Saturday Vinyl - Ultimate Spinach

ULTIMATE SPINACH is growing...expanding and exploding with myriad consciousness, laughter, feelings, thoughts, ideas...Barbara looking out at the world through a pierced retina, always the Jolly Green Earth Mother to us all...Richard continues his forever search for the eternal black horse...while Keith races, enlightened, out of the nineteenth century looking like a modern Diogenes on a ten-speed bicycle.

MGM Records SE-4518 1968

Yes! You're in for a heaping dose of 60's psychedelia here when you got liner notes that start like that! Ultimate Spinach's first album is one of those records that I've never gotten tired of playing. Probably because I don't play it too often. But when I do, I always enjoy it.

Released in January of 1968 their 1st album is probably their best known and most successful. It actually got as high as number 34 on the Billboard 200. Coming out of Boston and marketed as part of the "Bosstown Sound" intended as the east-coast response to the San Francisco sound, the band was Ian Bruce-Douglas on vocals, player of most of the instruments, songwriter and guru of the band. Well maybe guru is a fancy way of calling him the band's leader. He also wrote the liner notes for this album. Lengthy liner notes that continue in style to what you have above. The other members were Barbara Hudson on vocals and guitar, Keith Lahteinen on drums, Richard Nese on bass, and Geoffrey Winthropon on guitar and sitar.

The record is composed of nine cuts, with each song explained, well kind of explained, in the liner notes. I'm sure I've read the songs' notes, but really, one doesn't have to read them to enjoy the songs. It's the usual 60's tropes here, and nothing earthshaking. Youthful earnestness and anti-establishment rebellion combined with poetic angst swimming in a lot of keyboards and guitar, and you get the idea. That said, the songs, all of them, are pretty good if you're a fan of psychedelic music.

Gateway sleeve, liner notes by Ian Bruce-Douglas

Later in the year, Ultimate Spinach released a second album, but personnel changes and burnout were dampening the thrill. Psychedelic music travels best in short and brilliant journeys. It's not something you're going to pack for a long trip with. In 1969 the band released a third album which crashed right out of the gate. By the end of the 60's the band was no more.

You can check out their songs in all the usual places. I've seen their first two albums occasionally in the used record stores. I screwed up not buying the second one when I had the chance, but it'll show up again some day. As for their third record, well...I think I'll stick to the ones the band liked.

BANG, baa-rOOM and HARP - Dick Schory's New Percussion Ensemble

Stop coddling your Hi-Fi Set!

RCA Victor LPM - 1866, released 1958

This is one from my small but growing Exotica - Space Age - Lounge collection of LP's that I've got on the shelf. I saw this one and bought it purely for the cover and was not disappointed.

Recorded on June 2nd and 3rd, 1958, in Orchestra Hall, Chicago, BANG BaarOOM and HARP is cacophony of percussive instruments performing various tunes arranged by the likes of Skitch Henderson, Bobby Christian and Dick Schory. It sounds fantastic on the turntable, as the record bounces through tunes like "Baia", "September in the Rain" and "The Sheik of Araby" to name a few.

The extensive liner notes by Bob Bollard on the back of the cover give a detailed rundown of the recording process, and includes what he calls "an approximate instrument inventory", of which I'll name a couple here:

3 Vibraphones, 2 Xylophones, 4 Gongs, 8 Timpani, Boo Bam, Timbales, Bongo Drums, Banjo, Harp, Auto Brake Drums, 2 Slapsticks, 2 guitars, 1 Anvil, Coo-Coo Whistle, Siren Whistle, Slide Whistle, Piano, Chromatic Cowbells (take that, Blue Oyster Cult!) and 3 Snare Drums! That's not even half of the list provided.

Fans of Space Age will likely dig this platter. I don't know if it's available on CD, but I imagine with a little hunting one might snag a copy of the album somewhere.

White Witch

You never know what you'll turn up just digging through the miscellaneous record bins in the used stores. For example, a couple of weeks ago I found this cool relic from the past.

White Witch - Capricorn Records - 1972

The second I saw this cover I pretty much knew that I had to buy it. And at $5.99 it was over and done and sold. Later on I looked White Witch up online and discovered that they're from my hometown of Tampa Florida. I was in grade school when this record came out, so anything White Witch was doing at the time went way over my radar. I did have a have a favorite babysitter who might have been into them, who knows...she kind of had her finger on the pulse of the rock scene at the time. (No wonder I had a crush on her, but that's another story.)

Released in 1972 on Capricorn Records, White Witch is Ronn Goedert: lead vocals, Buddy Pendergrass: organ, piano and mood, Buddy Richardson on lead guitar, Beau Fisher on bass guitar and Bobby Shea on drums.

Musically, they're all over the map on this, their first of 2 albums. I've seen online that many people prefer their second album to this one. This record does his its "swing for the bleachers" feel about it, but you can't blame the band for that. Tampa Florida wasn't the sort of place to find fame and glory back then. I understand they opened for Alice Cooper and other big names at the time. From the music on this record it sounds like they would have been a good time live.

So, for your listening pleasure, here is a cut from White Snake named "Illusion". It's a wild one!

Pretty Things start the Seventies

Contemporaries of the Stones, Pretty Things were, for many 60s garage fans an edgier, nastier band that never got the mainstream attention they deserved. Maybe that's a good thing if fame brings bloat and complacency. After briefly playing in an early incarnation of the Rolling Stones in 1962, Dick Taylor formed Pretty Things with vocalist Phil May, and promptly released a handful of garage classics like "Rosalyn", "Don't Bring Me Down", and "Road Runner" to fans eager to slam into the stage and each other in dingy dance halls. The 60's saw the Pretties release three albums before creating what most consider their definitive classic S.F. Sorrow.

Recorded at Abbey Roads Studios, S.F. Sorrow is considered one of the first concept albums, next to The Who's, Tommy. Engineered by Norman Smith, S.F. Sorrow is a blend of psychedelic and hard rock that should have sold a mint, but was lost in a year of monster releases by The Beatles, Pink Floyd and The Kinks. Poor management, bad promotions, line-up changes and touring mishaps did little to help The Pretties earn the commercial successes that lessor bands found. S.F. Sorrow would be their last album in a decade that produced what many consider to be Pretty Thing's best material.

I was introduced to the Pretty Things about 10 years ago by a young guy working in a now gone record store in Tempe Arizona. He also told me to "stay away from their 70s stuff."

Well, I don't always listen to advice, and had heard that their first album in the 70s, Parachute, released in 1970 is considered another forgotten classic. With a lineup that includes Phil May doing vocals, Wally Waller on bass, John Povey on keyboards, Skip Allen on drums, and Vic Unitt on guitar, Parachute is another terrific record that fell under the radar for rock fans who got fed CSN, Jefferson Airplane, James Taylor and Grand Funk Railroad instead.

Here is "Cries from the Midnight Chorus" which is the 8th track on the first side of the album.

Classic Psychedelic Rock - Clear Light

To fully appreciate the spectacular sound of double drumming in CLEAR LIGHT, play this record at high volume.

Clear Light - Electra Records

All right, I've played this record loud a handful of times. In fact I'm playing it now as I write this to get into the groove, I can hear the dogs howling outside. But I have to say, I'm not getting the spectacular sound of double drumming. What I do get is a pretty decent psychedelic record from 1967 that pretty much went nowhere when it was released. I'm sure that Electra had ideas of having Clear Light ride the success of their other little combo at the time, The Doors. Hell, the kids really dig that new sound, and here we've got a handful of guys that look like a rock band, so let's sign 'em up, boys!

Members of the band listed on this record are: Cliff De Young - lead vocal, Bob Seal - guitar, Ralph Schuckett - organ, piano and celeste, Douglas Lubahn - bass guitar, Dallas Taylor - drums, Michael Ney - drums & percussion. And to round out the credits we have Robbie Robison - guru and Lee Housekeeper - seer and overseer. Produced by Paul A. Rothchild.

As for the music, it's a pretty fair example of rock and psyche blend. Sometimes it feels like the band is having an identity crises, which might explain why this is their one and only offering as Clear Light. Afterwards members of the band all went on to more successful ventures. Now, almost 50 years later, record nerds like me find their one and only album in plastic wraps stocked among assorted duds and nuggets in downtown record stores. I've seen copies of it a few times since picking up mine. I would imagine the prices asked for it are far more than the guys in Clear Light would have dreamed of. Actually, I didn't pay all that much; $9.99 plus tax; a good deal for a nice clean playing record. You can see a little wear on the edge of the cover, but I'm not complaining. I think it's also been released on CD, so you might see it there in your jaunts downtown.

I still don't get the need for two drummers though...

Saturday Night Vinyl - Les Baxter Caribbean Moonlight

In this album arranger-conductor Les Baxter expresses the soft moods of the islands at night. The music suggests impressions rather than photographs. It evokes images of moonlit jungles and wave-washed beaches, of gardens sending the heady fragrance of orchids and bougainvillea into the night air.

Capital Records - 1956

Yeah, it is all that, what's said on the liner notes above, but I also see Robert Mitchum making out with Jane Greer on a moonlit beach in Mexico too. Okay, I'm a big fan of Out of the Past, so that's an easy one. Mostly, Les Baxter's Caribbean Moonlight is one of my top favorite records to put on during the early hours of a cocktail party or when I just feel like chilling alone. Arizona is a long way from any Caribbean moonlight but this record is a cool substitute. It's one of those records that glides through multiple listens without a hitch, that's the perfect backdrop for the tinkling of melting ice in a cold highball, or just cool listening to lush Exotica at its best.

I came by this album through a member of the family that was getting rid of their records. I really liked the cover and took it along with some other records that I don't play near as much as this one. It was also one of the first albums in the Exotica genre to join my mostly not so great 70s and 80s hard rock records - the ones I hide from public view. It was about time that something came along to class my collection up a bit! Since then I've gathered some nice additions, but Caribbean Moonlight still holds a top tier in my faves. Linked here is "Taboo" (Margarita Lecuona - Bob Russell) the first cut from the album.

Saturday Night Vinyl - Portrait of Leda

Leda sings blood music. D.H. Lawrence would have understood her. 

Columbia - WL 114, 1958

Well, if D.H. Lawrence would have understood Leda Annest, then he must have been some amazing kind of cat! This 1958 record Portrait of Leda by Leda Annest and Phil Moore is one of the more unusual albums I've found and taken home. I'd never heard of Leda Annest before picking this one up out of a box labelled "unclassifiable" at an old favorite record store I like to visit. I'd say it's somewhere between exotica and orchestra. The long liner notes on the back of the cover describe it best, "To listen to Leda is to hear the secret voices of the wellsprings of life come to the ear one after the other...I have seen a group of businessmen who listened to Leda together fall into consternation and embarrassment."

This must have been quite a platter to drop on that unsuspecting kitten invited up to a bachelor's apartment for a nightcap. It's got one objective in mind: Sex! Deep, dark, sloppy, wild sex! Leda's voice runs from the guttural to tortured to angelic, all in the space of three long tracks on this record. I'm betting, though, that when played for that neat little chick in 1958, there was too much going on in the dark for anyone to get up and flip the record over. The liner notes in back warn the listener that it's a record best played alone. To let Leda "find you, touch you, know you...you'll be richer for it."

Some years later, a certain phony artist who married a well known Beatle tried recording songs with a similar method. She ended up making cats in heat fighting with screeching babies sound better. Unfortunately, she's the punchline for singing in the style Leda Annest does here. And it's a safe bet that more people know this certain Beatle widow than anyone remembering Leda Annest. That's a shame, because Leda is definitely the real deal when it comes to belting out savage, seductive siren wail of the "soul-psyche-soma."

Find Portrait of Leda, and play it at your own risk. Don't say you weren't warned.

Sunday Morning Vinyl - Martin Denny - Exotic Percussion

I'm a big time sucker for vintage album cover art, and this cover is one of my favorites. The music inside is also irresistible.

Liberty Records, cover design Pete/Francis & Associates

The theme of this 1961 LP is a sort of East meets West vibe with the use of "exotic instruments" to play western melodies. The instruments in question include Burmese gongs, wood chimes, steel chimes, a three-stringed Japanese lute, a magna harp, wind chimes, a Hawaiian gourd, piccolo xylophones and bamboo percussion heads, and as always, the piano played by Martin Denny.

In addition to Martin Denny, the players are: August Colon, Julius Wechter, Harvey Ragsdale and Frank Kim.

As for the cover, I don't think this is Sandy Warner, who is on many of Denny's exotica LP's at the time. She looks a lot like her though.

This is great music to accompany that cocktail party featuring those sweet tasting drinks that sneak up on you about the third one in. Next thing you know you're the big kahuna swaying to the music and making a fool of yourself for the cute babe in the corner next to the black velvet painting. Or maybe she's got a special little dance of her own to lay on you instead...

"The Sound Your Eyes Can Follow"

One of my favorite things to do is dig through old vinyl records in various thrift stores around town. I don't go looking for that rare collector's item that I can resell for a small fortune. Instead I look for music that's going to get played on my stereo at home in my small living room, for an audience of no one but myself. A few weeks ago I was perusing through a stash of records in the back of a hidden thrift store, enjoying some of the vintage covers found therein when I found three records by Esquivel and his Orchestra.

I'd heard of Esquivel before from various "Space-Age Bachelor Pad" collections that I'd picked up in CDs back in the nineties. But this was my first time finding a couple of his albums on vinyl. My first thought is that they were probably trashed, warped and fried, but a quick look at each showed no obvious scratches or warps. My next pleasant surprise was that the woman behind the counter only charged me a buck each for them. Had I been in some hipster cave near a college campus I would have no doubt been asked to shell out an outrageously inflated amount by some pierced and tatted twit only half my age, all for the cost of being cool. Thankfully that wasn't the case. I've got a special trunk of gripes for shop-keepers who think that anything older than 1982 automatically relegates it to "vintage" status, and therefore want to charge folks far far more than the item would ever be worth in the best of conditions. (I'm thinking of one old bookstore owner who slapped a $35 sticker on a 1970's Harlan Ellison paperback with half its back cover torn away!) I see that shit and I let my friends know. But I'm going off the rails here. This is supposed to be about Esquivel and his stereo wizardry.

This is music for hi-fi geeks who probably had the best stereo systems of the day and the worst luck at getting willing women to come in for a listen.

Anyway, somewhere in the nineties there was a resurgent interest in these old records, with their zooming crescendos, exotic instruments, bird-calls, whistles, zu-zu's and feminine breathlessness nuzzling the eardrums. And there is no shortage of stuff out there; from the likes of Esquivel, Martin Denny, Les Baxter, Pete Rugolo, Alvino Rey, Dean Elliott and gang. A whole swath of lounge, exotica and space-age music found an audience all over again. Happy listening...

Saturday Morning Psychedelic - Blues Magoos

Actually they're more a blend of garage and psych than purely psychedelic, but they did have the gumption to put "psychedelic" in the title of their first album for Psychedelic Lollipop on Mercury Records in 1966. I think it's a great title, myself. Tells you right away what you're getting when you flip that vinyl on the turntable and have the kids gather around to dig the sounds...

The album features their original hit, "(We Ain't Got) Nothing Yet" among a selection of originals and covers, including "Tobacco Road" (J.D. Loudermilk) and "I'll Go Crazy" by James Brown. The whole record is a gas, to borrow an ancient term, and I was happy to find a nice copy of it on vinyl recently.

Line up on the album is Ralph Scala - "Quiet, Shy, Good-Looking, plays his organ while singing." Ronnie Gilbert - "Loud, Funny, Lazy, plays bass." Peppy Thielheim - "An Idol, Lovable, '17', Drop-out, plays rhythm guitar." Mike Esposito - "Psyched Out, Warm, Friendly, Rich, plays lead guitar. And Geoff Daking - "Blond, Beautiful, Straight, plays drums."

Linked here is their song "Sometimes I Think About" written by Gilbert-Scala-Thielheim-Esposito and produced by Bob Wyld and Art Polhemus.  Noted here is that the liner notes taken from the album cover say that it's Thielheim and not Thielhelm as I've seen elsewhere. Perhaps someone who knows more than I do will correct me on that.

Wednesday Night Garage - Trouble by The Music Machine

"Trouble" by Sean Bonniwell, performed by The Music Machine. More well known for their hit "Talk Talk" this is the second song off The Music Machine's first album in 1966. It's also my favorite of theirs - at least of the songs on this record. Unfortunately the album is loaded with cover songs that the label insisted go on the record in lieu of their own material. "Kids want to hear songs they know!" I would have preferred a disc of all original material, which would have been all written by Sean Bonniwell. This song has a nice ratty guitar lick through it that I love. Also a nasty bass in the break.

In their early gigs they performed one song after another without breaks for talking and bullshitting around. They embodied their name literally as a Music Machine, night after night. Their look was simple. They all wore black, all had black hair, and each wore one black glove. The glove always make me think of that Spinal Tap title, "Smell the Glove."

Other musicians in addition to Sean Bonniwell here include, Ron Edgar (drums), Mark Landon (guitar), Keith Olsen (bass) and Doug Rhodes on organ.

The Murderers - Fredric Brown

Yesterday's post about The Beat Generation brought to mind this cool novel, The Murderers by Fredric Brown.

Fredric Brown was one of those writers who could spin a compelling story in just about any genre he chose. One of his most famous stories is "Arena" which appeared in Astounding Magazine back in 1944. I'm betting that anyone who has ever read "Arena" has never forgotten it. It was also the basis for a Star Trek episode. His science fiction novels include What Mad Universe and Martians, Go Home.  Brown is also well known for a series of mystery novels featuring carnival showmen Ed and Ambrose Hunter, beginning with The Fabulous Clipjoint.

I found The Murderers in a used bookstore and was instantly intrigued. Here was a novel by Brown I've never heard of, and needless to say, I snapped it up "toot sweet!" And boy, was it a good find!

Bantam, September 1963

The novel is told first person by a down-on-his-luck, or what I should just say, an unemployed "beat" actor making the rounds of kicks and highs in 1950's Hollywood.

"Honey, you got a stick or two?" she asked. "I can't look any more wine in the face, but I could sure use a blast." She came over and put her arms around me, wriggled against me. "I'm worth it when I'm on weed."

Okay, before anyone has a chuckle at the dialog, remember that this novel was first published in 1961 and Fredric Brown was not above using a tongue-in-cheek approach to building up his characters before wrecking their worlds.

Anyway, it's a little potheaded kitten like this one that tips our narrator, 27-year-old Wally Griff, down his little trip into trouble. But that's really just an excuse. Wally doesn't really need a reason for anything he does. He's one of those characters built for 50's noir. And there is a moment in the novel where Wally recalls the Kenneth Patchen poem, "The Murder of Two Men by a Young Kid Wearing Lemon-Colored Gloves" just before he makes that left turn down the twisted path to Endsville. The poem makes a neat analogy for this ride of kicks and kills among the lowest rung of Hollywood's players, actors, musicians and beatniks. It's that cool, baby.

And if you're curious to hear the poem referred to above, here's a video I found of it on YouTube, for your pleasure.

Ramones - Howling at the Moon

Produced by David A. Stewart, "Howling at the Moon" is a classic should-have-been-a-monster song for the Ramones from their 1984 album Too Tough To Die. Couple notes about the song; Ben Tench (familiar to fans of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) adds his talents to keyboards. It features a somewhat rare guitar break in it. Also the song had some small exposure as a video on MTV. But by small exposure, I mean almost no exposure compared to the other crap on MTV's rotation back then. It was written by Dee Dee Ramone and dedicated to Vera Ramone. Why this song didn't explode from radios that year, I have no idea. I'm trying to remember what bullshit songs were hits back then and I'm drawing a blank. No doubt some dreck by Phil Collins instead. Enjoy...

Love Letters - Ketty Lester

Here's a very nice, sort of sexy and haunting song I've always liked. It was written way back in 1945 by Victor Young and Edward Heyman. Since then it's been recorded by a couple dozen artists, including its most recent incarnation by Dex Romweber and Cat Power. I really like the Dex Romweber version, but I'm linking to the version I love, which is also probably best known, by Ketty Lester. Ketty Lester had a hit with "Love Letters" in 1962, kind of an important year for me. I also think it's a great performance by Ketty Lester. It's one of those songs I think of as "midnight song" that's best heard in the dark, alone.

Sunday Psych - Julia Dream

Very cool song from 1968, "Julia Dream" by Roger Waters was the B side to "It Would Be So Nice" and has turned up on various compilation albums since. I've got it on the Pink Floyd album Masters of Rock released on a German import label in 1974 for Columbia/EMI that I bought from Sun Bums Records in Tampa, thirty-some years ago. That's the cover below. My niece got into vinyl collecting a few years ago and managed to hijack some of my Pink Floyd albums, but she didn't get this one.

Saturday Night Rock: Riot

No, No...NO! For the last friggin' time, not Quiet Riot, just RIOT! Forget that other crap that those so-called classic rock stations insist on playing. That's for kids weened on MTV. This is the real thing, RIOT. I can't tell you how many times over the years when I'd mention RIOT, to have someone say, "Oh you mean Quiet Riot." No, I never meant that crummy band. And it's a shame that the two ever got confused. Okay...I'm probably being too hard on that other band, but, are you kidding me? Does anyone have to hear "Bang Your Head" ever again?

I saw RIOT play live in Lakeland, Florida somewhere around 1980 or 1981, I can't remember the exact year. They were the opening band for...that's just it. I have no idea. I can't remember who the headliner was that night. It says a lot about a band who was relatively unknown in Florida at the time, opening for another band that you can't remember at all. RIOT took the stage hungry that night and ate it alive!

This cut "Swords and Tequila" is from one of the best hard rock albums from that decade, Fire Down Under which was released in 1981 on Electra/Asylum Records. Fire Down Under was their 3rd album and one of two RIOT albums I still have on vinyl. The line-up for this album is Mark Reale / guitar, Sandy Slavin / drums, Rick Ventura / guitar, Guy Speranza / vocals, and Kip Leming on bass. "Swords and Tequila" is written by Guy Speranza and Mark Reale. Give it a shot!

Ugly Things

That's right, UGLY THINGS, the magazine bringing you "wild sounds from past dimensions" a couple times a year.

This is one of my favorite magazines to pick up on the rare instances I find it. Oh sure, I should just go to their site, but I'm old enough that I don't think of that first. Instead, whenever I'm in a record shop I check the magazine/book rack to see if they carry it. It's kind of a mental test, to rate the place. It's not a pass/fail kind of thing, but a place scores points for me if I see it there in the racks. There was a cool record store in Tempe, East Side Records, that carried it. Sadly, it's no longer around. For fans of garage rock, psych or whatever, UGLY THINGS is chock full 'o articles, reviews, pics and all kinds of sources to tickle the punk inside us all. Actually, the issues are more books than magazines, at least the handful I've got from past years 2008 and 2009, which weigh in at over 200 pages each. So yeah, this is coming across as a huge plug but I like it and like seeing cool things get the support they deserve. Check it out.

Sunday Psych - Fever Tree

I've really been missing adding to the Ringer Files lately. Couple of things going on in the real world that has been taking up more time than expected. For starters, my first novel SIRENS will be published soon by Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing which is really exciting. If this looks like your kind of thing then I highly recommend checking out the book and the other terrific novels and collections in their catalog. Also, I just started a new job last week, which is always a bit stressful and overwhelming. But enough of the personal plugging.

I thought I would share a pretty cool tune from Fever Tree, a band out of Houston Texas, "Where Do You Go" from their first album on Universal City Records. At first listen they sound like they would be right at home in the San Francisco scene that most fans of sixties rock are familiar with, especially with their single "San Francisco Girls." Texas produced a ton of excellent garage and psychedelic rock in the sixties, including  The Thirteenth Floor Elevators, and The Moving Sidewalks to name just two. Fever Tree had some early success with their first record and single, and went on to record a total of 5 albums. Interestingly enough, much of their material was written by their producers Scott and Vivian Holtzman, including the song "Where Do You Go?" that I'm sharing here. It's a pretty cool tune, with strains of Bolero in it and lots of fuzz guitar that I love.

For vinyl collectors, their first self-titled album is fairly easy to find. I've got their second and third albums on vinyl but I would recommend their first one over the others. But, that said, if you see any of their records, go ahead and pick one up if the price is right, I think you'll dig it. Enjoy.

Sunday Morning Folk: Richard & Mimi Farina

Richard and Mimi Farina put out two good albums on Vanguard Records with some pretty interesting music. I'm not the biggest fan of folk music around, but sometimes I get in the mood for it. This song "Reno Nevada" can be found on their album Celebrations for a Grey Day, released in 1965.

Richard Farina is most well known today for his novel Been Down So Long it Looks Like Up to Me published in 1966. Mimi Farina was Joan Baez's younger sister. The two married in 1963. Farina was good friends with writer Thomas Pynchon, who dedicated his novel Gravity's Rainbow to Farina. Farina died at the age of 29 in a motorcycle accident just after the release of his only novel.

I found both albums by Richard and Mimi Farina for inexpensive prices at a used record store. I would imagine anyone looking to pick them up would find them easily enough. Farina's novel is also still in print and is worth reading as a sort of bridge between the Beats of the 1950's and the Hippies of the 1960's.

Sunday Morning Psych - Giant Crab

From their 1968 album A Giant Crab Comes Forth on Uni Records, here is "It Started With A Little Kiss" by Ernie Orosco.

The album was produced by Bill Homes. This is the 2nd song on side one of the record, right after an intro monologue by Johnny Fairchild. The album was dedicated to Johnny Fairchild, music director of radio K.I.S.T. of Santa Barbara California, in thanks for his encouragement to Giant Crab and other "psych" artists of the day like Strawberry Alarm Clock and The Music Machine, Bobby Fuller and "countless other groups and people." Clearly this was back in a time where radio programs weren't designed by corporate bean counters.

I understand there was a release of this record on CD. I found it on vinyl at a Zia Record store in Phoenix and was quite happy about it. This song is a good representation of the album as a whole, with its multiple instruments and bright sounding psych-pop. Enjoy.