Once upon a time (in the late 60s) in America, there was a record industry where executives had no idea what was going on, like all other times. What was different about this magical era was that these executives let the creative people at their labels do whatever they wanted. It must have seemed to the cloth-eared money men that any crazy acid tinged far out platter might sell, or might not…who could tell the difference? So, they just let the producers and arrangers and songwriters make whatever kind of mad racket they saw fit, then put it out and see what happens! From this situation came “song cycle”, “white light/white heat”, “uncle meat”, “the marble index”, “trout mask replica” (released on the same label and day as this LP) and many other shiny gems of blatant unsellability. There would never be a time again when a major label would be apathetic enough to release records like this on such a wide scale. One of these labels was warner brothers, and of all the wild and wonderful albums released on their various subsidiaries (bizarre/straight/reprise) in the late sixties, “farewell aldebaran” is one of the most wild and wonderful of all. 

Picking up from where the Notorious Byrd Brothers had abandoned the psychedelic-folk-rock road for the straight ahead country-rock path, (then) husband and wife team Judy Henske and Jerry Yester took us just a little further into the American folk past and future.

Sitting in the middle of a pretty odd bunch of records on the straight catalogue, “farewell aldebaran” is, (providing you can label “trout mask” as just plain ol’ “Beefhearty”) possibly the least pigeon-hole-able release on this anything-goes label. Being neither overtly weird (Wild man fisher), star studded (GTOs). sensitive songwriter-ish (Tim Buckley) or Zappa produced (Alice Cooper, Jeff Simmons), this relatively serious musical release slips through the cracks and is sadly ignored by many 60s music buffs as a result.

Having glanced at the CVs of the three main characters involved in this album, one could have expected an interesting or at least quirky recording. Co-producer Zal Yanovsky had been in the lovin’ spoonful, Henske and Yester had both worked with Jack Nitzchse , Henske had always had a pechant for unusual/hip material, and Yester had produced very creatively for the Association, Tim Buckley and er…Pat Boone. However, none of these nifty and off-centre credits prepared me for the magnificent aural onslaught of this their most creative collaboration.

Alrighty then, well what’s it like? Just imagine if all the tracks on the “united states of america” LP were equally great (which they are not!), and imagine if “surrealistic pillow” was actually really good, then you might have an album like this one.

First of all, the ten tracks on this record sound like they were recorded by ten different acts. Each one of these tracks, brilliantly executed and gorgeously recorded would on their own be a highlight of any 60s folk-psych LP you care to mention. It is the range on this LP, with Judy and Jerry switching vocals (sometimes it’s hard to tell who is singing what) and styles that makes it so exceptional, and so endlessly listenable.

The opener “snowblind” sounds like a Grace Slick/Janis Joplin style belter backed by the 1971 magic band or perhaps white album era Beatles in rock-out mode. This track, the album’s most commercal “60s fuzz/psych” moment may possibly be many people’s favourite, but it is only in the context of the rest of the songs that I learned to love this track: if the whole was like it, I would not be writing this.

After that, comes the remarkable thing: a 180 degree turn. “Horses on a stick”, sounds like perfect pop “something/anything” era Todd three years too soon, and nothing at all like the song before it. Next is the haunting, quasi-classical “Lullaby” and the off kilter hymn with a great sounding chamberlin (an early melotron) choral accompaniment “st. Nicholas hall”. The general effect of these cuts is that of a cool compilation disc of 60s oddities, not an LP by a married couple and their friend.

Last on side one is the utterly sublime “three ravens”, which once and for all proved/proves that Henske/Yester could pen a baroque pop classic, if there was any doubt. This is my favourite track on the LP actually, but I am a sucker for strings and a harp.

On the second side, things somehow mange to get just a little better. Starting off, we get an unusual and groovy track called “raider” that could only be described as an acid-sea shanty, “one more time”, a jazzy macabre ballad, then “rapture” a heavenly folk-rock waltz followed by the engulfingly splendid “charity”, with a killer hammond organ. Again, these cuts give new meaning to the term “eclectic”.

Finally, the titular tenth track, like the Beach boys “cabinessence” or the Byrds “change is now” is American soft-psych at it’s very best. The music on this most creative opus is oustanding, and the startling use of (what sounds like) a ring modulator on the outro is pretty darn cosmic.

So yes, I love this LP. But, I have a reservation: were this lot trying to be weird? Was it just in the air in 1969? Are they going over the top? Perhaps. When one hears Beefheart or Nico, one hears the voice of a natural. Someone who is just doing what comes to them, and it just happens to be out there- I’m not sure if this is the case here. Nevertheless, “Farewell aldebaran” is a stunner.

Fans of Van dyke parks, the left banke, Nico, Fairport convention, United States of America, Pearls before swine, Millennium, the Byrds, Jimmy Webb, Pink Floyd, Fever tree and the WCPAEB should all find something to love here. For those of you who find american folk music a little heavy on the vibrato, be warned.