Customer Reviews

Anthology

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

You can't get much better than the Strawberry Alarm Clock for what seems to have been a mild joke that turned into the blockbuster hit of early 1967: with a teenage friend of the band (who never became a full member) taking the mike on the session, what was supposed to be a B-side turned into "Incense and Peppermints" and, it's about time we all admitted it, you had to be among the smugger-than-thou True Hippie Culturesmog to say anything other than you were getting a terrific kick out of this cagey little rocker. If you were REALLY hip, you were catching onto the song's slightly whacky lyric sendup (probably of Simon and Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair," what with the spice half-puns that make up about half the lyric), the sleek fuzz guitar break by future Lynyrd Skynyrd string-strangler Ed King, the magnificently cheesy electric organ, and the overall sense that what you had here was a band who couldn't decide whether they wanted to be the "Sgt. Pepper" Beatles or the Beach Boys of "The Beach Boys Today" (a later member of the band has said they liked surf music as much as Indian music) and decided indecision was a virtue if you had some great organ licks to tie it together and the chutzpah to play it with a straight face.

The trouble was, what started as a b-side shot to the top of the charts. And they never again hit the kind of in-the-pocket freak accident that "Incense and Peppermints" was, but neither were they complete stiffs. Their experimental eclecticism was actually more endearing than the hipsters' ideas of psychedelic earnestness were producing (any two minutes of the Strawberries' madness beat the living bejesus out of any two sides worth of the Great Jefferson Dead Messenger Starship), and they had a cheerfully offbeat melodic flair that anticipates some of the late 1970s-early 1980s retropsych experimenters (the early Echo and the Bunnymen, Icicle Works, and Teardrop Explodes come to mind). They seem to have been sunk predominantly by some shenanigans involving an early but fired manager (who put a bogus version of the band on the road while they were trying to push their followup singles, including the underrated "Tomorrow" and an early version of "Good Morning Starshine" - which might have been a hit but for, rumour has it, someone once associated with the band who sent their pre-release demo of the song to the singer who ended up charting with it: Oliver) and a round of personnel changes; by 1971 they were through.

The anthology here gathers up the better of the band's peculiar output. And you find, as you listen on, that it's no great shakes to keep repeating "Incense and Peppermints" until the rest of the material grows on you slowly, whichever selections do. They weren't the first band who couldn't live up to the inadvertent promise of an unexpected blockbuster and they won't be the last. But they gave it one of the more memorable shots and, anyway, "Incense and Peppermints" has outlived its critics (probably to the band's surprise as much as anyone else's) and still sounds as refreshing as a roll of Lifesavers.

The music is wonderful-- soft-and-psychedelic rock from 1967-69 or so, and is a COMPLETE representation of the best work from SAC. I was very pleased to find "Pretty Song from (the movie) 'Psych-Out'" on this CD, exactly the same version as used at the opening of the Susan Strasberg/Jack Nicholson 1968 film.

Several other songs of similar type are on this CD, taken from all of SAC's albums, making this a very complete compilation. Sound reproduction and clarity are excellent. Great stuff.

I get so sick of seeing television adds with that farfisa tone of "Incense And Peppermints," that idiotically deep voice over declaring "the music that captured a generation." Is that all we now have to speak of rock's most fertile period? Some of our most important art?
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The few who know or remember the Stawberry Alarm Clock probably think the band had that 1967 single and that is all they were good for.

This anthology will tell you the truth: these guys were one of the most melodic and inventive bands who never got their due.

Now, don't get me wrong: "Incense And Peppermints" is a kicker of a song. Garage and pop and psychedelia rolled into an amazing single. But listen to the marimba on "Barefoot In Baltimore." Add some gloss and make the topic human dysfunction, and you would have an early Steely Dan track, ripe for Countdown To Ecstasy. Even the longer jams, like "The World's On Fire," have a polish and a focus that was lost on bands like Quicksilver Messenger Service.

You only need hear, and when you do, this set will have you wanting to get the other shamefully under-available albums.

And if that were not enough, the band was able to adapt to basic rock as 1967 and 1968 changed into the back to the roots sound of 1969-70. Check out Strawberry Alarm Clock's amazing work on the soundtrack to Russ Meyer's Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.

...if it wasn't for a serendipitous, massive Summer of Love hit song, we wouldn't be talking right now, now would we? But the fact is that massive hit, somehow appropriately sung by a 16 year-old who wasn't even a member of the band, did take flight in 1967 and climbed all the way to the coveted number one slot on the national charts. Given the fact that the band was almost devoid of any songwriting talent, it's even more surprising that the album titled after their lone Top Ten hit, 'Incense and Peppermints', charted all the way to number 11, sharing chartspace with the likes of Jimi Hendrix' 'Are You Experienced', The Beatles' 'Sgt. Peppers', and Cream's 'Disraeli Gears'. The album didn't even feature the band's follow-up hit, 'Tomorrow', which charted at number 23. Certainly that song wouldn't have made even a Top 40 splash had it not possessed the 'Strawberry Alarm Clock' moniker.

I'm sure anyone reading this review is interested in what lies beyond 'Incense and Peppermints' and 'Tomorrow'. The answer is a resounding "not much". As noted earlier, the band lacked songwriting talent. The only song among the sixteen following 'I and P' and 'Tomorrow' that I found compelling was the eight and one-half minute psychedelic workout titled 'The World's On Fire'. It possesses a great underlying riff that lead guitarist Ed King runs some fine wah-pedal over. Other than that, track 14, 'Small Package' opens with a promising sound reminiscent of The Chambers Brothers' 'Time Has Come Today', which is all too soon abandoned, and the final track, 'Black Butter - Future' concludes with a nice vibe solo. Nothing else is really worthy of mention. While a lot can be forgiven if a band rocks out, SAC rarely kick it as they did on 'Incense and Peppermints'. Most of the compositions offered are only quasi-psychedelic in lyrical content only, and are better pigeonholed as 'pop-lite'.

While the band could certainly benefit from better clay, the instrumental performances are better than average. Lead guitarist King, in particular, is no slouch on lead guitar. He went on, in fact, to perform with southern-rock legends Lynyrd Skynyrd. Along the way we're treated to some appealing flute and conga work as well. Despite the respectable level of musical accomplishment within the group, nothing can really make up for the dearth of composing talent within the band, and ultimately this spells out the demise of 'Anthology'. Three stars for the approximate fifteen minutes of classic 1960's rock no collection should be without.

Strawberry Alarm Clock is beyond cool. When I bought this CD, I listened to it whenever I was in a room with a CD player-- this went on for weeks. I LOVE this CD.

Um, yes, ahem...regarding BluesDude's review of this CD, let me politely say my well considered and experienced opinion is 180 degrees away. While it's true that the dead, jefferson airplane, etc did not always produce brilliant, four star albums, it's a crime to suggest that this band was in the same league. I started playing guitar in 1963, playing for money with rock bands by mid '64, went to the first woodstock and bought tons of albums back then you've never heard of like Joe Byrd & the Field Hippies, to name one classic. I overlooked this band because of the catchy but lightweight hit 'incense & peppermints'. After reading BluesDude's review and some others who suggested i was missing something by not getting deeper into this band, i bought this anthology. what a hunk of junk. i'd call it psycho-lite. at times the airy vocal harmonies sound like the Mike Curb Generation or the Lettermen for gosh sakes, really sappy! Comparing them to the Association is the kindest i could get. The only interesting moments are the few cuts where the fuzz guitars and jazzy rhythms and group vocals remind me of THE great unsung 60s band, Spirit. My intention is not to pick a fight with BluesDude or prove i'm right and that my opinion is the ONLY opinion, but really I find very little here to recommend this CD to fans of 60s psychedelia. Yeah, it has it's moments, but if you want to hear a band that wrapped jazz, folk, harmonies, rock and weirdness into one package, start with Spirit's "The Family that Plays Together," then go to their "Twelve Dreams of Dr Sardonicus" and back to their first album. ANd if you want to hear the best psychedelic rock jam albumt to come out of Frisco, check out Quicksilver's "Happy Trails." If you want more psychedlia that's better than this, go to the J. Airplane's "After Bathing at Baxters." And if you want more, buy the "Nuggets" collection. The Strawberry Alarm Clock's music and performances lack conviction, teeth and chops and the lyrics are generally abyssmal: something a precocious 16 year old stoner might write. Skip this - it's an IDEA of what psychedlic music was supposed to be, not music itself.