The song starts at the 13:24 mark on Mindrocker, Vol. 12.
THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
925) Rock’n’Roll Gypsies – “(It’s a) Love-In”
After listening to this gentle paean to love-ins for the first time, I had a sneaking suspicion it is a hilarious, but also a bit disturbing, send-up of flower power. “Flower children who would pass, a day of barefoot in the grass. . . . Outside or in the real world, killing birds and chasing girls.” I do admit I love flower power put-downs (see #783, 793). Anyway, I then saw that “Love-In” was written by Dennis Hardesty, Doug Cox and Steve Waltner, and I at once knew that it is a hilarious, but also a bit disturbing, send-up of flower power. How do I know? Because the deliriously deranged Kim Fowley had “claimed to have staged the first ‘love-in’ in Los Angeles” (Jason Ankeny, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kim-fowley-mn0000099345/biography) and Dennis Hardesty co-wrote Fowley’s “The Trip” — “[d]oubtlessly the first psychedelic exploitation record” (Mark Deming, https://www.allmusic.com/song/the-trip-mt0008907079) (see #89) — with Fowley and P. Geodes (real name, Paul Geddeff, see https://www.discogs.com/artist/987756-Paul-Geddeff). Fowley left an indelible mark on L.A. rock history, created the Runaways, and literally dropped acid onto the pressings of that ‘65 A-side.
Listen to Fowley duping a square reporter with an explanation of the difference between the up and coming “canyon people” and yesterday’s flower people:
Where did Kim Fowley come from? As Jason Ankeny explains:
One of the most colorful characters in the annals of rock & roll, Kim Fowley was, over the course of his decades-long career, a true jack-of-all-trades: singer, songwriter, producer, manager, disc jockey, promoter, and published poet. He was also the catalyst behind much of the pop music to emerge from the Los Angeles area during the 1960s and ’70s, guiding several of his associates and protégés to fame and fortune, while remaining himself a shadowy cult figure . . . . Fowley found his first taste of success by producing the Top 20 hit “Cherry Pie” for schoolmates Gary S. Paxton and Skip Battin, who performed under the name Skip & Flip. With Battin, Fowley next created the group the Hollywood Argyles, who topped the charts in 1960 with the novelty smash “Alley Oop.” The duo subsequently masterminded Paul Revere & the Raiders’ first hit, “Like Long Hair,” and in 1962 helped launch the Rivingtons, scoring with the classic “Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow.” Another novelty hit, B. Bumble & the Stingers’ “Nut Rocker,” reached number one in the U.K. . . . [I]n 1964[, he] . . . produced the girl group smash “Popsicles and Icicles” by the Murmaids.
In the mid-’60s, Fowley became immersed in the Los Angeles counterculture, befriending Frank Zappa . . . and later appearing on . . . the[] Freak Out! LP. [He was a] prolific songwriter . . . . [and f]inally, in 1967 . . . issued his own solo debut, Love Is Alive and Well, a record that found him closely aligned with the flower power movement. . . . A series of solo records followed, including 1968’s suitably titled Outrageous . . . but none garnered the commercial success of so many of his other projects. . . . [In] 1975 . . . [he] returned to his Svengali role by assembling the notorious Runaways . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kim-fowley-mn0000099345
As to “The Trip”, the Seth Man says:
About as lurid as a niece’s invite to Brother Lou’s Love Colony . . . with a maniac on entirely improvisational vocalese on board, “The Trip” is right up there/down there with “Surfin’ Bird,” “Gloria,” “Louie, Louie,” “Hang On Sloopy,” “Wooly Bully” and “96 Tears” in terms of inspired naivety, simplicity, bedrock punk and with owning space to let all the innuendoes in, all the grooviness out and wish all the bad sh*t out into the cornfield FOREVER. . . . Fowley[‘s] narrative . . . walked a line as thin as Kim hisself between drug- and vacation-taking, pure psychosis and a Rorschach test of WHO YOU ARE while remaining also throwaway, off-the-cuff novelty trash AND pure genius, too. Therein lies the rub, the hubbub and the rhubarbed wire of wit and desire because that’s another thin line that Fowley himself has walked (and talked) FOR YEARS. In the garden of your mind, baby, OH YEAH-UH!! . . . . “Summertime’s here, kiddies…” begins Kim’s adlib vocal installment, issued forth at a lazy pace against equally camel-paced measures. His narrative winds through a back catalogue of deadpan, brainpan imagery . . . . Thanks to the burning need in his mind, Fowley delivers a missive supreme in all his improvisational glory of hoarseness, taunts, coaxes, hoaxes . . . . [T]his is flaming dogsh*t on the doorstep of your mind.
https://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/thebookofseth/kim-fowley-the-trip
Mark Deming adds:
Kim Fowley is a man who has been willing to jump onto any passing pop culture bandwagon ever since he first discovered that rock & roll was a great way to make money and get girls (not necessarily in that order) back in the late ’50s. But he was just a bit ahead of the curve in 1966 when he scored a local hit in L.A. with “The Trip,” shortly before psychedelia would become the order of the musical day. While the music suggests L.A. pop leaning towards garage punk more than anything the Jefferson Airplane or the Grateful Dead were serving up . . . Fowley’s wild spoken word rant constitutes a ringing endorsement of some sort of behavior your parents would doubtlessly not approve of . . . . “Summertime’s here, kiddies, and it’s time to take a trip! To take trips!” Fowley begins, in a tone that’s more than slightly lascivious as he endorses hallucinations as a way to escape this fallen world, with the visions ranging from the standard issue (purple clouds, walls of glass) to things only Fowley might think of (silver cats, emerald rats, flying dogs — and why is it you’d want to see this stuff, anyway?). The recitation just keeps getting stranger and more intense as it goes along, closing with a suggestion of drug-abetted seduction . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/song/the-trip-mt0008907079
I can find nothing more out about the Rock’n’Roll Gypsies or “Love-In”. If anyone owns volume 12 of the Mindrocker garage rock comp series, could you tell me what it says about said subjects?
Here’s Kim:
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