For many people, the Electric Prunes were their gateway into the wild worlds of garage and psych rock. Lenny Kaye’s Nuggets (Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968) comp featured the Prunes’ 1966 single “I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)” at side 1, track 1, which surely boosted the LA band’s profile. And rightfully so. The song begins low-key and full of intrigue—Ken Williams’ buzzing-bee guitar intro is iconic—and then bursts into one of the most thrilling hybrids of garage and psych ever, its wicked fuzz-tone guitars and sighing, faux-violin undulations perfectly supporting James Lowe’s vulnerable-to-urgent vocals.
The weird thing about the Electric Prunes is they had little creative control, but still sounded as if they were absolutely invested in the material, as if it came out of their very souls. According to liner notes writer Richie Unterberger, they expressed their frustration at only being able to place two original songs on their self-titled debut LP. Even more strange for an all-male group, most of the tunes on this LP were written by women composers, e.g., Annette Tucker, Nancie Mantz, and Jill Jones. (The first two wrote the classic title track.) Tucker and Jones penned the record’s second-most-famous cut, “Get Me To The World On Time,” one of the definitive monuments of garage-rock’s first—and best—wave. The tension/release dynamics here—replete with a Bo Diddley beat-boosted bridge and whistling-comet guitar—are *chef’s kiss*. “Try Me On For Size” is lascivious, alpha-male garage rock, written by those two cool chicks, Tucker and Jones. Paradox rocks!
Sometimes, though, having women songwriters just feels off for these guys. Tucker/Mantz’s “Are You Lovin’ Me More (But Enjoying It Less)” sounds like a girl group hit reluctantly played by dudes, which does bring a certain tension to proceedings. A straight love ballad earnestly sung by guitarist James “Weasel” Spagnola, “Onie” is limp and should’ve wound up on the cutting room floor. Similarly, “About A Quarter To Nine” is a spare, old-timey ballad co-written by Harry Warren, who was born in 1893. WTF?! Worst of all is “Tunerville Trolley,” the sort of zany, vaudeville-influenced bullshit that afflicted many ’60s rock albums.
It’s baffling why half of The Electric Prunes contains such fluff, when they had killer jams like “Train For Tomorrow” in their arsenal. A low-lit psychedelic chugger that’s the epitome of cööl, “Train For Tomorrow” is DJ gold and proves that the Prunes should have been given more leeway in the studio. “Luvin’,” written by Lowe and bassist Mark Tulin, is a psych-blues delicacy that gives Chocolate Watchband a run for their effects pedals. The Prunes were allowed a bit more freedom on their sophomore album, Underground, but they still had outside writers thrust upon them. Bummer.
The Electric Prunes possesses sky-scraping highs and embarrassing lows, which set the tone for the band’s vexatious career. They would encounter further obstacles later in the ’60s when producer Dave Hassinger brought in the phenomenal soul-jazz producer David Axelrod to take the group in a whole other, liturgical-psych direction, with minimal input from the Prunes. This group deserved better. -Buckley Mayfield
Located in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood, Jive Time is always looking to buy your unwanted records (provided they are in good condition) or offer credit for trade. We also buy record collections.
