I’m on a total psychedelia groove at the moment—again—so expect more posts like this. The iTunes playlist is stuck in 1965–69 and doesn’t exclude moments of kitsch psych such as Incense and Peppermints by the Strawberry Alarm Clock, their debut single and a big hit from 1967. Thoroughly infectious and redolent enough of the era to feature in the first Austin Powers film, nothing else they produced came close. There were other soundtrack moments, a track called Pretty Song was featured in Psych-Out (1968) and the band themselves appear in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970), one of many reasons to watch that lunatic movie. I always liked this sleeve design—printed in a number of variations—but even that pales next to their surfboard-shaped guitars, created specially for the band. Read more about them here.
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The album covers archive
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Exotica!
• The art of Bob Pepper
• A splendid time is guaranteed for all
• Heinz Edelmann
• The L.S. Bumble Bee
Ive always rated the Alarm Clock – alot of exploitation psych is fun to listen to and often very tripped out even though the creators were on nothing stronger than beer.. the other truly great Alarm Clock song is Rainy Day Mushroom Pillow, although both thier ffirst two albums transport me to a world of cotton candy daydreams and plastic dayglo people….
Ive never seen those awesome guitars before…..fantastic…..
Yeah, Rainy Day is a good track. The rest of Strawberries Mean Love is pretty monotonous, a common fault with albums of that period. It always fascinates me how the harpsichord (or the sound of it) became a fashionable thing for a while. I think Donovan began the trend on his Sunshine Superman album.
Strawberries mean love was a pretty groovy, hypnotic song. Those guys sure could harmonize. Great shit to trip to.
Saw them open for The Doors in 1968,Bushnell Auditorium, Hartford Connecticut. They were strictly a studio group.