THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,541) Ramases & Selket — “(In My) Mind’s Eye”
Swinging London was not just a powerful and groovy beacon that reaches all the way to Lebanon [see #951, 1,535] — it even reached back in time to ancient Egypt. For after his reincarnation, the pharaoh Ramases came to shop on Carnaby Street and lucky for us left this super cool B-side, “a psychedelic love song with cinematic, eastern-exoticism instrumentation and a wonderfully hypnotic romantic violin riff”. (SwedxSimon, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/ramases-and-selket/crazy-one-minds-eye/)
Acid Drops, Space Dust & Flying Saucers tells us that:
According to press releases of the era, [Ramases and Selket] were the reincarnation of a 3,000-year-old Egyptian pharaoh and one of his 1,200 wives/concubines. However, Ramases was better known in his hometown of Sheffield as central heating salesman and former Army PT instructor Michael Raphael. After a chance meeting with local pop star Dave Berry he decided that the music industry was the most natural medium in which to gain publicity for his claims. With his wife rechristened Selket, he released [a single] shamelessly built around Ram’s exotic, pseudo-Arabian image.
Liner notes to the CD comp Acid Drops, Spacedust & Flying Saucers: Psychedelic Confectionery from the UK Underground 1965-1969
Nigel Camilleri adds that:
[Raphael] claimed to have had a vision from . . . Ramases, who informed him . . . that his duty on earth was to inform the world the truth about the universe. . . . The next step . . . was to . . . try to get himself a recording contract . . . . Incredibly so, he managed to obtain [one] with CBS . . . .
For the story of the two albums that followed, see Camilleri’s post.
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