[1968] The Next Exit - Break Away

listen to the song:


Jay Siegal of The Tokens produced the first and only LP this band every released. Their real name
were "The Fabulous Four", but the labels and manager changed their name several times, so they
ended up as "The Next Exit" for these two songs. On garagehangover.com and rockkansas.com you
can read a bit about the whole story of this great band.
With "Break Away" an overdubbed psych pop artifact awaits you. Somewhat of a moodmaker,
crawling out of the popular beat sound of 60's, like "Mr. Postman" or some hits by "The Lords"!

"In 1967 the group landed a great opportunity to travel New York to record "I'm the Only One" and 
"Break Away" as the Next Exit for Warner Bros, produced by the Tokens. "Break Away" was written 
by Stephen Friedland (aka Brute Force) and Paul Kahan, and is well-crafted psychedelic pop." ~ 
garagehangover.com



Here are comming some words from the guitarist of this band, about the song:

Bob Theen: This song was recorded in NY in 1967, produced by The Tokens. It was supposed to be 
the title song for a movie that was released that next year in 1968 called “Butterflies Are Free’ The 
movie did come out it ‘68 but for some reason unknown to us our recording was not chosen. The 
song "I'm The Only One" was in the movie but only one short verse was sung by one of the stars on 
an acoustic. Darn the luck!! The other side of this is "Breakaway".

Our version of the song was released in the spring of 1968 and got some air play here in K.C. MO. 
Don't know about anywhere else. But evidently it wasn't a smash hit.

I still have a letter from Hank and Jay asking us to return to NY for some more recordings but for 
some reason at the time the trip was too far. I still wonder to this day why we didn't go. I think it had 
something to do with our families, wives, babies and that sort of thing.

[1970] Wizz Jones - America

listen to the song:


This is a rare track that only showed up once on the "Electric Psychedelic Sitar Headswirlers Vol. 7"
compilation. Not much is known about it at all, but the Sitar sound and the Loner Folk lyrics tell
their very own story.

At the Norwich Folk Festival

[1968] Listening - Stoned Is

listen to the song:


The Listening were a Boston based band, that only released one album and two singles. Michael 
Tschudin, one of the members, also played in another Boston psych act, called "Cynara". They put
out an alternate version of this track on LP two years later, which sounds like a soft Deep Purple
variant had covered it... (on youtube). It's been some years, since I listened to the whole album, but I
remember, that it wasn't as good as I expected it to be after I was flashed immediately by "Stoned is",
which I heared on some obscure garage-psych compilation (was it the "Marijuana Unknowns"?).
However, the vocals are in this certain higher tone hashbury style, which you can here on several
Jefferson Airplane songs as well. The hammond organ and the soft electric guitar play pay tribute to
the title. It's a relaxed but intoxicating experience!

[1968] The Twilights - Devendra

listen to the song:


Music by Australian bands is not very common here in europe (leaving AC/DC aside). And even
more extraordinary is, that there were psychedelic rock bands existing in Australia's 60's. So here you
go with "The Twilights"! This song reminds a lot on Traffic's "Paper Sun". Lot's of sitar and semi-
choral vocals, but much softer and slower.

The frontcover of their album "Once Upon a Twilight"

[1971] John Renbourn - The Cuckoo

listen to the song:


This is one of the delightful british-folk songs, that are merged with psychedelic sitar play. The gentle
 vocals of John Renbourn add their cream to it! This reminds a bit on the "Basket Full of Light"
album by Pentangle, what's no wonder, since he was a member of the band.

[1970] Shelagh McDonald - Peacock Lady

listen to the song:


Wonderful baroque pop and british-folk mixture! Released  in october 1970 on her selftitled debut
album. You can read more about Shelagh in this Guardian article "Experience: I disappeared for 30 years".

[1969] The Fruit Machine - I'm Alone Today

listen to the song:


...dreamy psychedelic rock, soft male chorus, great guitar playing. Quotes from Vernon Joynson's
book "The Tapestry Of Delights", which feature further informations about The Fruit Machine can be
found in the comments. So I'm not repeating all that here too. But one aspect might be of high interest
 for alot of you anyway; two of the band's members later continued to play in the famous Progressive
Rock band "Rare Bird". Sadly The Fruit Machine itself never had some kind of real success.