THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
2,069) The Plastic Cloud — “Bridge under the Sky”
This Canadian pop psych/folk rock gem is a glimpse of the Plastic Cloud’s (see #172, 1,628) “dreamy, softer folk-rock side . . . [with] a nice trippy production and attractive ringing guitars” (Jason, https://therisingstorm.net/the-plastic-cloud-the-plastic-cloud/), “evok[ing] memories of the Youngbloods.” (Bruce Eder, https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-plastic-cloud-mw0000309274)
Allied Records’ press release informed the buying public (what there was of it) that:
“Bridge Under the Sky” is an inquiry, a quest for a better place for everyone to live, a “sun” if you want. You need only listen to the final verse of the song to dig the group’s message. “you might as well be dead without a bridge under the sky”.
Allied Record Co. News Note, liner notes to the CD reissue of The Plastic Cloud
Wait, did Robert Moses write this song?
Patrick Lunsford says of the Cloud’s sole LP — The Plastic Cloud:
The Canadian late 1960s freak scene produced several terrific LPs and here’s one of the ultimates, with an appeal to both garage fuzz-heads and psych album collectors. The mix of dreamy [West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band (see #197, 488)]-style vocals with ripping fuzz and sub-Dylanesque lyrics works better than one might imagine possible, and the LP gains appeal from its youthful basement edge. This is one of the big, mandatory pieces of the field . . . .
The Acid Archives, 2nd Ed.
Bruce Eder writes that:
The Plastic Cloud’s self-titled album is a strangely compelling and overall delightful mix of West Coast ’60s sounds, without any two songs sounding exactly alike, or even displaying the same attributes. Not that any fan of that era will mind any of it . . . . [Its] all enjoyable and full of pleasant surprises. . . . They were signed to Allied Records in Ontario and got one self-titled LP out which, sadly enough, never found an audience, despite beautiful production and some bold, ambitious use of psychedelic effects. Their vocals were pretty and they played better than that, and the results, with a sympathetic producer in charge, were mighty impressive — their one album is worth hearing a lot more than once, and you get the feeling that if these guys had been working out of, say, L.A. or the Bay Area and been signed to a label with some real marketing power, they’d be a lot more than a footnote today with exactly the music they did leave behind.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-plastic-cloud-mw0000309274, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-plastic-cloud-mn0000894455#biography
Michael Panontin adds:
[Singer Don] Brewer penned all eight songs on The Plastic Cloud, which like most of the records released . . . on Allied was extremely limited, with allegedly just 500 copies pressed up. The album sort of feels like two discs in one, bookending the summer of love with alternating mid-sixties folk-rock gems and extended tracks of blistering late-sixties guitar work. . . . [T]he bucolic guitar of “Bridge under the Sky” . . . [is a] fine examples of the former, recalling the pre-psychedelic work of the early (pre-Grace Slick) Airplane or the starry-eyed folk of the Youngbloods.
According to RPM, the group had “taken a plunge into the unwelcome world of Canadian originality for which they deserve an ‘A’ for effort”. . . . [The LP] drifted into the bargain bins without much notice.
And Jason adds:
[Their] sole album has languished in obscurity. Psych fans and collectors remain divided, however: collectors consider Plastic Cloud one of Canada’s best psych albums (or indeed the best from anywhere) while some jaded day-trippers merely find it just ok/nothing special. . . . At first listen I was not impressed with the Plastic Cloud’s only offering. After reading all the hype about mind-jarring fuzz guitars and John Lennon-like vocals I found the disc rather mediocre and unimpressive. After several more spins I began to appreciate the band’s intensity and lysergic charm: this disc truly does deliver the goods if you’re into hardcore, late-night psych sounds. . . . While not a major classic, Plastic Cloud is surely one of the better Canadian psych albums and is consistently good throughout. . . . these guitar tones coil, uncoil, and burrow deep into your head like all great psych guitar solos should.
https://therisingstorm.net/the-plastic-cloud-the-plastic-cloud/
As to the Cloud, Michael Panontin tells us:
[T]he Plastic Cloud (from Bay Ridges in present-day Pickering) recorded [a] superb and highly sought-after psychedelic LP[] for the Allied label . . . . There hasn’t been a lot of ink spilled on the Plastic Cloud, and so the group remains one of the true remaining mysteries out there in the Canuck cyberlands. The group were a four-piece led by their 22-year-old guitarist and lead vocalist Don Brewer, with guitarist Mike Cadieux, bassist Brian Madill and drummer Randy Umphrey rounding things out. They formed in 1967, and by the tail end of 1968 . . . the guys had issued their only LP . . . .
Top Forty Most Viewed Posts
- Paul McCartney — “Heather” (unreleased) (March 5, 2022)
- Buffalo Springfield — “Flying on the Ground Is Wrong” (July 3, 2026)
- Harumi — “What a Day for Me” (June 3, 2022)
- Bob Dylan and the Band — “Kickin’ My Dog Around” (unreleased) (April 1, 2024)
- Maurice Gibb — “Give Me a Glass of Wine” (unreleased) (May 29, 2022)
- George Harrison — “I Don’t Want to Do It” (unreleased) (June 25, 2023)
- The Action — “In My Dream” (unreleased) (March 24, 2022)
- The Millennium — “The Island” (March 28, 2022)
- The Kinks a.k.a. The Toll-Puddle Martyrs — “Nellie Bligh” (April 1, 2026)
- Do You Want to Know a Secret? — Beloved Songs Actually Written by Lennon and/or McCartney #1: John Lennon — “Bad to Me” (unreleased), Paul McCartney — “Goodbye” (unreleased), John Lennon — “I’m the Greatest” (unreleased) (July 18, 2022)
- The Ides of March — “You Wouldn’t Listen” (January 6, 2024)
- Herman’s Hermits — “Dream on”/”I Gotta Dream On” (October 19, 2022)
- The Rolling Stones — “My Obsession” (September 12, 2022)
- Paul McCartney — “Love in the Open Air”, John Lennon — “Child of Nature” (unreleased), The Idle Race — “Days of Broken Arrow” (August 7, 2021)
- Barry Ryan Remembrance Special Edition: “Eloise”, “Why Do You Cry My Love”, The Hunt” (November 28, 2021)
- Focal Point — “Miss Sinclair” (unreleased), Factory — “Path Through the Forest”, The Honeybus — “I Can’t Let Maggie Go” (July 28, 2021)
- I Get My Kicks on Route 666 Special Edition: Charles Manson — “Cease to Exist”, The Beach Boys — “Never Learn”, David Bixby — “666” (December 12, 2022)
- The Remo Four/George Harrison — “In the First Place” (unreleased) (December 22, 2024)
- Paul & Barry Ryan — “Pictures of Today” (December 16, 2022)
- Maurice’s Gibb-lets Special Edition: Maurice Gibb — “The Loner” (unreleased), Maurice Gibb — “Tough and Understand Love” (unreleased), Tin Tin — “She Said Ride” (February 13, 2022)
- Genesis — “I Am Very Wrong” (March 19, 2023)
- The Bee Gees — “I.O.I.O.” (September 27, 2022)
- The Spiders — “Day Tripper (April 1, 2022)
- Maurice Gibb — “Railroad” (June 14, 2023)
- Public Nuisance — “Strawberry Man” (unreleased) (July 31, 2024)
- The Kinks — “Shangri-La” (May 15, 2022)
- The Beatles — “If You’ve Got Trouble” (unreleased) (June 30, 2024)
- The Bee Gees — “If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else” (January 1, 2024)
- The Humblebums — “Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway” (June 2, 2023)
- Where’s that Confounded Bridge? Special Edition: Keith Relf — “Shapes of My Mind”, Françoise Hardy — “Empty Sunday” (July 13, 2022)
- The Rolling Stones — “Downtown Suzie” (unreleased) (November 17, 2024)
- Kinks Kopykats (Bet You Didn’t Know This Was Written by Ray Davies) Special Edition #1 — “This Strange Effect” (unreleased) (October 11, 2022)
- Barry Gibb — “This Time” (April 6, 2022)
- The Bee Gees — “You’ll Never See My Face Again” (September 24, 2023)
- The Majority — “All Our Christmases” (December 25, 2024)
- The Rolling Stones — “Get Yourself Together”/”I Can See It” (unreleased) (March 29, 2022)
- The Aerovons — “World of You”, Jotta Herre — “Penina”, Lee Mallory — “That’s the Way It’s Gonna Be” (August 3, 2021)
- Petticoat and Vine — “Riding a Carousel” (October 21, 2024)
- The Bee Gees — “I Don’t Know Why I Bother with Myself” (June 14, 2022)
- The Rolling Stones/Gene Pitney — “Andrew’s Blues” (unreleased) (March 13, 2022)
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 1,500 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😊 