsible for some of the most un- usual and imaginative recordings since the invention of the 12" LP: Bebe Barron, Juan Garcia Esquiv- el, Robert Moog, Ken Nordine, Kor- la Pandit, Yma Sumac, Elisabeth Waldo, and Rusty Warren. This is not a completist’s volume: there are thousands of undocument- ed recordings which have yet to be unearthed and appreciated—many of which were produced and dis- tributed only locally. A record may be worth owning if it has just one outstanding track, or perhaps just beautiful, provocative cover art- work (especially if it's cheap). A universe of unusual 45s awaits an encyclopedic overview, not to men- tion countless vinyl records from other countries. Readers (and trav- elers) are encouraged to have fun inventing their own categorizations and collecting specialties as they uncover an “incredibly strange” sonic past they never knew exist- ed, and which yet awaits rediscov- ery in the garages, attics and storerooms of the world. —V. Vale and Andrea Juno he Vangie’ Sound ne ted Pe2 per-cus-sive ee ‘2 f & =Jello Biafra is a self-described “cultural terrorist” who debuted as singer for the punk band Dead Kennedys in 1978, as well as a songwriter, spoken word activist and collage artist. While releasing numerous recordings, he has sustained a long history of societal provocation—and suffered a major arrest and “obscenity” trial in the ’80s over the inclusion of an HLR. Giger painting in a Dead Kennedys LP (he was acquitted, of course, but had to pay enormous legal bills). Biafra was the first person in American history to be put on trial over a record! He founded Alternative Tentacles (dedicated to keeping the independent recording scene alive), and since the ’70s has collected unusual vinyl from Brazil, the former U.S.S.R., Europe, Africa, and the Pacific Rim while touring the planet. Biafra’s contact address is PO Box 419092, San Francisco CA 94141, Qa + VALE: You were heavily involved in the censor: ship controversies of the 1990 election year, which have come and gone, supposedly — # BIAFRA: Total bullshit—not at all! It's getting worse and worse. Now the religious right has near-veto pow- er behind the scenes over a lot of TV programming, Ben Bendikian’s hook, The Media Monopoly, details corporate buyouts of TV networks, newspapers, ma: jor record labs id the dumbing. down effect this has on all kinds of culture. Tabloid journalism has now devolved into tabloid politics Pendikian and the group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting show how so-called news programs contain less anc! Jess actual news. Even the President can't get anyone to tune him in unless he goes on a talk show like Larry King. One of the worst forms of censorship going on today is: depriving people of basic informa- tion so they can make informed decisions about what to do with their lives and everybody clse’s lives. For example, only now is it coming out that one of jouw name it—i the most polluted places on earth is the former Tron. Curtain—in places like Poland, the water's so bad that people won't drink it because it has who knows how many types of erankcase oil in it. In Czechoslovakia the Bohemian forest is dead because of air pollution. ‘There are toxic dumps everywhere, especially around, military bases, and a Iot of this wouldn't have hap- pened if the corporate media hadn't censored all envi ronmental impact study information for so many: decades. The horrors of what that has led to over there are only just beginning to come out, Meanwhile, more and more information about how it’s collapsing here is just being pulled out of the news, All three of the major networks have closed their environmental bu- reaus in the past year! None of them bother making documentaries anymore. This is just one example of how we're deprived of information. People are now conditioned to worry more about a Marine getting his dick cut off than the societal collapse we're seeing all around us.The papers never talk about what the hole in the ozone really means. Sure, Reagan's secretary of the interior said, “No problem—people should just wear sunglasses.” Butwhat are all the ani- mals going todo? By the year 2001 we won't be Sending spaceships to Jupiter; swell be figur ing out how to find something to eat once the plankton are gone andall the animals heve gone blind and died. Vi Dive read that in Antarctica, which is the nearest to that hole in the ozone layer, are already going blind. 4 B:So arelivestock and who knows what els the southern part of South America. They Keep wandering into ponds and drowning! Australia's now the skin cancer capital of the world. People cover themselves Islamic-style as the atmosphere turns into Swiss cheese. There's two holes now—there’sone above the North Pole, too. With corporate media designed to keep people obedient and asleep. who's left to tell people whats really going on? Artists! Musiefans. So naturally music censor- shipisgetting worse. On my records I've detailed the impact of having “Parental Advisory” stickers on them, which hast’ le to the censorship people back- ing off—now state legislators are pushing for making Tipper Gore's “Parental Advisory” stickers the legal equivalent of an x-rating, so stores can be prosecuted for selling them to minors or even selling them at all. The state of Washington passed the worst music sorship law in the country, banning all so-alled “eo ic” music. Meanwhile, it appears as though the Catholic hier archy and the christian religious right have finally made peace with each other—at least forming a mar iage of convenience in hopes of bannin; free speech and turning America into even more of a theocracy than it already is, With almost a fundamien- talise chris jority on the Supreme Court, Reh nquist has come out and said the wall of separation between church and state should be “frankly and ex plicitly abandoned”! Clarence “Uncle” Thomas goes to the same holy-roller church that Oliver North at- tends, where people roll on the floor and speak in tongues. Clinton’s justice, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, votedwith Thomas a majority of the time wien they were both on the U.S. Court of Appeals. Scalia is extreme rightwing Pat Buchanan school of Catholi, 90 bet you're probably going to see school prayer and a lot of other stuff rammed hack dawn people's throats by law within a few years. So this unholy alliance means that rather than work- ing separately to try to censor things like films and books, they're working together now. Cardinal Malo- ny in L.A. came out with a demand that movie studios revert back to the early versions of the Hays Of code from 1934, i Ve What about this Washington state lave? # B: Luckily a court threw it out; at least for this tim The irony is: this happened when Seattle was being hailed as the new rock'n'roll eapitol of America, tons of popular new bands including Nirvana who the overnor praised for all the dollar bills they'd brought to the state of Washington. But under this law he Jhuding a ban on “lustful kissing. d, their records were classified obseene in their home state! ‘The religious right is also out to erush the environ: mental movement. Everyone from Pat Rahertsor Jesse Helms to Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church as well as James Watt hind a new, orchestrated, fake “grassroots uprising” in the Northwest ealled the ‘Wise Use” movement, Their idea af wise use is: clear: cutting forests, strip-mining, oil drilling everywhere king national parks available for ditt bikes, jeeps, motor boats and even theme parks! They smear environmentalists as “devil worshipping pagans more interested in trees than people” After all, we should strip the planet of what's left as fast as possible be- cause Jesus will replenish itall when he returns. Creeps like Watt actually believe this! So if you're on god's side, you're supposed to support this “wise use” move ‘ment and cut off all dialogue with your neighbors on the other side, thus erasing the middle ground and fanning hostilities in dying Northwestern logging Another example of media manipulation is Opera- tion Desert Scam: not just whipping draft-age people into a frenzy and getting older people to forget ‘nam and support it with yellow-ribbonism—they even hit the little kids this time with Operation Desert Storm bubble-gam cards! Here's one of a Tomahawk missile painted bright penile red—it looks just like a flying vibrator! What kind of mutant children are we doing to get when shey reach draft age, growing up on “sports heroes” like Norman Schwarzkopf? ‘There's 4 high-fashion sunset shot of carpet bombing, complete with a “batting average” on the back telling. little kids how it works and what fu itis. The urgent question isn’t, “Who killed JFK2” but “Where are they now?” The answer, of course, they're running things! All those militant kids in suits and ties who attended the Young Americans for Free dom conventions in the °60s and worshipped Richard Nixon and Barry Goldwater are now in charge and getting revenge on any sort of consciousness that eame out of the ’60s ... by the way, does anyone have any Y.AR. sing-along records? They had a whole set of anthems, with lyries like “Back to back, belly to belly/ Burn their bodies with Napalm Jelly/Put the goo on ger, Joan Baez. was a real torch singer." I err I was inspired by the music critic of the Denver Post—he was so square! When he trashed somebody like Black Sabbath, he'd go out of his way to compare them to other bands he loathed, thus giving me that many more names to look for. Almost anytime you see “Hawaiian War Chant” on an album, that’s a dead giveaway that you're dealing with the bottom of the barrel in ethno-exploitation. ct That led me to his album, Drioms and More Drams—a great romp through rockin’ exotica that Swing For a Crime allyum fans would love, Jungle Drums by the SHANGAANS contains my favorite version of “Ta- boo,” but there isa problem, as the liner notes reveal: “The fusion of conventional Western world melodies and lyrics pulsating with African tribal rhythms as perfected by South Africa’s top group”—guess what color they are?! ‘The cover shows all these Africanyou can bet the South ce wouldn't dare lis- is in front of white guy African government and audi ten to what was actually being played by the people who made the instruments. “Taboo” has rock guitar in it, as does their song “Voodoo Drums"—voodoo is actually Haitian, but here it's applied to Africa as well. {peertie> Vanilla Ice is the Pat Boone of rap! Those same major labels never would have pushed so hard to package the “grunge” trend if they weren't so desperate to steer that huge white suburban twenty-something audience away from political black music. Sum Sorcery! by SABU and His Percussion Ensemble, on Columbia's Adventures in Sound series, shows a white woman with Oriental eye make-up. Dig these liner notes: “In the old jungles, strange ache-hungry birds ‘watch from trees thi ng. Small loinelothed ‘men step through overgrown verdure.... Here a mat ing call and a death rattle uttered by sep: independent beasts combine into a peculiar and h: ing chime. The whine of a mateless mammal and the ticking of some hundred tiny pests occur haphazardly together to give an orchestra of blood and friction"— what a great name for a band! “This is the rhythmic magic of birth and rot ... corpses and genes well mixed in a great stew of fertility, reproduction and decay. Sabu has heard allthis, and much, much more.” But from listening to this record, it sounds ike “Sabu” was just some bowtie session musicians hired to eut a castvin ethno-exotica record—and be quick about it! Here's an aside: an example of racial segregation. today, just like there was in early rock'n'roll (where Little Richard couldn't get a song on the pop charts unless Pat Boone covered it), is the massive push be hind Vanilla Tee, and earlier, The Beastie Boys. It’ way of taking young white people's interest in hip-hop and transferring it to white “stars” who won't say the kind of content that Public Enemy and lee-T speak. ‘They haven't found their BeeGees yet, but give ‘em time, They found their Pat Boone—Vanilla lee is the Pat Boone of rap! Those same major labels never would Ihave pushed so hard to package the “grunge” trend if they weren't so desperate to steer that huge white suburban twenty-something audience away from po- litical black music. One of my favorite guitar instrumentalists is ALVI- NO REY, the orchestra conductor for the King Family wiltand in his earlier days, who could play about any stringed instrument you can name. He invented the blow-hag guitar made notorious by Peter Frampton and Joe sh, where you stick a tube in your mouth so your Suitar has that twoinky hollow kazoo-like sound. On his Greatest Hits album (featuring re-recondings on Dor), his version of “Tiger Rog” must be heard to be believed, and there's half-hula, halfcountry steel gui tar with Iyrics that would drive Tipper Gore up the wall if reinterpreted into today’s lingo. Theard some great guitar instrumental music at a Chinese restaurant, but they wouldn't (or couldn's) tell me who it was by. Then I found an album by a Hong Kong band led by a guy who looks to be bit ofa hunchback, TEDDY ROBIN & the Playboys. All but cone song is nasal Chinese chirpy Herman's Hermits type Merseybeat, but in the mide is one of the most rip-roaring biker-flck guitar instrumentals T've ever heard, called “Teddy's Tune.” He later made a great psye album. I've heard he's still alive. # Vi There are some great cassette tapes as well as ie videos available from Indian, Vietnamese, , Chinese, Hispanic and Fili- pino stores. You have to wade through a lot, though. # B: Bxotica-influenced rock is alive and well. Exotica never died, it just keeps infecting new hosts. Besides Dick Dale's Middle-Eastern susfinstrumes tons of junglesax and spy-movie/rock singles that never tin up on compilato purists, I guess. One example would be RAY from Turkey, who's been blendin ‘music with psychedelic rock for at east 25 years. He's ‘way more rock and deliciously Mid-Bastern than some one like Dissidenten. He'll still throw in something like a SAM THE SHAM cover on an album. Hound is, there’s Fy‘he Spt Karel Reser those Turkish import shops! At his best he reminds me of a male DANIELLE DAX, Dax is an English clectronies genius and multi-instrumentalist who pro- duces her own records and designs the covers. She used to be in the Lemon Kittens and is on United Dairies comps. She's becoming Top Forty but still retains a lot of what's cool about her. Her voice is 1920s slithery-sultry, like Mare Bolan’s voice on the first two acoustic TYRANNOSAURUS REX albums. lations for Danielle Dax fans would , and an Israeli album by EHUD BANAI and the Refugees. There's even the Turkish Delight CD—a wall-oF-guitar hybrid of Turk: ish music and Killing Joke or Big Black, done by an immigrant in Berlin. An Egyptian guitarist named OMAR KARSHID produced belly-dancing albums which occasionally in cluded cover versions of tunes like “Apache.” After producing at least a dozen albums, he died during what the moneyed Egyptian elite indulge in: drag racing to the pyramids! Another Lebanese musician, ELIAS RAHBANI, recorded some interesting records, and the DEVILS ANVIL produced some strange hard- rock from the Middle East. But the definitive blend of Rock/Middle-Eastern happened in the late 60s in Ts rael a band called the CHURCHILLS. Their LP sounds like the first Pink Floyd album with SYD BARRETT, but played on Mid-Eastern instruments—it's thar good and is one of my all-time favorites. Some of the European space rock of the early "70s hhad a distinct exotica feel, aside from having some of the most mind-blowing covers ever designed: like BRAIN TICKET from Switzerland (reissued on CD) or GILA from Germany. Basically, this represents the missing link between electronic avantgarde and psy- chedelia, The legendary OHR and BRAIN labels 20 launched a lot ofthese records. This was a huge scene, and itled to bands like Nurse with Wound and Legend ary Pink Dotslater on. A lot ofthe originators are New Age mello-drones now. +4 ¢ JAPAN 6 4 6 Here I'l mention the kabuki-rock blend album 1 always hoped someone would do: Bencaiten by OS: AMU KITAJIMA. Ifanybody knows of more Japanese recordings like this, by all means flood my mailbox immediately! In Japan, where to this day the VEN- ‘TURES remain very big, you can buy entire albums of the Ventures covering Japanese pop tunes and tradi- tional folk songs—albums that were only released over there, The Ventures inspired native bands o doa lot of great twangy guitar, rock, and instrumental versions of Japanese folk songs. | have an LP by TAKESHI TERAUCHI and the BLUE JEANS, and it's one of the best instrumental albums T've ever heard. Terauchi is seen as keyin the development of this kind of music in Japan. Japan seems to have the most extreme hardcore hands, the most extreme metal bands, the most ex- treme noise bands, the most extreme industrial bands, and the weirdest pop musie. Sometimes the same peo: ple move between different categories. The BORE- DOMS (released in the U.S. on Shimmydise, but now they're on Wamers—ick!) give a whiff ofall that is. extreme in the Japanese underground. Other favorites include GISM (hardeore and metal) led by Sakevi, who put out a full-color book totally devoted to death: interviews with a PLO terrorist, articles on diseases, the mandatory interview with Genesis P-Ortidge, ete and the ultra-brutal pounding noise to primal scream of ZENI GEVA (now on Alternative Tentacles). Some of these hardeore-noise bands not only distort the Qari The Iron Curtain is still great for finding records that break the mold, although I don’t know how Iong that will last: “You play tuba? Join the band!” amendats {uitar, but the bass as well, Finally a band called LSD thought, “Why not distort the vocals, too?” The pinna- cle of sonic attack that hardcore and noise has reached, hhas come out of Japan Novr Seattle's gotten the Gisr Zeni Geva treatment in the form of the Cop AssGrind- er2—Llove what some of these bands do to the English language! One band modestly called GOD put out an inch (yes, 8-inch) record titled “Get Down Vals, I Want to Flapple and Train.’ Ifyou like Shonen Knife, brace yourself for PAPA-YA PARANOIA: ive women in geisha-girl garb witha few punk necklaces plus spiked heels who are classi cally trained: they sound somewhere between the B: 525 and No Means No with a good dose of FETUS thrown in, and with vocals ranging from a chirp to a seream. In the 60s, some Japanese musicians recorded a hardpsych album in Hollywood under the nsme EAST (on Capitol); it has a lot of Japanese ethnic influences rarely found in psychedelic rock records. eis When the drugs, the consciousness- expansion and the rebellion began being expressed by bands, the record companies were at a complete loss: they asked, “How do we keep the ‘happy’ side of flower power, but leave out the drugs and revolution?” a ee 4 4 ¢ IRONCURTAIN + + + + V: What are the strangest records you have from behind the Iron Curtain? #B: The Iron Curtain is still great for finding records, that break the mold, although I don’t know how lo that will last: “You play tuba? Join the band!” Soviet New Wave is really mutant. One band even tried to be the Stray Cats, complete with Confederate flags, and their music is so crude that today’s deliberately lo-fi “trashabilly” crowd couldn't sound like this if they tried! Rock is most interesting in these places right before Western non-culture avalanehes in, Not only do native folk melodies creep into punk and psych, but sometimes the way they interpret precious tidbits of Western sounds is really bizarre, especially if the gow- ernment’s involved. Lately I've been fascinated by So- viet New Wave—not Russian, Soviet. For a USSR band to record (or even exist) they had to be government approved and certified “professional.” You were either “professional” or you couldn’t play. To keep youth at bay they had to let Western rock'n'roll in—buit only so Jar (Blondie, ‘Talking Heads). Needless to say, these “New Wave” government musicians never quite got it right, A Soviet band called ARERA has produced totally ‘weird, mutant lounge music; I consider them “the and at the cireus at the edge of the world.” They even do a mariachi medley... One of my favorite guitar instrumental albums is Romanian Pop Music II (1965) which is very happy-go-lucky twanging guitar instru- ‘mentals, like a schmaltzfied SPOTNICKS or middle- of-the-road VENTURES. But what makes it eerie is imagining Ceaceseu in the background gloating, “This a is what you will like as “pop musie’—you will be happy and sedated, or else." I have to get more Romanian music—that, and the uniquely Carpathian pro- gressive-rock of PHOENIX, are the only ones I've found so far KOLA BELDY (singer, backed by WHITE ISLAND) produced a record which is unclassifiable; the vocals sound like Native American chants over the more tranee-like material on the POP GROUP? first album, but with the percussion subtracted, Kola is a singing Eskimo crooner in full arctic garbt ... Lhave a record by a Russian heavy metal band, CRUISE-1, and even though they look as ridiculous as any commercial American band, the “Volga Boatmen Song” influence is very prevalent in their sound—Td call it “Cossack Metal.” They're very promising indeed. I have a hort. ble fear that this is all going to be ost soon, as Western music floods in. Country by country, the other great dumbing down of world culture is caused by (besides television) rock’n'roll—particularly hardcore and met al, From Hungary to Columbia to Malaysia to South Africa to Huntington Beach, you can find hardcore and thrash-metal bands that sound exactly alike Once we got a letter from Hungary asking for records, so I sent them a record with a note, “Send a Hungarian record back.” What did 1 get but Hovalett by NAGY FERO, backed by the band BIKINI, Appar ently Nagy Fero was the leader and singer of a Hun: garian Sex Pistols-equivalent called BEATRICE. Beatrice was banined from recording, but the govern ment grudgingly agreed to let Fero make an allnm with session musicians, and what he eame up with is possibly the most unclassifiable punk album ever made, Everything from CRASS and Ritchie Blackmore to Chinese pop musi, violin solos, industrial synthesizerand ska can be found on one record—sometimes in the same song! Even dwarfing him, in some ways, is VAGTAZO. HALOTTKEMEK (VHK for short) which translates as “The Galloping Coroners.” They've been together for about fifteen years (meaning, pre-punk) and havea history of some serious government persecution, simi- (Peceerenisreme The kings of mutant rock packaging come from the French-Canadian scene of the mid-’60s. Every member of Les Classels had their hair dyed not just blonde but silvery-white, with white suits to match—an entire group of Men From Glad! amma pcm lar to that of the Plastic People of the Universe in Czechoslovakia, and Brazil's Modulo 1000 (mentioned earlier). They were banned from performing for elev main acknowledged influences are a Sumac, and Amon Duul I (the ea cophonous predecessor to Amon Duul I), and the visuals at their live shows in Budapest are like BUTT HOLE SURFERS with GWARsize props, dancers, and a tympani player. At one of these extravaganzas they even had people on cables high above, dropping meat con the audience! ‘Their singer, Atila Grandpierre, is an astrophysics professor by day: He's fascinated by Native American shamanism, which he studies to find ‘ways to better hypnotize and affect the minds of the audience! Their ambition is to play on an American Indian reservation. A nuclear physicist plays bass, and they are literally a band of mad scientists. They really do have a hypnotic effect, and reportedly have put people in trances ‘+ PSEUDO-PSYCHEDELIC & PSYCHEDELIC ¢ Now it’s time to move to pseudo-psychedelic, like the Lemon Pipers and the Grass Roots. When the drugs, the consciousness-expansion and the rebellion began being expressed by bands, the recor companies were at a complete loss: “Do we dare touch these ple oF not? What do we try to sellin their place? Since there was so much going on in fashion (mean: ing: a baby-boomer crop to buy lots of clathes) they asked, “How do we keep the ‘happy’ side of flower power, but leave out the drugs and revolution?” Before Jong, old Hollywood jingle writers and retreads had Beatle wigs and checkered bellbottoms. Everyone from the Mamas and Papas to the King Family had flower ych album graphics! HOMER & JETHRO released ‘There's Nothing Like an Old Hippie, with songs like “Hillbilly Hippie.” “I Crept into the Crypt and Cried, Hawkwind, and “World’s Oldest Teenager.” And let's not forget The Creweuts Go Longhair Ina similar way in the past, the record industry had fotten singers ike Tennessee Ernie Ford to do rhythia “n’ blues songs but strip away the sexual innuendo, so that songs ike “Catfish Boogie" or “Blackberry Boo: ic” really would be about fishing or picking blackber- rics! Capitol released The Happening: Adventures in the Strange New Mind-Manifesting Music by FIRE & ICE, LIND. Basically, through two sides of a major label album some people try to do a beatnik vocal jam and fat on their faces. Ths isthe sort of thing 1 would have expected from Crown, not Capitol More than Crown, the kings of pseudo-psychedelia have to be the ALSHIRE & SOMERSET labels, who churned out loungey-schmaltay versions of “Hair Aquarius,” “Yellow Submarine” and “Back in the USSR" suitable to play for mom. The cover ofthis LP by John Bunyan’s Progressive Pilgrims shows 1963 sniniskirt go-go girls (but in 1970!) with the caption, “The sound that sent the pilgrims on a trip!" Somer. set/101 Strings did Astro Sounds from Beyond the Year 2000 which was a serious psych-out album with moog and guitar. The 101 Strings even put out pornographic novelty singles, as well as an endless line of albums like The Young Sound "68: Out of Sight Hits for the Now People (like “San Jose” and “MacArthur Park"); Crys tal Blue Persuasion and Other Sounds of Today by the ORANGE GROOVE; Sock 11 To Me by the NOW GEN- ERATION; Blockbusters by the Young Sounds of To- Oryan Freakout by The MUSTANG ... and all the covers are from the same photo session. In particu: las, ANIMATED EGG has a strong track or two, Call day "he 6 enue Conca Off On A 200 Conary Cle Sena Recor. Atm over ee cver os Capel Mt Sd Di row