THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
875) Tim Dawe — “Junkie John”
This “catchy, psychedelic folk-rock tune” (Craig Harris, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/tim-dawe-mn0001559315/biography) by a future nuclear physicist was a “masterpiece” from “a superb debut, full of psychedelic folk rock with lots of organ, harpsichord and brilliant acid guitar”. (Stephane Rebeschini, https://www.donlope.net/fz/notes/penrod.html). As Richie Unterberger wrote:
[“Junkie John” came from Penrod, an album that was] an enigmatic mixture of psychedelia, early singer-songwriter moves, almost crooning troubadour folk, baroque classical influences, and inventively florid arrangements and orchestration. . . . Perhaps the standout cut . . . is the seven-and-a-half-minute “Junkie John,” a brooding downbeat tale set against haunting funereal organ, wailing backup vocals, and a languid yet mordant jazzy groove.
http://www.richieunterberger.com/dawe.html
But, as Dawe rued, “Junkie John was getting nationwide airplay until the FCC sent around its infamous notice to radio stations essentially banning all songs dealing with drugs.” (https://www.donlope.net/fz/notes/penrod.html)
Dawe reminisced:
Zappa was my mentor. My first album, PENROD, was released on Straight Records in late 1969. Those were heady times. We were going to change the world. Herb Cohen managed my band, Zappa executive produced. Read Zappa’s last interview in Playboy. Straight Records was going to be the first of many great independant labels that would change the music business forever. As we know, that didn’t happen. But Zappa tried. Visions of Nirvana. His vision was smothered by the mega record companies and a paranoid government. . . . But I had a great fifteen minutes while it lasted. Thanks to Frank. Later I did other things, musical and otherwise. . . . Help keep Frank alive . . . .
https://www.donlope.net/fz/notes/penrod.html
Craig Harris:
Had he recorded his best-known tune, “Junkie John,” a few months earlier, Tim Dawe . . . might have been a star. . . . [I]t had begun getting radio airplay when the FCC began to crack down on drug-oriented recordings. Stations stopped playing the single, while Dawe faded quickly into obscurity. An early member of Iron Butterfly, Dawe was managed by Frank Zappa’s manager, Herb Greene. His debut album, Penrod, released on Zappa’s label, Straight-Warner Bros., in November 1969, was produced by one-time Lovin’ Spoonful member Jerry Yester. Zappa served as executive producer. Dawe had a long relationship with San Francisco band It’s a Beautiful Day [see #56].
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/tim-dawe-mn0001559315/biography
Jay Allen Sanford adds:
Timothy Thorne Dawe was a theoretical nuclear physicist who in his youth dabbled in experimental rock music. His 1969 album Penrod featured a psychedelic-inclined, jazz-steeped, semi-orchestral freak folk band . . . . Dawe at the time was mainly playing solo folk clubs around LA and northern San Diego circa 1968-1969 . . . . The harpsichord-heavy LP was produced by former Lovin’ Spoonful guitarist Jerry Yester, who’d produced Cohen’s client Tim Buckley for the label and would also produce the first album by former San Diegan Tom Waits . . . . Zappa executive-produced the album. The band was signed under the name Penrod to Herb Cohen’s management company, and they were among the first bands signed to Straight/Bizarre . . . . [T]he seven-plus minute “Junkie John,” received occasional underground radio play and was notable for incorporating early synth electronics, but its length and subject matter kept it from widespread exposure, especially after the FCC essentially banned radio stations from playing music that overtly referenced illegal drugs. . . .
[Dawe later] become a physics professor . . . . As of 2010 [Dawe passed away in 2016], he was teaching physics at City College of San Francisco. “He’s an old hippie and will play guitar if you ask,” wrote one of his CCSF students on the RateMyProfessor.com website, “and he has found that each planet lies along the same intervals as nodes on a guitar soundwave.”
https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2018/aug/10/lost-local-bands-60s70s-tim-dawe-penrod/
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