***Ultimate Spinach -Behold & See -US 1968***

Ultimate Spinach's second album is a slightly more subdued continuation of the derivative psychedelia in their debut. Again, it's like a hack take on West Coast groups. There's Country Joe & the Fish in Ian Bruce-Douglas' electric keyboards (which don't play anything as good as his solos on "Sacrifice of the Moon" from the first album); Jefferson Airplane-like female vocals (by guest singer Carol Lee Britt) and songwriting on "Where You're At"; some Quicksilver Messenger Service-type guitar arrangements on "Mind Flowers"; a melody and vocal reminiscent of Kaleidoscope's "Keep Your Mind Open" on "Fragmentary March of Green"; and more. Songwriter Bruce-Douglas' lyrics are unintentional hippie parodies without any irony or humor, whether solemnly aspiring to a beatnik state ("take a trip to the center of your mind") or indicting the straight world ("he has an ulcer in his brain, from thinking of how to divorce his wife"). When the album turns to social critiques, it's uncertain whether the band is trying to mimic the Mothers of Invention without the wit, or whether they're unwittingly embodying the very kinds of groups whom the Mothers took the piss out of on "We're Only in It for the Money". [Richie Unterberger/AMG]

Tracks :
1. Gilded Lamp Of The Cosmos
2. Visions Of Your Reality
3. Jazz Thing
4. Mind Flowers
5. Where You'Re At
6. Suite:Genisis Of Beauty
7. Fifth Horseman Of The Apocalypse
8. Fragmentary March Of Green


behold

*****Ultimate Spinach -(S/T U.S 1967)- ESSENTIAL LISTENING!!******

If you like this, you may like this Bosstown band too!! (see ITEM #2 on page)

The Ultimate Spinach was a psychedelic band originally from Boston, composed of keyboardist/guitarist Ian Bruce-Douglas and singer Barbara Hudson.
"Ultimate Spinach" is the 1967 self-titled debut album by Ultimate Spinach and was released on the MGM Records label.The phenomenon of a "Boston Sound", (whose other top acts included The Beacon Street Union, also on MGM), was more a publicity stunt than a legitimate artistic movement, and the Bruce-Douglas version of the band tends to be remembered for its name.
On "Ultimate Spinach" the standout cuts are "(Ballad of) The Hip Death Goddess", with an instrumental interval for theremin (an early electronic instrument), feedback and reverberation, and the psychoanalytic folk-blues "Ego Trip" , the 4-part suite "Sacrifice of the Moon" as well as "Your Head Is Reeling" and the Frank Zappa-esque "Plastic Raincoats".
Their first album was reviled by the critics as phoney, now 40 years later it's getting some respect as an acid classic. In 2008 the English glossy magazine Classic Rock listed the 42 Greatest Psychedelic Albums. This album was Number 36, in there with Sgt Peppers, Axis Bold as Love, Disraeli Gears, etc.
Members:
Ian Bruce-Douglas: vocals, electric piano,organ,theremin,sitar
Barbara Hudson: vocals,electric guitar,kazoo
Keith Lahteinen: vocals,drums,tabla
Richard Nese: bass
Geoffrey Withrop: vocals,lead guitar,electric sitar

1.Ego Trip
2.Sacrifice of the Moon [In Four Parts]
3.Plastic Raincoating/Hung Up Minds
4.(Ballad of) The Hip Death Goddess
5.Your Head Is Reeling
6.Dove In Hawk's Clothing
7.Baroque #1
8.Funny Freak Parade
9.Pamela

funny freak parade