Wake Up… It’s Tomorrow

Wake Up… It’s Tomorrow is Strawberry Alarm Clock’s second album, released in early 1968 and following up their 1967 debut Incense And Peppermints. Many of the musical themes and lyrical concerns of the first album are explored further on Wake Up… It’s Tomorrow, resulting in an album that, impressively, is at turns gentler and weirder.

The album’s tone is set from the very beginning, and the opening two tracks: first, the terrifying and claustrophobic “Nightmare Of Percussion”, followed directly by “Soft Skies, No Lies”, an unabashedly sunny pop-psych song. Wake Up… It’s Tomorrow continues like this, equal parts pleasant sunshine pop and harrowing, disagreeable dementia.

Wake Up… It’s Tomorrow‘s dark side

Lyrically, the dark side probably wins the battle of good vs. evil. Even most of the zesty pop songs belie a dark or violent side. Most strikingly, “Go Back (You’re Going The Wrong Way)” is the album’s silliest, happiest music, but the tale told within speaks of an unending wheel of negativity being the natural way of the world.

When Strawberry Alarm Clock really lets the dark side take over, the results are scary indeed. “They Saw The Fat One Coming” is a slow, creepy, minor-key piece that perfectly sets up the album’s awesome masterpiece, “Curse Of The Witches”. The two make quite a pair.

The adventurousness of those two tracks is later echoed by the album’s final three songs, a miniature three-song suite called “Black Butter”. Where the Incense And Peppermints album contained such bleak treatises as “The World’s On Fire”, “Lose To Live”, and the ironic “Hummin’ Happy”, on Wake Up… It’s Tomorrow the bottom completely falls out.

The negativity is more mature, more deeply felt here. And, it must be stressed again, is altogether stranger. For fans of somber, evil-sounding psychedelia, the Wake Up… It’s Tomorrow trip is a good one indeed.

The delicious pop of Wake Up… It’s Tomorrow

The happy half of the LP doesn’t go down without a fight though. Wake Up… It’s Tomorrow also has the Clock’s most gorgeous and soaring song of all: “Pretty Song From Psych-Out”, written and recorded for the movie Psych-Out. It leads the album’s pop half just like “Curse Of The Witches” leads its grotesque alter ego.

Other pieces like “Sit With The Guru” and “Tomorrow” follow in this groovy psych/pop SAC tradition. Others, like “Sitting On A Star” and “Black Butter, Past”, sort of straddle the two camps.

Wake Up… It’s Tomorrow is unreservedly recommended, however you get your hands on it. The musical layers are many and the thematic right angles are abrupt and thrilling. This is one Strawberry Alarm Clock album that warrants many repeated listens. Your job is to unravel the curious genius of the band.

Track listing

Side 1

1. “Nightmare Of Percussion”
2. “Soft Skies, No Lies”
3. “Tomorrow”
4. “They Saw The Fat One Coming”
5. “Curse Of The Witches”

Side 2

1. “Sit With The Guru”
2. “Go Back (You’re Going The Wrong Way)”
3. “Pretty Song From Psych-Out”
4. “Sitting On A Star”
5. “Black Butter, Past”
6. “Black Butter, Present”
7. “Black Butter, Future”

How the front cover was appropriated

In 1993, The Strawberry Alarm Clock Anthology, a 2-CD compilation, was released, and it reproduced the cover of Wake Up… It’s Tomorrow. When buying Wake Up… It’s Tomorrow, be sure you’re getting the 1968 album. It’s the one where the old man’s beard and top of his head extend all the way to the edges, and there is no text running around all four edges.