GeneClark Gosdin 1500 orange

the echoes in your head continue showing (gene clark part 1)

THE BYRDS’ FLIGHT TO ENGLAND in August 1965 began a disastrous tour for the group. Fortunately, it wasn’t a wasted trip, as it inspired Gene Clark to pen some psychedelically-enhanced poetry. These words became the basis for “Eight Miles High,” which was released as a single in March 1966, opening a new phase in music. [Read more] “the echoes in your head continue showing (gene clark part 1)”

PinkFloyd TheWall Scarfe header 1501

real rarity, relative rarity, and the “wow!” factor

IN RECORD COLLECTING, we bandy about certain terms so often that they lose their meaning. One such word is ‘rare,’ which should be considered a bugaboo not just record collecting, but all fields of collectables. Another abused word is ‘psychedelic,’ or, as it is more often used, ‘psych.’ [Read more] “real rarity, relative rarity, and the “wow!” factor”

Byrds 1965 airport copy

a requiem for those timeless good good good vibrations

MAJOR RECORD COMPANIES usually released new titles on Monday in the ’60s. On April 12, 1965, I rushed home from school, ran upstairs to my room, tossed my books on my bed, pulled my money out of the drawer, ran to the garage, picked up my bike, and zoomed off to Joe Nardone’s record shop. [Read more] “a requiem for those timeless good good good vibrations”

GeneClark1966

look, pa! I’m somebody’s blog of the month!

ON OCTOBER 29 OF LAST YEAR, I published an article titled “on william strunk and elements of style (and concise vigorous writing)” on my Neal Umphred Dot Com website. It’s as boring as the title makes it sound—you’d have to give a damn about the most important figure and the most important book in the history of American writing on the inses and outses of writing readably! [Read more] “look, pa! I’m somebody’s blog of the month!”

Byrds Hullabaloo 1965 1500 crop

It isn’t how it was set up to be (the byrds 1966 part 1)

WELCOME TO AN INTRODUCTION to the first in a series of articles on the released and unreleased recording of the Byrds in 1966. I began this series in July 2013 for my first blog, Neal Umphred Dot Com. As I hadn’t written anything in a while (in years, actually), my authorial chops were rusty. [Read more] “It isn’t how it was set up to be (the byrds 1966 part 1)”