Beyond the 130 - The Electric Prunes

User avatar
naughty boy
hounds people off the board
Posts: 20250
Joined: 24 Apr 2007, 23:21

Beyond the 130 - The Electric Prunes

Postby naughty boy » 16 Mar 2015, 00:42

They were very good indeed. Leave aside yer 'I Had Too Much To Dream...' - I think they did better:







Matt 'interesting' Wilson wrote:So I went from looking at the "I'm a Man" riff, to showing how the rave up was popular for awhile.

User avatar
Charlie O.
Posts: 44848
Joined: 21 Jul 2003, 19:53
Location: In-A-Badda-La-Wadda, bay-beh

Re: Beyond the 130 - The Electric Prunes

Postby Charlie O. » 16 Mar 2015, 01:15

I bought the first album as a fairly expensive German import in or around 1981, and was disappointed - loved the two singles, and "Bangles" and "Ain't It Hard" were alright, but the rest was pretty limp as I recall.

So I didn't even bother checking out Underground until just a few years ago, but by gum it turns out to be pretty damned wonderful! The individual songs are mostly great, and as an album it has a unique overall vibe to it (without getting too samey). I'd've dropped "Dr. Do-Good" and maybe "It's Not Fair" in favor of "You've Never Had It Better" and "Everybody Knows (You’re Not In Love)" but, well, I wasn't there, unfortunately. At least I can program the CD.

Speaking of which, this has their complete pre-Axelrod output, including the mono singles and one or two extended edits and alternate takes and of course the Vox Wah-Wah pedal ad. A hardy little comp, and not too expensive neither.

Image
Last edited by Charlie O. on 15 Apr 2015, 15:30, edited 1 time in total.
Image

User avatar
Foxhound
Posts: 2415
Joined: 04 Sep 2010, 17:52
Location: By the back fence near the tracks.

Re: Beyond the 130 - The Electric Prunes

Postby Foxhound » 16 Mar 2015, 12:47

Charlie O. wrote:I bought the first album ... and was disappointed - loved the two singles ... but the rest was pretty limp as I recall.


My thoughts too! I'll have to hunt down Underground at a used record store.
Brits out of the Falklands!

Evangeline - living on in our hearts though long removed from our shores.

Beebsy wrote:Fuck off. Wanker.

User avatar
pcqgod
Posts: 19948
Joined: 11 Apr 2010, 07:23
Location: Ohio

Re: Beyond the 130 - The Electric Prunes

Postby pcqgod » 16 Mar 2015, 14:42

Yeah, 'Underground' is their best.
Where would rock 'n' roll be without feedback?

User avatar
'skope
BCB poster of the year 2014
Posts: 6248
Joined: 07 Jun 2014, 13:19
Location: on diamond dog's ignore list

Re: Beyond the 130 - The Electric Prunes

Postby 'skope » 16 Mar 2015, 15:00

pcqgod wrote:Yeah, 'Underground' is their best.


absolutely.

this excites the fuck out of me.


sloopjohnc
Posts: 63924
Joined: 03 Jun 2004, 20:12

Re: Beyond the 130 - The Electric Prunes

Postby sloopjohnc » 16 Mar 2015, 15:25

I put Sold to the Highest Bidder in my '60s cup and pretty much got skewered by most people for it.

Don't fake the funk on a nasty dunk!

User avatar
TG
Posts: 3774
Joined: 30 May 2006, 23:41
Location: Boss Angeles

Re: Beyond the 130 - The Electric Prunes

Postby TG » 16 Mar 2015, 15:56

Love some of the singles. Not so much the albums.

I remember a radio ad from my childhood - likely heard on WKBW-AM in Buffalo NY - that had several elderly ladies conversing.

My grandson is a doctor.
Really? My grandson is a lawyer.
That's nice. My grandson is an Electric Prune.
Followed by gasps, etc.

I can't find any proof on YouTube but I swear I remember it.

I can also remember hanging out on the balcony of a room on an upper floor of a Holiday Inn in Riverside CA in 2001 after an Electric Prunes reunion show; drinking and getting high with various band members and friends. Suddenly, grasping the absurdity of it all, I turned to an old and dear friend and wondered out loud about just how insane I would have been thought if, in the early 70s as we were listening to the Electric Prunes on a Nuggets double LP set and remembering the tunes from when they were hits in the 60s, I'd proclaimed that in nearly 30 years we'd be hanging out with them on the balcony of a Holiday Inn in Riverside. Life sure is strange. And grand.
Jeff K wrote:Not at all. I love TG. I might be the only one on BCB who does but I don't care.

User avatar
Foxhound
Posts: 2415
Joined: 04 Sep 2010, 17:52
Location: By the back fence near the tracks.

Re: Beyond the 130 - The Electric Prunes

Postby Foxhound » 16 Mar 2015, 17:34

'skope wrote:this excites the fuck out of me.



Cool percussion!

:!:
Brits out of the Falklands!

Evangeline - living on in our hearts though long removed from our shores.

Beebsy wrote:Fuck off. Wanker.

User avatar
Foxhound
Posts: 2415
Joined: 04 Sep 2010, 17:52
Location: By the back fence near the tracks.

Re: Beyond the 130 - The Electric Prunes

Postby Foxhound » 16 Mar 2015, 17:35

sloopjohnc wrote:I put Sold to the Highest Bidder in my '60s cup and pretty much got skewered by most people for it.


Philistines all! Ignore them.

;)
Brits out of the Falklands!

Evangeline - living on in our hearts though long removed from our shores.

Beebsy wrote:Fuck off. Wanker.

User avatar
Guy E
Posts: 13301
Joined: 16 Jul 2003, 23:11
Location: Antalya, Turkey

Re: Beyond the 130 - The Electric Prunes

Postby Guy E » 18 Mar 2015, 16:26

Charlie O. wrote:I bought the first album as a fairly expensive German import in or around 1981, and was disappointed - loved the two singles, and "Bangles" and "Ain't It Hard" were alright, but the rest was pretty limp as I recall.

I bought the album as a kid and was very disappointed... albums were expensive and the Electric Prunes album really sucked (the singles Dream and Get Me to the World on Time notwithstanding).

I never heard the follow-up, but I did sit through one of the later concept albums at some point. They weren't really a band by then and I'm not sure how much of a band they were in the beginning either... more like a silly putty band name for the production company to do with as they pleased.
["Minnie the Stalker"]The first time that we met I knew I was going to make him mine.

User avatar
naughty boy
hounds people off the board
Posts: 20250
Joined: 24 Apr 2007, 23:21

Re: Beyond the 130 - The Electric Prunes

Postby naughty boy » 18 Mar 2015, 16:28

The Axelrod-produced Prunes-in-name-only Release of an Oath is a fantastic album - as good as anything DA himself ever put out.
Matt 'interesting' Wilson wrote:So I went from looking at the "I'm a Man" riff, to showing how the rave up was popular for awhile.

User avatar
pcqgod
Posts: 19948
Joined: 11 Apr 2010, 07:23
Location: Ohio

Re: Beyond the 130 - The Electric Prunes

Postby pcqgod » 18 Mar 2015, 19:02

I think 'Mass in F Minor' is just peachy.
Where would rock 'n' roll be without feedback?

User avatar
Guy E
Posts: 13301
Joined: 16 Jul 2003, 23:11
Location: Antalya, Turkey

Re: Beyond the 130 - The Electric Prunes

Postby Guy E » 14 Apr 2015, 22:24

I'll just copy this from the Now Playing thread. Good stuff:
Image
This finally arrived today. I ordered it six or eight weeks ago when there was a Beyond the BCB130 thread.

As the disgruntled owner of their debut album, I must say that subsequent recordings were far more consistent. All that Turnerville Trolly crap really pissed me off as a preteen (and it still sucks). But subsequent singles and album #2 are pretty solid garage rock psych, even if they were dwelling far from a garage by that stage.
["Minnie the Stalker"]The first time that we met I knew I was going to make him mine.

User avatar
Charlie O.
Posts: 44848
Joined: 21 Jul 2003, 19:53
Location: In-A-Badda-La-Wadda, bay-beh

Re: Beyond the 130 - The Electric Prunes

Postby Charlie O. » 15 Apr 2015, 23:11

^ Result! :)

I was just looking at the Wiki page for Underground recently, and was surprised by how many of the songs were "outside" compositions - they all sound very much of a piece, which I reckon is a tribute to the band (especially as Dave Hassinger seemingly had less to do with this album than he did with the first).
Image

User avatar
billy
A pound
Posts: 1579
Joined: 19 Aug 2014, 23:47
Location: Dulag luft

Re: Beyond the 130 - The Electric Prunes

Postby billy » 15 Apr 2015, 23:27

I can't believe how much 'underground' has been overlooked here - it made number 1 in Tunbridge wells in 1983 - big classic

As is the Stockholm live album - another classic, natch!

Get jumping you tootsies!
mantochanga wrote:Dave Bartram from Showaddywaddy - on telly every week, but most people didn't even know his name. No burdening us with his issues or personal life, just a straightforward entertainer. Navvy!

User avatar
Rayge
Posts: 15288
Joined: 14 Aug 2013, 11:37
Location: Zummerzet
Contact:

Re: Beyond the 130 - The Electric Prunes

Postby Rayge » 15 Jan 2018, 19:18

bump
In timeless moments we live forever

You can't play a tune on an absolute

Negative Capability...when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason”

User avatar
Matt Wilson
Psychedelic Cowpunk
Posts: 32515
Joined: 16 Jul 2003, 20:18
Location: Edge of a continent

Re: Beyond the 130 - The Electric Prunes

Postby Matt Wilson » 15 Jan 2018, 19:20

I think I'm the only BCBer who prefers the debut LP over Underground.

sloopjohnc
Posts: 63924
Joined: 03 Jun 2004, 20:12

Re: Beyond the 130 - The Electric Prunes

Postby sloopjohnc » 15 Jan 2018, 22:11

I remember reading somewhere that the Electric Prunes were really only the Electric Prunes in name only after the first album.

Weren't there only one or two guys on subsequent ones with the rest just studio musicians?
Don't fake the funk on a nasty dunk!

User avatar
Matt Wilson
Psychedelic Cowpunk
Posts: 32515
Joined: 16 Jul 2003, 20:18
Location: Edge of a continent

Re: Beyond the 130 - The Electric Prunes

Postby Matt Wilson » 15 Jan 2018, 22:14

sloopjohnc wrote:I remember reading somewhere that the Electric Prunes were really only the Electric Prunes in name only after the first album.

Weren't there only one or two guys on subsequent ones with the rest just studio musicians?


I think the full band plays on the first two albums only. You'd have to ask Charlie O. Or look them up on wiki.

User avatar
pcqgod
Posts: 19948
Joined: 11 Apr 2010, 07:23
Location: Ohio

Re: Beyond the 130 - The Electric Prunes

Postby pcqgod » 15 Jan 2018, 22:16

sloopjohnc wrote:I remember reading somewhere that the Electric Prunes were really only the Electric Prunes in name only after the first album.

Weren't there only one or two guys on subsequent ones with the rest just studio musicians?


Original band played on the first two albums and parts of 'Mass in F Minor.' After that, it was a whole different band.

Not sure why I didn't mention it the first time around, but their live album recorded in Stockholm in 1967 is the most amazing thing.

Image
Where would rock 'n' roll be without feedback?


Return to “Beyond the 130: BCB cult acts”