The Seeds were a
rockRock music is a genre of popular music that entered the mainstream in the 1960s. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, rhythm and blues, country music and also drew on folk music, jazz and classical music....
bandIn music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform songs. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band* Dansband* Fife and drum...
best known for the hit single "Pushin' Too Hard", released in 1966. Based in
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
,
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
, its raw and abrasive energy and simple, repetitive
lyricsLyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
came to exemplify the
garage rockGarage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name. In the early 1970s, some rock critics retroactively labelled it as punk rock...
style of the 1960s. The group are considered one of the pioneers of
punk rockPunk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
.
Lead singer
Sky SaxonSky "Sunlight" Saxon was an American rock and roll musician who was best known as the leader and singer of the 1960s Los Angeles psychedelic garage rock band The Seeds.-Biography:...
had a musical career that went back to pre-Beatle music days, when he recorded a few 45s under the name Richie Marsh.
The Seeds were a
rockRock music is a genre of popular music that entered the mainstream in the 1960s. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, rhythm and blues, country music and also drew on folk music, jazz and classical music....
bandIn music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform songs. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band* Dansband* Fife and drum...
best known for the hit single "Pushin' Too Hard", released in 1966. Based in
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
,
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
, its raw and abrasive energy and simple, repetitive
lyricsLyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
came to exemplify the
garage rockGarage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name. In the early 1970s, some rock critics retroactively labelled it as punk rock...
style of the 1960s. The group are considered one of the pioneers of
punk rockPunk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
.
History
Lead singer
Sky SaxonSky "Sunlight" Saxon was an American rock and roll musician who was best known as the leader and singer of the 1960s Los Angeles psychedelic garage rock band The Seeds.-Biography:...
had a musical career that went back to pre-Beatle music days, when he recorded a few 45s under the name Richie Marsh. Born in Salt Lake City, he was based in Los Angeles from the early 1960s. The Seeds were formed in 1965 with Saxon joining as a response to an advertisement.
KeyboardistA keyboardist is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instruments with keyboards have come into common usage, requiring a more...
Daryl Hooper was a major factor in the band's sound; the band was one of the first to utilize
keyboard bassThe keyboard bass is the use of a low-pitched keyboard or pedal keyboard to substitute for the bass guitar or double bass in popular music.-1960s:The earliest keyboard bass instrument was the 1960 Fender Rhodes piano bass, pictured above...
. Guitarists Jan Savage and Jeremy Levine with
drummerA drummer is a person who plays drums, particularly a drum kit , marching percussion or hand drums. The term percussionist applies to a musician performing on any percussion instrument, but usually refers to one who plays classical or Latin percussion. Most bands for Rock, Pop, Jazz, R&B etc...
Rick Andridge completed the original
quintetA quintet is a group containing five members.It is commonly associated with musical groups, such as a string quintet, or a group of five singers, but can be applied to any situation where five similar or related objects are considered a single unit....
, but Levine left shortly after the first recording sessions for personal reasons. Although Sky Saxon is usually credited as bass player, he did not play bass on any of the Seeds' recordings. This was handled by session men, usually one Harvey Sharpe. On stage, keyboardist Daryl Hooper would handle the bass parts via a separate bass keyboard, in the same way as
Ray ManzarekRaymond Daniel Manczarek, Jr., better known as Ray Manzarek , is an American musician, singer, producer, film director, writer, co-founder, and keyboardist of The Doors from 1965 to 1973, and the Doors of the 21st Century since 2001.-Early life and career:Ray Manzarek is of Polish descent, born...
did with the Doors.
The Seeds' first
singleIn music, a single is a short recording of one or more separate tracks. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats.-History:...
, "Can't Seem To Make You Mine", was a regional hit in southern California in 1965. The song was also played regularly on AM rock stations in northern California (and probably elsewhere), where it was well received by listeners. The band had their only national Top 40 hit, "Pushin' Too Hard", in 1966 (#44 in Canada). Three subsequent singles, "Mr. Farmer" (also 1966), a re-release of "Can't Seem To Make You Mine" (1967) (#33 in Canada), and "A Thousand Shadows" (1968) achieved more modest success, although all were most popular in southern California. Musically uncomplicated and dominated by Saxon's vocal style and flair for simple melodic hooks, their first two albums are today considered classics of '60s
garageGarage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name. In the early 1970s, some rock critics retroactively labelled it as punk rock...
music. A later
albumAn album or record album is a collection of related audio or music tracks distributed to the public. The most common way is through commercial distribution, although smaller artists will often distribute directly to the public by selling their albums at live concerts or on their websites.-...
was devoted to the blues (with liner notes by Muddy Waters), and another (
Future, 1967) was full-blown
psychedelic rockPsychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among garage and folk rock bands in Britain and the United States...
, with ornate flower-themed graphics to match.
By mid-1968, with their commercial popularity flagging, the group's personnel began to change; the band was renamed "Sky Saxon and the Seeds" in 1969, by which point Bob Norsoph, guitar, and Don Boomer, drums, had replaced Savage and Andridge. Saxon continued to use the name "The Seeds", using various backup musicians, at least through 1972; the last major-label records of new material by The Seeds—two non-charting singles on MGM records—were released in 1970.
After the dissolution of the Seeds, Sky Saxon joined the Yahowha religious group, inspired by their divine leader
Father YodFather Yod or YaHoWha was the American owner of a Los Angeles health food restaurant on the Sunset Strip who founded a spiritual commune in the Hollywood Hills known as the Source Family...
. Although a member of the Source Family for several years, Saxon did not participate in any of the albums released by Yahowha 13 in the mid 1970s. He does appear on the "Golden Sunrise" album by Fire Water Air, which was a Yahowha 13 off-shoot, and later recorded the "Yod Ship Suite" album in memory of the deceased Father Yod. In the 1970s, Saxon also released the solo LPs "Lovers Cosmic Voyage" (credited to Sunlight) and "Live At The Orpheum" credited to Sunlight Rainbow. Members of the Source Family went their separate ways after Father Yod died in a
hang glidingHang gliding is an air sport in which a pilot flies a light and unmotorized foot-launchable aircraft called a hang glider.Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or composite-framed fabric wing...
accident in Hawaii 1975, although Saxon continued to collaborate with various members of the Yahowa group. The Source Family reunited in the 2000s, following substantial media interest and an official biography.
In the 1980s, Saxon collaborated with several bands—including
Redd KrossRedd Kross, a rock band from Hawthorne, California had their roots in 1978 in a band called The Tourists begun by Jeff and Steve McDonald while the brothers were still in middle school...
and
The Chesterfield KingsThe Chesterfield Kings are a rock band from Rochester, New York, who began as a retro-1960s garage band, and who have heavily mined 1960s music, including some borrowing from the 1960s recordings of The Rolling Stones...
—before reforming the original Seeds in 1989 to headline "The Summer of Love Tour", along with
Big Brother and the Holding CompanyBig Brother and the Holding Company is an American rock band that formed in San Francisco in 1965 as part of the same psychedelic music scene that produced the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Jefferson Airplane. They are best known as the band that featured Janis Joplin as their...
,
Arthur LeeArthur Lee was the frontman, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist of the Los Angeles rock band Love, best known for the critically acclaimed 1967 album, Forever Changes.-Early years:...
and
LoveLove was an American rock group of the late 1960s and early 1970s. They were led by singer, songwriter and guitarist Arthur Lee and the group's second songwriter, guitarist Bryan MacLean...
,
The Music MachineThe Music Machine was an American garage rock and psychedelic band from the late 1960s, headed by singer-songwriter Sean Bonniwell and based in Los Angeles. The band sound was often defined by fuzzy guitars and a Farfisa organ. Their original look consisted of all-black clothing and black moptop...
and The
Strawberry Alarm ClockStrawberry Alarm Clock is a psychedelic rock/pop rock band from Los Angeles best known for their 1967 hit "Incense and Peppermints". The group took its name as an homage to the Beatles' psychedelic hit "Strawberry Fields Forever"....
. The Seeds remained dormant again until 2003, when Saxon reformed them with original guitarist Jan Savage and newcomers Rick Collins on bass and Dave Klein on keyboards (
Dave Klein Productions and Recording). This new version of the Seeds has gone through several incarnations, with Savage departing midway through their 2003 European tour due to his health. Saxon remained the only original member of The Seeds, which continued to tour
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
and the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Sky Saxon died on June 25, 2009.
Legacy
"Pushin' Too Hard" was named one of
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and RollThe Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll is an unordered list of 500 songs, created by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, that they believe have been most influential in shaping the course of rock and roll, though some of them belong to different styles even after the...
.
"Pushin' Too Hard" was featured in one episode of the television situational comedy
The Mothers-In-LawThe Mothers-in-Law was a weekly American television sitcom starring Eve Arden and Kaye Ballard. The show ran from 1967 to 1969, and was produced by Desi Arnaz after the dissolution of both his marriage to Lucille Ball and Desilu Productions. Most of the episodes were written by Madelyn Pugh Davis...
. A character in the show became the manager of a band known as "The Warts." The band was actually the Seeds.
"Mr. Farmer" was featured in the end credits of the documentary "King Corn".
"Can't Seem To Make You Mine" has been covered by five different groups:
- Alex Chilton
Alex Chilton is an American songwriter, guitarist, singer and producer best known for his work with the pop-music bands the Box Tops and Big Star...
in 1978 as a split 45 with his song "Bangkok" on the Fun label
- Johnny Thunders
Johnny Thunders, born John Anthony Genzale, Jr. , was an Italian American rock and roll/protopunk guitarist, singer and songwriter....
and Patti Palladin on their 1988 album Copy Cats
- The Ramones
The Ramones were an American rock band often regarded as the first punk rock group. Formed in Forest Hills, Queens, New York in 1974, all of the band members adopted pseudonyms ending with the surname 'Ramone', though none of them were actually related. They performed 2,263 concerts, touring...
on their 1993 album Acid EatersAcid Eaters is the thirteenth studio album by the American punk band The Ramones.Recorded in 1993 , towards the end of the Ramones' career, the album is often set apart from other Ramones releases in that it is entirely composed of covers...
- Garbage
Garbage is an American rock group formed in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1994. The band consists of Scottish vocalist Shirley Manson and American musicians Duke Erikson, Steve Marker and Butch Vig, and has counted worldwide album sales of over 14 million units....
as the B-side on their 1999 hit single "When I Grow Up"
- Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo is an American alternative rock band formed in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1984. Since 1992, the lineup has consisted of Ira Kaplan , Georgia Hubley , and James McNew ....
on their Camp Yo La Tengo EP.
Samples
- In 2005 U.S. DJ and producer Diplo
Thomas Wesley Pentz, better known by his stage name Diplo, is a Philadelphia-based DJ, producer and songwriter. Together with DJ Low Budget, he runs Hollertronix, a club and music collective. Among other jobs, Pentz worked as a school teacher in Philadelphia. In addition to his solo career, he...
sampled "Can't Seem To Make You Mine" for his tonite remix of the Spank RockSpank Rock is an American rap group. Their style is generally described as a mix of underground alternative rap and electro.- Biography :Spank Rock began performing in Philadelphia, where their reputation quickly increased. They later toured with Hollertronix and M.I.A.; they also toured with Beck...
track "Put that pussy on me" which was released on 12-inch
- The song "Can't Seem To Make You Mine" is featured in an Axe Body Spray commercial released in March 2008.
- The song "Mr. Farmer" was included in the movie Almost Famous
Almost Famous is a 2000 comedy-drama film written and directed by Cameron Crowe and telling the fictional story of a teenage journalist writing for Rolling Stone magazine while covering a rock band Stillwater, and his efforts to get his first cover story published...
in 2000.
In recent times, there has been a resurgence in popularity due to the use of the song "Can't Seem to Make You Mine" in the Lynx (Body Spray) advert in Spring 2009.
On July 24th, 2009 members of
The Smashing PumpkinsThe Smashing Pumpkins are an American alternative rock band that formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1988. Formed by Billy Corgan and James Iha , the band has included D'arcy Wretzky , Jimmy Chamberlin , and Melissa Auf der Maur among its membership.Disavowing the punk rock roots shared by...
,
Love (band)Love was an American rock group of the late 1960s and early 1970s. They were led by singer, songwriter and guitarist Arthur Lee and the group's second songwriter, guitarist Bryan MacLean...
and
The Electric PrunesThe Electric Prunes are an American rock band who first achieved international attention as an experimental psychedelic group in the late 1960s, and contributed two tracks to the soundtrack of Easy Rider...
performed a tribute concert at the Los Angeles's Echoplex in memory of Sky Saxon.
Albums
Originally released in the
U.S.The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on GNP Crescendo Records:
- The Seeds
The Seeds is the debut album by American garage rock group The Seeds. Produced by Marcus Tybalt and Sky Saxon, it was originally released by GNP Crescendo Records in April 1966....
1966
- A Web of Sound 1966
- A Full Spoon of Seedy Blues (as the Sky Saxon Blues Band) 1967
- Future 1967
- Raw & Alive in Concert at Merlin's Music Box 1968
- Fallin Off the Edge 1977
- Bad Part Of Town 1982
- Travel With Your Mind 1993
Released on Bam Caruso,
UKThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
:
Singles
- "Can't Seem to Make You Mine" (#41 US
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday; while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
)http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:aifixqr5ldke~T51
- "Mr. Farmer" (#86 US)
- "Pushin' Too Hard" (#36 US)
- "A Thousand Shadows" (#72 US)
Book References
External links
/An Appreciation of Sky Saxon by the Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan