“Black Butter, Future”

“Black Butter, Future” is the final in a trilogy of songs that closes Strawberry Alarm Clock’s 1968 LP Wake Up… It’s Tomorrow.

If “Black Butter, Past” was the sound of rock music’s early days, and “Black Butter, Present” was the sound of 1968 psychedelia, “Black Butter, Future” throws a curveball by being decidedly non-futuristic.

Beginning with a merry little chrous of a cappella la-la-la-la-la-las, this shortest of the “Black Butter”s (just under 1:30) transfers the destructiveness of the other two songs to an object in your shoe. Again, you are advised (rather calmly and matter-of-factly) to smash it, hear its cries, and learn “the meaning of black butter”.

So do you get the meaning of “black butter” after the three songs? No matter; “Black Butter, Future” ends the trilogy and the album with a classic, jazzy SAC xylophone solo. And if the future of music didn’t actually turn out to be xylophones, well it certainly wasn’t Strawberry Alarm Clock’s fault.

All in all, the “Black Butter” suite comprises one of the weirder and more interesting excursions of Strawberry Alarm Clock’s career. Its dense imagery, complicated structure, and impenetrable allegorical bent make “Black Butter, Future” a perfect topper for the album.

“Black Butter, Future” appears on…

Wake Up… It’s Tomorrow (1968)
Changes (1971)
The Strawberry Alarm Clock Anthology (1993)