THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,587) Glass Family — “I’m Losing It”
This killer fuzz-drenched garage/psych stomper wasn’t issued as a single or on the Glass Family’s ’69 LP Electric Band (see #309, 338). Rather, it found its way onto possibly the first 60’s punk/garage rock compilation album, ’67’s Freakout U.S.A. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=jFyzFqUXnJ0) –an “[a]mazing psych comp made of groups (except the Glass Family) that never had an album, essential stuff for you fuzz frenetics out there.” (higdon4, https://www.discogs.com/master/569206-Various-Freakout-USA)
Jenell Kesler tells us about the Family:
The Glass Family . . . began their career on a lark, as a way of making money for beer and surfboard wax, often playing the same venue and parties under a different name, mere days apart . . . . It was an ideal time to young and idealistic in L.A. back in 1967, where they experimented with instrumentation, fuzzed out guitars, and vocal arrangements emphasizing the softer side of psychedelic rock. And though they were never a hit, and received nearly no radio airplay, this assemblage of talent set the pace for many bands to follow, and anyone who saw them live stumbled home with hallucinogenic musical imagery dancing in their heads . . . .
https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2018/01/from-vault-glass-family-electric-band.html
And Maplewood Records, which issued the first official release of Electric Band since the sixties, informs us that:
The origins of The Glass Family start in West Los Angeles. Jim Callon formed a band to play surf music and covers at frat parties to make some money. They went by a few different monikers at that point; the Carpet Baggers and the Soul Survivors amongst them. A few years later when the band members were at Cal State LA for grad school, they changed the band name to The Glass Family. They played all over Los Angeles, gigging at notable venues like The Troubadour, The Topanga Corral and The Whiskey A Go-Go, sharing bills with The Doors, Vanilla Fudge, and Love. By 1967, they’d secured a record deal with Warner Bros. Records, who released their record in 1968. Although it never became the hit that they’d hoped for, the more important result was that the Glass Family were a piece of the puzzle of the times: playing gigs with Gram Parsons and The Flying Burrito Bros, Canned Heat, Big Brother and The Holding Company with Janis Joplin, and The Grateful Dead.
Band founder Jim Callon reminisces:
Los Angeles at that time was a wonderful place to be . . . . It was people expanding their minds with LSD and marijuana. People just wanted to try new things and change the way that they were expected to live their lives.
When I was going to UCLA and then later Cal State LA, there were only three or four other guys with long hair. Those were my friends. Straight people didn’t like us. They looked at us and treated us as if we were terrorists. But the girls liked us!”
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 1,000 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.
Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! / Off the Charts: 60s Rock Revelations😊 