Southern California Spotlight: The Seeds - Pushin' Too Hard/Out Of The Question

The Seeds released their signature tune, Pushin' Too Hard, twice. The first time in November of 1965 on GNP Crescendo 364x with the flip-side of Out Of The Question. That release gave the title of You're Pushin' Too Hard. Then in July of 1966, they gave us a different release as GNP Crescendo 372x backed with Try To Understand, which had been released as an A-side months prior in February of 1966.

We feature today the first release of You're Pushing Too Hard/Out Of The Question (even though we picture the second release).

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

Song of the Week: The Lyrics - Mr. Man/Wait

We're back on this Friday with a very quick post (busy day today at Flip-Side's Rocky Mountain HQ).

We return to San Diego's The Lyrics. We posted about them two days ago. But this is a fundamentally different band than the one we spun two days ago. The lead singer and lead guitarist that was on that kick-ass record had left the band in '65. By the time this, the band's swan song, was released in September of '67, Craig Carll had taken over the helm of The Lyrics. Craig Carll wrote both sides here and sings both Mr. Man and the superior Flip-Side, Wait. The very good blog, Flower Bomb Songs, has the best info on this Lyrics. I won't plagiarize or regurgitate their work, but instead point you to more info here.

Many pics on that site from bassist Dan Garcia. One important photo shows them recording Wait. Please note that the room is filled with middle-aged session musicians! All photos here, courtesy of Dan Garcia's My Space page.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

Song of the Week: The Seeds - Faded Picture

The Seeds can really divide people. Some love the very American, very amateur wheezy sound of The Seeds. Others just can't stand Sky Saxon's vocals and repetitive composition style. Let alone his lyrics celebrating flowers and farmers and, well, all things agrarian. Me? I love it.

Just like yesterday, we are going to dig deep into an LP and pull a largely overlooked song off of it. Also like yesterday, we are going to feature a song from a sophomore album. In this case we are dealing with The Seeds October 1966 release on GNP Crescendo, A Web Of Sound. The song is A Faded Picture. The 5:20 song was written by Sky Saxon and keyboardist, Darryl Hooper. You can't tell me this song, with it's lyrical imagery of days gone past and delicate electric piano mixed with a spooky organ solo wasn't a huge influence on The Doors.

Jan Savage is on guitar and Rick Andridge on drums. Marcus Tybalt (aka Sky Saxon) produced the number. Behind maybe only The Byrds and The Chocolate Watchband, it was tough to find a cooler looking band.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!