The Electric Prunes had a career whose ups and downs were emblematic of the shifting tides of rock music in the 1960s, overlapping garage rock, psychedelia, and hard rock during their initial run from 1965 to 1970. Their earliest records were high-powered garage rock with a psychedelic bent fueled by their creative use of fuzz, reverb, and studio trickery. After hitting with the singles “I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)” and “Get Me to the World on Time” in 1967, the group released two albums in a similar vein before record company politics intervened and the group became a vehicle for producer David Axelrod to explore orchestrated psychedelia, most notably on the 1968 LP Mass in F Minor. No original members of the group remained by the time the band folded in 1970, but many of the founders were on board when a version of the Prunes re-formed in 1999. The reunited group released a handful of new albums that revisited their psych-tinged garage rock territory, while reissues and compilation appearances kept their original catalog alive. 2021’s Then Came the Dawn: The Complete Recordings 1966-1969 is a comprehensive collection that documents the group's tumultuous first era.
James Lowe was a young man from Southern California who had been playing guitar in a bluegrass combo when he decided to form a rock & roll band in 1964. Though a friend, Lowe met three high school students with musical aspirations -- guitarist Ken Williams, bassist Mark Tulin, and drummer Steve Acuff. The four began rehearsing, and when Acuff decided surfing was more important to him than practicing, Mike Weakley took over behind the drum kit. Calling the group the Sanctions, Lowe had an unusual strategy for the group -- rather than play the usual bars, dances, and teen clubs where a fledgling rock band would be booked in those days, they set up a rehearsal studio and focused on honing their instrumental skills with an eye toward becoming a recording act. After cutting a pair of demo acetates primarily devoted to covers, Lowe started writing original songs and the group changed their name to Jim and the Lords. In late 1965, a woman stopped by while the band was practicing and was impressed with their sound. The woman, Barbara Harris, was friends with Dave Hassinger, a recording engineer who worked at RCA Studios and had been at the controls for several Rolling Stones sessions. A few weeks later, Harris asked Jim and the Lords to play a birthday party for a friend, and mentioned Hassinger was likely to be there. They took the gig, and Hassinger saw potential in the young group, arranging to work with them at a home studio owned by session musician and arranger Leon Russell. Aiming for an unusual sound, the group worked guitar effects into their arrangements that gave the music a distinct sonic signature, especially in their embrace of fuzztone and reverb. Hassinger took the tapes they made at Russell's studio, reworked them at a more sophisticated facility, and made a deal with Reprise Records to release their debut single, "Ain't It Hard" b/w "Little Olive." Wanting the band to have a more up-to-date image, Hassinger suggested they change their name to the Electric Prunes, inspired by a joke they'd heard: "What's purple and goes buzz buzz?"
I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)
"Ain't It Hard" didn't make an impression on the charts, but Reprise asked for a second single from the Electric Prunes. Before they could go back into the studio, drummer Mike Weakley left the band when they were asked to sign a contract with Hassinger's production company, and Preston Ritter came on board as his replacement. They also added another guitarist, James "Weasel" Spagnola, and started work on their second record as a quintet. Hassinger presented the Prunes with a song penned by two songwriters he knew, Annette Tucker and Nancie Mantz, that was well suited to their buzzy sound. Hassinger's instincts about the song were spot on, and "I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)," filled with otherworldly guitar oscillations and Lowe's impassioned lead vocals, was issued in November 1966 and quickly became a hit, topping out at number 11 on the singles charts in February 1967. A second number composed by Annette Tucker (this time in collaboration with Jill Jones), "Get Me to the World on Time," became the follow-up, and it was another chart success, rising to number 27. Behind the success of the singles, Reprise released an Electric Prunes album, 1967's I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night), that was dominated by material written by Tucker and her associates, with only two tracks penned by members of the group.
Underground
In the wake of the success of their singles, the Electric Prunes began touring heavily, where they had the hard job of learning to re-create their studio sounds in front of an audience. They also landed an endorsement deal with Vox, a leading manufacturer of instruments, amplifiers, and effects pedals;
2 фев 2023
