THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,404) Childe Harold — “Brink of Death”
“[P]robably the most dreamy Psychedelic song I’ve ever heard” (KingcoldCell, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnZ9fVNNuIA), an “[a]mazing psychedelic mind-melter”, displaying “[o]therworldly electronic psych brilliance”. (happening45, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRth6KPDjkc, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrumO2bQRCU), a “trippy orchestrated flower pop delight” with “strange mysterious sounds” from “a slightly disturbing arrangement featuring sound effects and treated vocals”. (J Rodger, https://intorelativeobscurity.blogspot.com/2014/05/childe-harold-brink-of-death-1968.html) The otherworldly sounds definitely fit a song about a dying man’s visions of the fast approaching afterlife. (https://www.letras.com/bert-sommer/1276551/#google_vignette)
The song was actually a cover of one written and recorded by Bert Sommer (see #1,091), Woodstock’s hard luck story “who had only just departed from Mike Brown & Co. in the Left Banke”, with “Walter [shortly to become Wendy] Carlos [of Switched-On Bach and Clockwork Orange fame being] the electronics wizard who drove the moog synthesizer into the fragile sound created by the former Left Banke guitarist”. (liner notes to the CD comp Electric Sound Show: An Assortment of Antiquities for the Psychedelic Connoisseur) I believe Child Harold’s version to be the superior, in large part because of Carlos.
Bobby Capielo tells us of Childe Harold:
Childe Harold was born in the Flame Cafe in Ozone Park in the spring of 1967. The band was put together by Bruce Herring (lead singer/front man) who hand-picked the guys from several other bands. The other members were Richie Bora (Hammond B3 and vocals) Dave Cancell (drums) and Tony Petrigliano (guitar and vocals). . . . The first rehearsal was pure magic with a synergy that was unforgettable. The band then retreated to the basement of Richie’s mother’s candy store on Woodhaven Boulevard for several months to develop its act. Their style could best be described as “Performance Rock” and featured grand arrangements of popular songs which included lights, a fog machine and magnesium flares . . . . Childe Harold played at all the area clubs . . . . [and] were a regular attraction on the WMCA Good Guy shows in 1967 and opened concerts for the Yardbirds, Kenny Rogers and the First Edition, and many others.
https://www.greateastcoastbands.com/the-bands/childe-harold/
As to Wendy Carlos, Rovi Staff writes:
Composer Wendy [born Walter] Carlos spurred electronic music to new commercial heights during the late ’60s, popularizing the synthesizer with the enormously successful Switched-On Bach album. Born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island on November 14, 1939, Carlos pursued her M.A. in composition . . . at Columbia University’s famed Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. Following her graduation, she moved to Manhattan, where she found work as a recording engineer. In Manhattan, she met Dr. Robert Moog and, not long afterward, she began playing the Moog synthesizer. . . . A showcase for the Moog synthesizer, Switched-On Bach interpreted [Bach’s] most renowned fugues and movements via state-of-the-art synth technology; purists were appalled, but the record captured the public’s imagination and in time became the first classical album certified platinum by the RIAA. It also earned three Grammy Awards. . . . In 1971, Carlos wrote the music for Stanley Kubrick’s controversial film A Clockwork Orange, introducing the vocoder — an electronic device designed to synthesize the human voice — in her score. . . . [and] again worked with Kubrick, providing the score for his 1980 adaptation of Stephen King’s The Shining.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/wendy-carlos-mn0000203175#biography
As to Bert Sommer, Bruce Eder writes:
Bert Sommer is often referred to as the lost star from Woodstock. . . . [He] was one of a tiny handful of performers who played the festival but never accrued career success, much less fame and fortune, coming out of it. Sommer . . . . was a natural musician who was self-taught on the guitar and piano, and who also wrote songs. By his mid-teens, he had become close to Michael Brown, later of the Left Banke, with whom he frequently performed in the early years. But he also traveled in circles that included Leslie West’s much harder rocking band the Vagrants [see #1,063], for whom he wrote several songs. His first moment of potential fame as a performer came amid the tumultuous first year or so [of] the Left Banke’s fame, when Sommer replaced original lead singer Steve Martin on the single “And Suddenly.” But the original lineup was back together soon after that, and that single — which, thanks to the controversy (including a lawsuit) over the lineup and the use of the name, was never on any of their albums — was more of a curio in their output than one of its highlights. Sommer was drawn to acting, as well, and by 1968 he had landed the role of “Woof” in the musical Hair, replacing Steve Curry, who had originated the role — with his frizzed-out Afro, wide, open features, and gentle, cheerful demeanor, he seemed the epitome of genial hippie-dom in the prime days of the counter-culture. He also landed a recording contract with Capitol Records in 1968 which led to the recording of an album, The Road to Travel [including “Brink of Death”] with Artie Kornfeld. That release, like so many other folk-cum-singer/songwriter recordings tried by Capitol in those years . . . died on the vine. But [through] his relationship with Kornfeld, who later became one of the prime movers behind the Woodstock Festival, [he played at Woodstock, and b]ased on the recorded evidence, his performance was a match for much of the rest of the music displayed that day and that weekend. [But] though through a combination of technical malfunctions and record-company politics, until 2009 he was never included in any of [Woodstock’s] commercial releases, on film or record . . . . Warner Bros. ended up grabbing the rights to everything out of Woodstock, and Sommer, as a Capitol artist, would never gain a spot even on either of the album sets, not even on Woodstock 2, which was used to tie up loose ends (he was aced out of the movie on technical grounds, and by the time Woodstock 2 appeared, he . . . had faded into obscurity, so he lost out twice). Artie Kornfeld recorded him a second time on his own Eleuthera Records, but Inside Bert Sommer never sold. . . . He cut more music later in the decade, and . . . continued to perform and write songs until his death . . . in 1990. . . . In 2009, as part of the releases to mark the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, the first official release of Sommer’s performance at the festival could be heard on the six-CD Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back to Yasgur’s Farm.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/bert-sommer-mn0001204018#biography
Here is the stereo version:
Here is Bert Sommer (at 27:06):
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