Cruise Ship Kaftans

Squares! Man, they'll just never be hip like us! What Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In was to Lenny Bruce, The Happenings were to Jefferson Airplane. No amount of headbands, droopy 'taches, and flouncy shirts could stop them looking like a bunch of nice Italian boys out of Noo Joizy, which is what they were. They had scorchingly big hits, anyway, with See You In September and I Got Rhythm. They got a foot on the psychedelic bus pretty early, releasing Psycle in the summer of lurve. You'd think with a name like that, an album title like that, and a cover like this, there'd be some musical hint that they were hip to the happening scene, but you'd be wrong. They lent their not inconsiderable talents to singing a bunch of old tunes in a style like The Four Seasons covering Harpers Bizarre, or the other way around. Sparkling stereo production, creamy

harmonies, and the non-oldies are frustratingly good, making you wish for more, and less My Mammy and Bye Bye Blackbird, as inventive as their arrangements are. The sole remaining member still plays the cruise lines, and I like to think has a great and happy life.

The Cascades were, if anything, if possible, even squarer than a Happenings album cover. Sailors in the US Navy, San Diego, they were influenced by the nascent Beach Boys, hitting it large in '62 with Rhythm Of The Rain. By '68 they were clearly out of their minds. Their epochal concept album, What Goes On Inside clocks in at a whopping twenty-seven minutes, including a laid-back reprise of Rhythm Of The Rain, and an entire side (twelve minutes long) devoted to the epic suite Prelude. The internets are strangely silent about this album, which is puzzling, because it's a treat. As with the Happenings, their vocal talents are well-honed, bang in the middle of the note, and the stereo arrangements are inventive and make you thank the Baby Jesus for giving you two ears. Fun Foam Fact: It was produced - and beautifully - by Andy DiMartino, who would later have the thankless gig of playing in Captain Beefheart's unfairly maligned Tragic Band.