“I’m thinking it was the fall of 1968 that the high school cafeteria in my hometown hosted a record sale. It was all new records that I now realize were some kind of remainders, albums by groups that hadn’t fired up the charts that had been pressed up with a little too much enthusiasm. I think they were selling for a dollar or two.”
“There were a lot of albums by groups I didn’t know. Ultimate Spinach and the Peanut Butter Conspiracy, the Beacon Street Union album The Clown Died In Marvin Gardens. The one group I knew was the Lovin’ Spoonful. But it was an album I hadn’t seen before.
Everything Playing had a crude cartoon drawing on the cover done by leader John Sebastian of the band playing instruments along with some cartoon monsters . It looked like it had been done with crayons like a naive DIY attempt at the Sgt. Pepper cover. The music feels like it was their attempt to create some serious pop art. I would play that album to death.
There were majestic pop songs like “She’s Still A Mystery” and the proto-hippie folk tune “Younger Generation” that I remember thinking “wow, what will those kids be like the when they grow up with parents like John Sebastian?” It all seemed like a long way off with the girl who “got her own videophone.” Everything Playing was released in December of 1967 and made it to #118 on Billboard despite having three charting singles.
It probably didn’t have a chance as it was competing against a lot of Lovin Spoonful Best of albums that had much more compelling covers. The Best of the Lovin Spoonful Vol. 2 grabbed six of the best songs from Everything Playing and came out just six months later. Everything Playing was destined for the cutout bins and thus into my hands and the beginning of my obsession with unpopular popular music.
Soon the bins would offer up more obscure greats to me: the Velvet Underground, Big Star, The Stooges’ Raw Power, Eric Justin Kaz’s If You’re Lonely, Al Kooper’s You Never Know Who Your Friends Are, the Love Generation and of course Artie Kaplan’s Confessions of a Male Chauvinist Pig.
—Glenn Morrow
2, the new release from Bar/None Records owner Glenn Morrow’s Cry For Help is in stores now.
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PHOTO: MARK ZAWARSKI
