| "Psychotic Reaction" | |
|---|---|
album cover |
|
| Single by Count Five | |
| B-side | "They're Gonna Get You" |
| Released | July 1966 |
| Genre | Garage rock, psychedelic rock |
| Length | 3:09 |
| Label | Double Shot |
| Writer(s) | Craig Atkinson, John Byrne, Roy Chaney, Ken Ellner, John Michalski |
"Psychotic Reaction" is an early garage rock song released by the American rock band Count Five in 1966, and also the title of their only album. The song Psychotic Reaction was written by the five members of the Count Five, Craig "Butch" Atkinson, John Byrne, Roy Chaney, Kenn Ellner and John "Mouse" Michalski. The song started off as an instrumental jam between Ellner, Chaney and Michalski and was composed in the living room of Craig Atkinson's at the beginning of a rehearsal. Kenn Ellner was breaking in a new harmonica for the first time and Chaney and Michalski were jamming and composing. The harmonica was a C harmonica, so the jam was in G. Atkinson and Byrne joined the rehearsal and added to the jam and composition. Many weeks prior to this monumental rehearsal Byrne had a psychology class at San Jose City College. The lecturer was discussing psychotic reactions and a friend and classmate Ron Lamb thought it would be a good name for a band. John Byrne had mentioned to the band about that event and it evolved from the name of the band to a good name for a song. At the rehearsal Ellner and Byrne looked at each other and said this is "Psychotic Reaction". The song was played by the band for a long time at their live performances as an instrumental and was well received by the Count Five fans in attendance. Fans were wildly ecstatic about the instrumental version. However, after much prodding from the band's manager Sol Ellner at a rehearsal at Ellner's house, Byrne was told by Sol to "Go across the street and don’t return without lyrics to the song" (Byrne lived across the street from Ellner with Byrne's uncle Leo). Byrne complied. The song went through months of modifications by the band modifying beats, rhythm and the like. As the band auditioned for various labels and producers all had constructive criticism about the song and its structure. Taking into account some of the criticisms and discarding others the band members worked many hours and many months modifying and rearranging the composition with assistance from multiple sources., a DJ from KLIV Radio Brian Lord, various producers of audition sessions, management, agents, friends and fans. In the studio at Nashville West on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, Double Shot Record’s producer even modified the lyrical content by suggesting and adding the famous tag line "And it feels like this". Psychotic Reaction was truly a collaborative composition. This is the true story of how the song was composed. Psychotic Reaction was not written by any one individual any such report is entirely false.[1]
The song was modeled after the Yardbirds's song "I'm a Man", with a repetitious rhythm that eventually changes to a faster beat, an electric guitar playing a hypnotic melody going up the scales, and a similar style of percussion to that of the Yardbirds hit.
This song was popular in the Vietnam War era, and appears in the game Battlefield Vietnam. Probably the best known of the many obscure covers that were made in the 1960s is the one by Positively 13 O'Clock that was included on the original Pebbles compilation album. The song was covered by The Cramps on their 1983 live mini-album, Smell of Female, and by Nash the Slash on his album American Bandages. Television included this in their early sets, emphasizing the "rave-up" section. It was also recorded in more heavily psychedelic manner by the 1960s studio-only band, The Leathercoated Minds, in 1966 on their album A Trip Down the Sunset Strip.
The song is one of the many songs quoted and parodied on the album The Third Reich 'n Roll by the avantgarde group The Residents.
The Night Beats from Seattle, Washington have claimed to have "psychically inherited" the song and have made it their own playing it most nights of their 2011 U.S. and European dates.[1]
This song is also played live by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on the Playback box set and seen in the currently out of print concert video, "Take the Highway".
John Byrne died on December 15, 2008 at 61, from cirrhosis of the liver.[2]