309) The Glass Family — “Sometimes You Wonder (Henry’s Tune)”
Wonderful hypnotizing soft psych L.A. style ’67-68 (I love L.A.!). People got to be free to do as they please!
Bob Koch talks of Electric Band, the album from which today’s song is drawn:
Electric Band is way above average post-garage band era L.A. rock, with good songwriting and catchy psych pop touches. The Glass Family is a rare trio from the late ’60s that did not fall into the trap of trying to be the next Cream; there’s nary a blueshammer move on Electric Band, a somewhat rare feat in itself for a 1968 release.
https://isthmus.com/music/vinyl-cave/glass-family-electric-band/
Thanks God — and thank God the Police didn’t try to be the next Cream! Anyway, Jenell Kesler tells us that:
The Glass Family . . . began their career on a lark, as a way of making money for beer and surfboard wax, often playing the same venue and parties under a different name, mere days apart . . . . It was an ideal time to young and idealistic in L.A. back in 1967, where they experimented with instrumentation, fuzzed out guitars, and vocal arrangements emphasizing the softer side of psychedelic rock. And though they were never a hit, and received nearly no radio airplay, this assemblage of talent set the pace for many bands to follow, and anyone who saw them live stumbled home with hallucinogenic musical imagery dancing in their heads . . . .
https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2018/01/from-vault-glass-family-electric-band.html
And Maplewood Records, which issued the first official release of Electric Band since the sixties, informs us that:
[W]hen the band members were at Cal State LA for grad school, they changed the band name to The Glass Family. They played all over Los Angeles, gigging at notable venues like The Troubadour, The Topanga Corral and The Whiskey A Go-Go, sharing bills with The Doors, Vanilla Fudge, and Love. By 1967, they’d secured a record deal with Warner Bros. Records, who released their record in 1968. [It] never became the hit that they’d hoped for . . . .
https://www.maplewoodrecords.com/the-glass-family
Band founder Jim Callon reminisces:
Los Angeles at that time was a wonderful place to be . . . . It was people expanding their minds with LSD and marijuana. People just wanted to try new things and change the way that they were expected to live their lives.
https://lightintheattic.net/releases/1758-electric-band
When I was going to UCLA and then later Cal State LA, there were only three or four other guys with long hair. Those were my friends. Straight people didn’t like us. They looked at us and treated us as if we were terrorists. But the girls liked us!”
https://www.maplewoodrecords.com/the-glass-family
Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! / Off the Charts: 60s Rock Revelations 