Pop Psych-otica: Pop Psych from Around the World 1965 - 1972

A study from the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital at McGill University reported some pretty interesting findings. Apparently, when listening to pleasurable music, the brain releases the neurotransmitter dopamine - the same brain goo that makes us go ga-ga for food, drugs and sex. Even just anticipating good music resulted in dopamine doses for the students who participated in the study. Inversely, one can only guess what is spewed from the axon terminals when Taylor Swift emanates from the headphones.

Which brings us to the already turned-on, mind-altering world of pop-psych and this newest brain-jolting collection titled Pop Psych-otica. As expected, there are a wide range of musical sensations including the likes of: The Clingers, Quarteto 1111, Wild Silk, Tintern Abbey, Manolo Diaz, Pipes of Pan, The Who, Riders of the Mark and many more bands from around the kaleidoscopic world.

So, sit back and and let the musical pleasures of pop psych jettison you to your pleasure zone. (link to musical files and PDF cd booklet at bottom of post)



1) The Sex Machine • PROMO
The lights, sights, sounds and psychic gypsies of The Sex Machine Club were located in a dodgy part of Philadelphia. Regrettably, the neighborhood hasn’t changed all that much.

The Sex Machine • PROMO

2) Vacuum Cleaner • TINTERN ABBEY
Formed at the height of England’s Kings Road scene (think Haight Ashbury), Tintern Abbey released an epic single in November 1967 that still reverberates. The band (drummer John Dalton, lead guitarist Don Smith, bassist Stuart Mackay and vocalist David MacTavish) formed with the assistance of Nigel Samuels (an underground newspaper publisher), and after several private performances and rehearsals they were signed to Deram. The single apparently failed and famed producer John Pantry was brought in to work with the group. As production began on a follow-up single “Snowman”, the group began to implode, leaving their one famed single for posterity.

Tintern Abbey

Vacuum Cleaner

3) Candy Store Prophet • TOMMY SANDS
Chicago native Tommy Sands made a splash in the late 50’s as a handsome musical performer, not unlike Elvis or Fabian. He released a huge string of singles between ‘57 and ‘63 before shifting focus to his acting career. In 1960, he married Nancy Sinatra, but soon discovered his boots were made for walking and divorced her in 1965. “Mysteriously” his career options then evaporated, and he found himself closed out of both musical and film opportunities.

Candy Store Prophet

4) Raspberry Salesman • TEDDY & THE PANDAS
If you were a tuned-in teen in the 60’s and your pad was located in or around Boston, you most likely would have grooved to popsters Teddy & The Pandas. The photogenic quintet played support for many popular bands including the Beach Boys and Paul Revere & The Raiders. Besides rubbing shoulders with big name icons, the Pandas also recorded several singles for Musicor and a cool Beatles-influenced LP for Tower in 1968 (which included this fizzy tart). Though possessing a decent size catalogue and recognized name, the group has yet to be featured on a legitimate CD release.

Raspberry Salesman

5) Coca Cola • PROMO

Coca Cola • PROMO

6) Laboratorio • MANOLO DIAZ
I don’t believe there is an Anglo equivalent to “Laboratorio”. Sure, “It’s Good News Week” touched on the topic of out-of-control scientists, as did “In The Year 2525”. Unlike those, this track singularly contemplates a world where “laboratory” replaces the word “mama” and children are given numbers instead of names. It’s a charming land where progeny are manufactured to work and serve until death.

Manolo Diaz

Laboratorio

7) High Horse • WILD SILK
More Brit pop psych, this time from Luton, (just north of London). This five piece released three singles in their homeland, all produced by Shel Talmy (producer for The Creation). Additionally, the group recorded quite a bit of unreleased material, including this track, which has a distinctively Curt Boettcher flair to it. In fact, Wild Silk recorded a faithful cover of the Boettcher song “Another Time”. In the U.S., they were alternately known as Basil.

Wild Silk

High Horse

8) Epitaph • NANCY PRIDDY
There is a definite Laurel Canyon vibe (though Priddy actually has roots in the Greenwich Village scene) to this dreamy folky, pop psych track. The South Bend, Indiana native had a minor acting career in Hollywood during the late 60’s and ventured into music before the decade closed. Her sole LP on Dot Records, released October of 1968, contained self-penned songs and poems. She is also the mother of actress Christina Applegate!

Epitaph

 9) Ülök Egy Rózsaszínű Kádban • METRO
“Ülök Egy Rózsaszínű Kádban” (“I Sit In A Pink Bathtub”) was the fourteenth single for the band from Budapest– hitting the streets in 1970, a year after appearing on the group’s debut LP. Metro quickly joined the ranks of Hungary’s rock elite (Illés and Omega) as one of the leading domestic bands, and were often referred to as “The Hungarian Beatles”. Like the Fab Four, Metro’s roots date back to the very early sixties.

Founded by Sztevanovity Zorán in 1960, the ensemble’s early performances relied heavily on UK and US covers. By the pivotal year of 1967 however, they had gained enough confidence to begin creating their own compositions (“Bell A Részeges Kutya” being a standout). A year later, personnel changes became a continuing challenge. Then in 1972, Russia initiated a crackdown on Eastern European rock and Metro decided to beat cheeks.

 

Metro

Ülök Egy Rózsaszínű Kádban

10) Land Of Make Believe • EASYBEATS
Another treasure from the group’s unhappy London sojourn! “Make Believe” was initially recorded at London’s Olympic studios with Glyn Johns at the production helm. Expectations must have been high, as Johns was an accomplished engineer, having worked on hits for the Rolling Stones, Kinks and Small Faces. By the summer of 1967, the album was sequenced, mastered and completed with the ironic title Good Times. As fate would have it, a contract dispute exploded at the last minute, reportedly involving no less than five companies claiming ownership of the recordings.

Dispirited, the band embarked on an obligatory tour of the U.S., returning to the studio in September of 1967 to re-record “Make Believe” over the course of several self-produced sessions. When their album Vigil was ready for release in July of 1968, the Easybeats submitted this orchestrated pop psych gem as the LP’s promotional single. Regrettably, the fanciful single failed to crack the Top 20 in their homeland and was absent from most European and US charts. In several markets, the track was relegated to the B-side in favor of the flip-side “Gonna Have A Good Time”, a song ably covered by The Clingers.

The Easybeats

Land Of Make Believe

11) Gonna Have A Good Time • CLINGERS
The Clinger Sisters began their career as an apple-cheeked Mormon outfit in the early sixties, appearing with the likes of Danny Kaye and Andy Williams. Throughout the early and mid 60’s, the telegenic group would guest on numerous shows including Hollywood A Go-Go, Mike Douglas and American Bandstand. Most of the songs were chipper and lightweight (ex “Shoop Shoop Song”), but in 1968 Los Angeles music legend Kim Fowley and former West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band lead Michael Lloyd (at this point an exec at MGM Records) saw an opportunity with the maturing outfit.

Using the Easybeats recent release “Gonna Have A Good Time”, Fowley essentially transformed the saccharine quartet into a kick-ass grrrrrl group that would anticipate his first big creation: The Runaways. Whatever you want to say about Fowley (and it has all been said by his former associates), he deserves credit for giving the Clingers a complete musical makeover. Not only does their version sizzle unlike anything they had previously recorded, it actually bests the original by the Easybeats. The song would be released on Columbia Records in 1969, and featured on the final broadcast of the popular Smothers Brothers Hour show (see YouTube). Unfortunately, Fowley and Lloyd would quickly move on when the song failed to score on the charts. The Clingers then went their separate ways.

Clinger Sisters

Gonna Have A Good Time

12) Underture • FAMILY TREE
Family Tree was an early project for Robert Joseph “Bob” Segarini that germinated in 1966 and culminated with an inspired concept LP in 1968 called Miss Butters. The recording was produced by Rick Jarrard and featured contributions from Harry Nilsson.

Based on an actual person, Miss Butters tells the tale of a spinster school teacher whose career in show business is cut short by a bad relationship. She takes solace in the company of children, spending the remainder of her life teaching, only to die sad and alone.

Underture

13) Shasta Cola • PROMO

Shasta Cola • PROMO

14) Adeus, Maria Fulo • OS MUTANTES
From the remarkable debut album that launched their career, “Adeus” brilliantly reflects a mix of modern psychedelia with traditional Brazilian instruments. Mojo magazine lists their 1968 LP as one of the most “out there” albums of all time. I wouldn’t go that far, but it is wonderful.

Os Mutantes

Adeus, Maria Fulo

15) Or Something • M.C.2+
This quintet was a combination of players from various sources, both professional and otherwise. One of the main bright spots was arranger, producer and 12 string guitarist Randy Sterling. In 1967, Sterling’s presence helped get the group a contract with Warner Brothers/Reprise, but trouble surfaced right from the start with WB’s choice of producer.  Sterling remembers, “He never came to one rehearsal and when we went into the studio he tried to make us sound like every other group he was producing. I decided that we had nothing to lose and went to see Mo Ostin [head of Reprise] one day. I sat in his office and told him that even though we liked our producer, he didn’t understand what we were trying to do.”

“So I asked if he would give me a chance to produce a demo so he could see what we were all about. To my delight and surprise Mo said, ‘OK, but if I don’t hear what your talking about, our guy produces or your deal is off.’ We were given three hours in some little side street studio and the next day took what we had done back to him. He sat…listened…turned to me and said, ‘Randy, pick the studio you want and gimmie an album.’ Well, we made one hell of an album.” Unfortunately, that album remained in the can until it was rescued in 2012 by Now Sounds. “Or Something” did see the light of day as the band’s debut single in 1967.

Or Something

16) Quiet Explosion • THE UGLYS
Birmingham’s The Ugly’s date back to 1963 when they were known as The Dominettes - clearly they weren’t particularly adept at choosing band names. Known as a beat group, the quintet focused on singles during their five year existence. True, their third single offered up the pop psych classic “Quiet Explosion” as an intriguing B-side,  but truth be told, they didn’t have many aces up their collective sleeve. A compilation album was released in 2004.

The Uglys

Quiet Explosion

17) Electronic Insides and Metal Complexion That Make Up Herr Doktor Krieg • RIDERS OF THE MARK
It’s hard to overstate both the delectable allure of this one-off pop-psych monster and the elusive nature of the band and their sole record. A definite collector’s item (selling upwards of $250 a pop on Ebay), information about the Riders of the Mark is almost as hard to locate as a nice copy of the disc. “Electronic” was released on 20th Century Fox Records (a subsidiary of ABC Records) in 1967 and is composed by John Hill and Don Cochrane. Other than that, everything about this classic is a mystery.

Electronic Insides and Metal Complexion That Make Up Herr Doktor Krieg

18) Nehéz az út • ILLES
Roughly translated, Nehéz az út means “It’s Hard On the Road”. The song appeared as the second track on their similarly named LP on Qualitron in 1968. The mono-only LP was almost like a greatest hits release, containing singles that had dropped over the course of the previous three years. What helped make Illes a band which would continue to fascinate some 50 years later was their exciting synthesis of typical pop psych influences combined with native Hungarian folk elements.

Nehéz az út

19 & 20) Coke Promo & Disguises • THE WHO
In November of 1966, The Who released a quickie EP titled Ready, Steady, Who that appeared designed to piggy back on the Batman craze with its inclusion of the “Batman Theme”. Also included, was a cover of the Beach Boys classic “Barbara Ann”. Both B-siders seemed positively out of date with the wonderful pop psych offerings on the flip side: “Circles” & “Disguises”. Both original compositions were written by Pete Townshend and pointed directly to the forthcoming The Who Sell Out.

“Circles” has since garnered attention for its contribution to the pop psych genre, however, and quite oddly, “Disguises” remains mostly overlooked, even though it contains a much more potent dose of psychedelia. It’s a noisy cacophony of extemporaneous feedback bursts, haunting raga and wonderful harmonies. It later appeared as a bonus track on the Happy Jack/A Quick One reissue in the 1980’s.

Coke Promo

Disguises

21) Abadilah • QUARTETO 1111
“Meu Irmao” was single #2 for the Portuguese band who still had both feet firmly planted in pop psych territory in 1968. Quite soon, they would be relocating to progressive lands. “Abadilah” (a region in the United Arab Emirates) is the raga-inspired instrumental b-side of the obscure 45.
Interestingly, during this period, the band began performing many of their songs in English due to constant political flack from the Portuguese Censorship Committee. Their first album, simply titled Quarteto 1111 was pulled form the shelves due to political objections by the government.

Quarteto 1111

Abadilah

22) Monday Morning Rain • PIPES OF PAN
This single from the autumn of 1967 is quite difficult to find (took me a good 10 years) and information about it is even harder to locate. The melancholy wonder was released on producer Larry Page’s Page One records and produced by “Wild Thing” composer Chip Taylor. Larry was the manager of The Troggs, and most likely offered this to his big name stars. Why they would have passed is beyond me. It dovetails perfectly with “Love Is All Around” and the more psychedelic “Night of the Long Grass”. Just one quick listen and you can hear the vocalist’s amazing similarity to Troggs lead singer Reg Presley.

Interesting tidbit... U.S. born Chip Taylor’s actual name is James Wesley Voight and he is the brother of Jon Voight and uncle of Angelina Jolie.

Chip Taylor

Monday Morning Rain

23) If • ESPIRIT DE CORPS
A very late entry into the pop psych world, this 1972 nugget was written by band guitarist Dave Mindel. The group was an off-shoot of an outfit called Saturday and included dj’s, arrangers, producers and multi-instrumentalists. Saturday reportedly recorded an entire album worth of material that remains unreleased to this day. Apparently JAM records felt they had a winner and released “If” in Portugal and France as well as in the U.K. The following year, the label distributed their second single “Lonely”/”Will You Remember Me”, also composed by Mindel. That record moved a little further into progressive pop rock territory.

If

24) Groovin’ With Mr. Bloe • HUMBUG
Bernie Cochran was a co-writer of the 1969 UK instrumental hit “Groovin...” and decided to take a crack at the song himself the following year under the alias Humbug. The remainder of the band was padded with some impressive personnel including Bo Gentry, Kenny Laguna and Paul Naumann (all given co-writing credits on the track).

The CBS single has a wonderfully glammy, slightly pop psych feel and maybe the coolest harmonica performance I have heard on a pop single. It was released in the UK, Germany and Malaysia but never scored on the charts.

Groovin’ With Mr. Bloe

25)  This World Is Closing In On Me • PRESTON
What a history! Detroit, Michigan’s Chris Carpenter released this crazy pop psych single in October of 1966 on Ocean-Side records, a subsidiary of local label Sidra. Sidra then decided to release it under their name brand label, only to have it picked up by United Artists for national release in February 1968.  As the hucksters say on TV, “But that’s not all!”...

In 1967, Danny Dallas secured rights to the single for his Farmington, MI label Sound Patterns. Instead of crediting Chris Carpenter, Dallas released the single under the more enigmatic “Preston”. In addition, he released the yellow vinyl platter with added echo effects to enhance the paranoid, Twilight Zone-inspired atmosphere.

This World Is Closing In On Me

26) Who’s Putting Who On? • BOBBY JAMESON
Poor Bobby Jameson... almost relegated to the trash heap of pop psych history, until made the subject of an entire Ariel Pink album. Even his associations with the legendary Curt Boettcher and Frank Zappa haven’t added much to his cache, though it was not due to a lack of trying. In the early and mid-sixties you couldn’t pick up an issue of Cash Box or Billboard magazine without seeing an ad heralding the arrival of young Bobby Jameson. He soon earned opening spots on The Beach Boys, Chubby Checker and Jan & Dean tours. Rumor has it he was even offered a spot as one of The Monkees, but declined.

And so Jameson went from label to label over the course of several years recording no less than 11 singles for Verve, London, Mira and a slew of other labels. Luck evaded him at every turn, even when local heavy hitters were brought in for support. An uncredited Frank Zappa produced two singles for Jameson, but they languished. Then, Jameson’s biggest break was when Verve coaxed Curt Boetcher into the studio to produce an LP – Color Him In. Boettcher was riding high having produced both “Cherish” and “Along Comes Mary” for The Association. Again, no luck.

Before passing away, Jameson recalled, “Color Him In was a psychedelic work of the times. Much of what is on the record was inspired by LSD, Vietnam, and the Peace Movement. The overall context was freedom from the establishment or so we thought. It was basically a concept album, but most of the music’s conceptual arrangements were Curt’s. He would take the demos I made of me and a guitar, and arrange vocal harmonies and instrumentation around them.” R.I.P. Mr. Jameson.

Bobby Jameson

Who’s Putting Who On?

27) Xanthia (Lisa) • OFF-SET
The Off-Set were Drew Georgopulos (rhythm guitar and vocals), Art Steinman (lead guitar and vocals), Kenny Bennett (drums), Elliot Ingber (lead vocals), and Harley Wishner (bass). The band hailed from Brooklyn, and in the mid-sixties they were apparently the cat’s meow on the local scene. You would never be able to discern that from their meager vinyl output. They had one single on the Gallant label (“You Can’t Keep A Good Man Down”) that came out in 1966. Far more interesting however was their second release – a ragariffic bombshell called “Xanthia”.

For their sophomore effort, the band moved to Jubilee (a deal with Cameo-Parkway having fallen through) and released “A Change Is Gonna Come”  backed with “Xanthia”. The Byrds raga-style was a definite influence, however, it’s probably no coincidence that this psycho jello track sounds similar to what the Velvet Underground were working on at the time across town.

Xanthia

28) Semi-detached Suburban Mr. James • MANFRED MANN
This non-LP track was a rather popular single in the UK during the fall of 1966, and incorporates many of the elements of light psychedelic pop. Clearly the questioning of middle class norms had by this time found its way to pop, and quite successfully as this single shot up to #2.

The song was first recorded by Herbie’s People (Bilston, UK) under the original title “Semi-detached Suburban Mr. Jones”. Because lead singer Paul Jones had just departed from the Manfred Mann, “Jones” was changed to “James” to avoid any ruffled feathers. Both versions of the song are relatively similar, though Mann’s version has more of a psychedelic pop feel.

Next up for the band would be the equally popular pop psych classic “Ha Ha Said The Clown”. Notably, neither of the bouncy offerings charted in the US, this particular single never even earning a release in the states.

Semi-detached Suburban Mr. James

Pop Psych-otica Song Clips and PDF CD Booklet