The Electric Prunes - Release Of An Oath

 

Reprise Records 1968

01 Kol Nidre

02 Holy Are You

03 General Confessional

04 Individual Confessional

05 Our Father, Our King

06 The Adoration

07 Closing Hymn

The forth and final Electric Prunes album and this time it really is in name only. David Axelrod once again composed the music here, making it very much a follow up to 'Mass in F Minor'. However, the original Prunes were ousted in favour of  Colorado group Climax and even they didn't get to play much on the final album.

Session musicians were once again brought in to realise Axelrod's vision. Not sounding to dissimilar to it's predecessor, its another L.P. of religious chanting psyche, including all time classic 'Holy Are You'.

The Electric Prunes ‎- Mass In F Minor

Reprise Records 1968

01 Kyrie Eleison
02 Gloria
03 Credo
04 Sanctus
05 Benedictus
06 Agnus Dei

In 1968, The Electric Prunes found themselves with even more contractual bad luck. This time, they had to record arrangements for producer David Axelrod's vision of Gregorian chant cum psychedelia opus.

The band split during the recording and the finished result has Canadian band The Collectors filling in with session musicians.

This should result in a bitter disappointment, but it's a psych classic.

The Electric Prunes - Underground

Reprise 1967

01 The Great Banana Hoax

02 Children Of Rain

03 Wind-Up Toys

04 Antique Doll

05 It's Not Fair

06 I Happen To Love You

07 Dr. Do-Good

08 I

09 Hideaway

10 Big City

11 Capt. Glory

12 Long Day's Flight

Bonus tracks:

13 Everybody Knows You're Not in Love
14 You Never Had It Better


Like their debut, the second album by The Electric Prunes was released in 1967. Unlike the first album however, the band were left alone to write their own compositions (9 of the original 12 tracks were originals).

The Electric Prunes further pushed the experimentation on this album and the result was another underground classic.

By the end of recording however, creative differences meant both Preston Ritter and James Spagnola left the band.

They embarked on a tour and when they returned to the studio, it was a very different set of circumstances.

The Electric Prunes - I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)

Reprise 1967

01 I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)

02 Bangles

03 Onie

04 Are You Lovin' Me More (But Enjoy It Less)

05 Train For Tomorrow

06 Sold To The Highest Bidder

07 Get Me To The World On Time

08 About A Quarter To Nine

09 The King Is In The Counting House

10 Luvin
11 Try Me On For Size
12 The Toonerville Trolley


The Electric Prunes were a psychedelic garage rock band from L.A. and this is there debut album from 1967.

There seemed to be no end of absolutely terrible contracts given out to bands throughout the 1960's. The burden for The Electric Prunes was they were contractually bound to record the songs of songwriting team Annette Tucker and Nancie Mantz. On this first album, the band only had one original they wrote themselves.

There are a couple of songs that sound out of place and the band made no secret of their frustration with having to record these compositions. Some tracks though, like the title track and 'Get Me to the World On Time' are garage classics.

The real highlight is that the band were allowed to apply their recording ideas and experiments to these songs. They employ fuzztone, tremelo, sound effects and electronic composition.

The Electric Prunes had a strange career and we'll be looking at their other releases in the coming months.