The Electric Prunes - Long Day's Flight (1989, Compilation CD, Demon EDCD 179)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Artist: The Electric Prunes
Album: Long Day's Flight
Released: 1989
Demon (ED CD 179)
Genre: Psychedelic Rock
Biography by Richie Unterberger @ AMG
Though they got considerable input from talented L.A. songwriters and producers, with their two big hits penned by outside sources, the Electric Prunes did by and large play the music on their records, their first lineup writing some respectable material of their own. On their initial group of recordings, they produced a few great psychedelic garage songs, especially the scintillating "I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night," which mixed distorted guitars and pop hooks with inventive, oscillating reverb. Songwriters Annette Tucker and Nancie Mantz wrote most of the Prunes' material, much of which in turn was crafted in the studio by Dave Hassinger, who had engineered some classic Rolling Stones sessions in the mid-'60s. "Too Much to Dream" was a big hit in 1967, and the psychedelized Bo Diddley follow-up, "Get Me to the World on Time," was just as good, and also a hit. Nothing else by the group made it big, and their initial pair of albums was quite erratic, although a few scattered tracks were nearly as good as those singles. Although they began to write more of their own material on their second album, their subsequent releases were apparently the products of personnel who had little to do with the original lineup. Their third LP, Mass in F Minor, was a quasi-religious concept album of psychedelic versions of prayers; a definitively excessive period piece, its best song ("Kyrie Eleison") was lifted for the Easy Rider soundtrack. None of the original Prunes were still in the lineup when the band dissolved, unnoticed, at the end of the '60s.
Review by Richie Unterberger @ AMG
This 18-track compilation includes the best cuts from their first two albums, as well as a couple of non-LP singles. Pruned down to the best six or seven cuts, it would have made a ferocious EP; some of the material is simply unmemorable, as the band pounds away in a sub-Stones bluesy fuzz style in the mode of the Standells or Chocolate Watch Band. Besides the two hits, there are a few first-rate cuts that meld garage pop to inspired psychedelic production, like "Train for Tomorrow," "Hideaway," "Long Day's Flight," "You Never Had It Better," "Sold to the Highest Bidder" (featuring an organ made to sound like a balalaika), and their cover of Goffin/King's "I Happen to Love You."
Track List:
1 - Ain't It Hard [2:10]
2 - Little Olive [3:39]
3 - I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night) [2:54]
4 - Luvin' [2:01]
5 - Get Me to the World on Time [2:30]
6 - Are You Lovin' Me More (But Enjoying It Less) [2:22]
7 - Bangles [2:24]
8 - Train for Tomorrow [2:59]
9 - Sold to the Highest Bidder [2:19]
10 - Try Me on for Size [2:19]
11 - Dr. Do-Good [2:24]
12 - Hideaway [2:40]
13 - The Great Banana Hoax [4:08]
14 - Children of Rain [2:35]
15 - Antique Doll [3:11]
16 - I Happen to Love You [3:13]
17 - Long Day's Flight (Til' Tomorrow) [3:09]
18 - You Never Had It Better [2:07]
|
