'THE ELECTRIC PRUNES' 1967 FIRST US PRESSING STEREO REPRISE TRI-COLOR RS-6248

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THE ELECTRIC PRUNES ~ 1967 FIRST PRESSING REPRISE RS-6248 STEREO TRI-COLOR LABEL
THE ELECTRIC PRUNES "THE ELECTRIC PRUNES" (SELF-TITLED DEBUT) w/ "TOO MUCH TO DREAM" & "GET ME TO THE WORLD ON TIME"
LABEL: REPRISE RS-6248 (ORIGINAL TRI-COLOR STEAMBOAT LABEL) EDITION: FIRST US PRESSING IN STEREO RECORDED: 1966 AMERICAN RECORDING STUDIOS, L.A. RELEASED: FEBRUARY 1967 PRODUCER: DAVID HASSINGER ARRANGER & PRODUCTION: PERRY BOTKIN Jr. MATRIX (SIDE A): RS 6248 A 30649 1E MATRIX (SIDE B): RS 6248 B 30650 1-D
CONDITION:  VINYL AND JACKET BOTH VG+
I've been going thru my massive vinyl record collection these past few weeks and pulling out some LPs that I thought that someone else would want for their collection. I've been collecting records for over 40 years and it's time to pass some of them on to the next generation of collectors.
This week on EBay I am offering up this fantastic First Pressing copy of The Electric Prunes debut album, a Psych-Garage masterpiece.
This is my original copy, that I've had forever and taken great care of for many years. 
This true First Pressing can be identified by the Matrix numbers and also the Production credits to Perry Botkin printed in the 'pink' area of the label. The 1967, and later, repressings don't have that. This original Stereo First Pressing is on the tri-colored ''Steamboat'' Reprise label.
This has been stored in a poly-lined record sleeve and outer poly sleeve for decades, but comes with it's original 2-sided Black & White Reprise advertising inner sleeve.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE STORY OF THE 'ELECTRIC PRUNES' AND THIS GREAT DEBUT LP
The Electric Prunes formed back in 1965 as the surf/garage band 'The Sanctions', with a line up led by vocalist James Lowe and featuring bass player Mark Tulin, guitarist Ken Williams, and drummer Michael Weakley.
Discovered while rehearsing in an LA garage, they shopped around some Demos, and were signed to Reprise Records in 1966. At their manager/producer Dave Hassinger's insistence, they changed their name to the more psychedelic sounding 'Electric Prunes' and cut their first single 'Ain’t It Hard/Little Olive' that fall. 
The single flopped and drummer Mike Weakly left, to be replaced by Preston Ritter. Another friend, guitarist James “Weasel” Spagnola also joined the group around that time.
The group lineup on this great timeless album included:
KEN WILLIAMS ~ Lead Guitar JIM LOWE ~ Vocals, Guitar, Autoharp, Tambourine JAMES 'WEASEL' SPAGNOLA ~ Guitar, Vocals MARK TULIN ~ Bass, Guitar, Piano PRESTON RITTER ~ Drums, Percussion
The Electric Prunes were one of the early Psychedelic bands in the LA scene. They were not as well known as The Byrds, The Doors, or Love, but they carved out their own slice of the Los Angeles psychedelic pie. 
The Prunes incorporated emerging West Coast electronic Psychedelia with a rough Garage Band sound. Few, if any, bands from the '60s garage-psych era had a sound as distinctive as the Electric Prunes. Their three-guitar approach, sort of like Moby Grape up the coast in San Francisco, was tough to beat and sounded very new and hip in 1966/67.
In the studio, despite not being allowed to develop many of their own songs, they took full advantage of current, innovative recording techniques to create swirling sound effects, use of backwards tape effects, and fuzz-toned guitar sounds, drenched in feedback, to create this amazing self-titled debut album.
This First album, with it's amazing, influential, psyche-garage rock sound, proved that they were L.A. psych-garage trailblazers.
In total, they released, 5 studio albums and numerous singles, in their different incarnations, between 1966 and 1969, but this is their first and contains their classic early Psychedelic hits.
~~~~~~ The Electric Prunes were a very talented, hip, guitar-heavy, psych-garage Rock band that, unfortunately, were sucked in by a dishonest manager/producer and fell victim to their record label's pressures.
Engineer Dave Hassinger was introduced to the band by a female fan, liked what he heard, and quickly became their manager/producer.
Hassinger was a senior sound engineer at RCA Studios in Hollywood. He had been the engineer for the Rolling Stones’ 1964-1966 LA sessions, (Satisfaction, Under my Thumb, Lady Jane, etc) and was looking for his own Stones-style group to promote. The 'Sanctions', soon to be the 'Electric Prunes' were just what he was looking for.
The first thing he did with the band was change their name. To Hassinger's credit, he was very aware of the Psychedelic Scene and the rising psychedelic tide on the West Coast and decided the band needed a more Psych-Garage name that fit their music and the current hip musical tastes. The 'Electric Prunes' was chosen.
The band, like so many others in the sixties, were suckered into a raw business deal that forced them to sign complete control, even including the band's new name, over to their new manager/producer Hassinger. That left them with little to no opinion, and no creative control, when they recorded this first debut album.
Since their first single bombed, Hassinger didn't think that the band's own material was strong enough to record, so he brought in an outside songwriting team to help create hits.
Their second and third singles, 'Too Much to Dream' and 'Get Me To The World On Time', both written by the female songwriting team of Annette Tucker, and Nancie Mantz, were red-hot and were top radio hits.  Suddenly, everything was looking up and going great for the band.
'Too Much To Dream (Last Night)', with it's incredible psychedelic guitar work and fancy studio trickery made an instant impact. It was a Top Thirty hit in the US and charted in the UK as well. Very trippy, heavy, dense psych for the time it was released, November of 1966. Nothing sounded like it on the radio.
Their next single, 'Get Me To The World On Time', released in early 1967, was even more in the Psychedelic genre and sounded very garage-y and incredible. Distorted sound effects over a psychedelic-tinged Bo Diddley beat. It was a slightly lesser hit in America, but a massive hit in the UK.
It should be noted that these 2 singles were released before making this first album, so Reprise realized that a full debut album, as well as a European tour, needed to be quickly arranged to cash in on the success of the two early hits.
The band was forced to crank out their debut album in a very short time. They wanted to record the first album as the primal, punky, psych-garage act that they were, but their manager/producer instead wanted to aim for more of a pop/MOR success.
The Prunes already had the 2 hit singles, so they naturally opened each side of the album with them. Dropping the needle on either side of this record reveals amazing opening songs that sound like nothing else at the time or since.
Although the group had written several of their own songs, Hassinger only let them use 2 originals for the album. The only band originals on this album are "Train For Tomorrow" and "Luvin" and both are among the better songs on the record, in addition to the 2 classic hits.
"Luvin'" has a nice cool R&B feel, almost Stones like, and is a decent tune. It has some great slide guitar, reminiscent of Brian Jones. It also has some weird psychedelic deep stereo panning going on.
"Train to Tomorrow" is also a great rocking song. A spaced-out, trippy number with Williams’ jazzy lead guitar leading the way.
Instead of letting the band do more originals, Hassinger got Mantz and Tucker to write a wide range of material for the band to work up, instead of letting them concentrate on The Prunes’ natural aptitude for garage-y, psychedelic mayhem. 
To the Prunes praise, they did put their own psych-garage spin and sound to the half-baked tunes they were handed and the results aren't bad at all. 
The final album contains a few classic, excellent, timeless Psych-Garage masterpieces, including the 2 trippy singles, but the album as a whole turned out a little choppy and unfocused. The strange unsuitable filler material they were forced to record wasn’t the band’s fault. They did the best they could with what was available to them.
Some of the songs are actually quite catchy and hint at the future Garage Rock and Punk Rock to come. Despite not writing them, the songs are full of interesting guitar effects and studio embellishments that sound great, fresh, trippy, and way ahead of their time.
"Sold To The Highest Bidder" is a great, coherent, focused song with a rousing, tremolo picked guitar lead.
"Try Me On For Size" has a Rolling Stones or Standells vibe. Snappy, raucous and raw. A good example of Proto-Garage rock. 
In the end, the Electric Prunes, although a great band, with great potential, were just a tool used by Hassinger and Reprise to sell 'product'.
~~~~~~ The choice of the recording studio used for this album, in retrospect, wasn't ideal. This was the mid-60s and American Recording Studios in L.A. didn't have state of the art equipment, but the band did the best they could with what they had and the results are great. Very trippy and modern sounding, but it could have been so much better if recorded in a better studio.
This Stereo version makes use of excessive extreme panning, which was common with stereo records of the era. I think it works well on the psychedelic tinged tracks but sounds odd on the other tracks.
It has a strange, eerie atmospheric production, and, at times, sounds like the album was recorded in a dark, long corridor or a dungeon. Lowe claims “we had a very Link Wray kind of sound, dark and powerful.” The echoes and the overall hollowness to some of the tracks really augments the overall psychedelic tone. Again, that works well with the Psych-garage tracks but not with the other songs.
~~~~~~ As a result of the strange sounds and psychedelic studio techniques he managed to create on this album, producer Dave Hassinger suddenly became in great demand for other artist's projects, leaving the Prunes to sort of wing it, with minimal studio direction, for their next two mediocre albums.
Reprise eventually hired Hassinger to produce other bands on the label and assigned David Axelrod to produce the Electric Prunes 4th album, a weird, psychedelic, electric, Latin Mass, called "Mass in F Minor".
The album was actually a minor hit. The Prunes then rode the psychedelic wave of the era right into the cult classic Film 'Easy Rider'. Their song 'Kyrie Eleison' was very effectively used in the 'taking LSD in the graveyard' scene. Their music was featured in both the film and on the soundtrack LP.
~~~~~~ The Electric Prunes were pushed into a tour of Europe as soon as their debut album was wrapped up. 
They were treated like Psychedelic Royalty everywhere they went based on the success of their 2 trippy psych singles. Their shows were loud, rocking, bluesy and very psychedelic. The band was best live, where they could play what they wanted and stretch the songs out with their 3 guitar lineup.
They were on top of the Psychedelic world. They did all the classic swinging London activities like visiting the Beatles at Abbey Road studios, getting high with Hendrix, playing the Marquee Club, and meeting their heroes like Cream, Jimi and Soft Machine.
While in Europe there was discussion about making an EP, containing the singles and better tracks from the album, but Reprise and their manager/producer prevented that. The US didn't accept the EP format like the UK and Europe did. 
Imagine a 1967 EP with the 2 hits 'I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)', 'Get Me To The World On Time', and 2 or 3 of the better songs from the first album. What an amazing EP that would have been! That's all they would have needed to achieve immortality.
Instead, Reprise released this debut album, with some great, timeless psych and psych-garage classics, but also a few clear duds on it.
~~~~~~ Since their producer David Hassinger, still owned complete creative control and even owned the name of the band, slowly the original members got disenchanted and left the group, being replaced by new members. Kenny “Footloose” Loggins was actually an Electric Prune member at one time.
Eventually, the non-group material they were forced to record, changes in personnel, and a virtual takeover by new producer David Axelrod, which resulted in two very strange albums, led to the original group disbanding by 1968.
Despite their long strange trip, the Electric Prunes were, if only briefly, one of psychedelic rock’s pioneers and leaders. This first self-titled album contains a few nuggets that defined psych-garage music in early 1967.
Speaking of nuggets, the Electric Prunes finally got some recognition and respect as a great Psych band in 1972 when Lenny Kaye, a freelance music writer, guitarist, and record shop clerk, compiled and issued a double LP set called ‘Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968’.  The Prunes were immortalized by having "I Had Too Much to Dream" as the opening track on that great compilation.
Suddenly in the early 70's, a slow resurrection of the Prunes was underway and their music was soon embraced the rockers and punks. Many punk bands have covered 'Too Much to Dream'.
~~~~~~ The Electric Prunes strongest asset was the triple guitar interplay of Jim Lowe, Ken Williams and James "Weasel" Spagnola.
Lead singer James Lowe and lead guitarist Ken Williams called their style of music "free-form garage music" which left it open to all sorts of sounds and styles. Lots of Fuzz-tone, tremelo and wah-wah effects. The Wah-Wah pedal was relatively new at the time and the band actually made a promotion deal with the manufacturer to help promote it.
The guitar effects played by Ken Williams on this album are pretty amazing for 1967. Some heavily-textured, swooping, swirling, psychedelic guitar riffs.
This album starts off with their hit "Too Much to Dream". The song begins with the throbbing buzz of Ken Williams' tremolo-laden, oscillating, fuzztone guitar creeping from one side of the stereo spectrum to the other. Sounds great on a decent system.
Then the song kicks in with Lowe's trippy vocals and the song is full of hazy, mind-bending echo and fuzz. It was the most electronically experimental songs by the group thus far. 
The intro to "Too much to Dream" was actually a section of tape from a prior recording session where Williams was just messing around with his Bigsby, creating some fuzzed out tremolo playing.
That chunk of tape was saved, flipped over, and the strange effects he created sounded amazing. That fluttering buzz-fuzz sound was utilized for the classic, timeless, opening to the song.
I won't talk much more about the 2 classic hits on this record. If you're reading this, you know those songs well. Both are explosive psych-rock tunes with trippy vocals, Bo Diddley style percussion, and fuzzy, distorted guitar riffs.
~~~~~~ This album is just loaded and 'possessed' with exotically-combined effects, both on guitar and in modern stereo production techniques.
On nearly every song, Williams and fellow guitarists Weasel Spagnola and Jim Lowe spin a web of gloriously strange sounds, making use of the latest in guitar pedal technology.
Guitarist Ken Williams' screaming lead guitar on this album employs a menacing fuzz-driven buzz with lots of reverb. Tulin’s Vox organ complements the madness with a great retro, yet still modern, sound. Bassist Mark Tulin and drummer Preston Ritter provide a solid, percolating backdrop for their psychedelic soundscapes, holding the bottom end tight so they don't get lost.
~~~~~~ This album is often cited as being a progenitor for the early punk and garage scene in the 70's. Listening to it today you can certainly pick up on that vibe.
This album was a dose of Garage Band Psychedelia that was a bit primal and energetic, a forerunner of the Stooges and the punks. Lowe's vocals sound a little like Iggy or Johnny Lydon in places. The whole album is a staggering and perfect psych punk statement. Rock-solid psychedelic garage perfection. 
The Electric Prunes are still famous and best known for their classic proto-punk psychedelic hits 'I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)' and 'Get Me To The World On Time', both of which are on this great album.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CONDITION: I tried to show good hi-resolution photos of the cover, labels and vinyl in my pictures.
I've had this copy longer than I can remember. I originally purchased this copy as a young teen, in Greenwich Village, on one of my regular record digs in those days, and have taken great care of it since. 
VINYL: The vinyl looks great. Clean and Bright, but there is a light scratch on side one. It looks worse than it sounds. I've played this album several times while writing this and it plays fine. The 'scratch' is more like a hairline and there is no skip or significant audio issues to my ears. Otherwise, the vinyl looks fantastic. I'll say conservative VG+.
The DeadWax and label has all the first pressing indicators as listed above. 
I tried to show some close-up pictures of the vinyl to show how good it looks. I'm sure you'll be happy with it.
LABELS: This is pressed on the old-school Tri-Color Reprise labels. The labels are clean and bright. No marks or damage. The spindle holes are still quite nice, some mild wear, suggesting minimal playing and my careful handling over the years.
JACKET: This album is an original and over 55 years old. It's still in decent condition, but does have some light shelf wear and some ring wear near the top. Not bad, but should be pointed out.
The black cover of this album was notorious for showing wear and damage, but this one still looks decent. The corners are still sharp, no edge wear or seam splits. The front cover still has a nice gloss to it. The all-white back cover has some mild ring wear at the left and top, but the cool trippy artwork by Stan Leong is still nice. I did nothing to try to clean either the jacket or the record, and it would likely improve with some TLC.
Again, comes with the original Black & White Reprise inner sleeve, which is also excellent, but 'folded' in one corner.
I tried to show details in my photos. You can see from my pictures it's still quite nice. This has been sleeved and stored properly for years.
This is a nice, original, First Pressing of this Psych classic. A great record to add to any 60's, Psych, Garage or Rock collection. True original First Pressings don't turn up for sale often and it's a real gem. This was quickly repressed in the summer of 1967 due to demand, and several times since, but this is an original fist press from February 1967. 
I'm sure you'll love it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ** NOTE: I'm selling this rare 'Collector' record "AS IS" and "NO RETURN". It's rare and as described and I'm sure you'll be very happy with it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I’m recently retired and downsizing and letting go some gems and rarities from nearly 45 years of vinyl record collecting. Check out the many other fantastic 45s and 33s coming soon to my page!
All records have been carefully evaluated and graded by me. I visually inspect all records under bright light, personally gently clean them with a soft cloth and then, if unsure, play them on a modern high-end turntable to get a true picture of condition. Please look at all the high-resolution pictures I added. They are all my own and are of the actual record being sold. The pictures are part of the description and can show small details, label variations, and condition better than I can put into words. 
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THANK YOU for looking and reading if you got this far.  -- JOHN