The United States of America (band/album)

[notallwhowander]

This was a lucky-dip at my local brick-and-mortar. I’ve read about the album on various best psych lists around the net, though never here. So when it was there, used at a modest price, I picked it up.

Recently, I’ve been smitten with the two H.P. Lovecraft studio albums. So I have been primed for more domestic psychedelia from the original era. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be doing for me.

On the up side, the psychedelic effects and whimsy on the album are pretty cool. On the down side, the songwriting is fairly mediocre. Furthermore, and I’ve done no research to bear this out mind you, it doesn’t feel completely authentic to me. By authentic, I mean that I leave the album unconvinced that the songwriters actually dropped acid, but rather appropriated forms and flourishes from the psychedelic underground in an attempt to be avant-garde: an album made to sell to hippies rather than and album made by hippies.

Now this impression might not be actually true at all. It could be that the band simply wasn’t all that good, or captured well, and that is what leaves me the impression of inauthenticity. However, the studio production chops seem to be in line, the band’s chops, however, are rather lackluster.

There seems to be rather a lot of acerbity turned toward the suburban middle class. While this is a popular target of psychedelic songsmiths, there’s not much recognition of an underlying humanity of the targets. So the jabs come across as supercilious but not all that clever. Also, there is a thread of misogyny that runs through the album that simply leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

All this said, there are some cool moments. “Cloud Song,” “Where is Yesterday,” & “Stranded in Time” stand out to theses ears (though the last one is clearly chasing after “Eleanor Rigby”). However, unless it comes together for me in an unexpected way, back to the brick-and-mortar store it will go.

[Blah_Blah_Woof_Woof]

Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies weren't hippies?

[Scrotum Scissor]

The USoA album is a complete classic. I had a severe reaction back when I was 17 and heard this for the first time, a kind of reaction I didn't have again until I first heard the Art Bears four years later.

You just never forget such moments of utter revelation.

[polmico]

I picked this and The Music Emporium up on the same day about a decade back.

"Inauthentic" describes the latter the letter.

The USA album I still have and there are bits on it I love--but it's been a while.

I can't really remember the lyrics, but that's not so notable as I easily (and perhaps too readily) dismiss most rock lyrics.

A revisit is clearly in order, but--and this is my general rule of thumb--if there are enough tracks on the album you like, regardless of intent or appropriation, I say keep it.

[notallwhowander]

Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies weren't hippies?

As I said, I don't really know what the actual deal was with them. I am describing a largely emotional reaction to an album I have listened through three or four times. I'm trying to guess why the music doesn't quite "ring true" for me. By 1968 "hippie" was a term of fashion as much as anything else, or so I've been told by people involved with the scene in San Francisco. There were a lot of pop acts trying to get in on the psychedelic thing that didn't have any previous claim to it because it was the fashion of the day. (The Temptations and The Ventures spring to mind.) These guys? I don't know.

[Blah_Blah_Woof_Woof]

I kid, I kid. No harm meant

[Progbear]

The USoA album is a complete classic. I had a severe reaction back when I was 17 and heard this for the first time, a kind of reaction I didn't have again until I first heard the Art Bears four years later.

You just never forget such moments of utter revelation.

I’ve always thought it was excellent. For me, the first real prog album. They were all (or most of them, definitely Byrd in any case) from academia and the classical/avant garde field, and instead of making academic music for other academics to appreciate (hello, Milton Babbitt and Charles Wuorinen), they applied it to actual songs. Tom Oberheim (with the aid of Jacob Durrett) built his first synthesizer for them. Sort of like Curved Air in embryo (or rather, Curved Air was like a British answer to this album, minus all the controversy). Byrd tried to recapture the magic on the Field Hippies album, but that first one was lightning in a bottle, it seems. Sad that he wound up reduced to making kitsch Moog covers of Christmas carols and Sousa marches after that.

As I said, I don't really know what the actual deal was with them. I am describing a largely emotional reaction to an album I have listened through three or four times. I'm trying to guess why the music doesn't quite "ring true" for me. By 1968 "hippie" was a term of fashion as much as anything else, or so I've been told by people involved with the scene in San Francisco. There were a lot of pop acts trying to get in on the psychedelic thing that didn't have any previous claim to it because it was the fashion of the day. (The Temptations and The Ventures spring to mind.) These guys? I don't know.

Eh, if you want really “inauthentic”/“cash-in”/whatever, you can find way better/worse examples than the USA album:

[JJ88]

^The first time I heard that song some years back, I wondered whether it was a spoof. Apparently not!

I like this album, 'Coming Down' and 'Garden Of Earthly Delights' are the highlights for me. 'I Won't Leave My Wooden Wife For You Sugar' appeared on one of these Columbia rock samplers of the era. As ever with those late 60s samplers, you realise this was a golden age with all those artists putting out new albums:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ro...e_Turns_You_On

I was thrilled to find the Edsel CD for 25p about 10 years ago! Still have it, the only copy I've ever had.

[mixfo]

United States of America was essentially a short-lived experiment by Joe Byrd to see how he could incorporate his avant garde ideas into a rock setting. At worst you could call it 'contrived' but there's absolutely no reason to expect it to sound like they were a bunch of hippies - they were more like art students. The result is one of the earliest and best attempts at combining electronics and sound effects with rock music, and was as unique then as it is now. It remains a classic in my opinion.

It would be even better to hear it mixed in 5.1 surround sound.

[lovecraft]

With respect, I think the OP has slightly missed the point and mixfo has it absolutely right. It is definitely an experiment on the part of some non-hippies but I have never felt there was any subterfuge about it. It just feels out of kilter from what it might be filed with because it is more careful and considered and lacks any of the sloppiness associatd with the period.

I think its a pretty unique record and have always loved it.

[Buddhabreath]

Love the USA album - unique and compelling both in terms of lyrics and the mix of rock idiom and avant electronics. I've had the original vinyl for years and it's always stuck with me: "The cost of one admission is you mind"...

[notallwhowander]

I appreciate all of you giving me a clue to what the point is. I don't mind standing corrected about it.

I think I've been subconsciously comparing the USA debut with H.P. Lovecraft II, which I've recently come to adore. This is never a good situation, I think. Whatever the music is, it deserves to be considered on its own merits.

I am, at the very least, convinced to hold on the disc for a while, and to take the time to genuinely reconsider it.

[The Dark Elf]

One of the great psychedelic albums of the 60s -- whatever the experimental processes, by whichever subtype of young musicians, were involved in its manifestation.

[Scrotum Scissor]

They were all (or most of them, definitely Byrd in any case) from academia and the classical/avant garde field, and instead of making academic music for other academics to appreciate (hello, Milton Babbitt and Charles Wuorinen), they applied it to actual songs. Tom Oberheim (with the aid of Jacob Durrett) built his first synthesizer for them. Sort of like Curved Air in embryo (or rather, Curved Air was like a British answer to this album, minus all the controversy). Byrd tried to recapture the magic on the Field Hippies album, but that first one was lightning in a bottle, it seems. Sad that he wound up reduced to making kitsch Moog covers of Christmas carols and Sousa marches after that.

Yupz, I know and know and know again. And I agree about the Curved Air comparison; they too were one of the very first rock groups of their homeland to sport actually trained musicians in their ranks (Monkman and Way), and the 'scholarly' approach to some of their most ambitious material ("Over and Above", "Piece of Mind" etc.) relates to this in the extreme.

Joe Byrd's most important contribution to popular music other than the USoA was his orchestration for Phil Ochs' "The Crucifixion" from Pleasures of the Harbor - IMO.

[philsunset]

As to the OPs statement in an attempt to be avant-garde, they WERE avant-garde. The album wasn't made "to sell to hippies". It was made in the "hippie era", yes, but it seems to me the subject matter of the songs and some recording effects were beyond that.

[Scrotum Scissor]

I think I've been subconsciously comparing the USA debut with H.P. Lovecraft II, which I've recently come to adore.

Truly a case of the ol' apples/oranges dialectic, I think. And I absolutely *ADORE* HP Lovecraft II.

In regard to that, have you caught this yet (brand new)?:



A recent review here in Norway kept referring to "Spin, Spin, Spin" as Terry Callier's song, which, while true, shuns the fact that his arrangement of the tune was quite different while the 'psychos' one stays loyal to the Lovecraft rendition. Shush... I still remember chatting with Snah (Hans M. Ryan, 'psycho guitarist) back in '94 and recommending that he'd check out Quicksilver Messenger Service, after which they promptly started taking "Codine" into their stage repertoire! Crazy times; I also recall Bent Sæther nagging in an interview about how he bought The Who's Live at Leeds and immediately adapted "Young Man Blues" for the 'psychos' liveset. They've always done things like that.

Og figure why it apparently took them yet another 20 years to get that second HP Lovecraft album, tho'...

[yoyiceu]

The current Record Collector magazine has an in depth article about The United States of America, including interviews from members of the band. The link is to the beginning of the article online, but you'd have to subscribe to read the rest. The article explores the origins of the band and how it originally was going to be a lot more experimental and 'academic' before some members left before the recording began.


http://recordcollectormag.com/articles/art-states

[mogrooves]

Dorothy!!!!

[Digital_Man]

It's a wacked album for sure and probably more "out there" than most psych albums at the time. I have a hard time thinking of it as an early example of prog rock though like some people do. Not even really proto imo but very experimental psych. Of course there's nothing wrong with that. Some of the songs pre date Krautrock in sound(this was even mentioned in the liner notes) and one or two even pre date "new age" by several years. It was very ahead of it's time regardless of how you want to label it. At some point I need to check out Silver Apples, Fifty Foot Hose and White Noise too which are all supposed to be similar in that they also used early synths/electronics.

[Scrotum Scissor]

At some point I need to check out Silver Apples, Fifty Foot Hose and White Noise too which are all supposed to be similar in that they also used early synths/electronics.

They're all good, feature electronics (i.e. audio generators) and you definitely should check them out - but compositionally speaking they weren't really that similar to USA.

[Udi Koomran]

Anyone who loves this should checkout Broadcast

[Progbear]

They're all good, feature electronics (i.e. audio generators) and you definitely should check them out - but compositionally speaking they weren't really that similar to USA.

White Noise is kind of a different animal from the aforementioned. Not audio generators, but a sort of pop/psychedelic/experimental album based on tape splicing and manipulations. David Vorhaus and Delia Derbyshire were from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. I do believe Vorhaus (initially a string-bassist) eventually began working with synthesizers (so did Derbyshire, albeit reticently, she apparently much preferred the tape-editing technique and had a lot of resistance to synthesizers).

I was a mite disappointed by FFH when I first heard it*, it has its moments, but is for the most part a fairly typical psych album augmented by home-brew electronics. Silver Apples were, at least on their debut, just a drum kit and a mess of cheap audio generators (All right, Dan played a recorder on “Seagreen Serenades,” but other than that...). They were defined by their limitations, which resulted in a sound that was utterly their own. While undeniably influential, nobody ever sounded like them. And I guess even they realized how monotonous their sound might become if they didn’t mix it up. So for Contact, Simeon added a “real” instrument to his repertoire: a banjo of all things!

*though not so disappointed as I was with Lothar & the Hand People; mediocre psych-pop with a Moog and a Theremin.

[Levgan]

United States of America was essentially a short-lived experiment by Joe Byrd to see how he could incorporate his avant garde ideas into a rock setting. At worst you could call it 'contrived' but there's absolutely no reason to expect it to sound like they were a bunch of hippies - they were more like art students.

Exactly, and this is why this album works for me on so many levels. Personally, I find that the very concept of authenticity is a tad overrated. Record collectors are probably aware about the highly collectable LPs in the so-called "real people" category, which, translated from collectors' slang, usually means private pressings of very high WTF-value, but little musical merit. Shaggs are the most (in)famous example of that, but also plenty of other recordings where the guys and girls would sing completely out of tune, or break into tears during a song, or do some other weird things that they'd never be allowed to do in a professional studio. This is all good and fine and modestly entertaining, and there's a certain non-musical charm to it, so I never miss an opportunity to digest another "real people" LP, but at the end of the day it's the musical mastery and innovation that I seek for in the music I collect. Therefore I usually don't care if the record is contrived or not "true" enough, it may well be a cash-in for all I know, but if it's well done and pushes boundaries and bridges various musical genres seamlessly, that's honestly more than enough for me to enjoy it. One of my favorite albums from the 1990s is Psychedelic Years by Palinckx, which is, roughly speaking, a bunch of Dutch free jazz folks doing tribute to music of the 1960s using bits of Zappa, Pink Floyd and other classics of the era arranged into a kind of sound collage. Now they are definitely not stoned out of their minds a-la Syd Barrett, and you could argue that it's a very calculated work in essence, which I'm not going to dispute. And yet it works wonders and wonderfully manifests their love for a certain period in music history that I happen to share.

At some point I need to check out Silver Apples, Fifty Foot Hose and White Noise too which are all supposed to be similar in that they also used early synths/electronics.

I absolutely adore FFH's Cauldron, maybe even more than the United States of America LP. Silver Apples are different in that they adapt a proto-kraut aesthetic, with relatively simple song structures and intense electronic jams based on proto-motorik beats. Still great, and definitely part of the same groundbreaking psych scene. Another one to consider in this context is David Stoughton's Transformer, a wonderfully odd psychedelic one-off, which tries to sell itself to you as a singer-songwriter record, with the guy's face on the sleeve, but in fact is anything but. It has sadly never been reissued legit as far as I know, and Stoughton's whereabouts are unknown.

[Scrotum Scissor]

Anyone who loves this should checkout Broadcast

QFT. And for starters try their debut, The Noise Made by People - one of the finest debut albums I heard from an "indie" pop/rock project at the turn of the millennium.

[loosefish]

Love this album, but really i want to third the Broadcast recommendation. Always an extraordinary band, sadly no more due to singer Trish Keenan passing away 5 years ago.




I've never heard H.P. Lovecraft, but i probably should...