THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,810) The Baroques — “Iowa, a Girl’s Name”
I’ve played the B-side (see #555), here’s the A-side from “Milwaukee’s finest ’60s band . . . [a] truly remarkable” (Patrick Lundborg, The Acid Archives, 2nd ed.) song that “starts off as a downbeat fuzz ballad until it flips out into rhythmic, tribal drums, feedbacked guitars, trippy chanting: “I-oooo-waaa, I-oooo-waaa.” (VALIS666, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/the-baroques/mary-jane-iowa-a-girls-name/) It is “mind-melting . . . featuring astounding guitar break sounds like a spaceship taking off.” (Monocled Alchemist, https://monocledalchemist.com/2025/01/08/the-baroques-theres-nothing-left-to-do-but-cry-chess-1967/), “veer[s off] into chaotic fits of noise” (Stranger, https://therisingstorm.net/the-baroques-self-titled/) and “showcases the gloom and doom aura that a good chunk of the album provides”. (Matt Kessler, https://moofmag.com/2018/01/05/album-review-the-baroques-1967/) To sum it all up: “Very nice!!! What were they on when they recorded this?” (paulchigbu2946, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N04wgrjx6gM)
Of the Baroques, Patrick Lundborg says that “At their best they project an unusual, intellectual vibe with ominous undertones, thanks to the baroque (yep) moody vocals, odd minor key chord progressions, and some piercing fuzz breaks. Adding good use of keyboard and you have a Midwestern sibling to the Music Machine” [see #171, 1,179, 1,406]. (The Acid Archives, 2nd ed.)
Richie Unterberger writes that:
[The group] was dominated by the morose compositions and low, odd vocal range of . . . Jay Berkenhagen . . . . With a slight garage feel, their unusual, occasionally oddball material was built around electric (sometimes “baroque”) keyboards and fuzz guitar riffs, which occasional detours into uplifting folk-rock and freak-out jamming.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-baroques-mn0000033563/biography
Matt Kessler calls their sole LP — The Baroques — “acid drenched magnificence”, adding:
The album itself is extremely unique. Yes, bands all over were attempting to capture originality on a record, yet The Baroques pulled it off better than most. Their psychedelic/ garage/pop hybrid was done by others, but the essence of darkness that is represented in this album makes their sound its own entity. . . . Some of these songs would undoubtedly fit perfectly inside movie scenes where a character may meet his or hers unfortunate demise…Extremely atmospheric, and filled with a moody fuzz guitar tone that segues into the bashing chorus where drummer Dean Nimmer lets loose with all of his might, finishing with an otherworldly psychedelic freakout.
https://moofmag.com/2018/01/05/album-review-the-baroques-1967/
Stranger’s take is that:
If Leonard Cohen barged into an Electric Prunes [see #893] recording after obliterating his mind in an all-night glue-sniffing binge it might have sounded something like this. With song titles as preposterous as “A Musical Tribute to the Oscar Meyer Weiner Wagon”, who knows what the famed RnB label Chess Records was thinking when they decided to sign . . . The Baroques in 1967. They did manage to stir up a little controversy with their anti-drug (so they claimed) song, “Mary Jane”, but besides that it looks like Chess was stuck with a very strange, unmarketable record. And don’t expect an onslaught of spacey sound effects and weird noises a la the early Pink Floyd [see #13, 38, 260], this is a less overt type of psychosis that slowly but surely embeds itself under your skin. The Baroques had a fuzz-guitar/keyboard-damaged sound that retained much of the garage intensity of ’66 while plunging into the experimentation that marked the latter part of the decade. Sure, there are traces of the Byrds [see #1,430, 1,605] and the Zombies [see #1,138] but by the time the Baroques have had their way with a pop song, it’s like the deformed bastard child of those bands hobbling around on one leg. . . . [W]hat really sets them apart from other similarly-minded bands is the excessively glum atmosphere which pervades most of the album. . . . [T]here is something absolutely hypnotizing lurking in the uncommonly dark textures of these songs.
And Bob Koch adds that:
[The album] is somewhat of an anomaly when compared to many of the era’s more famous psychedelic touchstones; there’s nothing specifically mystical in the lyrics, or any coded drug references, or epic extended jams. . . . [It] is also notable for being released by Chicago R&B titan Chess Records. At the time Chess was looking for a way to break back into the rock market, a place they’d been largely absent from since The Beatles changed the rules of the game a few years before. It would end up being one of only a couple post-Fab Four rock albums on Chess . . . . [I]t sold fairly well regionally at the time . . . . It’s one of the more unique sounding garage-era albums, featuring an unconventional mix of mopiness and wackiness, hard-edged guitar and subtle harpsichord, droniness and catchiness.
https://isthmus.com/arts/vinyl-cave/vinyl-cave-the-baroques-by-the-baroques/
Going into some Baroque history, Sonic Hits reports that:
[In] June 1967, both the album . . . and single “Mary Jane” were released and banned in the same week. The ban was imposed by some local DJs whose stations directors thought “Mary Jane” was a pro-drug song about marijuana. [It was actually] an anti-drug song but no one got it. Instead The Baroques became infamous as “acid-heads” due to the “far-out” sounds on the record. At this point, [songwriter, singer and lead guitarist] Jay [Berkenhagen] had never tried drugs in his life. That soon changed and the band found itself pulling stunts at their live shows involving catapults, baby doll parts, and lip-synching onstage.
Here is an alternate take:
Here’s a radio spot:
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