The Seeds – Raw & Alive In Concert At Merlin's Music Box

Harvinainen garage-bandin levy. Alunperin julkaistiin 1968, tämä vinyyli USA & Canada uusintapainos 70-luvulta.

Tämä helvetin kova levy kuulostaa tältä: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EusqhzNLLro

The Seeds oli yhdysvaltalainen rockyhtye, joka perustettiin Los Angelesissa vuonna 1965. Yhtyeen jäseniä olivat: Sky Saxon, Daryl Hooper, Jan Savage, Rick Andridge. Yhtyeen musiikkityylejä olivat psykedeelinen rock, garage rock, proto punk ja acid rock.

Vaikka yhtye ei koskaan yltänyt kaupallisesti samalle tasolle kuin kahden ensimmäisen singlensä — ”Pushin’ Too Hard” ja ”Can’t Seem to Make You Mine” — menestyksen aikana, se jatkoi äänittämistä koko 1960-luvun loppuun. Vuosikymmenen kuluessa yhtye uppoutui yhä syvemmälle psykedelian ja taiderockin maailmaan. Yksikään uusista musiikillisista suunnista ei kuitenkaan tuottanut uutta hittisingleä, ja yhtye hajosi 1970-luvun alussa.[2]

Laulaja Sky Saxon (synt. Richard Marsh) ja kitaristi Jan Savage perustivat the Seedsin Los Angelesissa vuonna 1965 yhdessä kosketinsoittaja Daryl Hooperin ja rumpali Rick Andridgen kanssa. Vuoden 1966 loppuun mennessä he olivat solmineet levytyssopimuksen GNP Crescendo -yhtiön kanssa ja julkaisseet ”Pushin’ Too Hard” -singlensä. Kappale nousi Yhdysvaltain Top 40 -listalle vuoden 1967 alussa.[2]

Vaikka yhtyeen singlet olivat vahvasti garage rockia, the Seeds pyrki laajentamaan tyyliään bluesrockiin ja psykedeliseen ilmaisuun kahdella ensimmäisellä albumillaan, The Seeds (1966) ja Web of Sound (1966)[2] Yhtyeestä tuli paikallinen suosikki muiden Los Angelesin tähtien, kuten The Doorsin, The Byrdsin ja Loven, rinnalla. Etenkin hypnoottinen single ”Mr Farmer” oli jälleen paikallinen hitti, vaikka monet radioasemat kielsivät sen soiton sen huumemyönteisten viittausten vuoksi.[3]

Kolmannella albumillaan, Future (1967), yhtye kokeili Beatlesin Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Bandin innoittamana psykedeelistä konseptialbumia. Levy ylsi Top 100 -listalle ja sisälsi pienen hitin ”A Thousand Shadows” muttei saavuttanut laajaa menestystä.[2]

Vuosikymmenen lopulla julkaistiin vielä kaksi albumia: Raw & Alive: The Seeds in Concert at Merlin’s Music Box (1968) ja A Full Spoon of Seedy Blues (1969), joista jälkimmäinen julkaistiin nimellä Sky Saxon Blues Band. Molemmat kuitenkin jäivät huomiotta, ja yhtye hajosi pian tämän jälkeen. Harvinaisuuksien ja vaihtoehtoisten ottojen kokoelma Fallin’ off the Edge julkaistiin vuonna 1977. 1970-luvun alkupuolella Sky Saxon johti useita lyhytikäisiä yhtyeitä ennen kuin vetäytyi Havaijille. 1970-luvulla hän liittyi The Source -nimiseen new age -liikkeeseen, jota johti Father Yod — Los Angelesin hippikultin tunnettu guru. Saxon otti itselleen henkisemmän elämänasenteen ja siirtyi käyttämään nimeä Sky “Sunlight” Saxon. Jan Savage puolestaan liittyi Los Angelesin poliisilaitokseen. Hän kuoli 8. elokuuta 2020.[2][3]

Raw & Alive: The Seeds in Concert at Merlin's Music Box is the fifth album by the American garage rock band, the Seeds, and was released on GNP Crescendo in May 1968 (see 1968 in music). It was marketed as a live album recorded at Merlin's Music Box, although all the album's contents were actually completed live-in-studio with audience noise overdubbed. The album marks a return to the band's energetic punk sound that previously garnered them national acclaim. Upon release, however, the album and its accompanying single "Satisfy You" failed to chart, making it their final album. The group would eventually disband in 1972.

Background

The Seeds came to national prominence, albeit briefly, with hit singles such as "Can't Seem to Make You Mine" and "Pushin' Too Hard", which made them front-runners in the development of garage rock and garage-psych.[1] However, the group's psychedelic concept album Future saw the band attempt to create a more sophisticated sound, while its successor, the blues-orientated A Full Spoon of Seedy Blues, completely missed the national charts. By 1968, the Seeds had all but been forgotten outside their loyal following in California; as a result, they fired their long-time manager Lord Tim Hudson and sought a way to return to past fortunes.[2]

Recording

The Seeds attempted to utilize both the simplicity of lyrical and instrumental arrangements of their first two albums and the psychedelia exemplified on Future for their next album.[3] In early 1968, the group entered Western Recorders, in Hollywood, rather than the coffeehouse they occasionally performed in that is mentioned in the album title, with record producer Neil Norman co-producing. The band's original plan was to replicate the vitality of their live performances, with relatively basic and stripped-down recording methods and an in-studio audience. However, the Seeds recognized at the conclusion of the recording sessions that the dynamics of an actual concert were lacking and the material was scrapped. Though none of the recordings were featured on Raw & Alive, they later appeared on a reissue of the album on Big Beat Records in 2014, with the previously unreleased track, "Hubbly Bubbly Love", included.[3][4]

In April 1968, the band reconvened with the same concept, but without an audience present. Still, Raw & Alive had the sound of a live album with an introduction by Merlin's Music Box's local disc jockey, "Humble" Harv Miller, lead vocalist Sky Saxon making his traditional dedication of the song, "Pushin' Too Hard", to "society", and crowd noises overdubbed into place.[5] Five of the 11 tracks, including "Pushin' Too Hard", "Can't Seem to Make You Mine", "Mr. Farmer", "No Escape", and "Up in Her Room", were all re-recorded renditions of previously released Seeds songs, though "Up in Her Room" is five minutes shorter than the original version on A Web of Sound. Among the album's new material, the arguably best-known composition is the organ-driven "900 Million People Daily (All Making Love)", which is seen as a return to the lengthy instrumental jams highlighted on past releases.[6] For Raw & Alive, the song was shortened to five minutes, but the full-length version was eventually released on the compilation album, Travel with Your Mind.[7]

Release

Professional ratingsReview scores

Source Rating

Uncut StarStarStarStar[8]

Upon release, Raw & Alive failed to chart nationally. The accompanying single, "Satisfy You", also was commercially unsuccessful. The band's lineup began to unravel with Saxon continuing with variations of the group until its first disbandment in 1972.[4] At first, the album's status of being recorded live went unchallenged until versions of "Satisfy You", "Pushin' Too Hard", and "900 Million People Daily (All Making Love)" without the crowd noises were released on the 1993 compilation album Travel With Your Mind.[9] The alternate take of "Pushin' Too Hard" was actually first issued on the 1977 album, Fallin' off the Edge, but was listed as a "rehearsal". No reissue has a full setlist without audience applause, despite a demand for such a release.[6]

Track listing

Side one

"Introduction by 'Humble' Harv" - 0:20

"Mr. Farmer" (Sky Saxon) - 3:50

"No Escape" (Jan Savage) - 2:25

"Satisfy You" (Savage) - 2:00

"Night Time Girl" (Saxon) - 2:30

"Up in Her Room" (Daryl Hooper) - 9:45

Side two

"Gypsy Plays His Drums" (Hooper) - 4:30

"Can't Seem to Make You Mine" (Saxon) - 2:30

"Mumble and Bumble" (Saxon) - 2:25

"Forest Outside Your Door" (Saxon) - 2:40

"900 Million People Daily (All Making Love)" (Saxon) - 4:50

"Pushin' Too Hard" (Saxon) - 2:40

Personnel

Sky Saxon - lead vocals, bass guitar, harmonica

Jan Savage - lead guitar, gong, backing vocals

Harvey Sharpe - bass guitar

Daryl Hooper - organ, piano

Rick Andridge - drums, backing vocals

The Seeds are an American psychedelic garage rock[2] band that formed in Los Angeles, California in 1965, best known for their highest-charting single "Pushin' Too Hard". The band's classic lineup featured frontman Sky Saxon, guitarist Jan Savage (born Buck Jan Reeder),[3] keyboardist Daryl Hooper and drummer Rick Andridge. In 1968, the band changed their name to Sky Saxon and the Seeds, with Savage and Andridge departing the band. They went on to release a handful of additional singles.[4]

In 1989, the original lineup of the band reformed for a handful of live dates in the US.[5]

In 2003, Saxon was persuaded to reform the Seeds with original guitarist Jan Savage (who departed part way through a European tour the same year due to ill health). Releasing two further studio albums, Saxon-led versions of the band continued to tour the US, UK, and Europe up to Saxon's death in 2009.

In 2017, founding member Hooper reformed the Seeds with a lineup of past and new members; they released a single in 2021 and continue to tour to this day.

History

Formation

The Seeds were formed in 1965 following the dissolution of the short lived band the Amoeba which featured frontman Sky Saxon.

Saxon, who had relocated to Los Angeles from Salt Lake City and had already released material under several names including Little Richie Marsh and Sky Saxon & the Soul Rockers put an ad in the LA Times for a keyboard player.[5] Having already enlisted former bandmate Jan Savage as lead guitarist and Jeremy Levine as rhythm guitarist, Saxon reportedly contacted Daryl Hooper to recruit him as a keyboard player. After then asking Saxon whether he also needed a drummer, Hooper and Michigan school friend Rick Andridge met up with Saxon at a club and played that same night.[4] Original rhythm guitarist Jeremy Levine left early on for personal reasons.

The band secured regular gigs at the LA club Bido Lito's and quickly gained a local reputation for high-energy live performances.[6]

As a live act, the band was one of the first to utilize keyboard bass. Although Saxon was credited as playing bass on the studio albums and would mime playing bass on TV appearances, they usually employed session player Harvey Sharpe for studio work.[7] On stage, keyboardist Daryl Hooper would perform the bass parts via a separate bass keyboard, in the same manner as Ray Manzarek later did with The Doors.

Recordings and TV appearances

After a tip from Hollywood impresario Jimmie Maddin, The Seeds were signed by Gene Norman to his GNP Crescendo label. The first single, "Can't Seem to Make You Mine", was a minor regional hit in Southern California in 1965. The song was also played regularly on AM rock stations in northern California (and probably elsewhere), where it was well received by listeners, and eventually went on to become, and is considered today, a '60s cult classic song. The band had a national Top 40 hit, "Pushin' Too Hard", in 1966 and performed the song on national television. Three subsequent singles, "Mr. Farmer" (also 1966), a re-release of "Can't Seem To Make You Mine" (1967), and "A Thousand Shadows" (1967), achieved more modest success, although all were most popular in southern California. Musically uncomplicated with a flair for simple melodic hooks and dominated by Saxon's unorthodox vocal delivery, their first two albums, The Seeds and A Web of Sound, are today considered classics of 1960s garage music.[citation needed]

A major turning point for the Seeds came in 1967. The band's self-produced third album Future presented a grander psychedelic artistic statement and thrust the group forward as torchbearers during perhaps the most creative and experimental time in American pop culture and music history. The more expansive musical style with accompanying orchestration—presented with a gatefold sleeve featuring ornate flower-themed artwork by painter Sassin—was a departure from the rawer tone of the band's previous hits. Iggy Pop, Smashing Pumpkins, Animal Collective and members of the Beach Boys have all sourced the band, mentioning this album and previous ones as genre classics.[citation needed]

The release of Future in mid-1967 generally marked the commercial peak of the Seeds' career, coinciding with a major national hit, raucous concerts, numerous live TV performances, as well as prominent guest appearances on the NBC sitcom The Mothers-in-Law and in the hippie/counterculture-themed cult film Psych-Out. In October 1966, The Seeds recorded an album devoted specifically to the blues, A Full Spoon of Seedy Blues that was released in November 1967, bearing the artist moniker "The Sky Saxon Blues Band" and with liner notes reputedly by Muddy Waters. Saxon later claimed that the album "... was my idea to get off the record label. I thought that if we just came up out of nowhere and did a blues album that wasn't going to sell, then they'd drop us. I never expected it to sell but it did OK. We never did those songs live except for a week of gigs at the Golden Bear in Huntingdon Beach".[5]

In May 1968 the band released their final LP for GNP Crescendo Records, Raw & Alive: The Seeds in Concert at Merlin's Music Box, which revisited their more aggressive garage rock roots. However, the album and its accompanying single "Satisfy You" both failed to chart nationally. The band was renamed "Sky Saxon and the Seeds" in 1968, by which point Bob Norsoph (guitar) and Don Boomer (drums) had replaced Savage and Andridge, respectively. They were featured on the final GNP Crescendo single "Falling Off The Edge Of My Mind", the first and only period Seeds single not written by Saxon or the other members. The last major label records of new material by The Seeds – two non-charting singles on MGM Records – were released in 1970, after which Hooper quit. Saxon continued to use the name "The Seeds", utilizing various backup musicians, at least through 1972.

Dissolution and reformations

After the dissolution of the Seeds, Sky Saxon joined the Yahowha religious group, inspired by their leader Father Yod. Although a member of the Source Family for several years, Saxon did not participate in any of the albums released by Yahowha 13 in the mid-1970s. He does appear on the Golden Sunrise album by Fire Water Air, which was a Yahowha 13 offshoot, and later recorded the Yod Ship Suite album in memory of the deceased Father Yod. In the 1970s, Saxon also released the solo LPs Lovers Cosmic Voyage (credited to Sunlight) and Live at the Orpheum credited to Sunlight Rainbow. In the 1980s, Saxon collaborated with several bands—including Redd Kross and The Chesterfield Kings—before reforming the original Seeds in 1989 to headline "The Summer of Love Tour", along with Big Brother and the Holding Company, Arthur Lee and Love, The Music Machine, and The Strawberry Alarm Clock.[citation needed]

The Seeds remained dormant again until 2003, when Rik Collins persuaded Saxon to reform the group with original guitarist Jan Savage and newcomers Collins on bass, Mark Bellgraph on guitar, Dave Klein on keyboards and Justin Polimeni on drums. This iteration of the Seeds went through several incarnations, with Savage departing midway through their 2003 European tour due to his health. Saxon remained the only original member, and with several different sets of musicians continued to tour Europe and the United States.

Saxon died on June 25, 2009, of heart and kidney failure.[8] The Seeds' original drummer, Rick Andridge, died in 2011.[9] Jan Savage died on August 5, 2020, aged 77.[3]

In June 2017, a "reunited version" of the band (with founding member Daryl Hooper and late period Seeds drummer Don Boomer, along with Paul Kopf on lead vocals and Seeds archivist Alec Palao on bass) gave their first performance after a viewing of the Seeds documentary The Seeds: Pushin' Too Hard at the Center for the Arts in Grass Valley, California. Hooper's Seeds continue to tour and now incorporate Mark Bellgraph and Justin Smith from Saxon’s 2000s-era band. In 2021, the current line-up of the band released a single, "Butterfly Child" / "Vampire".[10][11]

Style

The band's early material has been described as "straight up garage rock." Later output, such as 1967's Future, was described as having a psychedelic rock sound.[12]

Reissues

While GNP Crescendo has kept the Seeds catalog in print since the mid-1970s, the first notable archival compilation of the band was 1977’s Fallin’ Off The Edge, compiled by Neil Norman, son of GNP’s founder Gene Norman. This was later expanded in the CD era as Travel With Your Mind in 1993. In 1996, Drop Out Records released Flower Punk, a box set of their first five albums, The Seeds, A Web of Sound, Future, A Full Spoon of Seedy Blues (as the Sky Saxon Blues Band), and Raw & Alive: The Seeds in Concert at Merlin's Music Box, plus several rarities, B-sides, and other cuts (nothing unreleased) as a three-disc collection.

In 2011, Ace Records instigated a thorough reappraisal of The Seeds’ recorded legacy, helmed by reissue producer Alec Palao. Each of the band’s four principal albums was remastered, with a considerable amount of additional, mostly unreleased, material added. Initially presented as CD editions, they have also subsequently been issued as deluxe 2-LP sets. Ace/Big Beat also released the definitive compilation Singles As & Bs 1965-1970 and the soundtrack CD to the film The Seeds: Pushin' Too Hard.

Documentary

A 2014 feature-length documentary film about the Seeds titled The Seeds: Pushin' Too Hard was directed by Neil Norman and written/produced by Alec Palao. The film draws on first-hand knowledge of the band, interviews, and concert footage.[13][14][15]

Legacy and influence

The Seeds have been among the most frequently cited pre-punk influences by American punk musicians since the 1970s, as well as key overseas acts such as The Fall from the UK. Cover versions of various Seeds songs have been recorded by Cabaret Voltaire, The Dwarves, Alex Chilton,[16] Johnny Thunders,[17] The Ramones,[18] Yo La Tengo,[19] Garbage,[20] Murder City Devils,[21] Spirits in the Sky,[22] Paul Parker,[23] Pere Ubu,[24] The Makers,[25] The Embarrassment,[26] The Bangles,[27] The Rubinoos,[28] Strawberry Alarm Clock,[29] and other artists. Some lyrics in Frank Zappa's album Joe's Garage satirically refer to "Pushin' Too Hard": "You're plooking too hard, plooking too hard on ME".[30]

On July 24, 2009, members of The Smashing Pumpkins, members of The Strawberry Alarm Clock, Nels Cline and The Electric Prunes performed a tribute concert at the Echoplex in Los Angeles in memory of Sky Saxon.[31]