A sample of some obscure – and some maybe not obscure – tunes from my strange and off-the-wall collection.

Today’s selection: Ultimate Spinach "Mind Flowers" 1971

Let's delve deep into hippiedom, circa 1968. (it won't be the last time ...)

A Boston band marketed as an alternative to the "San Francisco Sound".
"marketed" pretty describes the end of the short-lived hippie era.

"One day, in 1967, I was in my room, tripping on some really pure LSD. I started looking at myself in the mirror and my face was doing funny things. I had a bunch of colored markers I used to draw with. I grabbed a green one and started drawing all these psychedelic designs on my face. When I was done, I looked at myself and said 'Whoa! I am ultimate spinach. Ultimate spinach is me!'"

The band did tour with bands such as "Big Brother & The Holding Co" (Janis Joplin) and the "Youngbloods" and released three albums, each fading away a bit more - the third did not make the charts; but the first is still listed as a "psychedelic classic".

"The Spinach's self-titled debut album is now considered a psychedelic classic, but it's the group's second record, Behold and See, that is perhaps their finest achievement."

This cut is off the second LP, "Behold and See", which was re-released on a heavily edited CD in 1995 but is now available in the original format on vinyl for $25.

"Obviously the hit from this album is “Mind Flowers” by the wasted Ultimate Spinach, a drug bathed band from Boston who came into being in 1967, at the apex of the psychedelic musical experience." Dec 2020

Turn on your lava light and drop a hit.

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