The Fruit Machine — “The Wall”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 15, 2023

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

796) The Fruit Machine — “The Wall”

This ‘69 A-side by a London band (http://left-and-to-the-back.blogspot.com/2010/06/fruit-machine-wall.html) is fabulous —and very English — pop psych. Therefore, it was released only in . . . the States! It might have done better if it were released in . . . England!

23 Daves opines that:

Its lack of success can perhaps be put down to its subject matter and fluffy hippy-isms seeming antiquated as the seventies dawned, but it’s still one of the finest pop examples of the psychedelic genre. Penned by John Carter and Russ Alquist . . . it appears to be a ballad on the subject of materialism backed with shimmering effects, gut-thudding, plunging basslines, and Eastern-styled instrumentation. For all that, at no point does it seem like a cheap novelty item, nor over-the-top – it’s just a marvellous piece of songwriting and production which earworms you immediately after the first listen.

http://left-and-to-the-back.blogspot.com/2010/06/fruit-machine-wall.html

A few notes about the band:

1. Bassist Chris Randall recalls that “[w]e didn’t do all that many live gigs but spent out time writing stuff, being silly and worrying our parents almost to death.” (Vernon Joynson, The Tapestry of Delights Revisited)
2. Band members Steve Gould and Andrew Curtis went on to prog band Rare Bird.

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