June 22, 2011

I Knew Sky

I was listening this today and it reminded me of this great tune:

It appears the record that's from (the Dig that Crazy Grave EP from Irish psych-garage rock combo The Golden Horde) is no longer available anywhere for love nor money, which is too bad, since the one I used to have seems to have wandered off at some point in the last twenty-five years.

(I like the classic MRR review from Tim Yohannan on the bottom of this page devoted to the record, where he describes it as "boppin' folkish rock." I often used to shake my head at Tim's cockamamie music descriptions and wonder what planet he was living on. But looking at it now, I wonder if this wasn't at least partly a bit of calculated misdirection, damning with faint praise in order to minimize the chances that any misguided, insufficiently movement-committed readers might be tempted to stray too far from the neighborhood between Bad Religion Ave. and MDC Court. It'd be like your dad bounding in and saying: "say, kids! Who's up for some boppin' folkish rock? Anyone feel in the mood for boppin' folkish rock? Boppin' folkish rock? No? All right then. Toxic Reasons it is!" You know what I mean? Reverse psychology. Dads do it.)

Speaking of nutty ideas, once upon a time Kevin Army and I got it into our heads to try to track down Sky Saxon and corral him into doing a cameo on one of our records. (I can't remember which one.) There was a stretch of time where there were numerous Sky Saxon sightings in and around Broadway and Columbus in San Francisco, but he always managed to elude us. If I remember correctly we were planning to offer him dinner and fifty bucks. And don't laugh, that was probably most of the total recording budget. Maybe that wouldn't have been enough. We'll never know now.

Posted by Dr. Frank at June 22, 2011 10:35 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Bella

Posted by: sheena at June 22, 2011 11:40 PM

Many things are unjust. Michael Jackson died the same day as Farah Fawcett. That cut off all discussion of how awesome Farah was, and how much she meant to all of us. But perhaps even more unjust, Michael and Farah died on the same day as Sky Saxon, which meant there was no hope at all of the national conversation we really all needed about what Sky's contribution really was, and its impact, and how much he meant to all of us. It really does suck.

Posted by: Lexington Green at June 24, 2011 02:54 AM

Really? Wow. How much did it run you? Of course I wouldn't say no, Don. It's been ages and I miss it.

Posted by: Dr. Frank at June 30, 2011 03:43 PM

I think it was 35 bucks. It should be here next week. I'm going to transfer it to CD and then I'll send you the original for your collection (or vice versa if you prefer).

Posted by: Don at July 3, 2011 12:44 AM

Awfully kind of you, Don. I'd prefer the vinyl, of course.

Posted by: Dr. Frank at July 3, 2011 04:31 AM

No problem.

Posted by: Don at July 3, 2011 10:39 AM