Frat Boys Freak Out

Don Galluci. Carve his name with pride on the marble tablets of history. At fifteen years old, he was in The Kingsmen when they recorded the utterly timeless, stupid, and wonderful Louie, Louie. Any ordinary mortal would have been content with that and retired early, but Galluci, thanks to his *cough* "connections in the music business" went on to form Rn'B showband The Goodtimes, whose line-up and performances were inextricably linked with Paul Revere And The Raiders. They had regional hit rekkids in the Northwest before relocating to LA to record this, their second album (or "sophomore effort" as rock writers like to write) with Ry Cooder, Hal Blaine, and Glen Campbell playing, and Jack Nitz - Jack Nitsch - Nytzc - god damn it - Jack Nitzsche producing. You'd think it would be pretty good, right? You'd be wrong. It's fan-freaking-tastic. A whole groovy thing going, a sunshine happening chock full o' tunes and no chalky aftertaste! They couldn't bear to lose the showband suits which served them so well in the dance halls, though. The album did okay in spite of them, but Galluci sensed a change in the air.

After a few singles that evaporated on release, he formed Touch, whose lone '69 album is something of a psychedelic benchmark from the last year of that glistening wave of LSD. Recorded in 20/20 Sound, it - wait, what? Let the liner notes explain:

"Twenty/twenty sound is to sound what twenty/twenty is to vision. In its concept, an equal division of musical content has been distributed on both channels, thus, as in the case of the eyes, the ears are both able to focus for themselves and the listener is not required to sit directly center as in the case of the phantom center speaker ... the listener achieves an altered state of consciousness, not through meditation or drugs, but through music ..."

Ri-ight. Although I'm guessing blotters were eaten like pizzas during breaks in recording. The music is astonishingly accomplished and complex, prefiguring the excesses of prog in some ways, recalling the Summer Of Love (by then long gone) in others. To give Galluci the credit he's due, this was no cosmetic exercise in an attempt to cash in on the psychploitation thing. He didn't just slip into a kaftan and love beads and add a sitar (notthatthere'sanythingwrongwiththat). This was a full-on, totally committed, up-to-eleven attempt to expand and change pop music as we knew it, and in its way perhaps helped to end it. The differences between this and So Good are telling. Pure pop was no longer enough, but this was too much for some.

In spite of its qualities, a stunning gatefold sleeve and free poster, it didn't set the charts alight. The band didn't tour to support it, as getting that 20/20 sound live wasn't possible. But you can't keep a good man down, and Galluci went on to a successful career in production; the Stooges' Fun House was his. And Crabby Appleton, who we'll get to.