The SEEDS featuring SKY SAXON – 1966

EXPERIENCE ROCK HISTORY!

The SEEDS
1966
Manchester Recreation Center, (Westchester/LAX) L.A. (Capacity: 200)

 To see a band live who had a hit single was a new experience for me.

Live music for all the local “dances” was performed by decent local garage bands.  Once in a while a name band would play locally; like The Music Machine, whose single, “Talk, Talk” along with Love’s “7 and 7 is” are thee archetypes for pure, raw, hard, seminal punk rock!  There were no songs like these before; these two songs didn’t just kick ass, they obliterated it!
As simple as the drumming on ‘Talk, Talk” was, the sheer power it induced compelled me to get a drum kit at any costs.  At fifteen, that cost was that I if I got a drum kit I had to take professional lessons – from a woman – remember this was 1966; Women’s Liberation was not yet an issue so it served as an outlet for ridicule from my friends.  The artist/musician in me didn’t care one way or the other, let’s rock!
Later in life my pad became a traveling band, as whatever domicile rental I had at the time was inhabited or frequented by musician friends. So I played drums with the “house” band, made up of whoever dropped by to join in for jams and covers. This was probably more entertaining to and for ourselves, but fun’s fun and that we had for sure.

Anyway I missed out on The Music Machine when they played locally, as well as, gulp, the Doors; who were rumored to have played across town at Darby Park Recreation Center. So, to see Sky Saxon and the Seeds was a great experience!
“Pushin’ Too Hard” was a current hit, and they did several new tunes from the yet released, “Web of Sound” LP.  I really dug the Seeds’ psychedelic sound and punkish attitude.  All the songs they performed were totally bitchen and they rocked the Rec that night.

The Web of Sound LP held a respected position on display in my room and on my turntable along with Dick Dale’s Surfer’s Choice, the Ventures In Space, the Kinks Greatest Hits, the Stones’ Aftermath, Them and of course a Beach Boys LP.

“Pushin’ Too Hard” was my first deja-vu song. The first time I heard it on the radio Irecognized it, I knew it, it was if I had heard it repeatedly before!  I could anticipate the next words, the next beats and the next sounds exactly.  It was as weird for me then as it is now.  I’ve had several déjà vu songs since; the Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin” is one of them – the first time I heard that on the LP – long before it was an edited hit single – it was if I had heard it for years – weird.

The Seeds’ Sky Saxon was a devout Hippie and claimed that he coined the terms Flower Children and Flower Power – and probably did.

Epilogue:  I cruised by the Recreation Center during April 2006 and it was just as it was 40 years ago; a stark interior basketball court with no seating and a recessed stage at one end of the court.  It sure seemed bigger back then.

Post Epilogue:  Even today I love to hear the whole Web of Sound LP – all the cuts are seriously trippy and “A Faded Picture” still knocks me out. The LP is a true seminal classic and iconic stamp on a space in time when Garage Rock and Psychedelia literally grew from THE SEEDS!

Lineup: Sky Saxon (vocals, harmonica, bass); Jan Savage (guitar); Daryl Hooper (piano, organ); Rick Andridge (drums).

Set List: Songs from their first LP and from their second as yet released LP; Web of Sound

MUSIC MACHINE – TALK TALK – it’s all about the one black glove!
LOVE – 7 AND 7 IS – Rock Bliss!
The SEEDS – A Faded Picture
The SEEDS – Tripmaker
The SEEDS – Pushin’ Too Hard