Jan 20, 2009

LEMON DROPS - CRYSTAL PURE (RCA STUDIOS CHICAGO/SOUND STUDIOS/PRIVATE RECORDINGS (1967-1968) 24 tracks



Anyone who likes the Leaves, the Seeds e.t.c. will love the early cuts by this band, a hard-luck Chicago outfit who couldn't turn a local wave of popular enthusiasm into something bigger, despite some good songs. Their later stuff was more self consciously psychedelic, but it's still very well done, with superb playing and harmonies. The Lemon Drops were Jeff Brand (bass), Bobby Lunack (rhythm guitar), Gary Weiss (drums), Eddie Weiss (rhythm guitar), and Danny Smola (vocals), who began rehearsing in the Weiss home when they were between 14 and 17 years old. With lead guitarist Ricky Erickson in tow and later an official member, they cut their first record, "I Live In the Springtime," for Rembrandt, a local label co-owned by one of the Weisses' elder siblings. "I Live In the Springtime" got an enthusiastic reception locally, and was played as far away as New York. The band members became celebrities among the local kids when they were thrown out of school for their long hair. By that time, they were on their second single, the angry anti-Vietnam rocker "It Happens Everyday," and soon after had a new lead singer, Dick Sidman. The band slipped easily into the psychedelic blossoming of the Summer of Love, adding more overt flower-power references to their mix of sounds. It looked as though RCA was interested in the group, but a mix-up prevented the tapes for their third single, "Sometime Ago"/"Theatre of Your Eyes," from getting to the company in New York on time. A potential contract with Uni Records came to nothing, and their third single, as well as a dozen tracks cut live in the Weiss home in January of 1968, went unheard. A few more songs were cut on behalf of Buena Vista Records, but the death of the label head scotched the deal, and a potential contract with Alden Records fell apart, along with the group, following an acid party at the owner's Los Angeles mansion in the summer of 1969...[net]
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The quality of the sound is 10/10....(all tracks)
Also the later stuff (private recordings) has a unique & rare beauty with strange dreamy psych harmonies...a true "flower power era" sound.

Here

7 comments:

GaragePunk66 said...

Thanks for the post, I love these guys.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this very good group and for the fantastic track "I live in a springtime"

frumious bandersnatch said...

One of my favourite "second rate" 60s bands - not as important as the Seeds, Electric Prunes & all I mean, but full of qualities in sound & songwriting. This is the best anthology to be found.
thanks a lot !!!

Georgie Hirezola said...

hhmm yes ok...
its not the Seeds or the Prunes but from the dozens of the .."lost" or the .."hard luck" ones,they are by far better...
thank you guys

IncaRoads said...

Ahhh, you can almost smell the patchouli...

Speaking of which...I posted this one in a forum recently and it is also of the same ilk as Lemon Drops. An above-average psych band out of Pittsburgh, came out with 2 albums in the late 60's. Also released on Collectables, who do a great job in unearthing these gems from way obscure artists.

Racket Squad: S/T (1968) & Corners of Your Mind (1969), ripped @ 320.

http://www.4shared.com/file/75043913/61f1f691/The_Racket_Squad1.html
http://www.4shared.com/file/75047242/e8b64af4/The_Racket_Squad2.html
http://www.4shared.com/file/75040741/eaa3e11c/The_Racket_SquadBonusTrax.html

Anonymous said...

Thanks a lot for this rarest gem!
As I got, it's not their complete collection? Still look hard for their two songs: "Jennifer Ann" and "Crystal Pure". And still got one more: "Listen, Girl".
Does anyone know how really large recorded material by them?

Anonymous said...

Here's is an adittion to this great collection (up to 28 tracks): http://rapidshare.com/files/295054754/The_Lemon_Drops.zip

It includes 4 not presented here songs:
25. Listen, Girl
26. Jennifer Ann
27. Crystal Pure
28. Maria
That's all I could find. And only one of them is in good quality - Listen, Girl. Others are pretty poor demos.