Electric Prunes: Stockholm '67
If you ever wondered what it was like to be around in the sixties, this album may just be what you need to re-create that era in your living room. This has to be one of the finest live recording of any sixties band ever to have been released, the quality is exceptional. The Electric Prunes have exerted their influence over many bands down the years, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, The Damned and The Stone Roses are all indebted to this band in one way or another. The gig was recorded (without the band's permission) by the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation and features them going through their paces live on stage at the Konserthuset, Stockholm, Sweden on December 14th 1967. The recording features their two best known songs, ' I had too much to dream (last night)' and 'Get me to the world on time' amongst others and a couple of psyche tinged workouts on standard R&B covers of the time, just for good measure.
The recording had been doing the rounds as a bootleg for a number of years, but didn't feature the entire show and so when this album gained it's first official release in 1997, it was the first time that this great band could be heard playing whilst at the height of their powers all those years ago.
The album opens with an introduction by the Swedish compere and then we proceed to be treated to a bit of pre-flight checking of guitar tuning, which far from detracting from the performance, actually adds to the tension and neatly segues into the the cataclysmic opening of 'found sounds' and feedback roar that introduces 'You never had it better' which cracks along at a fair old pace. Then follows the wonderful 'I had too much to dream last night', which is very well executed and has the same sense of urgency that's contained in the original studio recording, but benefits also from the atmosphere conjured up that cold night in Stockholm; the song is prefaced by James Lowe taking time out to apologize for America's military goings on in Vietnam ( he would have to do the same thing, but this time for the war in Iraq on their 2002 European tour) as means of preventing a repeat of an incident in Amsterdam, Holland whereby the band had to take the heat for the war from a righteous and confrontational audience and leave the stage before a note is played . 'Try me on for size' is up next and James gamely encourages the audience to yell out 'curse words' beforehand, but the well behaved audience appear to be content to take in the sounds rather than participate in a 'swear fest'. Next up is 'I happen to love you', which although it is a great Gerry Goffin and Carole King ballad, in the hand of the Prunes it has more edgy feel to it than you would normally expect from a Goffin-King composition. 'I got my mojo workin' follows and ,as said earlier,has all the usual Prune sounds applied to it and takes on a whole new persona in the process. 'Long days flight ('til tomorrow)' is another great band composition that contains all the precussive propulsion and feedback howling and screaming that you could want towards the end of the song. Then follows a Prune take on 'Smokestack Lightning' that starts off pretty straight and then stretches out into an elongated free form, but tight flight of fancy. Last of all is 'Get me to the world on time' which kicks off with some nice growly fuzz bass and percussion before going into the main body of the song and concludes with an apocalypse ending that the Prunes have the patent on.
This is a great historical document of a pioneering psyche band who's influence is felt even in the music of today and have only in recent years been afforded the credit they richly deserve for being bold enough to experiment on their singles and so ushering in the psychedelic era. If you get the chance to see them performing live, do so, as they are just as mind boggling now as they were then!
Kevin Wallbank (UK)
of M100 and Honey Moon On Mars
submitted: 07-13-08
