Faine Jade — “Cold Winter Sun”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — December 30, 2022

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

686) Faine Jade — “Cold Winter Sun (Symphony in D Major)”

Here is stunning psych from Long Island’s Syd Barrett (see #314). Cosmic Minds at Play calls it a “bona fide psychedelic wonder[]” (https://cosmicmindatplay.wordpress.com/2013/08/05/classic-singles-51-the-bohemian-vendetta-enough-half-the-time-1967/) and Antonio Mendez says it’s “an excellent lysergic, lax and evocative ballad with the narrator who has lost his shadow under the cold winter sun, vocal effects and a short coda with powerful rhythm and bluesy guitar.” (https://www.alohacriticon.com/musica/criticas-discos/faine-jade-introspection/ (courtesy of Google Translate)) Billy Joel, it’s not!

Sundazed Records, which released for CD Introspection: A Faine Jade Recital, Jade’s only album (from which today’s song is drawn), says “The brilliant psychedelic rock ‘n’ roll of Faine Jade passed through the orange-colored skies of 1968 like a pink and lavender comet, then was gone . . .” (http://tyme-machine.blogspot.com/2009/04/faine-jade-introspection-faine-jade.html) Michael Saltzman says of the LP that:

[It is] one of the most highly-coveted lost psych classics, and it’s obvious why. Fronting a sparse combo complemented by a distant droning organ, the bespectacled Jade (born Chuck Laskowski in Long Island, New York) sings quirky, melodic tunes drenched in the flavour of their time. The feel is tense and fractured, with stabs of trebly guitar and jittery percussion, but the songwriting remains pithy and pop-radio accessible. . . . [S]urprisingly, Jade claims he hadn’t heard of Barrett at the time of recording).

https://recordcollectormag.com/reviews/album/introspection-a-faine-jade-recital

Richie Unterberger adds that:

It’s hard to imagine that a 20-year-old New York guitarist fresh out of garageland would have been infatuated with Syd Barrett in 1968. However, Faine Jade’s 1968 album sounds as if he was besotted with Pink Floyd’s first LP, which was barely known in the States at the time. Jade’s vocals and songwriting uncannily evoke an American Syd Barrett with their evocative, cryptic lyrics, thick organs, and psychedelic guitar lines. . . . “Cold Winter Sun” never fail[s] to inspire comparisons to Barrett when played for those unfamiliar with Jade. Faine, it’s fair to say, is somewhat blunted in comparison to Barrett’s madcap edge. More laid-back and grounded, he also deals more explicitly with hippie-era concerns like being hassled for being different and the necessity of being compassionate toward your brother, without being sappy or preachy.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/introspection-a-faine-jade-recital-mw0000778113

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