Customer Reviews

Too Much to Dream - Original Group Recordings: Reprise 1966-1967

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This UK import 2 CD set released on Rhino/Reprise is long overdue and my prunes have shriveled up waiting for years for the first 2 Electric Prunes albums as well as the 45rpm singles to be reissued on CD on Reprise (not the Collectors' Choice reissues). I must say the packaging/layout is nice, although I would have favored this edition housed in a jewel case or with disc trays instead of CD pockets, but this is an insignificant complaint as there are other positive Prune points to ponder. First, I'm going to critique the sonic characteristics. This was transferred from the original master tapes o'course, being it's a Rhino release and the sound quality is just superb. Very clear, crisp and powerful sound like you've never heard and does the original warm analog recordings more than justice with all around dynamic remastered sound that makes the Prunes more of a pleasure to listen to now as I don't have to "drop the needle" on my near mint original copies. There have been a few Electric Prunes CD's released the past years, but in my opinion this is the one to have along with the Live In Stockholm 67' CD (one of the best live recordings of the late 60's & is a shame Reprise never issued it). Their magnum opus "Underground" is one of my top 20 psych albums of all time as this showed the potential the Prunes really possessed & if only the original lineup were able to stick around a bit longer for a third album to expand on. Sadly, Hassinger lost interest in them & Axelrod takes over completely of the Prunes' musical direction hence forward. The 68' Mass In F Minor LP although, still gets some plays out of me from time to time, truely unique album, but I missed Jimmy Lowe. Too Much to Dream: The Original Group Recordings contains the two 67' full length albums plus the 45rpm non-lp sides & a few mono and alternate versions that are worth having as well. Refer to the song list for the additional tracks not on the original releases. The 45rpm single "You Never Had It Better" never sounded better and puts anything in the rock genre nowadays to shame. This song is utterly a Prunes masterpiece & was made to be played at HIGH volume! Play both CD's at high volume to celebrate this new release. Second, I dig the included booklet w/ Q&A and rare novelty shots & a couple of the group in their psych regalia. As an added treat, the CD's have the original Reprise tri-colored steamboat labels (yes, these things matter in a reissue). The Prunes have once again been fortified and by NO means have shriveled up like so much other things currently in this world. The second psychedelic revolution will not be televised! Are you prepared?

Until now, if you wanted an overview of the Electric Prunes' output prior to Mass in F Minor, the obvious choice was the compilation Lost Dreams on the Birdman label. Largely drawn from their two magnificent albums from 1967, including their surrealistic American hit, I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night), it included later singles, rarities, unreleased items and extended versions of album tracks. Inevitably, certain favourite tracks from the albums were omitted, however.

This new anthology from Rhino has the luxury of being spread over two discs and therefore includes both stereo albums in full, namely I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night and Underground. Listeners can therefore hear from themselves why the band were so embarrassed at being made to record Al Jolson covers and vaudeville pastiches, whilst also enjoying omitted classics such as Bangles, Children Of Rain, Antique Doll and I, all in the high quality re-mastered sound that Lost Dreams introduced onto CD, this time by Dan Hersch.

The albums are both presented in their standard versions, so if you want to hear fuller versions of Hideaway, The Great Banana Hoax and Dr Do-Good you still need Lost Dreams, though the long stereo version of Long Day's Flight has been added (confusingly mislabeled as a mono single version). A number of A-sides and B-sides from both albums are also added in their original mono single mixes, including the fabulous Great Banana Hoax (again mislabeled as being a previously unreleased version).

Rarities again include Shadows, which played over the credits of the film The Name Of The Game Is Kill; both sides of their first single Ain't It Hard/Little Olive; two outtakes (an unreleased Hollies cover, I've Got A Way Of My Own, and World Of Darkness, though this time both presented in mono); and their final 1967 single, Everybody Knows/You Never Had It Better.

This comprehensively rounds up the most seismic chapters of their history, up to the end of 1967. Mass in F Minor, as its title suggests, introduced a very different sound and a very different band, but that is a another story.

Two CD, 41 track compilation. Looks like the Prune's first two CD's on an import reissue. Appears to be their first two lps, both put out in 1967, 'I Had Too Much To Dream' and 'Underground'. Yet, this is something you don't see everyday. First, you get every tune off 'I Had Too...' THEN plenty of out-take recordings and mono versions, then after that, WEA tagged on the entire 'Underground' album. Great late '60's all American garage rock / psychedelic. Plenty of 'deep album cuts' here that only true Electric Prunes fans (like myself) will likely remember, such as the tripping "Sold To The Highest Bidder", "About A Quarter To Nine", "Luvin'", "Wind-Up Toys" among others. Highly recommended

The Electric Prunes were an American Band who had their glory days in 1967-68. They released a good handful of singles of which two were quite successful; especially "I Had Too Much to Dream" will be remembered by fans of early psychedelia.

Musically they appeared to be in the front league of the new psychedelia sounds which were influencing pop-music in 1966-68. The band seemed to be like an American version of the sounds and styles that were developed by English bands such as the Yardbirds, Syd Barret's Pink Floyd or Tomorrow.

This compilation contains their complete first two albums both originally released in 1967. Unfortunately their later career was ruined through their involvement in composer David Axelrod's ideas and compositions, which was preventing them from developing their own musical ideas and which eventually led the the split-up of the band. In recent years key members of the band have reformed the Electric Prunes and a couple of new album are available.

The first album (CD1) contains their highly original hit-singles "I Had Too Much to Dream" and "Get Me to the World on Time" and other fine compositions written by songwriter Annette Tucker along with Nancy Mantz and Jill Jones. Some tracks are stylistically close to the psychedelia approach of the singles whereas others are pure r&b/garage and others again pure pop à la Monkees or Herman's Hermits. This make the album somewhat uneven though the group generally handle the various styles well and the songwriting is quite good. Bandmembers Jim Lowe and Mark Tulin wrote the Rolling Stones influenced "Luvin'" and one song was a group compositions. The rest of the album was written by outside composers. Among the bonus-tracks the debut single "Ain't it Hard"/"Little Olive" are great - both would have worked better on the album than the Davy Jones type ballads "Onie" and "About a Quarter to Nine". The outtake "I've Got a Way of my Own" written by the Hollies seems a little unfinished but is still a great track that suits the band well.

The follow-up album "Underground", released the same year, gave more way to the band's own material. Generally the album come out more consistent and more like a tradtional "garage" album, though some psychedelia sounds pop up here and there.

Three songs "The Great Banana Hoax", "Dr. Do-Good" and "Long Day's Flight" were tried for singles, but all failed to make it to the charts. They were great songs but were obviously not commercial enough; the most commercial track "Hideaway" might have made it for the group but it was only used as a B-side.

Bandmembers Jim Lowe and Mark Tulin show promising songwriting on "The Great Banana Hoax", "Hideaway" and the bonus-track single "Everybody Knows" / "You Never Had it Better"; strange that this catchy single did not make it.

Songwriter Annette Tucker contributed the fine "Antique Doll" as well as the single "Dr. Do-Good" and the dreamy "I".

Fine booklet with biography, informative notes and recent interviews with bandmembers make this a very recommendable release; especially for fans of bands like Easybeats, Standells, Pink Floyd or rock music of the late 1960's in general.

I bought the first album in '66, and I loved the singles. The album had a couple more decent songs (Bangles, Sold To The Highest Bidder, Lovin') but some really egregiously bad material, so I filed it, brought it out for the few good songs, and never bought anything else. I missed "Underground" completely, and then heard "Mass in F Minor" which I thought was interesting, but not anything I'd want to listen to again. I would occasionally see "Underground" in used racks but I skipped by it. Fast forward 40 years, and the Prunes are back together with a new album. This I gotta hear. It is fantastic, and leads me to purchase "Too Much to Dream" so I can reconsider it (my vinyl version got lost) and lo and behold...the first album is still pretty bad. No change there BUT, "Underground" is a great early psych album that I completely missed. There may not be anything as instantly memorable as "Dream" or "World" but there sure isn't any "Turnerville Trolley" or "Onie" either. It sounds a little like the 1st Country Joe album (so did lots of Psych albums around that time) but if this is what the Prunes could have built on, their ignominious end was totally undeserved. If you were just ignorant (like I was) this will set you straight. Otherwise, Rhino has done its usual nice job of remastering (sorry, but the best mastering of all time won't save some of those tracks on the first album) and if you've got scratched up vinyl this will be a nice upgrade. It also sports a few unreleased tracks, some mono mixes and some alternate versions. This one was a truly pleasant surprise. I'd give "Underground" 5 stars on its own. Thanks to all of you who posted the reviews that made me curious, and especially thanks to the Prunes for getting back together, putting out a great album, and sparking my interest in this one.

When I was a young lad I bought the singles "I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)" and "Get Me to The World On Time". Loved 'em, but this was my only exposure to the Electric Prunes. I was listening to the Airplane the other week and I thought, I like this trippy stuff, so I thought I'd look for some original psychedelic / Garage Band material from back in the day. I came across the Prunes 2 CD set, saw it was on Rhino who ALWAYS do quality work when restoring (remastering) material as old as the dead sea scrolls, so I thought I'd give it a go.

I wasn't disappointed, the songs are mostly of the Garage Band / psychdelic pastiche, with a few pop flavoured songs thrown in to the mix. Now besides the aforementioned 2 hits, my favourites include, the trippy acid rock "Great Banana Hoax" with it's rip snorting guitar leads, "Bangles", another guitar driven, almost melodic rocker, "Big City" (Punk/ Garage Band), "Onie" a pretty ballad, "Everybody Knows" a rocking song with surprisingly good backing vocals. These guys really liked the wah wah pedal a lot, it's featured on almost every song. For completist among us, it should be noted that these 2 discs represent the first 2 albums from this quintet in glorious stereo and includes other stereo outtakes (good songs too) and all of the mono singles from the era. Excellent packaging and informative liner notes.

Rhino has done yet another splendid job of meticulously remastering the material, it packs a solid punch. If 60's psychedlics is your thing, I fully recommend this fine double CD set.

I have the COLLECTORS CHOICE pair of the first 2 Prunes cd's... and they are a big improvement over this recent Rhino effort..

Rhino could have done much more with the remaster.....What they ended up with...was inconsistent EQ mixes from track to track...The bass tends to be weak and murky....also, the overall output level is weak..One thing they did do that I commend them on...They smoothed out the tinny high end.....

I still prefer the Collectors Choice versions......For the person who can do their own remastering.....That would be the best way to go...because you have a stronger mix to start with...so you'll get better end results.

I also like the fact the CC versions are the original covers (front and back) and are housed in plastic gem cases...in case you're partial to those

This release housed in a mini-lp-sleeve foldout is a delight in sound and packaging.Highly recommended indeed!

Like the first reviewer, I agree that this item--along with Live Stockholm '67--is the one to have, not only for the virtues of the complete package, but for the add-ons as well: the VOX wa-wa pedal ad, assorted (mono) singles, and bonus tracks. Apparently Warner / Reprise has something similar slated to follow for the succeeding two Axelrod productions in April '07, and even if those aren't the "true Prunes," I eagerly await their release as well. If you're going to do a reissue, this is how to do it. Now if only someone would put together a two-CD compliation of stuff that Dave Hassinger worked on, produced, or engineered (yeah, it's a pipe dream as competing label interests would prohibit it)--e.g., '65-'66 Stones, Prunes, Grateful Dead, and the list goes on~

undoubtedly this is a wonderful package. Finally the Prunes get some respect. My only problem with this set is this: we get single versions, adverts, but NO INCLUSION OF ONE OF THEIR BEST 45's---> no "Hey Mr. President"!