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

Today’s selection: Deep Purple's "Burn" cover 1974

Let me take you back to a Friday night in September 1974. A warm late summer evening. A pick-up college bar in a medium sized town in Michigan. Not really a dive bar ... but the decor was open-ceiling industrial flat black. The toilets - at least the men's version - were arranged for one purpose: getting rid of excessive amounts of cheap beer via various orifices. I'd find it hard to believe the women's version was much different - perhaps those in the audience with experience of such places might express their thoughts ... because - being a pick-up bar in a college town of the mid-70s - the girls fully participated in the fun.

Funny about all the dear, "I Love You, Man" friends I made there that were forgotten the next morning. Sometimes, I wish they had been forgotten the next morning. Sometimes, they wish I had been forgotten the next morning. Or the night before.

If I have child - unknown, unlikely, but possible - it would be about 50 years old now ...

Anyway, any respectable (I use the term loosely but several of you will understand) bar of that era and that place had live music, at least on the weekends. Ted Nugent was one of the performers here. That type of dive bar. Somewhat local boy. I recall one "concert" where he basically practiced his screeching and feedback (though I like a fair amount of Nugent's stuff, especially with Amboy Dukes - but this was after the Duke's time and before he went solo)

On this Friday night, I had permission from the bar and band to record the show. I like this cover of Burn but the band shall remain nameless per their request. I actually like this version better than Deep Purple's.

So - here you have a sample of Friday night bar music, 1974.

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.