The Smiley Smile Message Board

Has this group ever had their own thread?

Two words. Da Capo. Oh yeah, and some album called Forever Changes?

Lukewarm response here. I like them, but not nearly as much as I know a lot of people do. To me--much like the Doors (but in a different way)--they sound very, very dated.

Funny, I always thought The Doors were the band that was trying to be Love, except Arthur Lee didn't have the dynamics of Jim Morrison. He did, however, have the ability to write very emotional, gripping tunes.. Again, not knocking The Doors, I always loved their music.

I'm not saying which of the two I prefer in the above note, just saying they both sound very much of their times.

One of the greatest bands to play this Earth.
And Out Here is way underrated.

Didn't most of the so-called "psychedelic" bands sound very much of their times?

Although I'm mincing words with The Doors. I always thought The Doors were a hardcore blues/rock band that jumped on the psychedelic bandwagon at the end of 1966 because it was becoming the new thing. Trendy? Maybe.

Yes--absolutely. And that, in part, is why they don't generally hold up well. I think that to jump too fully onto any bandwagon is to have the chance for greater success, maybe, but absolutely to knock yourself out in the future. The acts that hold up tend to be those with good, strong songs that don't quite fit into any era, and thus fit pretty well in every era.

I always did think the first two Doors albums dated very badly. Their overexposure on oldies radio seems to point to that. The Soft Parade dated horribly, it sounds like a bad lounge album. Waiting For The Sun, Morrison Hotel, and LA Woman dated far better.

I think you just described Sgt. Pepper and not Love. Forever Changes is wholly timeless. Signed D.C. and My Flash On You could have been written yesterday.

I LOVE The Soft Parade. The first two are amazing, they just get too much exposure in comparison to the rest of their work.

Forever Changes isn't your everyday, run-of-the-mill psychedelic album. Think Sgt. Pepper, The Doors, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, some Roky Erickson material. I always thought it had more in common with the so-called "folk-rock" movement of 1965 and the kind of sound that The Left Banke were experimenting with, that "baroque pop" sound.

From a production standpoint, sure. But Pepper has brilliant songs, too--even beneath the dated production.

The Soft Parade has good songs and good performances, but the overdubbing of strings and horns on the Krieger songs is very un-Doors. But Touch Me was a reasonable hit, so what do I know?

Something Magical Mystery Tour can't lay claim to.

Amen.

I'll be honest about the so-called "psychedelic" movement. I wasn't there to experience it, but I always thought the music was taking a backseat to more wild production values, and something was getting lost in the mix. Sometimes I think Os Mutantes was the psychedelic band that aged the best.

I was listening to a few Os Mutantes tracks today. Great band indeed.

I started a Mutantes thread on the old forum, but it went nowhere. Hardly the response I expected.

Generally not the easiest band to find material by, and they certainly don't have the name recognition of the other sorts of threads that get started on these boards. I mean, Beach Boys, Beatles, obviously. Then you get your Doors, your Zombies, your this and that. But Os Mutantes never quite gets there.

As I said in the old thread and will say here, though--you can hear some Os Mutantes in Of Montreal, whose chief member Kevin Barnes has referenced in reverent terms. Anyone who listens to Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies or Gay Parade and doesn't hear Os Mutantes probably is deaf.

The language barrier, most likely. And the fact that they were most likely rarely heard outside of Brazil during their lifespan.

I'm not aware of a single store in Minneapolis in which you can buy an Os Mutantes record/disc. And we do have a couple of really good independent stores. Tough to love a band you can't hear. (Thank goodness for the internet and thievery.)

Yeah, I found the Mutantes catalog through bit torrents. If the albums ever are reissued in America, I'll gladly buy. Until then, this will have to suffice.

Amen too.

Erm... Fool on the Hill is better than anything on Forever Changes.

erm, no its not.

Luther: Electric Fetus is where I got mine, but Cheapo on Lake has a few, dunnit? Or Treehouse on Lyndale?

I haven't checked for them at Treehouse, but in my previous trips to the others, I've never found them anywhere.

Psychedelic music is interesting in that it's not just in the production style of the songs, but the chord progressions.  A lot of minor chords, but it's not just that.  I'm not that well-versed in music, but it is different in its melodic tendencies than other music, whether it be the Doors, Love, Strawberry Alarm Clock, or other Nuggets-type acts.