Ready for Reappraisal
Laurence Upton | Wilts, UK | 12/17/2007
(3 out of 5 stars)
"The re-evaluation of the work of David Axelrod, stimulated by the extensive sampling of his sixties and seventies output by hip hop producers like DJ Shadow, the Beatnuts and DJ Premier, continues apace with this 2CD. The Warner/Reprise Sessions pulls together the work he did for Warner/Reprise between 1968 and 1970, in parallel with his output on Capitol, some of which is collected on Stateside's 1968 to 1970: An Axelrod Anthology.
The first disc contains three complete albums, two ostensibly by the Electric Prunes that are relatively well known, and one by a studio band called Pride which has wallowed in obscurity for the past 35 years. The second disc contains the instrumental versions of the material that made up the two Electric Prunes records, and is all previously unreleased, making this a generous package both for the uninitiated and the cognoscenti.
It wasn't the Electric Prunes' idea to record a psychedelic rock Latin mass for their third album. They had recently completed a European tour during which their live sound and approach had developed considerably, and were keen to hone their new-found musical strengths in the studio. The idea was that of their manager Lenny Poncher, who also managed David Axelrod, and their producer, Dave Hassinger.
Dave Hassinger had built up a good reputation as a sound engineer, having worked with the Rolling Stones in their mid-sixties prime, and on early Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane albums. Unfortunately, for the Electric Prunes, he and Lenny Poncher regarded them as a purely commercial commodity, bringing in outside material for them to record with little regard for their own preferences or musical direction. For their third album, David Axelrod had been commissioned to write Mass In F Minor, a mass for rock group and orchestra. To their credit, the band went along with this ambitious, if unexpected idea, in reality having little choice in the matter.
The Electric Prunes, though, being creative musicians but not necessarily the fastest interpreters of unfamiliar musical scores (and only one of them read charts), found themselves being sidelined by session musicians, hired by David Hassinger just three hours into the first day of the week-long session for the album.
It turned out that the band name was owned by Poncher and Hassinger, and that they were expendable on their own record, replaced with whoever they chose to employ. By this time, however, they had already laid down tracks for the three songs on Side One, Kyrie Eleison, Gloria and Credo, which doesn't seem a bad rate for three hours work. Kyrie Eleison, it seems, had been completed, whilst reports vary as to how much of the other two feature the original band. However Jim Lowe and Mark Tulin's chant-like vocals feature throughout the whole album, augmented by Bill Henderson (brought in from the Collectors, a Canadian band also managed by David Hassinger). The rhythm section of Mark Tulin (bass) and Michael "Quint" Weakley (drums) was also retained for the whole album.
Session men involved included Richie Podolor, a guitarist who was also an engineer, and who owned the American Sound Studios where the album was made. A veteran of surf bands, he had also stood in for Chocolate Watch Band musicians on a number of their records. He and Bill Henderson replaced the Prunes' guitarists Ken Williams and Mike Gannon on most of the tracks, using Kyrie Eleison as the model for the style of further recording. Top L.A. session jazz player Don Randi added keyboards, while cello quartet and french horn quartet completed the ensemble.
The resulting half-hour of six tracks didn't sell particularly at the time, but has stood the test of time surprisingly well. The Gregorian monk-like Latin vocals and fluid guitar work in the setting of a large ensemble flow with ethereal ease. It may have been conceived as a gimmick, a hip religious record for the kids, more in the service of Mammon than any higher calling, but it worked; for which credit is due to David Axelrod's composition. Ironically, the most successful and best known piece from the record is Kyrie Eleison, on which all Electric Prunes play, without added strings and brass, following its use in the soundtrack of the cult 1969 film Easy Rider, and on its successful album tie-in.
Unsurprisingly, by the time David Axelrod was ready to make a sequel later in 1968, having finished work on his William Blake-inspired Song of Innocence, the Electric Prunes had cracked under the strain and broken up. Lenny Poncher had recruited a completely new band to carry on the name, but it seems that they had little if anything to do with Release Of An Oath, apart from the singer, Richard Whetstone, previously from the band Climax, who does all the vocals.
David Axelrod was free to bring in top drawer session players to realize the concept album, this time based around the Hebrew prayer Kol Nidre, and Christian liturgy intended to release a penitent from an oath made under duress. The guitarists are Howard Roberts (sometimes referred to as the fifth Monkee), the legendary Carol Kaye and Lou Morell. Don Randi makes a return appearance and the great Earl Palmer occupies the drum kit. The lyrics, written by David Axelrod, are in English this time, and the production has a bigger budget feel to it. Nevertheless, neither Release Of An Oath or Pride quite capture a mood or atmosphere as successfully as Mass In F Minor does for me, despite some superb playing. The instrumental versions on the second disc highlight the guitar work, with all but two of the tracks reappearing in remixed versions without the strings and reeds and with clearer drums.
Work in 1969 on Faust, a further project to be released under the name Electric Prunes, never came out in its original form, and is not included here, but in 1970, after the Songs of Experience Blakean sequel solo album had appeared, Pride was launched, an album by the session band of the same name. This was a mostly acoustic project with a Spanish/Latin-American feel and lyrics written by David Axelrod's son. Nooney Rickett, whose band had recently been assimilated by Arthur Lee to become Love, provided all the vocal parts. This time around Lou Morell, Don Randi and Earl Palmer were augmented by Tommy Tedesco (from Spector's Wall Of Sound Orchestra) and Al Casey on guitars, Gary Coleman on percussion and Arthur Wright on electric bass. It's the sort of music they could play in their sleep and was released to a wave of somnial indifference.
Now it can be reappraised in the context of his solo and group work, in a reasonably priced collection with a second disc of enlightening and intriguing instrumental session tracks."
Track Listings (40) - Disc #1
