Jeremy

“An Angry Young Man” is a track from Strawberry Alarm Clock’s 1968 album The World In A Sea Shell. It was used as the b-side of the “Barefoot In Baltimore” single. Although its title may suggest a tough, aggressive rock song, the recording is in fact quite mellow and rich. It does feature a few … Read more

The second track on Strawberry Alarm Clock’s third album, The World In A Sea Shell (1968), “Blues For A Young Girl Gone” is a lush pop song in keeping with the less-psychedelic feel of the album, as compared with the band’s previous albums. It is actually one of the album’s better songs, and one of … Read more

“Sea Shell” is the leadoff track on Strawberry Alarm Clock’s 1968 album The World In A Sea Shell. A dense, lush and slow-moving song, “Sea Shell” has a gorgeous melody but some ill-conceived ocean sounds and sappy orchestral overdubs. The result is a song that may be too somnambulistic for certain fans of the band’s … Read more

“Me And The Township” is the first song on Strawberry Alarm Clock’s final studio album, 1969’s Good Morning Starshine. With its gritty performance and lack of any non-rock instrumentation, the track immediately announces that the Clock is in a different mood than on the previous album, The World In A Sea Shell. “Me And The … Read more

“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 … Read more

“Black Butter, Present” is the second in a trilogy of songs that closes Strawberry Alarm Clock’s 1968 LP Wake Up… It’s Tomorrow. Self-consciously psychedelic, the song sports a prominent sitar and backwards echo. The technique involves recording something and applying echo to it as you run the tape backwards; when listened to forward the echo … Read more

“Black Butter, Past” opens Strawberry Alarm Clock’s trilogy of “black butter” songs from their 1968 album Wake Up… It’s Tomorrow. A straight-ahead rock song, “Black Butter, Past”, true to its title, seems to hearken back to a musical era before the song’s own – a mere two years prior, perhaps, around 1966 when garage rock (and the band, … Read more

“Sitting On A Star” is a track from Strawberry Alarm Clock’s 1968 album Wake Up… It’s Tomorrow. Another of the album’s musically adventurous tracks, the song features a harsh, militaristic beat throughout its verses along with spidery, Doors-like choruses and the occasional faux-funky jazz interlude. The singing is high and plaintive with a subdued harmony … Read more

“Pretty Song From Psych-Out” is probably Strawberry Alarm Clock’s all-time high point. Dynamic and strong, the unimaginatively-titled but otherwise excellent song was composed by Strawberry Alarm Clock for the 1968 movie Psych-Out, and appeared on the band’s 1968 album Wake Up… It’s Tomorrow. “Pretty Song From Psych-Out” is exactly what its title says it is. … Read more

“Go Back (You’re Going The Wrong Way)”, from Strawberry Alarm Clock’s 1968 LP Wake Up… It’s Tomorrow, is perhaps the silliest song the band ever released, musically speaking. Mostly in 3/4 time, with slight, circus-like organ flutters emphasizing the goofiness of the waltz, the track tells a simplistic tale that (as usual) takes an unexpected … Read more

“Sit With The Guru” is the first song on Side 2 of Strawberry Alarm Clock’s 1968 album Wake Up… It’s Tomorrow. It was also released as a single. “Sit With The Guru” is jaunty and poppy, with an aggressive guitar vying for supremacy with the lovely, melodic vocal work. The relative placidness of “Sit With The … Read more

“They Saw The Fat One Coming” is a standout track from the Strawberry Alarm Clock album Wake Up… It’s Tomorrow from 1968. A psychedelic tone poem with shimmering guitar and a ghostly chorus, it’s full of unusual poetry and features an acoustic guitar and a meditative, funereal pace. As on several other Strawberry Alarm Clock … Read more

“Tomorrow” is probably Strawberry Alarm Clock’s second-best known song (after “Incense And Peppermints”). It’s the third song on the band’s second album Wake Up… It’s Tomorrow (1968) and was a minor hit single. The de facto title song of the album, “Tomorrow” is classic SAC in that it moves through several different sections, showing off a … Read more

“Soft Skies, No Lies” is the second track from Strawberry Alarm Clock’s second album, 1968’s Wake Up… It’s Tomorrow. It’s the polar opposite of the terrifying album opener “Nightmare Of Percussion”. An extravagantly sunny pop song praising nature for creating soft skies, there is a kind of meta-irony in its extreme inoffensiveness due to its … Read more

“Nightmare Of Percussion”, which starts off Strawberry Alarm Clock’s second LP Wake Up… It’s Tomorrow (1968), immediately serves as notice to listeners that this album isn’t going to be playing it safe musically. A bouncy, slapdash drums-and-bass intro leads to a guitar slowly feeding back — already stranger than the band’s first LP Incense And … Read more

The b-side of Strawberry Alarm Clock’s #1 hit song “Incense And Peppermints” was “The Birdman Of Alkatrash”. It’s a simple garage pop song that has received a lot of attention over the years due to its pairing with the famous a-side. “The Birdman Of Alkatrash” was originally released as the a-side to “Incense And Peppermints”, on the … Read more

“Curse Of The Witches” is the fifth song on Strawberry Alarm Clock’s 1968 album Wake Up… It’s Tomorrow. By far the longest track on the album, it’s arguably the most adventurous and certainly the most epic in scope. The song boasts some of the most unusual sonic excursions ever undertaken by the band. “Curse Of … Read more

Strawberry Alarm Clock recorded “Good Morning Starshine” for their fourth and final LP, also called Good Morning Starshine. It wasn’t their choice, though, and sounds like nothing else on the album. The jarring anomaly, recording a version of “Good Morning Starshine” from the musical Hair was not the idea of the band members. They had by … Read more