SUNLIGHT

 

The raucous sound of Sky Saxon's band the Seeds made them a local phenomenon in Los Angeles in the mid-1960s, but few could have predicted that Saxon would go on to become his own one-man cult. After disappearing into a religious commune during the 70s

He was born Richard Marsh in Salt Lake City, Utah, in a year he variously gave as 1937, 1945 and 1946, and moved to Los Angeles when he was (probably) 18 to pursue a musical career. He later claimed to have been a classical music fan and to have studied piano briefly at UCLA, but he first appeared on disc as an R&B singer, releasing several singles in 1963-64 and billing himself as Little Richie Marsh.

He changed his name to Sky Saxon because, as he would explain: "Sky Saxon to me was like my hero, Errol Flynn. The name sounded great and he was great and made great movies." After stints with the Soul Rockers and the Electra Fires, he answered an advertisement for a frontman placed by guitarist Jan Savage, drummer Rick Andridge and organist Daryl Hooper. They gave him the job. The Seeds were formed and they secured a deal with the GNP Crescendo label. Their first single, Can't Seem to Make You Mine (1965), provoked minor interest and was reissued to greater acclaim in 1967.

Their debut album, The Seeds, epitomised the garage band ethos of short, punchy songs powered by fuzzy guitars, clattering drums and crude organ, with Saxon's Jagger-like yowl on top. Its highlight was Pushin' Too Hard, a deliciously dim classic that never rose higher than 37 on the charts but is renowned as a benchmark of its genre. It became a local favourite along with the efforts of other LA luminaries such as the Doors, the Byrds and Love. The second album, A Web of Sound, followed in short order, and the band could be heard picking up elements of psychedelia and flower power. The trance-like single Mr Farmer was another local hit, even though many radio stations banned it because of its druggy allusions.

The Seeds greeted the summer of 1967 with Future, an album of full-on psychedelia bristling with exotic instruments and wrapped in a plush gatefold sleeve. It became the band's biggest seller, though it charted no higher than 87, and the group were vogueish enough to land a cameo in Roger Corman's teen movie Psych Out (1968), starring Jack Nicholson. However, drugs and fast living were eroding the Seeds, and by 1968 Andridge and Savage had quit, the latter later joining the LAPD. Saxon and Hooper then formed the Sky Saxon Blues Band and recorded A Full Spoon of Seedy Blues, with sleeve notes by Muddy Waters, but a subsequent effort to revive The Seeds failed.

Saxon now retreated into the Source Family, a religious sect formed by beatnik Jim Baker, alias Father Yod. Saxon became Sky Sunlight Saxon and recorded with a cult-related band that went by names such as Source, Yodship and YaHoWha 13 and featured the musicians Djin, Octavious and Sunflower Aquarian. Saxon also made recordings of his own, usually limited to mail-order release, but his former fans had moved on.

This changed in the 1980s, when the Seeds experienced a revival of interest (LA girl band the Bangles often played Pushin' Too Hard). The UK-based Psycho label recruited Saxon to record the Starry Ride album, assisted by Mars Bonfire from Steppenwolf and members of Iron Butterfly and Fraternity of Man. Saxon and Bonfire then formed Firewall, who recorded a couple of neo-psychedelic albums, and, in 1989, Saxon resurrected the Seeds to headline the Summer of Love tour, which featured such fellow California veterans as Arthur Lee and Love, and the Strawberry Alarm Clock.

Saxon spent part of the 1990s ensconced in domestic bliss with his then wife Marianna DaPello, and put together a wooden box of discs called God and Hair, comprising music by Sky Sunlight Saxon as well as YaHoWha recordings. He took The Seeds back on the road in 2003, and they continued to perform, albeit with shifting personnel, up to Saxon's death, releasing the albums Red Planet and Back to the Garden. In June 2007, he married Sabrina Smith, who also became his business partner.

In 2008 he released The King of Garage Rock, a collection of his old hits and some cover versions, and worked on new recordings with Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins. His death was first announced on Facebook by Sabrina, who has also revealed that Saxon's birthday was August 20 while not specifying which year. He had been admitted to St David's hospital, in Austin, with an infection and died of kidney and heart failure.

• Sky Saxon (Richard Elvern Marsh), musician, born 20 August 1946; died 25 June 2009

Here is a selection of some of Sky's works( both with the Seeds and solo) Some good . some not so but all a reflection of one of psychedelia s cherished champions

01 the wind blows your hair

02 faded picture

03 painted doll

04 fallin' in love

05 wish me up

06 barbie doll looks

07 the singer not the song

08 sons of the light

09 music is a vanishing world

10 paradise

11 burning down the walls

12 sha lalala (It's a groovy thing)

13 go with the flow

14 food for the hungry

15 bad part of town

16 born to be wild

17 trouble

18 no matter what you do

19 starry ride

20 i'm in love with life

21 drums.stars and guitars

22 star setter

23 gloria

24 have love will travel

THEKLA GARDEN

The Seeds were a 1960s rock and roll band based in Los Angeles, California, United States, whose raw and abrasive energy, and simple, repetitive lyrics came to exemplify the garage rock style. The band was active from 1965 to 1972. Lead singer Sky Saxon was heavily influenced in style and appearance by Mick Jagger, and the group promoted the fact that Blues great Muddy Waters once called them “America’s own Rolling Stones.” Keyboardist Daryl Hooper was a major factor in the band’s sound; the band was one of the first to utilize keyboard bass; guitarist Jan Savage and drummer Rick Andridge completed the original quartet.

The Seeds’ first single, “Can’t Seem To Make You Mine,” was a regional hit in southern California in 1965. The band had a national top-40 hit, “Pushin’ Too Hard”, in 1966. Two subsequent singles, “Mr. Farmer,” (also 1966) and “A Thousand Shadows” (1968) achieved more modest success. Though musically primitive, one album was devoted to the Blues (with liner notes by Muddy Waters), and another (Future, 1967) was full-blown psychedelic rock, with ornate flower-themed graphics to match. The original Seeds disbanded in 1970, shortly after the release of "Raw and Alive at Merlin’s Music Box." “Pushin’ Too Hard” was named one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. The group, whose repertoire spread between garage rock and acid rock, are considered one of the pioneers of punk rock, coining the phrase, "Flower Power."

01. Introduction

02. And The Wind Blows Her Hair

03. No Escape

04. Satisfy You

05. Just Let Go

06. Can't Seem To Make You Mine

07. Rolling Machine

08. Evil Hoodoo

09. Let Her Sting

10. 101 Coloured Bottles

11. Try To Understand

12. Out Of The Question

13. Up In Her Room

14. Mr Farmer

15. Violet Ray

16. Pushin' Too Hard

17. Rocking The World Today

18. End Jam

19. Girl, I Want You

Recorded live at the Thekla, Bristol 21st June 2003. Released in a limited run of 50 hand numbered copies.

WILD FLOWERS

 

FLOWER PUNKS

During the mid 1960’s, suburban garages across America rocked to the fuzz-drenched frenzy created by kids hoping to emulate THE SEEDS, one of the biggest and best bands to emerge from the phenomenon known as Garage Rock. The Seeds style was undeniably simple but nonetheless brilliantly original. Muddy Waters once called them, “America’s own Rolling Stones”.

The Seeds’ debut album arrived in April 1966. Saxon’s lyric’s were infected by a wondrous charm, while the blend of British and blues influences served notice that The Seeds were developing a sound quite distinct from that of their “Louie Louie” based rivals. “Evil Hoodoo” is a piece of high octane freak-beat that was as much a genuine slice of punk as anything the late seventies punk explosion threw up. This sentiment of primal angst, as defined in the classic “Pushin’ Too Hard”, is the reason why Joey Ramone started singing in the first place, as the now deceased founder of punk titans, The Ramones, expressed in an interview.

Best known for their rock and roll standard “Pushin’ Too Hard”, the Seeds combined the raw appeal of garage rock with a fondness for psychedelia. They were the creation of charismatic vocalist Sky Saxon who, along with guitarist Jan Savage, recruited Daryl Hooper on keyboards and Rick Andridge on drums to unleash The Seeds onto the world. They soon signed to record biz pioneer Gene Norman’s label Crescendo Records and debuted the 45 RPM, “Can’t Seem Too Make You Mine” (1965). This was a slow, driving’ number that highlighted Saxon’s unique vocal style, and their patented Combo sound, which for the record, pre-dated the Doors! This single earned the band appearances on all the major variety shows at the time including American Bandstand and Shebang. “Pushin’ Too Hard” was the anthem for a generation and hit number one in many cities across America including Los Angeles and New York and hit #36 on the Billboard national chart in 1966. It was based on a simple driving riff over which Sky vented and growled and was characterized by a masterful minimalism that would make the band a source of inspiration for countless bands to come (check out bands that have covered The Seeds). Their self titled debut LP had other great groovy stompers like “No Escape”, “Nobody Spoil My Fun” and “Girl I Want You”.

A second more adventurous LP, “A Web of Sound”, appeared in October 1966. The album brimmed with rockin’ mid-60’s classics, including the fourteen-minute “Up in Her Room”. Another smash on the American charts was the tightly grooving’, pro-pot / working class anthem “Mr. Farmer.”

The band then changed their garage style and threw the lot in with their emergent flower-power movement. The Seeds coined the term “Flower Power” only to watch it crumble in commercial media hype. The result was “Future” (1967). Saxon’s compositions contained a strong element of acid-tinged horticultural playful whimsy as in “Travel with Your Mind” and “March of the Flower Children”, while the band, like The Beatles, were innovators with Eastern-style instrumentation. Mega success seemed just around the corner, especially after their cameo appearance in the Jack Nicholson film “Psych Out” performing the song “Two Fingers Pointed at You” and a follow up 45, the moody, haunting, psychedelic rush of “Wind Blows Your Hair” (1967). At this point in their success the Seeds headlined over bands like The Doors, Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds, Vanilla Fudge, Jefferson Airplane, The Kinks, Four Seasons, Diana Ross and The Supremes and others. They also split bill with Jimi Hendrix in New York City. One has to realize that the Seeds far surpassed the Garage rock label, what other garage band can boast selling out the Hollywood Bowl!

The next LP was A Spoonful Of Seedy Blues (1967), released under the moniker Sky Saxon Blues Band and featuring sleeve notes and songwriting collaboration by blues giant Muddy Waters. The Seeds were back with the 1968 album “Raw and Alive: Merlin’s Music Box”. This exciting live LP was recorded in Orange County California at Merlin’s Music Box and produced a song that captured The Seeds at one of their most powerful moments, “I Can Satisfy You”, Jan’s scorching brilliant guitar and Daryl’s wonderful contrapuntal bass and keyboards demonstrate one of the bands most vital ingredients-Intensity. Originally a single, this song was a powerhouse live. In later years, some called The Seeds “the original punk rock band”. Although this was true as far as raw furor goes, their sophistication level was light years beyond this label, especially for the 60’s.

The Seeds
1968
Melodyland Theatre Anaheim, CA
Audience recording
01. Mr. Farmer
02. Tripmaker
03. Cloud ride
04. Night time girl
05. Gypsy plays his drums
06. Pushin' too hard
07. Up in her room
08. Can't seem to make you mine
09. Nine hundred million people daily all making love
10. Satisfy you