The Seeds | |
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 The Seeds in 1966. From left: Rick Andridge, Daryl Hooper,Sky Saxon, Jan Savage | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1965–1969, 1969–1972 (as Sky Saxon and the Seeds), 1989, 2003–2009, 2017–present (as Daryl Hooper and the Seeds) |
| Labels | GNP Crescendo,MGM, Bam Caruso,Ace/Big Beat, Hypnotic Bridge |
| Members |
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| Past members |
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The Seeds are an Americanpsychedelicgarage rock[2] band that formed in Los Angeles, California in 1965, best known for their highest-charting single "Pushin' Too Hard". The band's classic lineup featured frontmanSky Saxon, guitarist Jan Savage (born Buck Jan Reeder),[3] keyboardist Daryl Hooper and drummer Rick Andridge. In 1968, the band changed their name toSky Saxon and the Seeds, with Savage and Andridge departing the band. They went on to release a handful of additional singles.[4]
In 1989, the original lineup of the band reformed for a handful of live dates in the US.[5]
In 2003, Saxon was persuaded to reform the Seeds with original guitarist Jan Savage (who departed part way through a European tour the same year due to ill health). Releasing two further studio albums, Saxon-led versions of the band continued to tour the US, UK, and Europe up to Saxon's death in 2009.
In 2017, founding member Hooper reformed the Seeds with a lineup of past and new members; they released a single in 2021 and continue to tour to this day.
The Seeds were formed in 1965 following the dissolution of the short lived band the Amoeba which featured frontmanSky Saxon.
Saxon, who had relocated toLos Angeles fromSalt Lake City and had already released material under several names includingLittle Richie Marsh andSky Saxon & the Soul Rockers put an ad in theLA Times for a keyboard player.[5] Having already enlisted former bandmate Jan Savage as lead guitarist and Jeremy Levine as rhythm guitarist, Saxon reportedly contacted Daryl Hooper to recruit him as a keyboard player. After then asking Saxon whether he also needed a drummer, Hooper andMichigan school friend Rick Andridge met up with Saxon at a club and played that same night.[4] Original rhythm guitarist Jeremy Levine left early on for personal reasons.
The band secured regular gigs at the LA club Bido Lito's and quickly gained a local reputation for high-energy live performances.[6]
As a live act, the band was one of the first to utilizekeyboard bass. Although Saxon was credited as playing bass on the studio albums and would mime playing bass on TV appearances, they usually employed session player Harvey Sharpe for studio work.[7] On stage, keyboardist Daryl Hooper would perform the bass parts via a separate bass keyboard, in the same manner asRay Manzarek later did withThe Doors.
After a tip from Hollywoodimpresario Jimmie Maddin, The Seeds were signed by Gene Norman to his GNP Crescendo label. The first single, "Can't Seem to Make You Mine", was a minor regionalhit inSouthern California in 1965. The song was also played regularly on AM rock stations in northern California (and probably elsewhere), where it was well received by listeners, and eventually went on to become, and is considered today, a '60s cult classic song. The band had a nationalTop 40 hit, "Pushin' Too Hard", in 1966 and performed the song on national television. Three subsequent singles, "Mr. Farmer" (also 1966), a re-release of "Can't Seem To Make You Mine" (1967), and "A Thousand Shadows" (1967), achieved more modest success, although all were most popular in southern California. Musically uncomplicated with a flair for simple melodic hooks and dominated by Saxon's unorthodox vocal delivery, their first two albums,The Seeds andA Web of Sound, are today considered classics of 1960sgarage music.[citation needed]
A major turning point for the Seeds came in 1967. The band's self-produced third albumFuture presented a grander psychedelic artistic statement and thrust the group forward as torchbearers during perhaps the most creative and experimental time in American pop culture and music history. The more expansive musical style with accompanying orchestration—presented with agatefold sleeve featuring ornate flower-themed artwork by painter Sassin—was a departure from the rawer tone of the band's previous hits. It remains a genre curiosity piece today and is regarded as a pioneering effort in full-blown pop-psychedelia.Iggy Pop,Smashing Pumpkins,Animal Collective and members of theBeach Boys have all sourced the band, mentioning this album and previous ones as genre classics.[citation needed]
The release ofFuture in mid-1967 generally marked the commercial peak of the Seeds' career, coinciding with a major national hit, raucous concerts, numerous live TV performances, as well as prominent guest appearances on the NBC sitcomThe Mothers-in-Law and in thehippie/counterculture-themedcult filmPsych-Out. In October 1966, The Seeds recorded an album devoted specifically to the blues,A Full Spoon of Seedy Blues that was released in November 1967, bearing the artist moniker "The Sky Saxon Blues Band" and with liner notes reputedly byMuddy Waters. Saxon later claimed that the album "... was my idea to get off the record label. I thought that if we just came up out of nowhere and did a blues album that wasn't going to sell, then they'd drop us. I never expected it to sell but it did OK. We never did those songs live except for a week of gigs at theGolden Bear inHuntingdon Beach".[5]
In May 1968 the band released their final LP for GNP Crescendo Records,Raw & Alive: The Seeds in Concert at Merlin's Music Box, which revisited their more aggressive garage rock roots. However, the album and its accompanying single "Satisfy You" both failed to chart nationally. The band was renamed "Sky Saxon and the Seeds" in 1968, by which point Bob Norsoph (guitar) and Don Boomer (drums) had replaced Savage and Andridge, respectively. They were featured on the final GNP Crescendo single "Falling Off The Edge Of My Mind", the first and only period Seeds single not written by Saxon or the other members. The last major label records of new material by The Seeds – two non-charting singles on MGM Records – were released in 1970, after which Hooper quit. Saxon continued to use the name "The Seeds", utilizing various backup musicians, at least through 1972.
After the dissolution of the Seeds, Sky Saxon joined theYahowha religious group, inspired by their leaderFather Yod. Although a member of the Source Family for several years, Saxon did not participate in any of the albums released by Yahowha 13 in the mid-1970s. He does appear on theGolden Sunrise album by Fire Water Air, which was a Yahowha 13 offshoot, and later recorded theYod Ship Suite album in memory of the deceased Father Yod. In the 1970s, Saxon also released the solo LPsLovers Cosmic Voyage (credited to Sunlight) andLive at the Orpheum credited to Sunlight Rainbow. In the 1980s, Saxon collaborated with several bands—includingRedd Kross andThe Chesterfield Kings—before reforming the original Seeds in 1989 to headline "The Summer of Love Tour", along withBig Brother and the Holding Company,Arthur Lee andLove,The Music Machine, and TheStrawberry Alarm Clock.[citation needed]
The Seeds remained dormant again until 2003, when Rik Collins persuaded Saxon to reform the group with original guitarist Jan Savage and newcomers Collins on bass, Mark Bellgraph on guitar, Dave Klein on keyboards and Justin Polimeni on drums. This iteration of the Seeds went through several incarnations, with Savage departing midway through their 2003 European tour due to his health. Saxon remained the only original member, and with several different sets of musicians continued to tour Europe and the United States.
Saxon died on June 25, 2009, ofheart andkidney failure.[8] The Seeds' original drummer, Rick Andridge, died in 2011.[9] Jan Savage died on August 5, 2020, aged 77.[3]
In June 2017, a "reunited version" of the band (with founding member Daryl Hooper and late period Seeds drummer Don Boomer, along with Paul Kopf on lead vocals and Seeds archivist Alec Palao on bass) gave their first performance after a viewing of the Seeds documentaryThe Seeds: Pushin' Too Hard at the Center for the Arts in Grass Valley, California. Hooper's Seeds continue to tour and now incorporate Mark Bellgraph and Justin Smith from Saxon’s 2000s-era band. In 2021, the current line-up of the band released a single, "Butterfly Child" / "Vampire".[10][11]
The band's early material has been described as "straight upgarage rock." Later output, such as 1967'sFuture, was described as having apsychedelic rock sound.[12]
While GNP Crescendo has kept the Seeds catalog in print since the mid-1970s, the first notable archival compilation of the band was 1977’sFallin’ Off The Edge, compiled by Neil Norman, son of GNP’s founder Gene Norman. This was later expanded in the CD era asTravel With Your Mind in 1993. In 1996, Drop Out Records releasedFlower Punk, a box set of their first five albums,The Seeds,A Web of Sound,Future,A Full Spoon of Seedy Blues (as the Sky Saxon Blues Band), andRaw & Alive: The Seeds in Concert at Merlin's Music Box, plus several rarities, B-sides, and other cuts (nothing unreleased) as a three-disc collection.
In 2011, Ace Records instigated a thorough reappraisal of The Seeds’ recorded legacy, helmed by reissue producer Alec Palao. Each of the band’s four principal albums was remastered, with a considerable amount of additional, mostly unreleased, material added. Initially presented as CD editions, they have also subsequently been issued as deluxe 2-LP sets. Ace/Big Beat also released the definitive compilationSingles As & Bs 1965-1970 and the soundtrack CD to the filmThe Seeds: Pushin' Too Hard.
A 2014 feature-length documentary film about the Seeds titledThe Seeds: Pushin' Too Hard was directed by Neil Norman and written/produced by Alec Palao. The film draws on first-hand knowledge of the band, interviews, and concert footage.[13][14][15]
The Seeds have been among the most frequently cited pre-punk influences by Americanpunk musicians since the 1970s, as well as key overseas acts such asThe Fall from the UK. Cover versions of various Seeds songs have been recorded byCabaret Voltaire,The Dwarves,Alex Chilton,[16]Johnny Thunders,[17]The Ramones,[18]Yo La Tengo,[19]Garbage,[20]Murder City Devils,[21]Spirits in the Sky,[22]Paul Parker,[23]Pere Ubu,[24]The Makers,[25]The Embarrassment,[26]The Bangles,[27]The Rubinoos,[28]Strawberry Alarm Clock,[29] and other artists. Some lyrics inFrank Zappa's albumJoe's Garage satirically refer to "Pushin' Too Hard": "You're plooking too hard, plooking too hard on ME".[30]
On July 24, 2009, members ofThe Smashing Pumpkins, members ofThe Strawberry Alarm Clock,Nels Cline andThe Electric Prunes performed a tribute concert at theEchoplex in Los Angeles in memory ofSky Saxon.[31]
Original Seeds line-up:
Sky Saxon-fronted line-ups:
| Year | Song | Peak chart positions | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S.Billboard[32] | U.S. Cashbox | CAN | ||||||||||||||||||
| 1965 | "Can't Seem to Make You Mine" b/w "Daisy Mae" | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||||
| "You're Pushin' Too Hard"[a] b/w "Out of the Question" | — | — | — | |||||||||||||||||
| 1966 | "Pushin' Too Hard" (re-release) b/w "Try to Understand" | 36 | 40[33] | 44 | ||||||||||||||||
| "Mr. Farmer" b/w "No Escape" | — | — | — | |||||||||||||||||
| 1967 | "Mr. Farmer" (re-release) b/w "Up in Her Room" | 86 | 109[34] | — | ||||||||||||||||
| "Can't Seem to Make You Mine" (re-release) b/w "I Tell Myself" | 41 | 55[35] | 33 | |||||||||||||||||
| "A Thousand Shadows" b/w "March of the Flower Children" | 72 | 86[36] | — | |||||||||||||||||
| "The Wind Blows Your Hair" b/w "Six Dreams" | — | — | — | |||||||||||||||||
| 1968 | "Satisfy You" b/w "900 Million People Daily Making Love" | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||||
| 1969 | "Fallin' Off the Edge of My Mind" b/w "Wild Blood" | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||||
| 1970 | "Bad Part of Town" b/w "Wish Me Up" | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||||
| "Love in a Summer Basket" b/w "Did He Die" | — | — | — | |||||||||||||||||
| 1972 | "Shuckin' and Jiving" b/w "You Took Me By Surprise" | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| International | |
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| Artists | |