Clear Light

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For the Tibetan meditation practice known in English as 'Clear Light', see Ösel (yoga).

Clear Light was a psychedelic rock band that formed in Los Angeles in 1966. They were very much in the mold of fellow Elektra Records artists Love, Tim Buckley, and especially the Doors.

Contents

[edit] History

In 1966, the The Brain Train formed and was managed by Sunset Strip hipster Bud Mathis. They recorded a single at the time but soon changed their name to Clear Light where they were signed by Elektra. One condition was that they fire Bud Mathis and in doing so, Doors' producer Paul A. Rothchild took over management of the band.

The core members of the group were Bob Seal, lead guitarist and vocals, Robbie "The Werewolf" Robison, rhythm guitar and vocals, Doug Lubahn bass and vocals, Dallas Taylor drums, and Michael Ney, on, most unusually, another set of drums.[1] They soon added Cliff De Young on lead vocals. This is the version of the band seen on their one and only album cover. However, sometime during the often described "brutal" recording process, Paul Rothchild was not happy with Robbie "The Werewolf" Robison's guitar playing skills and pressured the group to replace him. That is how keyboardist Ralph Schukett entered the band. For some reason, this was not properly addressed on the album cover and the revamped version of Clear Light appears only on the album insert, if you were lucky enough to get an original copy.

What has been considered the band's finest hour came when drunken customers in a Park Avenue club heckled them so brutally that Ralph Schuckett, the usually gentle organist, hurled a few choice words back at them. They then walked off the stage, retired to the Albert Hotel, and woke up in the morning to find that they had become underground heroes.[2]

The big hit off their only album, Clear Light, was "Mr. Blue," a psychedelic version of a folk song written by Tom Paxton and a popular request on underground radio at the time, despite the fact it was never released as a single. Lasting over six minutes, the rather sinister, psychedelic song is considered a classic of the genre.[3] Its lyrics, which alternate between spoken word and song, include verses opening with such lines as, "Good morning, Mister Blue, we've got our eye on you," "Step softly, Mister Blue, we know what's best for you," and "Be careful, Mister Blue, this phase you're going through ...."[4]

The album also included some of guitarist Bob Seal's best psychedelic folk-rock songs, namely "With All in Mind" and "They Who Have Nothing."[5] It had some success in England, but less in the U.S. The end of the group started when Paul Rothchild pressured the other members of the band to fire Bob Seal. When this happened, Cliff De Young was soon to follow and though they struggled on for a brief time, the band was essentially over, especially with the heart and spirit of the band, Bob Seal, gone. Seal was replaced by ex-Fug Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar but the group disbanded in 1968 after having started work on a second album. Two tracks from the sessions surfaced in 2006, :Darkness of Day" and "What A Difference Love Makes", the latter of which showed the group was moving into more commercial territory thanks to Kortchmar's influence[6] Some of the members of Clear Light appeared on the Monkees track "Porpoise Song", from their movie Head.

A few of the members went on to further success.

Clear Light was featured in the 1967 motion picture The President's Analyst. Cliff DeYoung had not yet been hired as singer at the time and Barry McGuire was cast as their leader and vocalist. For a band with only one album to their name, it surprising that not only did they appear in a film, but actually had a few speaking lines.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Album

Clear Light
Studio album by Clear Light
Released September, 1967
Recorded Summer, 1967
Genre Rock
Length 31:59
Label Elektra
Producer Paul A. Rothchild
Professional reviews

Clear Light was released in September 1967. It combined elements of folk, rock, psychedelic, and classical music. It has been considered by some critics as one of the important psychedelic albums to own and is an AMG music pick, although the album was not a success at the time.

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Black Roses" (Clear Light, Dios), 2:09
  2. "Sand" (Lubahn), 2:38
  3. "A Child's Smile" (Clear Light, Ney), 1:37
  4. "Street Singer" (Copeland, Noonan), 3:17
  5. "The Ballad of Freddie & Larry" (DeYoung, Schuckett), 1:56
  6. "With All in Mind" (Seal), 2:58
  7. "She's Ready to Be Free" (Robison), 2:26 (Bonus track not included on the original album release. The B side of their first single.)
  8. "Mr. Blue" (Paxton), 6:25
  9. "Think Again" (Clear Light, Lubahn), 1:58
  10. "They Who Have Nothing" (Seal), 1:37
  11. "How Many Days Have Passed" (Seal), 2:34
  12. "Night Sounds Loud" (Lubahn), 2:24

[edit] Singles

  • Black Roses/She’s Ready To Be Free, Elektra EK45622, 1967
  • Black Roses/She's Ready To Be Free, Elektra EKSN45019, 1967(UK)
  • They Who Have Nothing/Ballad Of Freddie and Larry, Elektra 45626, 1967
  • Night Sounds Loud/How Many Days Have Passed, Elektra EKSN45027, 1968 (UK only)

[edit] Notes

  1. ^  Rock Encyclopedia, Lillian Roxon, 1969, Grosset & Dunlap, p. 112
  2. ^  Clear Light
  3. ^  Rock Encyclopedia, Lillian Roxon, 1969, Grosset & Dunlap, p. 112
  4. ^  Lyrics
  5. ^  Clear Light
  6. ^  Clear Light
  7. ^  Rock Encyclopedia, Lillian Roxon, 1969, Grosset & Dunlap, p. 112

[edit] See also

[edit] External links