Rating: **** (4 stars)
Title: Suddenly One Summer
Company: White Whale
Catalog: WWS 7117
Year: 1969
Grade (cover/record): VG/VG+
Comments: minor ring, edge and corner wear; small name sticker on back cover
Available: 1
Price: $100.00
Yup, this is a weird one and it's up to you whether you want to believe the popular story or not. Supposedly
then-15 year old singer/guitarist Jay Kaye left his native Las Vegas, ending up in Vancouver, British Columbia where he recorded one of the era's more obviously LSD influenced slices of pop.
Produced by H.R. Spurgin (?), 1969's "Suddenly
One Summer" teamed Kaye with a collection of Vancouver
studio musicians (though nobody but Kaye was listed in the album credits). Featuring all original material, the album was apparently intended as a concept piece, the plotline perhaps meant to highlight the ramifications of drug abuse (check out "Nobody"), or intended as a reflection on the mankind's never ending cycle of life and death. (Beats us as to which is the right interpretation - perhaps neither.) Full of backward tapes, heavy orchestration,
segue ways between songs and odd studio effects, material such as "Fly", "Little Children" and "Nobody" offered up a dark, dreamy and studied collection of LSD-influenced psychedelia. It's hard to adequately describe this one, but every time we hear the album we're left with this weird feeling we're about to be enveloped in a cloud of dark fog. Personal favorites, the all too brief instrumental "Crystal Ball" and the closing number "Dead". An undiscovered classic that should be required listening for psych fans. (Always liked the Ray Leong cover collage.)
"Suddenly One Summer" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) Break of Dawn (instrumental) (Jay Kaye) - 0:32
2.) Fly (Jay Kaye) - 4:41
3.) Little Children (Jay Kaye) - 3:05
4.) Christine (Jay Kaye) - 2:12
5.) Speed (instrumental) (Jay Kaye) - 0:14
6.) Crystal Ball (instrumental) (Jay Kaye) - 1:03
(side 2)
7.) Nobody (Jay Kaye) - 4:00
8.) O.D. (Jay Kaye) - 3:18
9.) Land of Sensations & Delights (Jay Kaye) - 2:48
10.) The Times (Jay Kaye) - 2:20
11.) Magical Fingers of Minerva (Jay Kaye) - 2:52
12.) Dead (Jay Kaye)- 4:22