Visiting old friends. Every one has done it, and more often than not you walk away remembering why you stopped talking to them...such was the case with an old associate, Dr. Hajro. We were friendly rivals in Medical School. He was forever peering into his microscope trying to look further and further into the heart of the small. After a while his perception of the world was based on the micro cosmos. As best as I could, I tried to keep the friendship alive, but to no avail. Afternoons were spent in the day room of the Mental Institution, he looking furtively at the corners of the room, mumbling "we must get there, they wont be able to see us a that angle!"
Eventually he would have fits, the shrieking getting the other patients worked up, and poor Hajro would have to be removed.
In the same vein, but altogether far more pleasant is my rediscovery of the first Ultimate Spinach's LP, on CD. I hadn't heard this record in about 20 years, and my memories were not good. From the muddy mix, which seems to be the calling card of the producer Alan Lorber, to the ear splitting high pitch organ, after a few listens I had given it away to someone.
Now, finding a cheep used copy on CD, I can hear what was going on under the sonic mud. Big Beat Records must have had the original master tapes, for now one hears the Theremin wail away on (Ballad Of A) Hip Death Goddess. Small aside: Nico auditioned for The United States Of America. Nothing came of it and no tapes are said to exist, but with this song one can get the idea what that must have sounded like. The rest of the album is pretty inventive, while much of it owes to The Doors, The Mothers Of Invention, and even the above mentioned United States Of America. Perhaps the lingering shill that was the "Bosstown Sound" will someday be forgotten, and this band will get it's due...
Please click on the review title for sample track: (Ballad Of) The Hip Death Goddess
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