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| From | Stewart Mason <flamingo@theworld.com> |
| Subject | Re: Electric Prunes |
| Date | Tue, 01 Apr 2003 21:34:43 -0500 |
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At 07:40 PM 4/1/2003 -0600, Brad Harvey wrote:
>Can any psych-pop Auditeers recommend a good comp on the Electric Prunes
>("I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night") or some insight on which album of
>theirs might be the best purchase for someone on a severely strained budget?
>
The only comp I know of is LONG DAY'S FLIGHT, a mid-'80s import collection
that's only songs from the first two albums. It's good as tose things go,
but the problem is that the Prunes were in fact three different bands, all
of them directed by producer Dave Hassinger: the original punky
garage-rockers (I HAD TOO MUCH TO DREAM LAST NIGHT, UNDERGOUND, and the
posthumous STOCKHOLM '67), the session musicians under composer/arranger
David Axelrod's thumb (MASS IN F MINOR, RELEASE OF AN OATH) and the
anonymous hacks who pounded out a cynical last wheeze (JUST GOOD OLD ROCK
AND ROLL, which doesn't live up to any element of its title).
Thing is, there's really no such thing as the single best Prunes album,
because the first four all have their moments, but none of them are start
to finish excellent. TOO MUCH TO DREAM has both the hits, but UNDERGROUND
has "The Great Banana Hoax," which is probably their best song, and it's a
little more consistent. MASS IN F MINOR, a "rock mass," is their most
(in)famous album, one that's scorned and adored in equal measure, but as
blends of heavy rock, psychedelia, middlebrow classical music and very
early progressive rock go, RELEASE OF AN OATH is a *way* better album that
actually holds up pretty well. The problem is that it's only 24 and a half
minutes long!
My advice: if you want the garage punk, seek out LONG DAY'S FLIGHT, which
hits most of the early high points. If you want the freaky prog-rock, get
RELEASE OF AN OATH. If it helps (and you have a turntable), Rhino reissued
all four last year on 180-gram vinyl and I bought the lot for something
like $32, the price of two CDs.
S
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