The Blues Magoos* – Basic Blues Magoos

Anyone had a comment about the low, muffy quality of the sound on this first US pressing ?

This is one of the greatest records of all time. Surprised that Sundazed hasn’t jumped on this. If you like psych garage type style stuff, do not miss this one.

Basic Blues Magoos was anything but, and from a band who was attempting to shoot themselves in the foot, one member at a time. With the release of Electric Comic Book, Mercury Records seemed to feel that the group needed to swing a bit more mainstream in order to gain wider acceptance, reissuing Electric Comic Book that included an actual comic book, decking the boys out in flashy electric suits [yes, actual electrically lighted suits that needed to be plugged into an electrical outlet, and caused resounding during live shows], meaning that they pretty much played in the dark, allowing those suits to stand in for for them, and all of this was while material for Basic Blues Magoos was being conceived and written, though their release of “Jingle Bells” in time for the holiday didn’t bring them any closer to the blues roots they were attempting to return to on this release.

With this being the first Magoos album that failed to chart, I’m sure the band was scratching their heads wondering what was going on. What The Blues Magoos failed to see was that from their very first album, even with the chart topping hit “(We Ain’t Got) Nothing Yet,” the group had never showed their fans who they actually were, forever being influenced by what others were doing, considering that success was a format to be followed rather than invented. Case in point, on this album The Magoos had just come off a tour opening for The Who, where they were heavily influenced by freakbeats and swinging London. They also discovered the fledgling progressive rock scene, especially the music of The Move, and felt compelled to cover the track “I Can Hear The Grass Grow,” and then went on to try their hand at their style with “Sybil Green (Of The In Between)”.

And if all that weren’t enough, they minimized themselves with silly song titles that that may or may not have had double meanings:
-“Sybil Green (of the In-Between),” Sybil was a woman with multiple personality disorder, who was very much in the news, though the book and movie were a few years off, with the world ‘In-Between’ seeming to reference an actual place.
-“I Can Hear The Grass Grow” was of course a cover of The Move song, though nevertheless, conveyed as sense of lysergic trippiness.
-“All The Better To See You With” was a line from the Red Riding Hood story.
-“Yellow Rose” was a Masonic Society within the structure of The Freemasons, was very progressive as it allowed women as full , and the band would surely have been exposed to them during while on tour in Europe, with the society standing as a pinnacle for the beginnings of women’s liberation during the late 60’s.
-“I Can Move A Mountain” obviously has biblical references, and is another song filled with drug inspired lyrics, and references their first album with a line that contains the word ‘lollipops.’
-“President’s Council On Psychedelics” was a play on words revolving around youth physical fitness, a Council developed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1966, though in this case suggests that one’s mind need psychedelic fitness through the use of LSD.
-“Scarecrow’s Love Affair” revolved around the movie The Wizard of Oz.
-“Accidental Meditation” of course was a nod to what The Beatles were doing in India, though suggesting that one could get to the same place accidentally through other means of the day.
-“Subliminal Sonic Laxative” was a take on the television commercials of the day, where people seemed forever to be constipated, with The Magoos turning the tables, suggesting that the minds of the establishment (straight people) were constipated.
-“Chicken Wire Lady”, another very drugged out song, but far too aggressive sonically, and regarded astonishingly large paper mache figures made with a chickenwire base, created by street-theater groups such as Bread & Puppet Theater, who would march these super-sized puppets down the streets to protest the war in Viet Nam, Earth Day, and at other political events. Seeing these figures while on acid could be quite mind-blowing. The top half of one of these figures (a woman) was in a house visited by The Magoos, and if you read the lyrics, certainly rocked their world.

All of the music and lyrics seems to have been dipped into lysergic, though for all the world, it sounds more like it’s been laced with early and very strong STP (a synthetic hallucinogen first synthesized in 1964, and with the outlawing of LSD, became the new substance of choice for trippers), because the music for the most part is rather aggressive and very schizophrenic, leaving me unable to find a comfortable spot to sit. So, despite wishing to return to their blues oriented roots, The Blues Magoos venture far into the outer reach of an expansive galaxy laced with all sorts of intoxicating substances … and while I’ve never been one to shy away, isn’t the most productive state to reside in when it comes to creativity.

Heavy garage psych listeners will love this album more than any other, for me, it was all too much speed, and in no way brought the band wider acceptance. Now, with these concepts and these delightful lyrics, if The Blues Magoos had ventured into a more flowery flowing musical presentation, along the path of The Moody Blues with “Legend Of A Mind,” or “Pictures of Matchstick Men” by Status Quo, or even “My Friend Jack” by The Smoke, The Blues Magoos would have truly created an underground psychedelic masterpiece.

Review by Jenell Kesler